Knockoffs

If I were a better designer or inventor, I would be empathetic; I can only offer sympathy though. It does suck but it is most assuredly not exclusive to SL.

One need only go to a Carribean port town to see knock offs of everything under the sun. Supposedly New York street vendors play that game too. The only relevant differences are that a Louis Vuitton or Calvin Klien or Nike can get the State Department to try to dent the import of such goods. I've also noticed a dual purpose of the "slap a brandmark on every product ever made" trend over the last couple of decades. I can make a pair of jeans that looks just like the latest DKNY product, but I can't put a DKNY label on it for fear of copyright violation. Contrariwise, DKNY would have a hard time patenting a pair of jeans - even with today's USPTO.

The only decent solution that I've seen in SL is Cubey Terra's imprimateur on his vehicles and other products. His logotype is clean, usually small, yet easily visible. This is just a guess, but I wouldn't expect a Joe Avatar device to have the painstaking attention to detail as the Cubey Terra device that Joe knocked off. This is just a guess, but I think you might be able to get LL to play "Customs Inspector" if Cubey found someone selling items bearing the Cubey Terra mark with a non-Cubey creator tag.

Glad to see you back, Sapphire. I have little doubt if you emulated Cubey's approach to brand marking that you would quickly obtain similar brand recognition.

Thank you Lance. I hadn't seen that before I posted.

Ok time for true confession. Who made the first poof? You know that particle that fills the air with a thousand pics when you walk in the room? They are everywhere in SL. When did they first hit the scene? Whos idea was it? Who did it first? Will the real poof maker please stand up.

[Runs behind flame retardant wall]

i'd hope whoever did it stays hidden, cause those poofs actually forced LL to cripple the particle system somewhat.

ugh. I'm not going to go too deep into this because we've gone into it before.

All of you haughty folks who think it's so clever of you, for example, to take one of Cubey's biplanes, read the numbers off of it, retype them, screenshot the textures and reapply...

Those of you who think this makes you 'righteous' and somehow 'sticking it to the man' - it's transparent. Obviously you want the object for free, -and- the credit for making it. Because you've got no talent of your own, except transcription of numbers, you belittle the creator. Saying "Oh, it's JUST a plane, oh you think you're SO special because you 'smash a few pixels together'.

If it were that easy, go ahead and make one WITHOUT copying.

You won't be able to. And you know it. Hence the importance of the 'belittling the creator' side of the argument.

* applause for CrystalShard *

In any market, you will always have people who will be innovative. Kris is one of those people, CrystalShard is, Cubey is, and there are many others. You can look at their work and clearly see where they have created something that fundamentally changes some part of our Second Lives. No matter how many derivative knockoffs of their work come along to try to cash in on their creativity, they can't lay any claim to those innovations. While they are busy copying, innovative people have already moved on to new products to continue to innovate.

It's part of the cycle - it happens in RL all the time - how many companies are desperately trying to create the iPod killer? In the end, there is not much we can do except continue to support those who do truly innovative and interesting work that we enjoy. The copy cats may get short term financial satisfaction from their "work", but it is not a way to build a lasting reputation.

My own take on all of this is as follows. I like to consider this:

"If I see further, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants." -Isaac Newton

^above quote is one variant of several... different medium, same message.


We already have people coming into SL and admiring the great established creative wonders in SL. I often hear fellow avatars exclaiming "I wish I could make clothes like Nephilaine!" or "I want to make vehicles like Cubey" or "I'm trying to make a gun so I'm studying the Seburo" or "I want to build the next Midnight City so everyone can lose their $ to me!" <--- yes, really

For me, it is important to acknowledge the pioneers and pay my respects to their works. In line with my neoConfucian cyberpunky beliefs, I bow my head to honor these greats who have come before, and then look towards the rising sun in the horizon, optimistic of what will come after. We have our roles to play in the timeline and this is not static.

An Apple II is primitive by today's standards and no one would -- or could -- use it as a means to play Second Life. But nostalgia calls forth and its springboardy greatness for launching future computer innovations cannot be denied. Emulators are popular, and I have a good feeling that within SL, museums to showcase good stuff of the past will spring up.

"The only constant is change"

The dance machine example involving Kris and Crystal was a great one, because I like both of them. Kris once gave me a historical show of the very first dance machine, and OMG, it was so cool to see what had established a benchmark for what was yet to come. And I for one know that Crystal is always keeping her catgirl's eyes wide open, seeing what she can do best next. It keeps her busy, and she takes healthy breaks too. I can't blame her.

Complaining and dragging things down too much will not ultimately impede progress, because it's inevitable that some superinventor will steamroll -- or maglevtrain -- their way through all of that irrelevant dung, on their way to the next waypoint in Second Life. There's redundant BLAHBLAHBLAH, sure, but when you gotta move, then move on.

Talent? *sighs*... that's all too common... try persistence and some great interpersonal skills. That'll touch the people.

Heh, I'll just note that ripped-off stuff only points me towards the direction of the genuine creator, anyway.

Sorry for the long delay, had to attend classes.

What I said was, you missed the point of what I was saying. You missed the point of my initial post, then you missed the point of my first response. This hasn't changed.

My initial post illustrated the fundamental disconnect between a product and a product identity. A product is protected under patent or copyright. A product identity is protected under trademark. I know I don't have to restate that, since those are basicly the definitions used anywhere, but there it is.

But trademark law isn't the issue here.

Neither is patent law.

The issue here is copyright law, and as usual people aren't quite grasping that a copyright doesn't just mean "You aren't allowed to ctrl+c the file" (Ok, that's a mis-statement anyhow, since that's now how you do it in SL, but the point stands). It means you may not reproduce through any means a copyrighted product for sale.

Guess what.

If you sit down and manualy type out a book, and sell it, you are commiting the exact same crime as a person who photocopies it. It doesn't matter that you "Did it yourself". The method of reproduction is not relevent.

This is -not-, before the point inevitably gets raised by a dozen people, an issue of trying to claim that nobody else can make a similar product to yours. That is perfectly fine, and nobody is trying to say you can't. This is not even trying to say that nobody can make a very similar product.

I was guilty of it in my first post, althought I was talking about a different issue, but I need to stress something.

Do not compare this to real life products, such as cars, sodas, candy bars, toys, or what not. Those are figurative apples and oranges. SL have legal protection similar more to a text. That is to say, copyright. It's not even like Eggy's example of Unix/Linux. Linux is absolutely fine, it's a very similar product, but it's not the same product. But there is an ongoing legal battle over specific sections of the Linux code being directly taken from Unix. (Unless this has been resolved... Honestly I havn't heared anything in about six months now). THAT is closer to the issue at stake hear. But all your various examples of shoes, or shirts, or whatever... Those do not fall under copyright law. The law works differently there. A SL creation is copywritten, and has different protections than a candy bar or a shoe.