Texture and Building Piracy in N'burg

I'm sorry if this has been addressed in this thread already.

Ulrika, why not send a DMCA takedown notice? I'm pretty sure you can find guides on google on how to write them (it needs to be properly formatted and worded).

All of the offending structures have been taken down from the city. Although, I have had no acknowledgment that my other requests, namely the purging of the data from SL inventories and personal hard drives, has been followed. I will read up on it to see if that could help me. Thank you.

Also, much of this has to do with interpreting this crime within the context of N'burg's government. Specifically, the individual who created the unauthorized reproductions is, believe it or not, a judge in the city. Additionally, the other city member who sanctioned and still defends the piracy is the head of a branch that exists to protect artisans and their work. Oh, the irony -- the individuals' actions are in exact conflict with their city functions. My goal is also to see them brought to justice within N'burg itself.

~Ulrika~

Yeah, but if you'll recall, that was my whole point all along. The 'power' only exists if the sim owner plays nice, if not, well, you're screwed. Ultimately they have all the power, like any other land owner in SL, which is why I originally said I couldn't take NBurg's government seriously.

The problem is that Two Branches of Neualtenburg's Government is seemingly not taking Neualtenburg's Government seriously.

It's a very interesting situation, but we have been through worse than this and gotten through it. I'm confident that all will return to normal in due time.

I would encourage the non-governmental citizenry to contact me to see if we can rally the Representative Assembly into action.

I completely disagree with this statement.

But I also disagree with Karsten's idea that the sim owner is paramount. The entire point of Neualtenburg is that this is one of the only sims where this *isn't* the case. There have been many many times when the sim owner could have simply stepped in and made things go her way (destroying the government sim projekt of course by doing that), and she didn't.

I have never heard of any sim in SL that even comes close to the complete lack of involvement of the titular "owner" as Neualtenburg does. The avatar that owns the land is the equivalent of a RL street-sweeper in the city and has no say in anything.

I find Ulrika's position on this thread nonsensical in that she seems to be arguing that the government works exactly this way and that the sim owner has no sway, yet when things don't go her way it's all some kind of conspiracy of the sim owner and her "band of cronies."

I feel that Nuealtenburg gets more and more democratic as time goes on, and the Government becomes and acts more like a RL government as the attacks against it increase. It may seem like the French Revolution in Nburg these last few weeks, but I still hope good things may result.

why? Nobody seems to be following procedure, that to me would indicate a lack of seriousness.

Instead what is happening is that select individuals are now acting on their own, without the will of the people, and assuming they are acting to "Save The City".

Neualtenburg isn't the buildings. Neualtenburg is The Constitution --and currently the Constitution is in far greater peril than mere roads and buildings.

Well I see how it can be seen that way, but I think it's an overstatement perhaps. There is a certain amount of "react first and figure it out later" going on in regards the rebuilding of the city, but I don't think thats out of line with the history of Nburg or of similar events in RL or SL.

The way the government is currently designed I think the GM has quite a huge amount of leeway and personal discretion exactly in the area of rebuilding the city. I also think if people really do disagree with the actions taken on a large scale that the way to do something about it would be to mobilize the vote of the Guild, not worry about the constitutional setup because the power held by the GM in this way has served us well in the past. If the GM was really acting out of line with the choice of the people, then they could be easily voted down by the rank and file members. Failing that an appeal to the RA or even a quick straw poll in the forums that indicated broad dissatisfaction with the GM's actions would be a first step.

I see the current events (at least so far and to my knowledge) as yet another expression of long standing personality conflicts rather than a systematic problem of the government and I don't think that the constitution is in crisis over this issue.

This same kind of reasoning is partially why I don't agree with all of Ulrika's constant accusations of corruption, bias and conspiracy in the Nburg government. I think I know most of the people involved fairly well and there is to my mind a huge amount of "crankiness" going on and not much more.

The very fact that the same governmental structure seemed to be fine and "work great" when the opposite members were holding the strings of power says to me that there is not a huge systemic problem with the structure or the constitution. There are just lots of little bugs and "gotchas" that are now biting people on the bum when they are on the other side of that table of power IMO.

The spectacle of Ulrika railing against the inequities of the founding documents that she mostly wrote herself, and perhaps being denied satisfaction by the very clauses in them that she would have been more than happy to use against others when she was in power, is both ironic and hugely funny.

The sad part is a lot of people are likely going to get hurt by all this nonsense (me one of them almost certainly ), and the fine idea of a self governing sim might even go down the toilet in the process.

So in short, I don't think the government or the constitution is in crisis, I think people should just chill out. The current problem is all about people and if we all stopped being so confrontational and sat down at a table I bet we could work it all out in a single afternoon of civil conversation.

Given the huge personalities and personality conflicts involved that ain't gonna happen though, and *that* is the problem IMO.

I suppose it means, if the part about sim owner having no say is correct... that these claiming they only recognize the authority of sim owner and no one else's, are in fact doing entirely as they _themselves_ please, and the bit about sim owner authority is just convenient screen to hide behind?

I.e. rather than conspiracy of "sim owner and band of cronies" there's just "band of cronies" (if you'd use that word) operating freely and with no leash.. since no one is telling them what to do, and when someone actually tries to tell them what to do, they're given the "we only listen to the sim owner" excuse?

That's the way you make it sound, anyway...

This is precisely my point. If people would follow the procedures --there would be no problem. Past administrations have followed the Constitution. The problem now is that due process is being ignored, and Neualtenburg is now being ruled by cult of personality.

The fact that the previous Governments did not abuse their power and adhered to the workings of The Constitution only serves to establish that it is always better for rule of law to be followed than rule of whim.

There is Fair Use, that does allow for some level of copying. I believe the creator(s) of the pirated works, while distribution is piracy; thier own personal copies could be Fair Use. This is where my understanding of applied copyright law falls though. I suspect after piracy, the Fair Use exclusion evaporates. As to removing assets from the asset server, thats complicated.

roflmao

This topic is a bit out of place. Doesn't really belong in this forum. It's topic is N'burg so it would make sence that it should be moved thier group forum. Normaly this sort of topic would be closed, as it falls within the guidelines of a private discussion/dispute.

I'm going to put it up for Linden Review.

Thanks, Strife. That's one of the most sensible posts I've seen in this thread.

This thread exists to publicly expose Dianne's piracy and the abuses of some members of the N'burg government. Moving this thread would eliminate the public audience and allow them direct control over the content, as they are moderators.

~Ulrika~

This statement is made by the very individual who created unauthorized reproductions of my structures without permission. You can see the evidence of her "French Revolution" here.

~Ulrika~

How about putting it in the Politics forum. Where things.. ya know.. political go?

Lord knows it could do with a new thread.

The 'avatar that owns...' Well that's a dance around words. The avatar is Sudane's alt, isn't it, or did I miss something? That fact that it's not directly in Sudane's name doesn't matter much.

And you're still missing the entire point. Just because she HASN'T manipulated anything in the past, doesn't mean she doesn't have that power. All the power in a sim is currently in the hands of one person. If they delegate it and play nice and don't mess with it, that's fine, but that doesn't change the fact they still are the ones with all the keys.

Everyone always seems to immediately assume that when I point out the sim owner has all the power that they must automatically be excercising it and/or abusing it. I never once said that, thanks.

You are correct on both points above.

In the future, any governmental system which is built on top of LL technology will need to take the sim owner into account, instead of pretending they don't exist.

~Ulrika~

I am a complete newbie here.. so perhaps no one wants to here my perspective..

I just wanted to say as a sociology experience this place is fascinating. I don't know much about the technical details involved here.. or the history. I do have something to say.

This whole argument is very obviously about much more then pirated designs. To us an anology, it seems to me that the disagreeing parties are like a couple in the middle of divorce. A couple that never learned some basic comunication techniques at that. It is like that couple that can't get the real problem out in the open and picks some topic (money, kids, careers, whatever) to fight over again and again.

Ulrika, you obviously had a lot invested here...and even if you have moved on, you may not of taken time to grieve over what you lost. I know grieving seems odd... but there were possibilities here that are never going to happen. Acknowledge it so you can move on.

Nburg... obviously something failed along the way. Take the time to learn from it and become stronger and better.

It would be so much better if you could work together and not tarnish what was good in your time together.... and I am sure there were good things on both sides, or it wouldn't matter so much.

(my very much unsolicited opinion.) Hope I haven't stepped on toes... or looked like to much of an idiot.

Nice to meet you all.

Excellent post. I agree with it completely.

BTW, welcome to SL. Nice to meet you

The wheel just came off the cart last week. I'm working on the next iteration now.

~Ulrika~

Egads. I hope when I grow old and become a senile old fart, I won't be so wordy.

Given that you just used Thomas Edison's catch phrase, "egads", in a sentence, there's an excellent chance that you already are a senile old fart.

~Ulrika~

Well, if ppl. learn from the past mistakes, they better not let you WRITE or BUILD anything, that you could later use against them, if things don't go as you'd like. Only if you instantly license it under a free (as in free speech) license.

No, wait. First, state the license, only then build or write