Looking Back: The Redzone Controversy

 

Imagine this. You've had to deal with a stalker who just won't leave you alone. So you decide to use an alt for a few weeks or so, maybe longer, until the heat is off. Only a few trusted friends at most know it's you, so you feel safe. Then you hear the store you've been going to now has an "alt-detector," part of a service that stores information about accounts and the Internet Provider data on a database. You also hear stories about the service, that it's prone to being hacked and the information leaked. And you hear that the owner has a chip on his shoulder and puts anyone he so much as suspects spoke out against him on the security database as if they were griefers. And then a friend suggests the stalker after you could find your real-life address using your IP address if they had a hacker steal it from Redzone. Sound crazy? Well, this is what some were worried about eleven years ago during the Redzone controversy, and it was the first couple days of March 2011 that Linden Lab finally acted. So how did it end?

Read the article in Extra. 

Top Stories of The 2010s, Part One

The 2010's are almost over. Over the past decade, the Newser has reported on thousands of stories. But some stand out more than others. As time goes on and new residents show up, what was big news then becomes unknown or forgotten to more and more. So in this part of a miniseries, the Newser takes a look back at some of the major headlines in which residents were anxious to read on what happened next.

Read the first part of this look back in Extra.

The Voodoo Curse

It's been over a year since the Redzone controversy, and since then people wondered if there would ever be another system that jeopardized peoples' privacy and subjected them to banning from land not necessarily for bad behavior, but because a programer didn't like them. Greenzone, the group created in response to Redzone, began raising questions about another alt-detector, Voodoo. And recently the tensions between Voodoo and Greenzone escalated into threats by the company's owner, Monkey Wonder to blacklist everyone in the group questioning his product.

Read more in Extra.

RedZone’s zFire Xue Gets Four Months in Prison

Michael Prime, or zFire Xue as known to the residents of Second Life, the creator and operator of the infamous RedZone, is on his way to a small cell behind bars.

According to Tateru Nino’s blog, zFire plead guilty “for four counts of violating his probation following a prior conviction for fraud,” and “has been remanded to the custody of the US Marshals and is off for four months in prison.“ When he’s released from the penitentiary, the conditions for his parole include not being allowed to work near computers or being allowed to go on auction websites, social network sites such as Facebook, or virtual worlds, at least not without the permission of his probation officer. The section of terms Tateru Nino posted specifically stated accessing Second Life would be a violation of his terms, unless he got permission from the probation officer.


Tateru also noted that a $500 fine that was part of his sentence had been waived due to “financial incapacity.” The investigators couldn’t find the money he made off RedZone. What happened to it is unknown, but this suggests that perhaps the residents of Second Life may hear of him at least one more time in the future.

For now however, he won’t be in a position to bother the Grid for a while.

Tateru provided details of his prior conviction Here. A “Redzone Victim” responding to her blog post pointed out the “United States of America v. Michael Stefan Prime” case Here. The gotvirtual.net forum also has a lengthy thread on ZFire's sentencing.

Sources: “Dwell on it,” “Find a Case”

Bixyl Shuftan

Update on zFire Xue

Two months after being banned from Second Life, zFire Xue, the creator of the infamous Redzone alt-detector, is apparently facing real life judgment in a court of law.

In an article written by Avril Korman (known as Axi Kurmin in Second Life), Mike Prime, once known as zFire Xue in Second Life, is stated as being under probation for past doings, and was also doing some things in real life besides collecting a list of IP addresses. His parole violations related to his activity on the Grid currently are refusing to allow his probation officer inspect his computer, and not informing him of the money he was making in Second Life.

A warrant had been issued for his arrest, and on May 2, he turned himself in. Appearing before a judge, he denied all charges against him. A hearing is scheduled for May 18th.

Discussing the article with a friend, she hoped the Feds would make an in-depth investigation of his RedZone activities, feeling that would add racketeering, violation of privacy, and password trafficking to the charges. Avril herself commented, “I do not know which federal investigative agency is still digging. I have two guesses though, and neither one of them sound like a lot of fun for zFire. Either one could be rummaging rather thoroughly into his activities within Second Life, and I don't think that will go well for him.”

Avril called the mess part of a larger issue of “Security and Responsibility on the Virtual Frontier.” By all means the article is worth reading for it’s questions and comments on security issues. She called this part of the article “The RedZone Epilogue.” It may be the beginning of the epilogue, but as he’s gotten in trouble before and failed to learn his lesson, it may not be the last we hear from Mike Prime.

Source: searchenginewatch.com

Special thanks to Treminari Huet.

Bixyl Shuftan

zFire Xue Banned From Second Life

In the latest development of the Redzone controversy, the maker of the product zFire Xue (and apparently his alts) have been banned from Second Life by Linden Lab.

Checking the Redzone forum, it appears to be down.

In the two weeks since Linden Lab finally moved against the alt-detecting product, there has been much discussion about zFire Xue and what he might be up to. There have been reports hackers have broken into his database of accounts and IP addresses. The No2Redzone blog stated not only was ZFire manually adding the accounts of Greenzone users to his blacklist, they went as far to say in real life zFire was a convicted criminal just before they announced his banishment.

This may not be the end of the story, considering zFire's threats to sell his Redzone service outside Second Life and Marketplace. But to those whom have continued to campaign against him, this is a development they have been waiting for.

For more, read: No2Redzone, Dwell on It, The Alphavile Hearld, Treminari's SL Blog. The Hydra also had a commentary, saying Redzone could just be the beginning of a serious privacy scandal for Linden Lab.

Bixyl Shuftan

Paisley Beebe interviews Azure Twine of Team GreenZone

This Sunday, with the RedZone controversy fresh in peoples' minds, Paisley Beebe had on her Tonight Live talk show a member of Team GreenZone, Azure Twine. Azure explained some about RedZone and what weaknesses it exploited and how it worked, how GreenZone was made to help keep people safe from it, and a few related issues in Second Life

Read about the show in People.

Linden Labs Acts Against RedZone

On March 2, Linden Lab moved against the controversial RedZone device. It was removed from Second Life Marketplace, as well as the in-world vendor, and stated it was in violation of their Terms of Service.

Soft Linden made the following post on the JIRA directed at RedZone:

Hey, all. I got the go-ahead to give an update on zF Red Zone specifically. Again, thank you for the ARs with specific info about violations. These have been very helpful for letting Lindens know what's going on.

Tuesday morning, we removed zF Red Zone from the Marketplace for a second time. We removed the in-world vendor distributing the item as well. We determined that zF Red Zone was still in violation of our Terms of Service and Community Standards.

We asked for removal by no later than today of all zF Red Zone functionality that discloses any alternate account names. That is, even if consent is asked, the service may not act on the consent. In addition, we asked for removal by no later than Friday of the interface for and any remaining implementation of the zF Red Zone consent mechanism because it does not comply with our policies. If these updates are not made, we will take appropriate steps to remedy the violations.

As before, we appreciate your help in keeping an eye on content. If you find that any merchant's product is not in compliance with our TOS or our Community Standards, please file an abuse report about the product. Do this even if you filed against a previous version. Include a specific explanation of what you believe is a violation, and ideally select and report the in-world object at issue in case it behaves differently than what's in the Marketplace. Before reporting, make sure you have first-hand knowledge of the issue. Support can best react if you explain specific steps to reproduce or confirm a violation.


The creator of RedZone, zFire Xue, naturally did not take the news very well, as evidenced by his response to a poster about Soft Linden’s statement on the RedZone forums:

Soft Linden did not say ‘zRZ contains malicious intent.’ It does prove that LL is easily manipulated by a flood of ARs. Consent is not allowed? Even if Alt names are not shown? So first alt names are forbidden without consent. Now consent is also forbidden? That's Linden Labs for you, the people who play politics rather then blocking copybot viewers or dealing with actual abuse ARs. All it takes is a flood of ARs now. Good times. (wink)

Tateru Nino stated on her blog that the inworld vendor was soon replaced, only to be taken down by Linden Labs again. She stated that Soft explained “specific conditions have been relayed to the creator that must be met before it can be reinstated. What those conditions consist of is not public at this time, to the best of my knowledge.”

Hamlet Au pointed out another statement from Soft Linden, stating that the Disclosure Section of the Community Standards page was updated, more clearly stating alts were not open to disclosure, “The key passage from the Community Standards now reads: ‘Sharing personal information about your fellow Residents without their consent -- including... alternate account names... is not allowed.’ "

This is probably not the end of the RedZone controversy. There was a picture on the JIRA of a blog post made by ZFire, saying if he was ever banned from Second Life, he would “privatize” RedZone by making it run outside the Grid, providing scripts for people, and accepting Paypal payments. But checking the RedZone forum, it was gone.

The RedZone units already bought and the RedZone service of sharing the blacklist of suspected copybot using accounts are still out there.

Sources, Dwell on It, New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

Fear Lurks Redzone Menace

The product "RedZone" advertises itself as being able to detect users of the illegal "Copybot" program, and not only ban them from the owners sim, but every alt in their account as well as putting the names on a blacklist shared with all other RedZone users. First criticized a few months ago, recently more and more are calling for something to be done about this invasive mechanism. Any1 Gynoid offers her own view of the issue, describing it as only she can.

Read Any1's colorful commentary on RedZone in Design.