CCP's War On Bots: Inner Space

Yesterday got a whole lot more interesting when I saw a Tweet from Riverini directed to CCP Sreegs come across at 16:23 Eve Time:

@seanconover is it possible to get banned by using isboxer?
— evenews24 | riverini (@evenews24) March 12, 2013

@seanconover "client was modified" - the guy is literally crying, permabanned right off the bat, I told him to write security@ccpgames.com
— evenews24 | riverini (@evenews24) March 12, 2013

I have actually been waiting for this moment since the release of Retribution 1.1.5 last Tuesday.  I knew that if Team Security was using automated methods to detect and permanently ban Red Guard users that Questor would receive some attention from CCP shortly thereafter.


But what does ISBoxer have in common with Questor?  A product called Inner Space.  ISBoxer is powered by Inner Space and Questor users need an Inner Space license in order to run the bot.  According to the Lavish Software website, Inner Space can provide a lot of functionality required to write a successful bot:

• "Inner Space can run .NET programs and other custom scripts inside of the game for you, with a wide range of functionality available. Inner Space is 'unlocked' and does not limit the types of programs you can use with it!
  
• "Inner Space natively supports many of your favorite input devices, making it easy to link not only your standard mouse and keyboard, but also your extra buttons to Inner Space functionality!
• "Inner Space links your game instances together, making it possible to send commands (you know, like keystrokes!) from one window to another, even on different computers!
• "Inner Space can override behavior and appearance of your game windows, making it possible to force a full-screen game into windowed mode, instantly move or scale windows, instantly re-arrange entire groups of them and more!"

"But wait a minute!" I can hear someone shout off in the distance, "CCP said using ISBoxer is not against the rules!"  Yes, that was the stated position at one time.  Now?  I went back to the statement and this is what it originally stated on 23 April 2010:

"Hello there,

To make a long story short, automation of gameplay is not permitted; players must be manually issuing the commands to control their character(s) at all times.

Our stance on programs such as Synergy and hardware/software combination such as the G15 keyboard is that they can be legitimately used as long as gameplay isn't automated. Synergy allows you to move your mouse cursor to multiple different monitors which are hooked up to different computers and we do not have any qualms with players using the program for this purpose. If Synergy was used in some way to control your accounts for you without a need for you to be at your keyboard, then that would not be allowed, but I am not aware of such a functionality with this program. If Synergy is used in conjunction with some other program to automate gameplay, it would not be permitted. G15 "macros" which allow you to group different commands into one keypress are allowed. For example, setting your G1 key to press F1, F2, F3 and so on for you with one key press is allowed (although this specific command is not as useful as it was before now that we have weapon grouping).

An exceedingly complex G15 macro which would effectively automate gameplay, such as mining, without a need for the player to be present at his keyboard would be against the EULA, regardless of whether the player utilizing said macro is sitting at his keyboard at the time!

Lastly, multiboxing is allowed, and programs designed for multiboxing in mind which allow a player to manually issue the same command to multiple game clients at the same time are allowed. In the same vein as what has been stated above, the player must be manually sending the commands; if a program is automating those commands for you, then it would be considered a breach of our EULA.

I hope this clears up this matter."

Did you notice I typed "originally stated"?  I hope so, because the post was updated on 18 February 2013, a little over 3 weeks ago, to read:

"This post was originally written almost three years ago and as software/hardware evolves, so must our stance on what goes within our game. It has become increasingly difficult for us to track the capabilities of various pieces of software over the years as their number, as well as the features they offer, increase greatly in number.
 
In other words, it is unfortunately impractical for us to evaluate whether specific pieces of software can be used without breaking EVE's EULA/ToS. This post should not be taken as endorsement for utilizing specific pieces of software/hardware with EVE, but as a guideline to what is acceptable.
 
Our general stance towards the concept of multiboxing has not changed but we cannot guarantee that the EULA is being upheld should you use any of the software/hardware mentioned by name in this post, nor will we at EVE customer support be able to officially endorse or sanction specific third party multiboxing programs.

Players wishing to multibox are responsible for familiarizing themselves with our EULA and Terms of Service, the following clauses in particular are of much relevance to this topic:

EULA:
6. CONDUCT
A. Specifically Restricted Conduct
2. You may not use your own or third-party software to modify any content appearing within the Game environment or change how the Game is played.
3. You may not use your own or any third-party software, macros or other stored rapid keystrokes or other patterns of play that facilitate acquisition of items, currency, objects, character attributes, rank or status at an accelerated rate when compared with ordinary Game play. You may not rewrite or modify the user interface or otherwise manipulate data in any way to acquire items, currency, objects, character attributes or beneficial actions not actually acquired or achieved in the Game.

ToS:
21. You will not attempt to decipher, hack into or interfere with any transmissions to or from the EVE Online servers, nor will you try to create or use any third party add-ons, extras or tools for the game." [emphasis mine]

To spell it out clearly, ISBoxer is no longer an officially approved piece of software and no multi-boxing software is officially approved, nor will it according to this post.

More specifically, Inner Space seems like a botter's dream and I would run far away from the software, especially with its connection to the infamous Questor bot.  Inner Space is also used to run another bot engine called ISXEVE which runs a lot of the less well-known injection bots.  I personally think that Team Security is going to use the presence of Inner Space running on a computer as evidence of someone running a bot and will zero in on the player.  And since this class of bots are injection bots, users will receive permanent bans.

According to the Questor forums the hunt for Questor users has already begun.  Da Teach, the creator of the Questor bot and the DirectEve bot engine, basically shut down the bot for 24-48 hours beginning at approximately 23:00 Eve Time Tuesday while he ensures that Team Security will not catch his bot.  But while Team Security may have missed catching large numbers of Questor bots, I wonder what the success rate was against bots built around the ISXEVE engine?

Update:  For everyone stating that ISXEVE does not use Inner Space, I direct you to the ISXEVE wiki that states:

"ISXEVE is an Inner Space Extensions for the popular MMORPG game EVE Online. Please visit Lavish Software for more information on the InnerSpace application, including aquisition information and usage documentation. This extension REQUIRES Inner Space in order to work."

Update 2:  For those upset with the ninja edit on the old forums, I have posted why I think the ninja edit was done.