Is 'THIS' the future of Second Life ?

PARASITIC INFECTION

Every single day NOW, I receive at least one, often more, reports of stolen ‘COPYBOT’ versions of Dolly and my plants, flowers and trees.

So, instead of creating ...... is ‘THIS’ how SL content developers are going to spend their time and energy - now and in the future – endlessly dealing with ‘INFRINGERS’ and needing to repeatedly file DMCAs every single day ?

DMCA today, DMCA tommorrow, DMCA, DMCA every single day !!

All content creators experiencing 'THIS' know ...... this will not scale !

If every single day, people came into your home and stole something from you. Doesn’t matter how hard you work ….. soon there would be nothing left.



If SL today is the ‘SEED’ of the future, what plant will grow ?

Will it be a strong healthy plant,
luscious leaves reaching up to the sun and sky,
full of blossoms and ready to fruit ?

or will it be diseased, riddled with parasites ....
duplicating, replicating, duplicating, replicating,
sapped, depleted, undermined,
never reaching maturity,
never producing a flower,
never producing a fruit.

The disease is already here. The parasites unchecked.
The plant needs immediate, urgent attention !
Has the garden been abandoned ?
Where are the gardeners ?



Anonymous accounts and ‘replicating tools’ are an extremely unhealthy mix and together they create a very sickly environment ...... It's like trying to grow corn and keep crows in the same field.


So, is 'THIS' the future of Second Life ?
Will ‘THIS’ infection be fatal ?

It's nothing new; it is what everyone else everywhere deals with to protect their content.

There is no such thing as a "working" DRM scheme. If someone is going to infringe your copyrights, it is going to happen; there's no way around it.

So, yes, your answer is correct. DMCA them until the cows come home, then DMCA them some more. Follow the actual legal process, not necessarily what LL prescribes. Give LL the time to take care of it, then, if LL doesn't act in good faith on your request, file suit, naming LL as a contributory infringer. That will get their attention fast.

Naming LL is a bad idea. It is a TOS violation, so you can be banned from SL, after which the real pirate can argue you have lost no money because you can no longer cash out.

It would be a BAD idea for LL to ban you for naming them in a copyright infringement suit. It could be construed as complicity with the infringer once it got to court.

If you put forth the legal requirements in asking that they take down infringing content, and they fail to comply within a reasonable timeframe (the DMCA isn't specific on this timeframe, but a good copyright attorney can tell you when you've waited long enough and need to act), then the next logical (and legal) step is to file a suit.

If you are really interested in protecting your content, that's what protection the law affords to you.

Most of the time, LL takes content down from properly-filed DMCA notices, so it should be a rare case where it has to go any farther.

Ah, if they didn't take it down I could understand it. My impression from the OP was that LL were taking the content down but it was being immediately reuploaded, requiring another filing.

Sorry to see this happening to you. We own several of your pieces and would hate to see creators like this become discouraged.

We travel extensively and are always delighted to find builders, creators, designers that are exceeding the status quo of quality and design standards. We spend time in their builds, we spend money there, we vote, we donate, we add to our picks.

There is a very clear distinction between the creative vanguard of SL and those who (perhaps as part of their necessary learning process) create soulless, flat and downright boring environments and products.
It is exciting to see what is possible and we hope that the up-and-coming builders will continue to strive for greater things as the bar continues to be raised.

What a shame, then, that those who have no talent simply steal what others create. I fear that this behaviour is going to result in the stagnation of creative endeavour in SL, be that new products or entire sims worthy of exploration, as the leading edge designers simply throw up their hands and walk away.

We cannot go forward, creatively, if intellectual property isn't protected and respected. So, yes, I agree, if this isn't dealt with it'll prove to be fatal to those aspects that make SL enjoyable to many of us.

Does SL care? Do the blingtards looking for sechs care? I doubt it. LL isn't in this for the art.

ooooo, sorry - you said DMCA, huh

I think the whole SL world is in flux right now - not sure what LL cares about these days. I underestood that at one time LL took content creators rights more seriously, so I am hoping that they return to that. If I were a creator, I would probably worry a bit, but I would also hang on to see where things go.

Hi Lilith. You make unique products, already for such a long time in SL. It is extremely hard to make such high quality plant/tree textures as you and Dolly have been doing. I also once saw a copied item from you and informed you about it. Lately I also have to deal with more and more copybots, copying my original textures.

This is very bad and chases the real creative designers out of SL. I understand that with the current SL technology it is technically impossible to avoid people from stealing textures, because textures have to be downloaded to someones pc. Then LL should think of a new technique to avoid this from happening. As far as I'm concerned this is the BIGGEST problem for the future of SL and Linden Lab alltogether.

Stealing textures is happening on such a large scale now, that it undermines SL's future. LL underestimates this problem.

hmm how does someone making a copy of my creation prevent my being creative? If you're going to site financial necessity then put the blame where it roots from. Correct me if I'm wrong, but financial reimbursement is what is sought (not diminished distribution).
As we move into the age of star trek style replicators obviating any need for cash (sooner than you think) How people approach the social morays implicit in that paradigm can and should be explored here in SL.
I anticipate the biggest flame war. Hash it out yourselves. I've already been there.
Respect.

On SL at least, some financial necessity is inevitable because of the need to pay tier. Paying to keep one's own creative works in the world is considered rather demoralising by some artists, as it has the feel of "vanity publishing".



Replicators would not obviate the need for cash, as they would require raw materials of some kind. Nanoconverters would, to some extent, but they would still require some raw material, the difference being that the raw material could take any form.

It is a sad day when someone who has contributed so much to the SL environment is driven to this level of frustration.

I wasn't thinking strictly in monetary terms. Although creators certainly deserve to profit from their creations, there are other reasons, too.

Recognition is one, as is fame, reputation, the ability to teach others and on and on. While I'm sure there are several creators out there who like to labour in perfect anonymity, I'm thinking that people like to get credit for their work.

Certain designers are known for their work and treasure their reputation. It forms part of the incentive to keep creating more and better things. Where is that incentive if their works are stolen and passed off as someone else's?

Inspiration and imitation are inevitable - that is how trends are formed. But to outright steal and duplicate is just wrong and I'm sticking with that opinion.

More fundamentally, the originators of the first replicator would have to receive royalties. Otherwise, they would never release the replicator, but instead would use it to make other products that would earn them a living!

Agreed. I'm so sorry this is happening to you, Lilith, and to all the other talented creators out there who are finding they need to spend more time tracking down stolen copies of their work than being creative.

Lilith, the plants that you and Dolly create have added a great deal of joy to my time in SL.

Lilith, this has been SL for quite some time - it just happens to be your turn. Anyone successful will have a turn at being ripped off.

The fact is that this happens in RL to top designers as well. It sucks, but you have to learn to live with it and continue to profit even while it happens on the sidelines. You are never going to stop people from ripping off your designs, but I think the name of the game is keeping thieves from getting your marketshare. Worry about the ones advertising on the front page of XStreet - or the ones who show up in the top listings. Go after the ones who start showing up in the first 4 or 5 pages of Search listings. Aim for a strategy of making sure most of your customers find YOU first instead of the thief.

Unfortunately, with gambling and "banking" shut down in SL, the scumbags and scam artists have to find other means of ripping people off.

Add me to the chorus: Lilith, you and Dolly do great things. Even though I am a plant creator myself, I always highly recommend -- and use -- Heart Garden plants and trees.

Those who have infringed upon me have done it on a small scale. Those who have infringed on Robin have done a bit more (including, of course, ripping off her art on the web and pulling it into SL for their products). It is a constant battle, sadly, and one that gets harder and harder to fight.

As a content creator, while I agree with your sentiments, the use of the word "protected", without qualification, is a dangerous ambiguity. This is true for many things, not just IP. How much protection is enough? How much is too much? That's why there is so much debate and why there are such huge grey areas in the existing laws.

As for respect, you can't force anyone to respect anything or anyone. Like the old adage goes, respect must be earned. People may comply with the threat of force, but don't confuse that with genuine respect.

The trick is to get people to realize the value in others' works, and respect it willfully. Crooks will always be crooks, however, but getting the "common man" to recognize and respect the efforts of others of his own accord will make the biggest difference.

The problem is that, more and more, the law has tipped the balance heavily towards content creators, and away from the rest of the commons, from which the creators draw. While I don't want to get into a political debate about draconian IP laws and their consequences, just know that there is an important balance there that must be maintained, lest we create the very problems (among others) which we are trying so hard to resolve.

Just so you know, one doesn't need copybots, or really any other extra software, to "copy" textures. They are right there on your computer; both the UUID and the image data itself.



The problem is far bigger than LL or anything it could do with its technology. No amount of software written by LL will significantly mitigate the problem of copyright infringement. There is no "technique" they could devise that would be worth the effort to design and implement. The problem begins and ends at the user, the hardware, and the underlying operating system software. Unless you change all three of those, the problem will never see a satisfactory resolution. Thus, it is FAR beyond LL's limited capacity to do anything about, other than to efficiently and effectively follow the law and put infringers out of business at the earliest possible opportunity.



I don't think LL underestimates it at all. I think they realized some time back that it is a hopeless cause to go down the technological route.

Is there any other way then, besides creators going through these time consuming DMCA procedures?

I've definitely backed off in creating stuff. I can't justify spending a week making an item that's going to be "stolen".

The better the item the more likely it is to be copied. It's probably safer to try to make simpler items that can be created rapidly. As making high quality stuff is a huge risk.

Right now I'm afraid SL is destined for the mundane.

Solution 1:

Linden Lab should try to code their system to recognize signs of copying and to have a human verify it (crap job! ). As a content creator I don't have the time to patrol SL looking for copies. and even if I do find a copy, I wont report it. I would stop creating before sending in reports.


Solution 2:

Linden Lab needs to speed up the process of creating content. This will also have the effect of reducing prices too.



To be honest, I don't see copying as theft. For me, life is a jungle and we all just take our chances. But for LL's sake, they need to make their jungle favor the content creators.

I suppose the question is - does LL really care?. Maybe they're collectively losing interest in SL. I imagine there's quite a few burnouts sitting at some of LL's desks.

and I know I'm not as enthusiastic as I used to be.

Maybe it's time for us all to move on?

i reckon with a page or so somebody will feel a burning need to demonstrate how knowledgeable they are by posting name of and links to these tools, most likely with some bullshit disclaimer accompanying.

So what? web browser have a "save as" functions since as far as i can remember.


Not every creators deserve to make money from their work but they do deserve recognition.
The act of creating a piece of "art" is something real artists do without any monetary gain, it's a bonus, real artists are compelled to create because it is in their nature.

Yeah.. you planned to upload 10 textures and to live from that for the rest of your life.

Regarding criminals...Seems they are here as they are in rl and seems governement is not interested to do anything as they are not in rl.
Law is not equal for all people.

and 3+2=7