Virtual retailers decry Second Life crime wave
By Eric Reuters
SECOND LIFE, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Marco Eckert was showing off the newest line of clothes and custom skins in his Second Life store, an occasion ruined when an avatar started telling his customers in broken English where they could buy exact copies of Eckert’s designs for 50 percent off.
Eckert quickly banned the avatar, but minutes later a new avatar, created that day, came in and again tried to sell his customers copies of his goods in his own store. The person who stole his designs wouldn’t give up. “At one point, we were banning 30 people a day,” said Eckert, who runs Redgrave Fashion under the Second Life name Dean Ashby.
For Eckert, this isn’t a game. Running a successful Second Life store is a full-time career for the Nuremberg, Germany native, and he makes a comfortable living doing it. “Our sales dropped 75 percent in a week,” he said of his battle against content pirates.
About US$1.4 million dollars circulates through Second Life every day, but there are no police to investigate crimes or laws for them to enforce. While theft of Second Life content isn’t new, the sense that Linden Lab’s virtual world is a consequence-free environment has led pirates to become increasingly brazen in their activities.
“They’re setting up networks to distribute pirated content grid-wide,” said Kevin Alderman (Second Life: Stroker Serpentine), who initiated two high-profile copyright lawsuits against avatars Volkov Catteneo and Rase Kenzo last year. “We stopped Kenzo before he could do that, but people have picked up his mantle and taken it to the nth degree.”
There are at least four widely-known methods of copying Second Life content nominally tagged as “no-copy” by Linden’s servers. Victims of piracy have little recourse. Linden Lab investigates DMCA filings but otherwise largely avoids disputes between avatars.
In both of Alderman’s cases, all parties involved — Linden Lab, the Internet Service Providers, the merchants, the alleged pirates — were based in the United States. Cases like Eckert’s, a German citizen who suspects he’s being copied by a national of neither the U.S. nor the E.U., become exponentially harder to pursue, said Sean Kane, co-chair of the American Bar Association’s committee on Virtual Worlds and Multiuser Online Games.
“Generally in Second Life you’re talking about thousands of dollars, and you can easily spend more than that in litigation,” Kane said.
Nicky Ree, a Netherlands-based costume designer dealing with theft, said she’s only had limited luck with DMCA filings. “If the thief has ten stores and you only know of five, you DMCA the five stores,” she said. “Only the five listed will be taken down.”
“So they took down the ones you found, but it did little to nothing,” she said.
In the absence of police, some are taking justice into their own hands. Store owners said vigilante bands of hackers have been offering their services to beleaguered merchants, promising to take steps such as crashing the sims of pirate outlets. Such actions violate Linden’s terms of service.
Second Life’s merchants remain unsure how to proceed. Marco Bosco (Second Life: Maruko Sakigake), based in Brescia, Italy, recalled how one thief offered him a teleport to a store selling Bosco’s designs. When Bosco asked him to stop, the thief laughed and told him there was nothing he could do.
As an added insult, the thief invited Bosco to join his Second Life group. The group’s name: “Robber From Hell.”
LL will do nothing until a class action lawsuit is filed against them to remove their ISP status, remove their safe harbor protection, and render them liable for triple damages on all losses accrued to date. the only real solution is to filter out brazil at the router table level denying them access from the secondlife network completely.
but since they are paying LL in excess of 40,000 US Dollars a year in tier, island fees, and classifieds, we can expect LL to behaver in a corrupt corporate manner and ignore the rest of the residents. one thing is pretty certain… LL is not getting much in the way of L$10 texture upload charges from these people. Real creators upload a tga many times before it is right. these people? once. and it is as simple as that pattern to identify a theft pattern.
LL needs to add code to detect GLIntercept loaded in memory while SL is running and ban the account and all accounts that have used that IP address immediately and filter them out via IP so they can’t even connect to the website. Then publish the information so all third party websites like slexchange can also immediately ban them.
Thu Feb 7, 2008 2:02pm PSTWhy do we continue to allow unverified accounts to run wild in SL? We got the total number of accounts up, we got the headlines, now can we have some intelligence?
Unverified free accounts should always be allowed in SL BUT they should be for VISITORS and have NO build, upload or download facilities (except rez and move). If you want to build SL then prove your ID with payment info. Then if you do wrong we know who you are.
The current situation is idiotic. As soon as a better and more secure virtual world appears the best designers will just leave and who can blame them?
How long will SL survive when there’s nothing here but freebies and sad idiot griefers?
Thu Feb 7, 2008 2:02pm PSTLL could probably do what both Ann and Hal suggest without raising a sweat, but they won’t. I think they’ve noted that SL is coughing up blood as far as residents and creators are concerned. SL doesn’t really need any more content so LL will continue taking it down the education/corporate route increasing leaving the resident/creator out in the cold.
Thu Feb 7, 2008 4:02pm PSTI’m not sure that there’s anything technical Linden Lab can do that will work long-term to prevent copying of textures. Sure, they could try detecting GLIntercept loaded in memory while SL is running, but even if that were possible, the “Robber from Hell” would just use some other copying program instead. Linden Lab doesn’t want to get into some long, expensive arms race.
Hal’s proposal is interesting… i.e. make it so that only verified paid accounts can upload textures. I’m pretty sure Linden Lab wouldn’t want to do that, but let’s imagine Hal’s proposal did get implemented. Then it *would* be easier to track down texture robbers in the real world. But what if the robber is in a different country? The legal hoops and costs of getting justice would be awful.
The real question that content creators should be asking is: If reproductions of your best efforts are free, how can you keep going?
Kevin Kelly recently wrote an essay answering that very question. The essay is titled “Better Than Free” and is available on his website. The one-line summary is that you need to sell things that can’t be copied (and texture files will never be one of those things). For the full essay, just Google it.
Thu Feb 7, 2008 5:02pm PSTthe worst of the worst are professional theft operations and have multiple sims in sl. so the limit by account type is moot and would impact new resident experiences in a negative way. the only solution is for LL to deal with it the hard way and fully investigate accounts selling stolen goods and remove them and all the other accounts tracked to the set of computers used. there is no such thing as a perfect crime and forensics would reveal the alt and accomplice network. just take down the item in question? no. remove the account selling it and all associated alt and accomplice accounts. delete the stolen item from the entire asset system. people that cry about losing stolen goods they paid for need to learn to not buy from obvious ripoff operations.
Fri Feb 8, 2008 12:02am PST“The legal hoops and costs of getting justice would be awful.” Perhaps in RL, but most designers would probably settle for some justice within SL! If illegally copied textures were more easily found and removed from SL we’d have an infinitely better situation than now. Of course prevention is better - which is why i suggested we have a ‘Tourist’ level of SL access with no build/upload/download facilities.
What about ‘fingermarking’ textures at the moment of upload to SL? A fingermark could be optional, a checkbox on the upload window. The fingermark could be overlain (almost) invisibly onto the image and/or could be additional metatags only accessible by Linden from within the system. It could then be logged accurately against your account so you can always prove later that you originated the texture within SL.
Then we’d be able to answer the 2 most important questions; who FIRST uploaded the texture to SL and therefore who uploaded the copies. You’d have the evidence, so the next stage would be?
Persuade Linden to actually DO something about it…
Fri Feb 8, 2008 5:02am PST@ Ann Otoole
I personally don’t think that banning a whole country would be the way to go, there are a lot of Brazilians that are legit content creators, and more than half of the content theft is done by Americans. So if Brazilians are to be banned so should all Americans. Do you think the USA should be banned because of the thefts done by Americans or any country for that matter including your own?
By the way, I am a proud Brazilian and also a content creator. I build jewelry and houses, and it affects me personally when someone blames an entire population of a country of being thieves because of the actions of a few.
Fri Feb 8, 2008 7:02am PSTIMO, the fact that it’s so easy to make copies of objects marked “no copy” illustrates the design weaknesses of the SL platform. LL should fix those design problems. In addition, limiting the capabilities of a non-verified accounts makes a lot of sense
Fri Feb 8, 2008 8:02am PSTWell LL should also fix bugs that have been inherit with the client for the last year or two, but they haven’t done that yet either.
LL simply doesn’t care. They want to provide the platform but not be the police force, but at the same time refuse to give people or organizations tools in which to be the police force in their place.
The longer this goes on, the more thieves will move in and kill the fun out of SL for the real players. LL has set in motion their own demise by their actions, so it’s only a matter of time before everyone who pays to play SL leaves out of great frustration and moves to other platforms, or SL gets shut down either by financial or government reasons.
Fri Feb 8, 2008 10:02am PSTCertainly a serious issue. If it’s so easy to copy, then there is no use in creating it. That is the bottom line. No use in creation means no use for SL.
They will either do something about it or there won’t be an SL of legitimate content creators.
–rjs
Fri Feb 8, 2008 11:02am PSTBe careful Anne, your rabid chasing of the Brazilians in every forum you can is loosing you support. This comment on filtering Brazil at the router level lost my support of your cause.
I have many Brazilian friends in world, good hard workers, great designers (I have watched them build) and people who bring real money into the world.
To call for a ban on the entire country for the actions of a tiny number of people…
Close minded ignorance.
Sorry Anne, you lost my support.
Fri Feb 8, 2008 5:02pm PSTLinden Lab already stamps textures with the date of upload, but that’s not enough to help them decide if a texture uploaded later is a copy. Why?
Suppose I’m an artist and I make a beautiful picture of a tree. I post it on my promotional website, advertising an upcoming exhibition. Robber Baron copies the texture and uploads it into Second Life, then sets it for sale. A year later, I discover SL and upload my picture into SL. Robber Baron files a copyright complaint with Linden Lab, saying he uploaded that texture first!
Do you see the problem?
Linden Lab can afford to hire investigators to figure out the truth in every case.
To prove that you created a work first, you need to have some proof that will stand up in court, like a copyright registration or a letter full of evidence mailed to yourself by registered mail (with a date stamp).
Concord Comet wrote “the fact that it’s so easy to make copies of objects marked “no copy” illustrates the design weaknesses of the SL platform. LL should fix those design problems.”
It’s not a ‘design problem’. For a visitor to see a texture on their computer screen, they must have the texture data on their computer. Once the texture data is on their computer, it can be copied.
rjs wrote “They will either do something about it or there won’t be an SL of legitimate content creators.”
Again I point to the essay “Better than Free” by Kevin Kelly (Google it!)… People are willing to pay for stuff that they can get elsewhere for free, because you can offer them something that’s better than free.
Fri Feb 8, 2008 6:02pm PSTOops, I meant to write that Linden Lab CAN’T afford to hire investigators to figure out the truth in every case.
Fri Feb 8, 2008 6:02pm PSTif the “brazilians” that care about the problem read *all* my posts then they would know i am trying to force LL’s hand on this.
IP router filtering is easy and very possible and could be done if in fact all these rippers were concentrated in one plantary area. Other “ISPs” do it all the time. and ISPs enlist the support of the local law enforcement involed and the criminal’s ISP banning them and/or a simple knock on some kid’s door by the “men in black” (detectives) usually resolves the issue.
I have said numerous times there is no way for *us* (the residents of SL) to know if someone is from brazil, UK, or from freakin mars for that matter and that the biggest “rippers” could be Phillip Rosedale sitting at his desk doing this as some perverted experiment to see how people act.
The solution to this problem will never arrive until the day a class action lawsuit is filed against LL to flush out the truth.
the simple fact is that LL could deal with this problem easily. But LL doesn’t and me and a lot of people are wondering why.
who are the rippers?
and why do “brazilians” always resort to uttering threats of blackmail, etc. it makes no sense as most of it comes across as though being spoken by a 12 year old.
so exactly what is the deal here and why did rippers select brazil to pose as? and why won’t LL do anything serious about it? LL could delete the “stolen content” from the database. but they remove a prim selling it from in world. and the prim goes back up for sale elsewhere in seconds. If LL was abiding by the laws involved they would delete the stolen textures from the database and all those who bought them would be missing image until they bought a new one. this is the only solution, it is the possible solution, yet LL will not take this action. therefore LL is providing tacit and logistical support to content theft. therefore LL must be involved at some level.
LL needs to step up and deal with this regardless of where some anonymous avatar claims to be from.
Sat Feb 9, 2008 5:02am PST@12/13 : Yup, you’re right in many respects Troy, but I think we really need to differentiate between IP theft inside and outside of SL - ripping an image off a website is already covered by copyright law, the claim against the thief is a RL one and only incidentally a SL matter. In your case SL is the destination of the stolen content and not the source of it.
Theoretically, if textures uploaded to SL were (optionally) imprinted with a digital fingerprint then anyone stealing that image from SL would be getting a fingermarked one. If later you get (automatically?) caught uploading or illegally-trading fingermarked textures your account could be suspended instantly. Then you’d have to prove you created the content, by producing the original un-fingermarked files for example - or wave goodbye to SL.
I’m not suggesting that LL should tag everything and then track it all everywhere forever - they’ll NEVER do that. I’m trying to say there need to be two things in place to reduce theft within SL - one would be limitations that make it more difficult in the first place (a reduced-feature client for unverified accounts) and secondly that there should be the major disincentive to stealing - the threat of easy capture and its consequences!
You’re right, of course, that we’ll never stop all content theft - but we can change the culture and the technical structure that allows it to be so easy.
Sat Feb 9, 2008 8:02am PSTI’ve been having similar but different problems. I make a lot of free products to attract new business. People have packaged my free products along with others and sell them as a “business in a box” kit. From there, other avatars buy these kits and sell my free products at a profit.
I may not be losing any money from a freebie to begin with, but this feels like someone is robbing my customers. If I started selling Linux distributions with no modifications at 50 US$ each, I am sure that the Linux folks would take offense as well.
This copy/transfer/modify permission set is not enough for todays content developers. If Linden Lab were to implement something such as a creative commons licensing scheme, that could help a lot of us protect against business-in-a-box schemes.
Sat Feb 9, 2008 4:02pm PSTAnne rants “IP router filtering is easy and very possible”
It ALSO punished a whole country for the acts of a few.
Brazil is the 5th most respresented country in SL, 32268 active residents.
You are saying “Hey lets punish 32,000 people for the actions of a handful.
If that were the case I feel the rest of the world should sanction the whole USA for the views of obnoxious, loudmouthed, insular idots like yourself Anne.
*IF* the skin makers (not you, the creators) are concerned they will get together and file the necessary paperwork to stop it.
Your ranting makes all Americans look bad.
Sat Feb 9, 2008 9:02pm PSTPerhaps if you actually read what I wrote you would see you are simply being a ranting over nothing.
I have said and will continue to say that not one of us, outside of LL, knows if these criminals are from Brazil.
So if you have a problem with Brazil being made to look like a bunch of criminals then perhaps you should be lobbying to force LL to release the origin IP data in respect to DMCA take downs.
But LL won’t. LL has something to hide. Apparently they do not have any negative emotions about allowing one country to be singled out for ridicule. Perhaps Phillip Rosedale had a bad experience in Rio and now wishes much hate upon all Brazilians so he turns a blind eye.
What really makes Brazilians look bad is the endless stream of immature rantings and deluded threats of blackmail posted in the jira by people purporting themselves to be Brazilians. Maybe Sean should address his fellow Brazilian’s behavior.
And the main reason Brazil gets picked on is the SLuniversal image of a brazilian as a default avatar with a free wooden genitalia going from sim to sim pushing people and demanding sex. Thats really what turned most of the SL universe off to brazilians in general. Hopefully you guys will clean up that negative image.
Sun Feb 10, 2008 8:02am PSTI’m not Brazilian Anne. I’m not American either, thank the Gods, because you show all that is wrong with American arrogance.
I would be ashamed to be an American reading your bigoted spiel of hate founded on Generalisations and the actions of a small handful of people.
Sun Feb 10, 2008 2:02pm PSTI making my living off of sl, and I know I might get slammed for this, but I think you are all making a bigger deal on this then it is.
1. Second life is going to be the next internet right? Well I can copy anything from the internet and it has survived just fine.
2. The only objects they can steal are transferable items, or mod items. 2. Solutions to this. 1. Adds scripts to your object that give it true value. 2. Make everything no trans. None of my objects have ever been stolen (course, I won’t tell you who I am)
3. Yes, it’s simple to steal images. This does suck, I will admit, but again I can save any image from the internet and it has survived. That is why I don’t sell clothes or textures.
I am sure for clothing makers, and texture makers that make a living from this, it terrible, and I feel for them. But you will always be able to download images, and nothing anyone could do would ever stop this. I suggest you add value to your products that they can’t copy. Like wardrobe managers or something. Adapt or die. Cure, mean, but true.
Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:02pm PST@seanH: Please don’t lump all Americans in the same pot. Just as you say to not lump all Brazilians together as criminals.
@Troy: That is a very interesting article by Kevin Kelly! It brings to light what I have always thought which is that people will pay for value and the only way to continue to have customers is to continually add something of value. That article explains some very good ideas for value.
@Dedric: It may not be so bad, people may be discovering you through these others. A number of the ‘free’ licenses allow for people to charge for distribution. But there is also the capability for someone to provide services around freely distributed products as I have seen some do with Open Office as well as Linux (see Kevin Kelly’s article - Red Hat).
In general creating limited copies of something and exclusivity for sale does not seem a viable business model in a system where everything is copyable so easily. The only business (my own included) that will be able to survive, are those that can adapt in a way that takes advantage of the new medium instead of trying to enforce physical world values that were inherent by being physical (nonzero incremental costs).
By no means am I saying that pirates and copyright infringers should be allowed to continue going on this way, but just thinking that taking a new step that they cannot would make more sense.
Tue Feb 12, 2008 12:02pm PSTEveryone I’ve had these sorts of problems with so far has been french. No brazilians, just frenchmen who give me problems. One of them has GL Intercepted an outfit that I just found out about today.
Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:02am PSTHey, what Anne is saying is that many of the worst users we see are disguising themselves as Brazilian because that’s a convenient target (I’d also point out that just as “V for Vendetta” made that moustache wearing white mask popular with Anonymous, the movie “Brazil” made the name synonymous with overworked Rube Goldberg tech and village idiots). I can attest to this when I see someone who is in various Brazilian groups (like the Second Army of Brazil) and they don’t even know word one of Portuguese. I mean, really, you don’t even know if that hot chica you’re dating is really a femme or some sweaty 300lb male couch potato.
Sat Feb 16, 2008 7:02am PSTSean H - You have just shown the same ignorance you’re ranting at Anne about.
Thanks a lot for the generalization of all of us ARROGANT AMERICANS. Just because one person is ranting about Brazilians, you push her views on ALL of us? You dont know me, and you have NO IDEA whether I’m arrogant or not.
I’m not ‘ashamed’ to be an American, nor am I ‘ashamed’ of anything Anne says because I certainly dont support her views. Why should I be any more ashamed than you are of her ignorance? I dont even know her. Hey, YOU share the same planet with her, after all; in the grand scheme of things, that’s probably as relevant as sharing the same country.
Either way, I think you have plenty of reason to be ‘ashamed’ of yourself for those slanderous comments. But hey, dont worry, I won’t hold my breath for your apology.
As far as the actual topic, banning an entire country is “not” the answer. That’s ridiculous.
And hey, we can’t even get copyright laws to work internationally in the real world, what makes anyone think we can do it here? The fix will not come by way of law, it will have to be via technology. Good luck with that, LL.
Sat Feb 16, 2008 10:02pm PSTProblem is not too much could be done via technology(and cries to make client closed source again and block GLIntercept won’t help. This just create more problems and could easily be avoided by any sane software developer IF she wants to steal textures).
One possible solution to textures problem is mandatory watermaking. Yes, this _could_ create problems with ‘who uploaded picture from my website and why I cant do that’ but this could be dealt. Another way will possiblity to give first upload(yes,she may be not original creator but this could be dealt with DMCA…) option like ‘remove all textures containing my watermak if UUID not mine/I’m not creator’. And after all is Site License for DigiMarc software will cost too much for Linden Labs? If so, increase upload place. This will solve at least immeadiate problem with skins/non-prim clothes without creating too much of additional problems.
p.s.No,I’m not American or Brazilian and I’m happy with that.
Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:02am PST@20 - Well I do make skins and it scares the hell out of me. So far I have been lucky but I know as soon as I start making a respectable living from this (which is starting to happen) someone will steal my hard work and sell it from under me. The internet might survive. SL might survive, but I wont. This more than sucks. Something DOES need to be done. I agree it cant be stopped as the textures do need to be downloaded onto each client to display them, so they are there and any clever dick can get at them, but LL does need to take responsibility for policing SL. There needs to be far more severe penalties imposed on thieves. It is not realistic to expect every struggling artist to file a DMCA and back it up with expensive lawsuits, possibly against people in foreign countries. That is simply an excuse for LL to hide behind. LL created this world and they need to police it.
Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:02pm PSTJust like they have pirates and thieves in real life they will have them in second life. Many of the same people who decry the theft of their property in second life have no problem bragging about pay 30 US for their bootleg copy of photoshop or stealing music from musicians..
You cannot prevent theft. But I think the Lindens should hire a set of residents to police and investigate blatant allegations of theft,and other issues. Like an informal resident court
Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:02am PSTSeems like this problem isn’t to different than all the music copying in the internet. I suspect the only solution to this is to let the free market work which means to me that people at some point will stop using SL and move to a client that isn’t open source and doesn’t allow easy access to all the textures that are downloaded and SecondLife as we know it will fade into something else.
Wed Feb 27, 2008 1:02pm PSTI want to address two things. First of all I have my main avatar and an alt. My main is a paid account, owns businesses and land in SL. My alt I use to explore and experiment. It is not a paid account. Since when is my alt account any less valid than my main account? I estimate I have spent over 150K Lindens for my alt, buying clothes, avatars, etc, etc. Through my alt avatar, I have supported the SL economy much more than my main avatar, whose major expenditures are land tier fees and land purchases (which go to Linden and not to any content developer). So I think this witch-hunt against free accounts is pretty hysterical.
Which goes to the second issue. My businesses help pay for my tier fees. But I want to know, since when is LL supposed to establish an environment to guarantee you to make a living? Is that anywhere in the TOS? Maybe the best thing for LL to do is to shut off the conversion of Lindens into RL currency.
Sun Mar 2, 2008 10:03pm PSTwhy is it ok for sl designers to blatently rip of abercrombie ,billabong, polo , etc but someone does it sl to sl its wrong ? i dont do any of this i just remain poor and rarely able to by clothing from stores selling stuff for 400 linden that they saw on abercrombies web site.
Thu Mar 6, 2008 10:03am PSTTo: Ann Otoole
Ann. I really agree with ya…I’m brazilian, ok ? But I’m a very popular content creator in SL and guess: I Saw twice 2 of my products replicated by brazilians !
I was very honest and ppls in SL know about it.However, I’m a exception, indeed.I Don’t like the idea to be a brazilian guy.In my mind I was borned on the wrong country.
Why brazilians cheat others ? Because when a brazilian cheat another and show how smart the brazilian is…He feels better.IT’s on our blood cheat other ppls just for pleasure, not for need.
Sat Mar 8, 2008 12:03pm PST1) To Ann:
I’m afraid your solution, even if it had no other downsides, just would not work.
Ever heard of proxy servers?
You ban one country, in a month all the bad people will learn the trick and march back, appearing to be from the UK or States etc.
What then?
—
2) On limiting the rights
These questions that are raised here have no ideal answers.
Even what seems to be the best idea so far (limiting rights of unverified accounts) can actually turn into something like “NO CREATIVITY for unverified accounts”, which may lead to a hard drop of residents who have (or discover!) their creative abilities.
Majority of people who come to SL and become designers etc later - how do they start?
Do they start with giving their card details etc to some company that they have no idea about, paying for some ‘game’ that they’ve just heard something interesting about?
Or do they start a free basic account to take a look around and only later - after playing for a while in a SANDBOX and/or trying to make some CLOTHES FOR THEMSELVES! - they say WOW! I can do it, I want to do it, I will do it. And only then provide details.
How many good designers etc will SL lose if the latter is a common scenario? And what if it’s the main route for the future designers?
I hope you see the problem here.
I myself can say to that ‘But hey, there are enough designers etc in SL already!’, but the answer to THAT is obvious, I hope.
(Enough designers, enough people - maybe let’s just lock it down, sort it all out and only then, maybe, will start letting people in?
Ha-ha, sounds familiar, doesn’t it?)
As a result there can be a funny thing - established amount of designers having more and more consumers (or at lease campers) coming into SL,… and much less new competitors! And no thieves, of course.
Well, that sounds good for these designers who are already here in SL. But don’t forget one thing.
There is, say, a million people using SL.
There are dozens of millions people using some other projects - web projects, that is, not metaverses YET.
And there are hundreds of millions people in the internet.
So now imagine, you send a message to these people - hey, we’re looking for new consumers to come. But these who are willing to contribute, please go elsewhere, or go through our extensive forms and checks etc (you know, it will have to come to that, because bad guys will just start - don’t they do it already? - using stolen cards details and other info! so checks must be tighter, and so on) BEFORE you can actually find what it all is about - before you try to create anything here.
So what if all the would-be-sl-designers, all the creative folks will have a more friendly place to go?
Soon, when there will be more high quality metaverses that will be open for creative people (and will help common people, everybody, to find that creativity within themselves - and to contribute) that strategy can become fatal quite fast.
First, all the non-sl (or tired of sl’s lumps) creative people will go elsewhere and create another Better New World there. Second, it will get millions of users, because there will be a more interesting world. Third, “consumers” will start leaving SL…
Ok, what do we have?
Thieves can kill SL this year.
Preventing new creators coming to SL will kill it not that fast, but also it will mean that YOU will invest more time into a project that can collapse rather soon.
Of course it sounds better than nothing. But way to far from being ideal, I’m afraid.
So AT LEAST if limiting the rights of unverified accounts, there should be some virtual personal clothes labs / sandboxes avaiable for each user, so people can do whatever they want there (offline if you wish), to test or find or explore their creativity. And objects should be saved (locally?), so later they can be uploaded to the main grid, once this person’s account is verified. Something like that.
I’d better don’t go deeper, not sure if this long comment will be posted at all.
—
Well, looks like there’s a need in a huge SL-wide public discussion.
Which itself should be well-planned - how good are the chances of that?
Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:03am PDTThere are thieves in real life and they come to second life. There is no way to eliminate them in real life and there is no way to eliminate them in second life.
Some of the people who complain about people ripping them off have no problem using bootleg software to make them. It’s the way of the world.
There are thieves…
Come visit me in Hazeldean and Tipton
Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:03am PDTIt doesn’t seem like it would be that difficult to imlpement a little piece of code that uniquely identifies a particular machine. A ban on the offender could effectively be a ban on any Avi that originated from that machine. Distribute it as a library, don’t divulge the source. Make the open source clients use it or don’t let them log in.
Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:03am PDTwhen the designers complaining about this lower there prices to a fair amount so stealing the textures is pointless then the problem is solved. your shirt is not worth 400 linden , higher the quality more ppl that will buy it you should not make a living off of 12 hours of total work which is what i watch some of these ppl do. sl is a video game for having fun and bieng social. get a real job you bums.
Sat Mar 15, 2008 2:03pm PDT@35
this is totally nonsens. There happen to be real artists in SL that really take care of good designed products. RL and SL are the very same when it comes to design and merchandise. Don’t forget we, the designers, are the content providers for the rest of the population. Do you want to ‘play’ in a world that is full of crappy goods? Guess not. Ever build some quality piece yourself? Guess not. The real ‘bums’ are the people that want it all for free.
Amiryu Hosoi,
Hosoi Ichiba, Japanese Gardens & Lifestyle
Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:03am PDTHi.
Many people on sl forgot, the rules of the sl enviroment, the TOS and the digital nature of the comunity and, start trying to change or complaining with it as his profits suffer.
The TOS is clear that once a designer upload his texture to inworls he give lifetime free and ful rigts to any one, for any purpose inworld. That is necessary for the nature of SL itself becouse the texture must be sent to all the clients to be seen for them, so LL cano’t protect them and dont need to do that too. The designers need to relise that the same nature that alow them to have profits, has theyr price. Im afraid thay can’t have both things.
And LL can maybe suffer RL actions if they don’t act as policy, but they shure will suffer that actions if they do that.
I’m a lowyer on RL and got 9 Sims on SL. And about that Ann’s racist comentary tath is worse then the crime she tell about: I’m Basilian too
Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:03pm PDTI understand the greif with things like GL intercept and texture theifs.
I see the evil in it. The problem is for me is that there are good people in the world who would use programs like GL intercept to do things like Modify their no mod clothes in photoshop or reupload the texture as mod for their personal use and not re-distribute it at all. But thank you theifs for ruining the good peoples ability to do things like this without being called theif!
Its not a crime if you don’t redistribute!
Wed May 14, 2008 9:05pm PDTWhen you dont redistribute its no diffrent than ripping sleeves off your real life shirt. I feel we are paying for our goods in world we should be able to do with them as we please. But considering the virtual world its hard to do this with all the bootleggers screwing honest modders over!