Regarding Stolen Content

I think IP theft is just wrong no matter how you try to pretty it up. If you use an intercept, if you snap pics with the intention of offering a crude knock-off, if you reverse engineer things just to build exact copies, or anything like this then you are just wrong.

One thing to remember though, sometimes an experienced SL developer will accidentally release a product with bad permission settings. It could be something in their lab that someone stumbled upon or a rushed item that sat in a store for days before the creator noticed. It happens and when it does your stuff is in the wild and it was your fault.

I also know of one case where a developer sold off some skins full perm to a few new startup businesses as she was planning to leave SL. Upon return and eventual reopen of her store (a whole 2 weeks later) she falsely accused the very people she sold the skins to of theft.

Anything can happen in SL. If your entire business is based on one product or a room of simple ones, then don't be surprised if someone, somewhere, is selling your IP. At a minimum try to offer some scripted functionality, or be an amazing service provider, or constantly roll out creativity that people will drool over.

I don’t shop much in SL and on the rare occasion that I make a purchase it’s almost always based on “that something extra” that the creator cared enough to think about.

My alt worked as one of several models in a store with beautifully textured clothes. It was surprising to me how often models caught obvious alts taking detailed photos of models wearing the clothes as well as the posters on the walls. If they were online, the store owners came immediately, and ban/eject followed.

I thot it was hard to know if the photographer was simply a newbie looking to learn, or a thief. But quite frankly, the reactions of the photographer seemed to indicate that they were always IP thieves. A person looking to learn would simply buy the quite reasonably priced outfit -- all had mod permissions.

If the owners weren't online, the photographer occasionally would find himself confronted by belligerent ex-zombie models, one of whom (myself) would have morphed into a cartoon monster.

Imagine if the Government issued handwritten currency saying, "1 dollar" on standard three ring notebook paper, with no way to tell who is counterfeiting. Stealing content in SL is about as easy as that kind of counterfeiting would be. In essense a content creator is donating his time to the future pool of stolen content that has no proper way to determine what is a fake copy. All that is needed is enough people in Sl with the will to steal in an attempt to make quick cash.