In-World IP Violation

I logged into SL very briefly today to uncap my messages and found something that I was unaware of until now and find very upsetting. It appears that Dianne has pirated my signature Fachwerk using screen captures of the original structure that I preserved in N'burg as a gesture of kindness after my departure. The textures of this archetypical brown and white Fachwerk -- my signature structure and home that predates the city proposal -- were the result of untold hours of toil in Photoshop. There is not a single person in the city who doesn't know how protective I am of this structure, for years refusing to sell a modifiable copy and eventually removing it from sale completely.

I want these pirated structures deleted from the city and removed from sale immediately, regardless of ownership. I also want those pirated textures purged from inventories and from personal hard drives now, regardless of ownership.

Finally, because this is a blatant intellectual property violation -- and something that I would never have given permission to -- I wish to seek damages in city court from not just Dianne but the city itself, who allowed knowingly pirated material to put up on city ground. Given the disdain that individuals have for texture thieves in SL, I am just absolutely shocked that you let this happen in your city. Institutionalized piracy in a government sim is idiocy.

~Ulrika~

The objects in question were intended as attractive placeholders, pending the sale of the lots, which by special Platz land covenant, require the owner to replace the builds with unique ones of their own.

Since there is raised a possible IP violation by their temporary presence, I have removed the objects.

I stand behind Dianne in her decision to use what she did for the purposes for which they were intended.


Sudane

I've quoted your admission that you knew that the buildings were unauthorized duplicates, that you oversaw their placement on city land to increase land-sale revenue, and that you defend the act of creating creating and using pirated objects for such a purpose.

Below is a post from a member of the RA that corroborates that the land, on which the unauthorized duplicate structures were placed, was to be sold:

Here's a post from a new citizen which appears to document the transfer of the pirated structure:

~Ulrika~

After some investigation in world, I have found two other pirated structures in the city that have been sold or given to other citizens. I have also discovered that Dianne has done irreparable damage to my IP by transferring one of these pirated structure to a citizen that is full mod, copy, and resell. The two pirated structures are on the following city lots:


1160 Gwynethstrasse
mod, copy, resell


1090 Talenstrasse
mod, copy

Because the government is not responding to this thread and the SC is not responding to my emails, I myself will contact these individuals directly and delicately (especially the first individual) with the goal of appealing to their sense of morality and humbly asking them to please permanently delete this pirated material. In return I will offer them original modifiable structures without cost to them.

If there are any decent citizens left in this city, who believe that this society must respect the hard work and rights of others, I implore you to petition your government to take action immediately.

~Ulrika~

To the best of my recollection, the Lindens never involve themselves with user-to-user copying. They have been known to remove registered trademarks of companies that have enough ducats to make it hurt LL.

You can be as indignant as you like, but only a lawyer versed in copyright, a few years of court machinations and some arbitrary thousands of dollars will help you here. Maybe if you are really lucky, it will cost you only a few thousand dollars and your attorney will be able to get a hundred dollar settlement out of the alleged miscreant.

Good luck.

The house at 1090 Talenstrasse is gone, I deleted it to avoid any appearance of impropriety. If you want to give me a replacement house I will gladly pay for it. Thanks.

Or perhaps a few rational individuals can come to an amicable agreement, which would appear (from the POV of a total outsider) to be in the best interest of both parties.

EDIT: Off to a nice start, Kevn. Cheers.

I would hope that in a community which has been promoted AS a community within SecondLife, appealing to the people within it to right a wrong would be all that was needed, not the expenditure of a lot of money on RL lawyers.

I am really appalled if it is true that Ulrika's material has been pirated, don't understand how that can be defended.
Cali

If you did this in the first place, then the new residents would not have to have been provided with the other structures.

The need for the structures which it seems the city has a duty to provide, is clear. The situation was caused by your personal refusal to allow people to even purchase your Fachwerks, let alone give them free mod copies. You have maintained this refusal to sell your Fachwerks or provide the city with mod copies of them for quite a while now.

If you are now reversing your previous position and saying that you are willing to provide free mod copies of Fachwerks to new residents of Neualtenburg until such time as the city can contract out replacements for missing or broken copies then IMO there is no need for the placeholder Fachwerks to be used.

There are two other new residents that have IM'ed me with requests for Fachwerks in accordance with their contract in purchasing land in the city and because their current houses are either no-mod and/or broken copies of your old Fachwerks. Would you like me to send their names on to you so you can provide them with mod copies for free of your Fachwerks? (this would likely have to be approved by the GM of course.)

I am pleased, if as it seems, you are finally willing to do this as your previous refusal has created no end of problems.

How dare you justify your texture theft by stating that I have some sort of obligation to give my home away for free to the city. It is my structure and it has always been my structure. If it were meant to be free it would have been in the (now demolished) Warenhaus with the other freebies.

Your actions are absolutely indefensible. I cannot tell you how enraged I am by your complete disrespect, wanton piracy, and lack of accountability. This is no virtual-world political game, this is no joke, this is RL theft.

~Ulrika~

This is getting really unpleasant. Why so harsh? It's a game!

I'm revoking my permission for the use of my structure in the city and in all pictures on the website. If you want to use this structure, you'll need to delete all instances of the pirated copy and negotiate transfer of the original to the city from me.

~Ulrika~

LOL.
"It is MY website"
"It is MY city"
"It is MY texture"
"It is MY infrastructure"

Ulrika, do you really NOT see other people's contribution? Where, do you think, N'burg would be if you were the one and only citizen in it? Do you really think it's only YOU, YOU, YOU who did everything?

I'm an outsider, and I'm not too fond of the socialist and ideological aspect of N'burg, but what you're doing is just unjustifiable. I've has a group, a club, that I founded in rl with many friends. Things went bad for my taste with time, and I left them. I don't like what they're doing now, but still, wilfully causing them harm would still be last on my list.

After I took my leave of the city, I left no copy, no mod, no sell versions owned by me in the city as a favor to you until you could replace them. You have repaid this favor by pirating my structure, without even attempting to seek permission or try to purchase a copy. This despite the city being filled with many other wonderful looking buildings made by different artisans.

You had no right to take those textures without permission. Even sadder, is that you had no need to take those textures. There are many wonderful homes in the city made by Kendra and other artisans that are even nicer than mine. I just can't understand why you'd do this.

Because of this mistreatment and disrespect for my objects, I have removed those structures from the city with the exception of the structure owned by Bond Harrington (she legitimately purchased her structure).

When your angry citizens see their beds floating in midair, tell them that it's because their government sanctioned the piracy of someone's IP and thus lost their rights to it (or vilify and blame me, whatever works for you).

~Ulrika~

Ownership. That's the crux of copyright infringement and piracy now, isn't it?

~Ulrika~

Well, the crux of piracy are ships. With as much cannons as possible

Ulrika, you're legally right, yes.
But morally, this is the absolute bottom.

PS: Are you sure you didn't have a grand grand grand grand grandpa called 'Nero'?

And this is what I've always maintained. If you treat someone as a monster they will wind up doing monstrous things.

I cant say as I blame you for your actions here, Ulrika. In my view you were pushed into it.

The crux of theft is that it involves you being deprived of property which is rightfully yours. This situation may be an example of unauthorized distribution, but it is most certainly NOT theft. Since you are seeking redress from the city/state of N'burg, will you also hold yourself accountable to them for any wrongdoing on your part, including libel?

I feel truly terrible about my act, as many people beyond those in the government who are responsible for this will suffer. Given that the government will not reply to my posts nor my emails, I feel I have no avenue for civilized resolution of this problem. It appears that in response to the state-sponsored piracy and denial of due process I have become the very "terrorist" that they accused me originally of being.

All is not glum though. If anyone in the government, who wishes to work this out civilly, would please contact me either in the forum or by email, I would be happy to negotiate a return of the structures in return for compensation and the punishment of those who committed and sanctioned the piracy.

~Ulrika~

Absolutely! In the beginning I stated that I wanted to work this out using their system and I still do. However, because several governmental members are involved in the piracy (one from the Judicial branch itself), I must insist on third-party arbitration (preferably with a Linden).

In fact, I wrote a letter to the SC stating that I wanted to seek action against the individual and the city, however there has been no response.

~Ulrika~

Ulrika, I may heartily disagree with your behavior, but I continue to find you an oddly principled player.

You are as delicious as ever, and I look forward to seeing how this fiasco progresses.

You wouldn't if you knew her or what really happened.

I've known you for a long time in the forums and thus know you don't frequently hand out compliments. I thank you for your kind words.

~Ulrika~

I wasn't defending it, I was just saying that ranting about it in an open forum will accomplish nothing and that if she wanted redress that's how it could happen.

I had assumed that she'd already contacted the alleged "pirate" and was demanding satisfaction here. It appears from a skim of this thread that she chose to rant first.

It's just a farking texture and is being complained about by someone whose signature says that this game and the forums are too stressful for her. I'm guessing she just ran out of things to troll about and so decided to start making unsubstantiable accusations.

Bravo!

Get over yourself, please.