If Someone Reports You

Not yet.

Rome wasn't built in a day.

I do understand your position and I freely admit that I may not be able to uncover or address all criminal activities immediately. I must start somewhere.

I will do this by reporting criminal behavior where I see it and when I see it.

I do not claim to be more than I am.

I will say that the best thing that criminals can do is underestimate me.

So when did this megalomaniacal superiority complex begin? Post six?

I do not feel superior to anyone.

Sorry if I have offended you. I am truly puzzled by your hostility.

Would you prefer I not report those people who are breaking the law?

Do you also have your own radar gun and a .22 pistol to shoot speeders with?

I do not own a gun, radar or otherwise.

Depends. You're trying to be judge, jury, and executioner. I'm wondering when you got appointed to that position.

Selling full length albums or songs? For L$? I can see how that would get someone in hot water. But, honestly, I really am suspect of your motivations.

I find it kind of striking that some people cherrypick the 'easy' bits.... You've picked trademarked items and full-length songs.

I think that if you really were out to stamp out injustice, you'd focus on "the little guy" getting ripped off just as much as "the big guy".

A "Code Red" smug alert went into effect for the Second Life forums Friday because the forum’s hubris quality is expected to reach "unhealthy" levels.

Forum Environmental Quality officials issued "Code Orange" alert Thursday -- meaning "unhealthy air for sensitive groups" -- but the smug levels reached Code Red before the week ended.

Once the index climbs to the Code Red range, more people are affected by arrogance and most people should restrict forum posting exertion to early morning or late evening hours when the pomposity is low.

People who plan forum activities were advised to take the following precautions:

• Reload the Webpage frequently
• Wear flame-proof clothing
• Drink plenty
• Avoid long exposure to the sturm und drang

Perhaps I will.

Perhaps you could show me what you are talking about sometime. I said before, this is not about absolutes.

When people steal and profit illegally it has a downstream impact on those that don't.

I do not claim to have a universal answer. I do agree that there are other issues I could focus on. I welcome your contact in world where you can show me these things.

I'm sorry. I don't understand what you mean.

If I have offended you as well, I apologize. There is clearly more to this than I realize.

She means you're coming off as smug.

I think whats put people off is the overall zeal and glee seemingly involved.

There are specific situations where someone is doing something clearly wrong, such as selling a madonna song as a cohesive unit. There are other situations, and sl is *FULL* of them, where there is alot of ambiguity and what you would consider copyright theft, might actually be legitimate fair use.

I would advise you to be careful in those kind of situations because your reporting of someone for something they do have fair use rights to do, could be considered both filing fradulent/false AR's, and/or harassment of those residents, both of which are also direct TOS violations.

Also it would be reccomended, if you do wish to avoid harassment and false AR accusations back on yourself, that you contact the person or persons selling the content you suspect to be a copyright violation, and give them a chance to explain their actions. Mabye the cd they are selling is actually their brother's bands' and they are *MORE* than cool with getting the added publicity, etc. Mabye not. If you don't find out however before filing that report, you could be incurring your own liability with your actions.

++.

You have no way to know if they have the appropriate permission, and you're not allowed to force someone to show you the written permission or the licence ...

Or will you report every texture inworld, assuming they are not allowed to use them ?

And AR is useless, you have to fill a DMCA report.

Anyway ... have fun

I always wondered what happened to grammar school tattletales when they grew up

the *VAST* majority of copyright theft inside of SL however occurs with residents stealing and reselling other resident's created content.

I think you would be harder pressed, talking with content creators, finding someone who has *NOT* been ripped off, than finding someone who has been. You should give it a try.

That was not my intention.

I think I have struck a nerve. I have apologized for my post.

It was not my intention to offend.

Maybe these people do have the rights to resell entire albums of music. In which case I stand corrected.

Like I said, it was an event and when I arrived I saw two stores selling full songs. It is possible that these people both had the rights to resell this music in Second Life.

I was anything but gleeful when I reported it.

If it makes you feel better to berate me, then so be it.

I am sorry I posted this thread. I did not realize the environment.

I have obviously offended you and many others. I retract my statements and will go on my way.

Consider this entertainment at the least. Again, I am sorry.

I don't know what I will do.

I do know I won't start another thread.

The point is, and exactly WHY this is left up to the companies to report, is that you don't know what is legal and what is not. You my suspect, but that is not the same thing as knowing. Do you know every copyright you report? Do you know who holds it, when it was issued, and what liscencing agreements pertain to it? Do you know what circumstances the people in SL are using it under? For every single thing you report? Are you completely versed in all relevent fair use and copyright laws, parody laws, etc?

Unless you know ALL of those things, for everything you report, you have no buisness doing so. You are nothing but a half-cocked vigilante on a crusade that you are not in a position to properly wage.

(Warning: Long post)

IP as it stands now in SL is a little bit goofy. We see the TOS, which says, in effect "If the copyright holder complains, stuff starts getting deleted", but then I can go into the world and see stormtroopers walking around, music playing that i'm sure the people don't own, hell i use an avatar gleaned from a certain final fantasy game.

But tell me this.. how is anyone being injured?

As far as im concerned, George Lucas and Square Enix are not being harmed in the least. They aren't losing squat, UNTIL they come in the world and produce versions of their IP. Then, they would have a right to complain. I'd be a little cheesed off if a linden told me that i can't use my avatar anymore because square sent them a DMCA notice. Until such time as legal versions of real world IP are available in world, there is no harm done. Second life is like a separate world.

If I rip off a texture from somebody, i've directly harmed that person, and should be smacked.
If I make a stormtrooper suit, hmm, what is this star wars you speak of? Who is this George Lucas person, i'd like to meet them.

They sure as hell don't exist in second life.

If lucasarts was to come in the world and start producing official merchandise, THEN, and ONLY THEN, are they being harmed by RL lookalikes in the game. And they should be hard pressed to prove they're being harmed in RL due to a few random stormtroopers walking around.

Intellectual Property only should apply in world.

And as for music playing.. RL music in SL is a joke. You have to basically break a song down into 10 second chunks (Which is bad enough, imagine the load on the asset server if everyone started doing this), and get it to play without skipping or lagging.

You may be right. That could be exactly what I am.

I will look further into the people I report before doing so.

I have cancelled my previous reports to Linden Lab as I take the advice provided in this thread and follow up.

It is very possible I am wrong and that these people do have the rights to reproduce this music.

Narc.

I take that as a compliment.