The RedZone Story

THE END

2011-09-13T18:39:00.001+02:00

September 1 - 2011

"zFire Xue (AKA Michael Prime), creator and operator of RedZone, has been remanded to the custody of the US Marshals and is off for four months in prison. I bet you thought you’d heard the last of him already. This may very well be the last you hear of him. Prime entered a guilty plea for four counts of violating his probation following a prior conviction for fraud.

For the two years after his release, he’s not allowed to work anywhere where computers or computer programming are the primary business, not allowed near any online auction site, and not allowed to participate in Second Life, or any online virtual environment or online social network – at least, not without prior written approval from his assigned Probation Officer.

His computer will be monitored for files and activity during those two years, he can’t contribute to software projects, or write code for hire, and he’s not allowed to create or operate Web-sites. Also he gets to wear one of those nifty tracking devices as a part of the “Home Confinement Program.”

There’s plenty more restrictions as a part of his supervised release, but those are the interesting ones.

There was also a US$500 fine, but it was waived due to financial incapacity. There’s no sign of any of the money he made out of RedZone customers"

Source: no2redzone
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✐ LATEST UPDATE ABOUT zFIRE & RED ZONE

2011-09-13T18:34:00.000+02:00

If you want to know the end of this drama then read this: zFire Xue is a Convicted Criminal

"old news. the latest info has it that the guy behind the avatar is back in jail now, for breaking his parole by not mentioning his income from selling redzone to his parole officer, for not letting his parole officer inspect his computer, and some other infractions."

Source: Yuukie Onmura - Last comment about zFire and RedZone on my Flickr - RedZone Stats

For further updates about "zFire", read this blog: no2redzone

✐ UPDATE

2011-09-13T18:32:00.000+02:00

I'm done with the "privacy/security investigations", so no more reports from me. I don't know if I will stay in Second Life, my trust for Linden Lab is gone. I don't have any fun in SL these days, sure I love my quarter parcel sim, that I have built up. But just hanging around there is quite boring and the few trusted sims I go to for dancing is not as much fun as it used to be. I don't feel motivated to do anything in SL anymore, so maybe this is the end... after 4 years.
For those who are concerned about privacy and security in Second Life, here are some helpful links:
no2redzone
Theia Magic's Blog
SLU - Redzone 2: Electric Boogaloo

✐ zFire have removed the video from YouTube

2011-09-13T18:29:00.000+02:00

Well, here's a screenshot and a transcript of what he said:

Transcript:
To Mariana: Well I made a little webpage for us, this webpage will let you look up basic information about a person at isellsl, as well as if and when they joined isellsl, if they own a RedZone, if they’re on anybody’s RedZone’s safe list, and if they ever got a RedZone demo… which those three things are more useful for me.

What’s useful for you is that this website will also predict people’s Second Life passwords. Now you know how that’s done? It does that based on incorrect passwords that they enter. A lot of times out of habit people of course enter their Second Life username and by habit enter their Second Life password occasionally.

All of the incorrect passwords that they’ve ever entered will be visible. Not everybody has one. Many of them do and in my tests many people have indeed entered their Second Life passwords. So that’s here.

A little useful thing I am also going to make it display are people’s real world locations. For us only, that will be very interesting. Nobody else can access this page at all; only me and ze. Anyway that is all for now. I do have another page I’m gonna make for you. But here’s this one for now.

mars006kgb have closed his account, this was the message I got when I tried open his YouTube again: "This channel is no longer available because the user closed their account". However if you write in Google "YouTube/mars006kgb" and click on cache, you will find this:(Yes Google cache closed acccounts, hehehe)

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But before he closed his account I noticed he had 3 subscriptions, as you can see above, one of them to marskgb006. Here's his profile:
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Take a look at zFire's and InsanityProductions on YouTube, scroll down and see the subscribers, marked with red you can find mars006kgb the original uploader of the video, the account that is closed now. Then you can see the above subscriber marskgb006, company: Insanity Productions LLC, but his subscribers are hidden, however mars006kgb was a subscriber before he closed his account. These YouTube accounts are clearly connected to zFire's InsanityProductions and RedZone on YouTube. In the video he talks about HACKING RedZone owners Second Life accounts, it's not only about the Green Zone anymore, it's about the privacy and safety for ALL in Second Life.

And here is his "real" business, zFire aka Mike aka mars006kgb aka marskgb006...!?

"zFire" and his "employees" are a serious threat to ALL of us in Second Life, many people are talking about other virtual worlds, like InWorldz, including me, I have already made an account there. Are we really gonna let this guy and his "fans" destroy Second Life completely?! It's up to you all RedZone users!

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✐ HOW TO PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY IN SL

2011-09-13T18:21:00.000+02:00

I am totally fed up running around the grid, investigating where it's "safe" to be or not. There are other people doing it and they do a better job at it than me. At first I was only concerned and pissed off at the stores where I have spent lindens, for using RedZone, spying on me behind my back, but the whole grid is infected. There are MANY more places using spywares like RedZone, CDS, Quickware and Sparrow Industries, so I will just share with you what I do to protect myself and how to try to stop this.

1. At the moment there are only 2 viewers that have the "Media detect filter", Cool Viewer and Dolphin Viewer. I'm using Dolphin cause it suits my computer better, but both viewers works well for detecting "Media Spy Urls". Phoenix, my favorite viewer won't release their patched up version until the end of the month and the Linden Labs viewers I don't know anything about, I don't use them.

If you are using an "unsafe" viewer then I suggest you get GreenZone for FREE and keep Audio and Media DISABLED. Also important is to set the Web Tab in Preferences, to use 'Built in Web Browser' and UNCHECK 'Accept Cookies'. Only turn on Audio and Media where you know for sure it's safe.

If you are using Cool Viewer or Dolphin Viewer, then you have to ENABLE Audio and Media otherwise you won't get the popups with the urls, but keep Web Preferences the same. Similar here, the only place I have 'Whitelisted', is my own land, I only choose 'Allow' where I know it's safe and ALL other places I click 'Deny'. I've never 'Blacklisted' any place for the simple reason that if I do, then I won't get the popups again. I want to be able to see what servers are trying to get access to my account at all times.

You can also block the url's in your host file, that's what I've done. Instructions HERE

Here's a picture of what the "Media detect filter" looks like and the GreenZone warning:

2. IMPORTANT BLOGS TO READ!
Theia Magic's Blog
no2redzone

3. IMPORTANT JIRAS TO WATCH!
(ANNOUNCEMENT: Starting on March 8th, the voting feature in JIRA will no longer be available. If you are interested in a specific JIRA, then we encourage you to "watch" it)
RedZone Security violates TOS
STORM - Oz Linden

UPDATE ABOUT zFire & RedZone Users (03/10/11)
Now the RedZone users want's to ban ppl who have media disabled and zFire is still working on his spyware, changing the code, with some new improved encryption. I just wonder how long Linden Lab will wait until they take some serious actions towards zFire and his fans or are they gonna let him destroy Second Life completely?!

Have a Happy Second Life :-/

✐ Redzone Banned from MarketPlace Again

2011-09-13T18:20:00.000+02:00

From no2redzone's Blog

"Soft Linden said the following on the JIRA (see link right hand side) just now 02/Mar/11 12:58 PM (SLT)
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."

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✐ RED ZONE BACK ON THE MARKETPLACE :-(

2011-09-13T18:17:00.002+02:00

Well, I have lost my trust totally in Linden Labs and the merchants, after 4 years in Second Life I'm for the first time seriously considering leaving and close my account. I came to SL to have fun and relax, escape the "ugly" real world for awhile, but what did I find - an even more "ugly" virtual world, full of greed, hunger for power, liers, cheaters, etc, etc. Sure there are exceptions, I have met some really nice people here, but the negative experience of Second Life is so overpowering, and I DON*T have much fun here anymore anyway, so why stay!?

I think RedZone will be the last straw for me, I don't explore all the different sims anymore, I only go to a few safe places. Wasting time, scanning sims with GreenZone, yes you have to walk around the whole sim, some of them have the RZ probes hidden in some corners, took me half n hr to scan MIAMAI, to find their hidden probes. Second Life have become a place where I feel unsafe, having to protect my privacy so my IP Address don't end up in zFires database. This isn't fun anymore.

I'm already spending less money than before, I pay my tier fee and some goes to tips for DJ's, hosts and venues, that's about it. With my '41 000 + items inventory' I don't need to buy anything more, and most of the time I'm wearing the same outfit, day after day, and I don't care, if others do, then it's their problem. Maybe I should be greatful to zFire and his spyware RedZone, he's helping me saving money...

My illusion of Second Life, have some serious cracks, I don't know if they will be repairable, time will tell.

I'm totally fed up with this BS and Second Life.

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✐ IP ADDRESSES & RED ZONE - WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL!?

2011-09-13T18:13:00.002+02:00

What is an IP Address (I will shorten the word to IPA)? The simple explanation is; it's the address to your computer on the internet. Some people have static IPA's, others have dynamic ones, which means they can change every day or less frequently. The major issue with RedZone is that the banned IPA's are stored in their database and if you have a dynamic IPA that changes frequently, you might get one of the banned ones assigned to you by your ISP. The worst scenario would be if that IPA have been used by a copybotter, then you might not even be able to log into your SL Account. That happened to a friend of mine around a year ago, her account was closed by Linden Lab and she never got an explanation, WHY?!

Imagine this in real life. As an example, take an appartment building. Most of the tenants have lived there for a long time, so their addresses have been the same (Static flat nr's). Then there is one flat (Dynamic flat nr), a new tenant moves in, it turns out that this person is a criminal and he get's busted by the cops and then jail time for life. That one flat is now empty and a new tenant moves in, maybe a nice elderly woman, but because of the previous tenants criminality. The cops busts this woman too and give her a life time sentence, just because she happened to have the same flat number as the criminal. Same will happen to the next and the next person who moves in to this flat, cause the cops have that flat number stored in their database and assume that everyone moving in to that flat is a criminal.

That is how RedZone works, smart, huh?!
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✐ UPDATED INFO ABOUT RED ZONE!

2011-09-13T18:12:00.000+02:00

RedZone Stats:

VOTE TO BAN REDZONE ON LL'S JIRA! HERE

Find out about: GreenZone
Here you can download GreenZone for FREE: GreenZone on the Marketplace

People Scanned: 8 410 738
Linked IP's: 3 684 382
Copybots Found: 2165
Banned people: 69 173 - Banned for what? For being alts or just sharing the same ip number?!
Copybot Average: 0.026 %

This is nothing else than a spyware, RedZone stores all this info in their database so if you want to protect your privacy and integrety.There are 16762 RedZones locations!!! Take a look at these websites and see for yourself: (I can't, they must have banned my IP, after I'd published their statistics)
The creators of RedZone: http://isellsl.ath.cx/zrzlocations.php
Check out zFire's vidoes on http://www.youtube.com/user/insantiyproductions on YouTube, these are the other products they sell, all about violence, power, blood splattering, et etc. Do you really think that these are the "Good Guys" out to protect you from copybots?! Read the comment of RedZone's video: "And now it detects alts on the web log, also by search.- insantiyproductions 9 months ago"
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Places infected by the SPYWARES 'RedZone', 'CDS', 'Qickware' or 'Sparrow Industries'

UPDATED: 03/09/11

☠ RED ZONES ☠

LionSkins Unique Quality Skins and Shapes: Have replaced RedZone with Sparrow Industries spyware. More info about Sparrow HERE

PXL Hart Skins: Detected with Cool Viewer, patched up with the "media filter detector" He have removed RZ. but replaced it with the spyware CDS, talk about being paranoid. Really pisses me off since I went to his store to buy skins for Styling Forward, that I used twice. You're not the worth the credit of those photos. He also threatened me, to issue Flickr to reveal my RL identity if I didn't remove my picture, what a nice guy, huh?!

GreenZone 2.4: Watch out ! This area is infected by an Avatar / IP gatherer / Spyware!

Glam Affair
GreenZone 2.4: Infected parcel: Glam Affair , Group owned secondlife:///app/group/d937144b-0200-d08e-db50-6b662507dbde/about
MIAMAI_ Fashion Creations
GreenZone 2.4: Infected parcel: MIAMAI_ Fashion Creations , Group owned secondlife:///app/group/91cefdb1-5ab4-b517-6c75-61b18d78ce05/about
aDIVA Couture - Main Store
GreenZone 2.4: Infected parcel: aDIVA Couture - Main Store - Promise! Bridal Gowns + More , Group owned secondlife:///app/group/1743262b-cf44-dc7b-9eae-c1c847af9232/about
.:^^:..Xplosion..:^^:..:^^:..Xplosion..:^^:..:^^:..Xplosion..:^^:.< Neko Urban Grunge Punk Clothes Design , Group owned secondlife:///app/group/e4b18cae-bced-5a17-f23b-01cf94823926/about
Diesel Works Poses Animations Main Store - Checked myself (03/03/11), again, uses RedZone.

I've fed several of the merchants I listed above, but not anymore, if I'm not trusted as a customer they aren't worthy of MY money, specially since they don't care about my right to privacy.

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GREEN ZONE'S :-)

Also checked with Cool Viewer to confirm that they don't use RedZone (03/0211)

LeeZu! Couture
Maitreya
Lelutka Skins

Finesmith Designs
SEmotion Studio - Exclusive animations, AO HUD, dances, poses
RFyre Gothic Couture Clothing
REDGRAVE HD SKINS Mainstore
LAQ Skins
BELLEZA Skins
[ eStyle Paris ] Skin Shop
DNR Stylish Digital Couture Gowns N Dresses
Marys Threads Men's & Women's Clothing & Accessories
N-core design
Tiny bird
Greek Gold Lesbian Resort
A Woman's Touch - Cerisyi - A Place for Women to Have Fun
Element, the 8th Club @ GOL

These are the places I have visited or bought items from. Even though I have GreenZone to protect me I feel it's unethical to spy on customers behind their back, so I will delete all the Landmarks to these places, and maybe I'll return when they stop using the spyware RedZone, or at least put up a sign and warn your customers that you have RedZone running, collecting personal information about everyone. There are many more sims infected by RedZone, I don't have the time to track them all down. For a more extensive list of Green Zone Shops and Sims, check this blog: Non-Redzone Stores

My RZ list is peanuts compared to this one: RedZone Reports (ups, the blog is removed)

And this "witch hunt" on alternative avatars (alts)!!! Have it ever occurred to you that maybe people want to start a new life in SL, for private reasons, that are none of the RedZoneser's or anybody elses business. What if I one day feel that want to start a fresh and new life in SL, maybe I'll get fed up waiting for my (41000 items) inventory to load, maybe someone is stalking me, whatever the reason is, it's MY business. That "ALT" with "No Payment on File" needs to buy many new items, hair, skins, clothes, accessories, etc, with money transferred from the main account. But you assume that all the alts are copybots, so ignorant, don't you get it, you're losing potential customers!

- COPYBOT AVERAGE: 0.026 %
- COPYBOTS FOUND: 2165
- BANNED PEOPLE: 69 173
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A very positive announcement from Redgrave: (Which I received, February 18 from Dean Ashby)

"Dear REDGRAVE customers,

maybe you heard through forums about a security gadget called REDZONE.
Last weeks we watched closely the discussion about this tool and we wanted to make sure that you, our customers, wouldnt be observed illegally.

The reason why we installed this system before was the short banlists that Linden Lab provides us with. The huge amount of beggars, people trying to sell copybotted skins in our store and griefers forced us literally to find a solution that protects our work and our respected customers.

After we had several talks with computer experts we understand now that REDZONE seems to use ways of detecting copybotters in a way that isn´t conformable with our company policy. We respect your wish for privacy while staying in our shop.

Therefore we decided to REMOVE REDZONE from our shop.

From now on we will have more shop staff present for you and we will search for a solution that uses transparent and legal methods to make your stay at REDGRAVE as safe and pleasant as possible.

We hope to see you soon at the skin fair at VANITY UNIVERSE, where you could get our newest releases this saturday.

Thank you for your attention

Kind regards
Emilia Redgrave & Dean Ashby"
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I just want to clarify that I'm not out to cause any harm to the merchants, I understand their problems with copybots and griefers. But the "Change To Second Life Terms of Service – RedZone Alt Outing No More" only means the merchants don't have access to the database.

It's zFire Xue that I don't trust, just take a look at what he wrote in his forum, even though he deleted the post, there is a screenshot of it.

"If RedZone is banned, I will be forced to privatize the RedZone service with a service that operates outside of Secondlife, and therefore unrestricted by the above secondlife policy. Without that secondlife policy alt information will be shared with everyone. LSL scripts would be provided free of charge for people to copy paste into their own prims, and RedZone devices would continue to remain in SecondLife. Such a website would accept paypal instead of Linden dollars for membership. I don’t want that, nor do you. I prefer to operate with Linden Labs, not against them."

Source: ZFire Threatens To Illegally Share His Database (with a screenshot of his post)

Update 03/03/11

I don't use GreenZone anymore since both the Cool Viewer and the Dolphin Viewer have the "media filter patch" and soon it will be implemented in Phoenix as well.

I will NOT update the list anymore, the merchants on the 'RedZone List' have had time since February 5 to do something to protect their customers right to privacy, but they don't seem to care. I am not gonna waste my time scanning your sims with Green Zone again, so you will remain on my 'RedZone List', and I will never visit or spend money at your Sims, ever again. You're banned!

Case Closed!

✐ WARNING FOR THE SPYWARE RED-ZONE!!!

2011-09-13T18:09:00.002+02:00

Source: Second Life Marketplace

"After long discussion, we have decided GreenZone is too important for the sake of privacy for it to be only available to paying customers. From now on, the tool will thus available for 0L$ both on marketplace and on affiliate resellers. This would not have been possible without the support of early customers, whose patronage covered all our research and development costs in less than a week. GreenZone wishes to thank all these generous people for supporting its fight against privacy scammers.

There are SIM scanners that scans for people that uses copy bots and their alts, like zF RedZone. At a first glanse this seems to be a great thing. But there are back sides, serious back sides.

Imagine that you have an alt, and want to keep that a secret.
The SIM owner and other zF RedZone owners will see that you are the same.

Imagine you run SL from an Internet café, a computer club, at work, at school, hotel etc.
(You can run SL from a USB, did you know?)
Someone before you had been running a copy bot there.
You will immediately be known as an alt of that avatar, and banned.

This system scans for zF RedZone and give you a warning.
If you follow the instructions your avatars IP will not be scanned.
You will keep your privacy, your integrity!
This is worth far more than keeping a few copy bots away.
There are other ways to deal with that, and that is a question for Linden Labs, not for a money hungry player!

We decided to make this "anti system" because we feel it is not right to log peoples IP addresses and reveal peoples alts and because of all the false positives."
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Here is some of the information that RedZone have provided:

"☻ Log name, picture, location, age, payment, date/time, of your visitors. (Searchable) "
"☻ Ejects and TP home intruders automatically often CRASHING them, if your online or not, group owned land or your own."
"☻ Multiple KILLING Options!
- Cage option for when you have no permissions or intruders are outside of your parcel.
- BLOOD and BONES: are optional (The effect of turning them into SCREAMING, SHATTERING BONES when KILLED.)
- Add to Unwelcome list: Is optional. If added to the Unwelcome list, they will get NO Warning next time, they will be KILLED on site, even if they are outside of your zRedZone, up to 96 meters away from any skull, or Full sim, if you have full sim mode on."
"☻ ㋡ Turns Avatars into a Skeleton that has a nice Death scene
-- Poofs Blood,
-- SCREAMS one of 8 Random sound effects
-- Given a Real SL colored Name tag
-- Shatters into a pile of bones
-- Leaves a randomly generated blood stain"

Source: Ups, seems that RedZone isn't sold on the Marketplace anymore....

I understand that copybotters is a problem and should be dealt with, but is this the way to deal with it?! Is it right to do this to harmless alts who have no intention to do "bad" things?! Linden Lab allows us to use alts, copybotting is a question for them to solve and not for angry and blood thirsty merchants. If I want to use an alt with no intention to cause any harm, it's my business, I have a right to protect my privacy. I have a security orb on my land, but it doesn't log any ip addresses or any other private information of the intruders nor does it kill anyone or cause crashes or splatters blood. It just simply TP the intruder back to his/her land.

Welcome to "Stasi-SL"

I got an IM from the the team of the Green Zone:
"A guy with name XXX wrote a comment in your review , let me tell you some facts about :
He wrote the RedZone have nothing to do with your bluescreen ( computer crash ) This is RIGHT, the RedZone can't crash your computer but if they could they would, I am sure.
He wrote the RedZone is not logging your IP. This is a BIG BAREFACED LIE !
The RedZone users can't view your IP directly but they are STORED in the database of RedZone. They need your IP address to figure out your alt's."

Well I can just hope that someone creates a privacy shield to protect me from gadgets that stores private information about me, and is it really legal to store residents IP number. I mean even if you go to these places with you main avatar, they will store this information and if you go to the same place with your alt, they will compare the data and ban you or even worse massacre you in a blood splattering scene. Look at the grin the smile have on his face:
"☻ ㋡ Turns Avatars into a Skeleton that has a nice Death scene"

This is not just about copybots and alts, they store information about everyone, even your main avatar, how could they otherwise find out that you are using an alt. This is something that concerns all residents in SL, all of us are being scanned and the information is stored in RedZones database.

From the SL Blog
"The problem is that RedZone and similar products assume that all avatars with the same IP are alts. That means that everyone in your household sharing your router, everyone on a college campus sharing a single outbound IP, everyone behind a company router, they are all alts of each other. All the 200 or so residents at my mother's condo building are also all alts of each other. Everyone who uses the local public library computer are also all alts of each other.

If one person gets banned, everyone behind that router gets banned whether they did anything or not. And that's the objection.

Many, if not most, people have temporary IP addresses that change regularly, sometimes as often as daily, others each time they reboot their router. If the random IP that your router gets happens to be one that's on the banlist, you are automatically banned because, obviously, you are them."
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"This excatly this. My husband and I are on the same IP address along with my now 18 yr old son whos in world too. All three of us were acussed of being allts of each other and a store owner banned us for being Copybots even though we were typing in at the same time. meh Took my son cloths shopping. However we are 3 distinct people on the same IP adress but yet we were banned cause we were alts. ~shakes head and walks away~"
Source: http://blogs.secondlife.com/message/603930