You just never know

about the people you think you know.

I have had a friend for almost as long as I have been on SL. I made the bridesmaid's gowns for his SL wedding...we have had long talks (not romantic lol) about all kinds of things...silly, serious, whatever. Just one of those long term friendships where you know you can always IM the person with a joke, or he can always send me a TP to wherever he is DJ and be the ONLY person who can get away with that, and I will usually go.

I hadn't seen him in a few weeks, and suddenly he showed up on an alt (he always has had a million alts lol), and tells me that he had been working hard on a project, it was done and he wanted me to see it. Then he hands me this necklace named "necklace for Ral" and I put it on and it is OMG AMAZING. I'm floored...and start asking questions. He tells me that he never really told anyone on SL about his art degrees etc., because he didn't want to create on SL but now he did. So I start putting wheels in motion, I mean...wow, this stuff is so nice, it needs major marketing...holy...he's all excited. Wow, it's that good? Wow! he says.

So I go to bed that night and I can't sleep. I get back up, log in, and look at the necklace again. It's full perm, so I make a copy and start tearing it apart into little sculpted pieces, and I start finding some names that aren't his....

Long story shortened, I went on a search and within an hour I was standing in someone's store in front of a vendor, looking at the necklace.

My friend of 2 years was going to use me to promote and help sell this copybotted necklace even though he knew such a thing would probably run me right out of business myself, or worse, even banned. WTF. I'm just glad I caught it.

I notified the creator, sent her pics of the one 'he' made, provided her with his name and his other avatar names (that I knew). I sent an AR to LL. And I very nearly threw my hands in the air, closed up shop, and left SL...because I felt so betrayed.

I'm not looking for sympathy, I'm over it and fine. But I'm sending a warning. No matter how long you know them, or how much you think you are friends, $$$ is a strong motivator and they might just try to scam you.

That is incredibly sad for you. What a horrible thing to happen to a friendship.

{{{Hug for Ralektra}}}

This happens sometimes, but it's rare. You are right to feel betrayed. 95% of even random strangers would never do this to you, or anyone.

Don't give up hope on human nature over this ~ this person isn't everyone, and they too have probably learned a powerful lesson here, that goes way beyond copybotting. Hopefully they will take it to heart.

omg, that sucks. on every level imaginable.

and so, my first reaction question is, did you tell him you ratted him out?

This is why I fly solo on business. There's really no way to know, in this type of venue. In RL, reputations are at stake, and there are ramifications. Not exactly here.

I could tell some stories. It's not as rare, as you might think. Cost me some sleep, too. Sorry that happened to you. It's not a bad reminder to guard your own name and business, though.

That is really low. I can't say anything more, I just sit here and shake my head in disgust.

Edit: And for what? Maybe he sold 50 necklaces before he was called out and earned what, 25000 L? And you could loose all.

He knows (smile). I don't feel guilty either lol

Agreed - and while I do with closely with two others, we're all very, very particular about that issue. That really stinks.

That is foul. *hugs* OP

I'm pretty sure he never sold any of them, I can't say for sure but he was wanting to use my photostudio to take pix for boxes. And of course, I destroyed the one he gave me and the copy I made...along with a skin he gave me that he said he made too. The skin was real nice, went searching for an actual creator and found a few very similar but cant say for sure...and I didn't want the thing sittin in my inv giving me cooties so deleted and trash emptied lol

No, I meant if you didn't find out.

Let's say you helped him to start and he sold some. If this necklace was very beautiful and special, it would be found out when pictures from blogs started to appear on the Fashion Feeds. I doubt he could sell it so long that he made any significant money.

Ohh, f*

oh yea, believe me, the necklace would have been spotted really quickly...but he didn't know that. He knew nothing about the feeds, I think he really thought he might get away with it for while. It wouldn't have taken long for it to be spotted by someone who recognized it. The original was made by *edited* and it is amazingly beautiful. Not a plug but yea, lol...

Edit took out the creator's name I'm not sure if I can say it and even if I could she might not want it said I dunno lol

Sorry to hear what happend to you . I hope you dont stay away to long i had something like that happen to me long time ago was gone for 2 yrs and came back . There are rotten people in secondlife just like in rl . but you can also find good people in here also . good luck

When someone gave me a copybotted item, rather than destroy it, I sent it to real creator - so that person could use it as proof/etc. While the person who gave it to me was not a close friend, she was a DJ at my favorite club.

The scenario you outline is curiously a lot like how it works in the RL drug trade. Dealers rarely store their stash in their own homes, but rather use a girlfriend (and now that women are entering dangerous crimes more often, I suppose we'll start finding stashes in the homes of boyfriends too).
- That way when police come around, the sig. other does time, and the dealer moves on. Half or more of women in prison for drug crimes in the US fit that story... due to tough on crime laws imposing minimum sentences regardless of the 'mitigating circumstances' (such as lack of knowledge). The also often puts family members in prison, such as storing your stash as your parents, grandparents, or sibling's home...

Its typical criminal behavior. You find someone else to shoulder the burden of the risks. Someone who trusts you blindly and knows what a 'good person' you are...

I am so sorry this happened, especially to someone as nice as you are. The copybotting is bad enough, but the betrayal of your friendship is just...I have no words. *Hugs*

That is really super awful.

Glad you did not let it defeat you where SL is concerned.

I do think you should be commended publicly for this, though. Unfortunately not everyone would turn the person in, especially someone they knew. A lot of people would just take a more passive route or ignore it or even go along with it. So thank you for doing the right thing.

SL is better because of people who do the right thing.

If the item was copybotted, then none of the parts would show up with the name of the original creator. When an object is copybotted, a secondary agent is used at the vehicle in which to do the copying. The agent (account, avatar) that is used is installed as the 'creator' of the object at that point. Apparently, he pieced it together by using parts from the 'stolen' item which he somehow obtained full perm. He may have de-linked it, and some of the parts were full perm maybe, idk. In any event, what he did was wrong and just as bad as full blown copybotting. I too tend to fly solo in SL, partnerships never seem to work for me, even nearly destroyed MY best friendship in SL, luckily for me, it didn't in the end, and we're both still great friends. (Although I am now doing some work for her, but it's not a partnership, I'm doing the work, she's paying for it). If I need something I don't have the knowledge to do, I gain the knowledge rather than hunt out a partner who does). This has made me proficient at building, scripting, blender, photoshop, scripting particles, pretty much everything except animations.

Some things that can be deduced from this:

He's an idiot, he destroyed a friendship and made himself look like the idiot he is.

He most likely doesn't have 'several art degrees' in anything as he claims.

He doesn't even know how to copybot something right.

He's even dumber than dumb because he used objects created by someone else in his supposedly 'original' build, which, as he's since learned, it's not impossible to figure out.

He's got issues, only people with issues do stuff like that. He seems to have some sort of need to impress people with talents he obviously doesn't have.

Watch out for him, he may try to become friends with you again via an alt. Hopefully you've talked voice with him, and will be able to determine if he's the same guy or not if a new friend refuses to go voice.