Littlefield amps up content protection

Littlefield Grid Mall. (Image courtesy Littlefield Grid.)

Many grids, especially those with unique or specialized content, struggle with content protection issues.

Both closed and open grids have problems with copybotters, while hypergrid-enabled grids also have the additional risk to scripts.

Grids with large quantities of unique or high-end content are particularly at risk. So, for example, Second Life is typically the main source of copybotted content in the metaverse simply because there is more content there than anywhere else.

But another grid known for its content — Littlefield — has also been struggling with theft recently, and has decided on an innovative approach to thwart the cybercriminals.

Littlefield rankedÂ second in content in last month’s grid survey. It has a strong groupÂ of creators who share their content at no charge with grid residents and this has also helped the grid create a tight and cohesive community.

To keep the content local while still allowing residents to travel the hypergrid, the grid blocked foreign visitors from being able to purchase content on the grid.

So people found work-arounds.

“People were coming in, joining the grid, then using copybot software,” grid owner Water Balazic told Hypergrid Business. “You can also copybot mesh items which is the thing we were very concerned with because we have so much mesh.”

The grid installed a tracker to look for copybot viewers, and box up mesh items to stymie the copybotters, but the thefts continued.

Now, the grid has upped the protections available for content creators one step further.

Certain content on the gridÂ is now only available to members of the Littlefield VIP group. This includes high-end content, scripts, and animations available in the Littlefield Mall, as well as all content in a special VIP-only mall. Most content will remain available to all members, Balazic added.

The Littlefield VIP group is open to land owners or creators, or members in good standing recommended by other VIP members.

“The VIP VAR mall has all of our very best content,” said Balazic. “Without the VIP group tag, they cannot even get to that mall.”

Littlefield will hold a public meeting on November 6 to discuss the new VIP program.

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Maria Korolov

Hypergrid Business editor and publisher Maria Korolov is a science fiction novelist. During the day, Maria Korolov is an award-winning freelance technology journalist who covers artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and enterprise virtual reality. See her Amazon author page here and follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, and check out her latest videos on the Maria Korolov YouTube channel. Email her at maria@hypergridbusiness.com. Her first virtual world novella, Krim Times, made the Amazon best-seller list in its category. Her second novella, The Lost King of Krim, is out now. She is also the publisher of MetaStellar, a new online magazine of speculative fiction.