Brick Back Torrid Midnight!

Odd. I've seen people modifying dresses they own, making mixtapes from music they own, recording baseball shows they were watching, and a myriad of other things ever since I was wee. Are those activities illegal? Should I be a good citizen and report my neighbors to the proper authorities?

Please inform!

Is afraid of doodling on his shirts now,
LF

Depending on exact details they might or might not be on case-by-case basis. As you've personally found out, the ignorance regarding copyrights is quite widespread so there's probably plenty things people do because they are under honest belief they have such right (because they see neigbours and elders doing it) or because they simply consider it a too trifle matter to care.

Reporting your neighbours over such issues? Personally i wouldn't, but whatever floats your boat...

Apples vs. oranges considering there seems to be NO dispute at all that the individuals in question did in fact pay for the objects in debate throughout this thread.

Ok, let's put this to rest by going to the source:



Those highlighted above (my own emphasis) are the only things directly prohibited.

However, I think you'd be hardpressed to find any court that would convict you of modifying something for your own personal use, espcially when said object was paid for you.

On the same token, Lost *could claim that he lost a sale from the theft, as he could've charged Torrid for the modifications she wanted.

Sadly however, most court cases require a substantial financial damage (over $1000 US) to make it to anything beyond small claims court, and in any case of purcahsing something and then ripping/modifying it afterwards, the seller is out at most, $1.

I think I'll continue to rip everyone's textures, thank you very much.

Nice know that the texture ripper is a-okay to use with SL. The SL oldies say it's fine. I need to download it and get busy. I don't think I'll ever have to buy any more skins or clothes just mod the ones I've got!

Apples and oranges indeed, but it wasn't me who decided to use it (recording of 'content feed' being 'absolutely legal' for personal use) as justification of situation described by this thread. Please take the complaint to the original source? ^^;;

I have been considering the legality of this for a day now, and have some thoughts.

STOP GROANING! I'm allowed to have opinions and dump them on the rest of you all I like! It's what forums are about!



Ok. We have a skin.
She modded it, or more to the point, chop-shopped it along with several other skins to make her own.
The owner is upset about this, and several seem to think the methods she used (IE software people consider 'illegal') were not within the realms of the proper.

Let me give the following alternatives:

- What is LL gave up multiple skin layers in SL, and allowed us to apply alpha masks to each layer as we saw fit? What if they allowed us to apply decals to said skins as an additional layer. The final viewable result is the same, but the method differs greatly. What of this?

- If the owner of a skin has the right to complain about it's presentation after it's purchased, where does it end? Can they complain of the clothing we apply to it? Can they complain over it's use in social situations? I would think many would complain more about having their skin used on a child avatar used to pose for hard-porn than applying eyeliner without permission. What are your thoughts on that?

- If I purchase clipart, mod it using 3rd party software, and then apply it to my RL website, what are the legal issues involved, if any? Moral?

Just thoughts, though. Pay no attention to the Fool. Carry on.

But what if a game hack is used to obtain the said texture? To me it's like taking a camcorder into the cinema. You payed for the movie, why can't you tape it too?

- If I purchase clipart, mod it using 3rd party software, and then apply it to my RL website, what are the legal issues involved, if any? Moral?

That'd be golden; it's in fact something many skin and tattoo makers are crying for, because it removes plenty of issues people currently have, being unable to modify appearance of skin without ripping the files from SL.

Note this can already be done to a degree due to how clothing layers work, but because people normally want to have the skin *and* clothing, plus there isn't really skins available on clothing layers, it's rather moot point.


Under US law (and per extension, in SL) a copyright owner can control whether another person makes a copy of their work, makes changes to their work, distributes it to the public or makes a public performance of it. Yes, this is very wide range of 'power', which is one of reasons why it might be good idea to ask author of the item when in doubt... though i'd figure in regular cases the permission system on items provided by SL covers most of these aspects, indicating intentions of copyright holder.


See above, it'll depend on exact detail of contract you make with the seller. Some licenses (creative commons, e.g.) allow to freely modify and re-distribute such modified content. Some others don't. It's a jungle out there ^^;;

Here is hoping that A2A, LT, and ST are the ones who die, and soon.

HEY now. None of that. Back to your cage!

<whipcrack> Yha! Back!

That is a terrible thing to say. The death wish was made by some anonymous fucktard who is too much of a pussy to stand behind their own name when attacking someone. As unhappy as I might be about this situation, no one deserves to have that said about them. I may not be happy with what Ambyance did in dragging Torrid into this unnecessarily, but she, nor Lost and Starley deserve to have that said about them.

The problem with SL is that people rely on control of their work to make money. This tool can be used to rip textures from anywhere. Go to one of these 'naked parties' and you can have more skins that you can possibly need.

Probably no legal issue here so the moral issue I guess is how you feel about destroying these people's businesses. Daft game with silly people or talented designers who should profit from their work?

Their business is not destroyed by a customer buying an item from them and then modifying it for personal use. Their business is damaged by unrestricted copying and resale of their items. The two are separate issues.

Nope, their work is FAR too good. Who, apart from a vocal minority, read's blogs and forums anyway?

Yes, but if you use the tool for that then you are a tiny step away using it for other ways. People might not sell the skins but they can save and use them for themselves and give to friends meaning they won't have to ever buy a skin and you don't get their custom.

I've mentioned it in Aimee's blog, but... this is more fuzzy issue than that, i fear. Namely, suppose a dress maker releases their outfit in a number of available colours. Now, i buy one of these dresses, rip the texture, and then modify it into another colour with graphics program. The catch? I still keep the original i bought, intact. My single dress has just became two. And i can use the texture i ripped to make myself all available colour options, for fraction of what i'd have to pay to obtain them from original source. (and in fraction of time needed to create the outfit in the first place)

While it's all technically 'modification for personal use', quite clearly it can be taken far enough to damage business of original creator. Without giving a copy of the modification to anyone else. o.O;

And someone can buy a cd, rip the songs to their hard drive (fair use) in mp3, and share it with their friends. Should mp3s be illegal?

That sounds disturbingly like:

Ban guns, because criminals use them.
Ban Bittorrent, because it's only used to transfer illegal files.
Ban ETC, because it can ETC.

If that's the base of your argument, then you have lost me. I don't think that way. Nore do I think what happened here was illegal OR immoral. She PAID for the skin. She did not sell or give it away. And now I hear the reason people complaining about it is because it cut into their livlyhood?

nononono. I'm not going to agree unless you can tell me that THIS PATICULAR INSTANCE is what's causing it. What you are worried about is other people NOT PAYING for it and STEALING the skins.

Again, redistributing content is a separate issue - you just blurred it again. Giving it out to friends is redistributing it.

Cristiano, I am arguing for people like you. I know how much work goes into the design of your skins. I hate to see it 'ripped' using the SL hack. This hack does away with all permissions, if I use it then I own all rights to that texture. I understand that you know that you can trust people not to sell or pass on the texture on but to justify in public anyone using it sets a precedent to me.

If were okay then it would be part of the game not a hack.

Chip is a skin designer, not me. All I am saying is that you keep automatically criminalizing people by attributing behavior to them. They are separate issues. I am not justifying it, I am pointing out that they are not the same thing. BTW, just out curiousity, have you never ripped a CD and made MP3s out of them?

Death threats are a LEETLE extreme for this, y'know?