[opensource-dev] FAQ posted for Third Party Viewer Policy

[Carlo Wood]

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 07:55:57PM -0800, Bryon Ruxton wrote:
> Of course, I know that Tigro. But just like any web site can detect a
> user-agent and block it, I'd like to be able to detect the viewer agent,
> (perhaps via llGetAgentInfo) of the avatar getting on my land anyway.
> Such would be useful for various other reasons such a compatibility checks,
> analysis of traffic sources, who you visitors are etc...

Actually, since you clearly WILL use this info to ban people from
your shops,... it's a violation of privacy.

Look at that scam object that was released not long ago, being
sold for a monthly fee of L$ 700... It adds peoples names to
a central database once they are detected (hopefully without
any false-positives) to use a known-bad viewer (ie, neillife
or cryolife, listed by name in the blog threads). Result:
that account is from then on banned in EVERY sim that uses
this object. There is so much wrong with that that I won't
even begin.

Add to that remarks in the said blog like "every possible
banned thief is a benefit", and the conclusion is easy:
If LL makes the agent ID's public, people will soon ban
*ALL* minor TPV's (being all of them, except maybe emerald,
because that has already a pretty large userbase) "just in case".

The result: Total death to all TPV development; nobody will
be able to start with their own new viewer, because nobody
will use a viewer that is instantly banned JUST because it's
used by a minority and you "never know if won't be stealing
my stuff".

Hence, privacy.

-- 
Carlo Wood <carlo at alinoe.com>