Piracy in SL.

The way I see it there wasn't a wholsale copying of prims but more likely a few prims added to the original and then linked last. I doubt very seriously that anyone would have taken the time to copy each prim exactly...thieves are usually lazy.

Either way it's extremely bad form to so blatantly steal anothers design and then market it.

Thats not entirely true. You can bet if Ford came out with a new truck that looked exactly like a dodge that there would be a lawsuit and dodge would win.

Does the creator of the F-18 hold patents which would prevent others from selling a substantially equivelant plane under another name?

"A patent for an invention is a grant of property rights by the U.S. Government through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The patent grant excludes others from making, using, or selling the invention in the United States."

Is Cornelius' plane in SL an invention or an original authored work?

"Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of 'original works of authorship,' including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works."

Could (and does) the creator of the real world F-18 claim copyight of the plane's appearance in addition to any patents on it as an invention?

These are the questions I'd have regarding this situation, not being a lawyer.

Mine is very much an original work. Althought called an F-18 it quite Obviously is NOT an F-18 It is 29 prims set in such order as to resemble an F-18. Not nearly a 100% replica of a real F-18. We arent talking a real life vehicle here, were talking an artists representation of a real life vehicle.

I can assure you that if i went and stold the plans for an F-18 and recreated it, I would get sued, do time, SL would get sued the Military would shut SL down for national security reasons etc. This is a bogus comparison. This is obviously a digital creation that holds slight similarities to the real life vehicle. If i didnt name it an F-18 there would be plenty of people guessing the wrong model.

There are plenty of other F-18's in SL. They all look similar to mine. This one doesnt, it IS mine.

EDIT: I would like to point out that if he didnt know what he did was wrong. mhy did he lie through his teeth denying it only to be proved a liar? Wouldnt he had responded by saying something like " I have every right to make a duplicate of your work?"

this discussion is precisely why textures should be protected under all costs. i never figured out if there was a resolution to the new properties discussion but if there was, i hope one of them was protect textures at all costs!

Well... unless your planes are copy enabled, nobody can look at the geometry of the sub-prims. And if they are copy enabled, then you can't complain that someone has copied.

I still don't have a problem with somebody eye-balling an object and building something similar.

- Ace

So by your own logic above It would be a crime for me to rebuild a plane from lockheeds plans. but it is Xeroxed the plans and built it off that, its quite ok?

EDIT: Sorry, Not your logic.. Someone elses above With yours i could do it withthe original plan.

Cornelius - I was just ruminating on some legal issues people brought up. I don't think you're doing anything wrong by making an F-18-like plane in SL.

Personally, I think it's uncool for someone to copy your plane prim by prim. I know it takes time and effort to manipulate and fit together SL prims to get a particular design. It's one thing for someone to figure out on their own how to make an F-18-like plane after seeing yours, but they're taking advantage of you by copying your prims rather than doing the work themselves. IMO, they should have made you an offer or figured it out on their own.

Huh? I've nicked parameters from child prims before, even when they're not modable...

I don't have a problem with you looking at a Lockheed plane, and building something that looks and behaves the same, and Lockheed can't complain if you do.

- Ace

Cadroe,

No offense has been taking by your posts. I respect everyones opinions. But it you start Cut & Pasting my replies and using them in other posts as your replies, I will be upset

No they cant if i did that, But if i reverse engineered it and all the parts are the same Same size & specs I would get sued AND do time. Lets face facts here. Its either a lockheed or not. This is not based on the comparisons of the name but a comparison of the design.

The very fact that he's denying it here, even while he tries to peddle it somewhere else, is proof that he knows he did something wrong. Why else would he insist it isn't him selling it/doing it when it very obviously is?

If people want to defend mimicry as a creative style, there's nothing anyone else can do to change their minds, though I'd be checking their stuff much closer and wondering if they copied it before I bought it. They don't see anything wrong with stealing someone else's design and the time and energy they took to work through it and taking the quickest route to making a buck. The SL equivilant of the Career Welfare Mother.

I personally think it's a cheap, lazy, dishonest and entirely uncreative thing to do, and I won't ever purchase anything from those who do it. And I'll be sure to let others know as well.

We're not talking about wether or not someone can steal the designs for an f-18, build it, then call it their own. What we're talking about here, is that an artist is selling something he made himself (where his inspirations came from is irrelevant), and someone else copied it and is selling it.
If I copied Marcos Fonzarelli's 'steam-bot' avatar (just look at the banner on the top of the page) and started selling it, I don't think he'd be too pleased.
What is happening is wrong, and the Lindens need to do something about it.

Wrong? Nah... Sleazy and underhanded? Sure, a bit... Would I give my business to the original creator over the knock-off? Absolutely...

But I certainly don't want the Lindens spending their time determining what is a knock-off and what is a rip-off. There are copy protection mechanisms built into SL. If something is a prim-for-prim knock-off that does the same thing as something else in this world, then so be it.

Let the Lindens spend their energies on the technology, and not making determinations as to whether this object is too similar to that object.

- Ace

Dan is my savior of internet, he is too kool for skhool LOL!!!!

This is horrible, I hope dan is perma banned.

Dan and Pyotr. 2 more asswipes to add to my 'do not do business with' list.

Good Morning and the Weekend is over and I can Finaly respond to this.

First off Corn is an old friend of mine in fact I remember when he actually started building this air craft as he and I would converse at times on some mods that needed to be made.

Back then I was seeking a Scripter to help me with my AirCraft I have. Ironically enough I know the work Corn puts into is stuff as he and I have exchanged multitude of Ideas and even vehicles in the past.

The sad thing is when someone abuses a trust. Corn is not the kind of person to go around whining about things normaly he deals with them in world and gets justice as such in world.

But this, this is abhorent. Unfortunately there is no method to remove Items in world that are associated with a primary prim set. IE if you build something give it to someone and they then use it to copy and make new ones. There is no way to auto destruct it and all of its subsequent copies.

I have had this happen in the past I pray that LL helps Corn in this respect and if they do I feel they should then look into all those that have had simlar issues in the past.

Its one thing to sit back and say "Oh! it's not my problem you resolve it." but when you have the power to resolve it and do nothing are you not moraly obligated to do so?

Corn I hope you get Justice in this as there isn't much of it going around these days in SL but maybe its time for the winds of change to take hold and blow away all the posers.

Sincerely, Shadow Weaver

Ditto. I've had a similar experience as Corn, and I do not tolerate these types of people well.

-Adam

Its the Wild Wild West, baby!! Anything goes!!

True, Shep its the wild west of sorts but a good Lynch mob hangs people like billy the kid and so on.

However, mentalities like that Shep are uncreative and shows they are after one thing and one thing only and thats the almighty Dollar/yen/pound/lyria ect.

Just remember one thing about money shep...can't take it with you when you die.

Shadow

Until the folks all decide they want to be able to make money and have social events without a gunfight every night - then the Sheriff gets called in!

Like it or not folks are gonna form opinions on what's right and wrong. And if they don't think they're gettin justice from the Sheriff they're gonna find their own ways to lay down the law - like shunning the offenders!

Personally I think this is something us folks in the game should be able to decide and resolve ourselves.

I think the folks of SL should just make fun of any "prim-a-like" copy cats and not buy stuff from them! If they can take the time to do that, they should be able to build their own unique version of whatever it is, and should understand the effort and time it takes to make things in the first place! That's just lame!

Well all, Heres the turnout. I can only assume the Lindens will be doing SQUAT about this, Well at least they have been exposed. Hopefully this will deter other people from doing this in the future.

Heres the big reply.

"If you feel that you have a valid copywrite pertaining to this you can file a DMCA Claim"

"The preservation of users' property rights is a necessary step toward the emergence of genuinely real online worlds."- Phillip Linden

(Cough Cough BS Cough..)

Why not actually trying to file a claim?

I Hesitate because I don't have a "Valid Copyright". Am I misunderstanding how things are supposed to work in SL? Am I Supposed to Build, Texture, Script and then Copyright?

I'm kinda confused because that sounds just useless. Not to mention expensive & time consuming.