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Here are my requirements for a "robots control" system:

• Works with current version of Second Life. Does not require Lindens to make system changes.
• Only uses Linden servers -- does not depend upon any external services, like a separate list.
• Simple for land owners: Is easily turned on or off or configured by land owners.
• Parcel based. A person may own many parcels. They may want their store to be searchable but their home to be controlled.
• Is extensible to allow for future needs
• Is an open contract: does not require any direct knowledge of robot names or parcel names.
• Technologically simple: so anybody can implement it easily.

This will be a voluntary system. The robot writers will have to decide to obey the policy of the land they visit. The SLBrowsers will obey the policy when it is developed, and I think most other crawlers will too -- the public backlash from not coorperating will be too great. In other words, a voluntary system will probably work well in practice.

How to meet these requirements? I think it is pretty simple. We create a simple protocol on a set channel. When a robot enters a Sim it can make a request on the "robot controol channel" and listen for responses. Land owners just need a simple device that listens for requests on the channel, and then sends back instructions on whether to crawl that parcel. The response could also indicate options for what kind of crawling is allowed.

In practice, all a land-owner would have to do is get a simple, free, 1-prim "crawler ban" object/script and put in on their property.

All we need to do is define this protocol. we don't need to wait for the Lindens, who have other fires to put out. I'll mock someting up. If anyone has any comments, I'd love to hear them.

I also want to point out that "doing a SQL query to get the info" from a server is semantically the same as "using a bot to get the info". The privacy issues will be the same in either case. Its not the bots that are the issue, its the information they collect.

NOTE: I tried to read up on the people stealing money using land search. I could not figure out what is really going on. I think it had something to do with shifting prices while people are in the middle of buying. This is a classic "database transaction" problem, and if you can change the price between when a person agrees to buy and the transaction takes place -- well, that is just a particularly nasty bug in SL. But maybe i'm missing something here.