I found stolen skin :(

Susie you can just hit the stop button and the music will go off on any website you go to that has a player which Sae has .

Not if you are playing your own music. Most music playing websites don't have a stop button that stops their music and if she had one I didn't take the time to search for it.

Just for clarity: this appears to be a very serious bug, but isn't itself theft. It's certainly fair to say that it *contributes* to loss of IP, though, in much the same way as does theft (e.g., skin texture ripping). The difference is, of course, that the recipient of the bugged item didn't do anything wrong to get it, and very well may not even realize the permissions aren't as intended. (If they even knew what the perms were when they bought, most buyers are so confused by the permissions system that any behavior seems about as correct as any other.) This actually makes it, if anything, a more dangerous problem than intentional theft.

I hadn't looked at this bug till now, and just wrote off earlier reports as folks being confused about the slam bit; now that I see who's confirmed this, it's clearly real--and real scary. (But at best tangential to this thread.)

lol well, it's my blog and I think I can put on it what I want to, but to set the record straight, I removed all my music AND changed the website so everyone could view it so maybe you just viewed it a lil too soon before I got the old music off my old layout. That's not even the issue here.......I certainly didn't come here bashing your crap, so it'd be nice if you'd keep those comments to yourself, please..I've had enough of the flaming over my blog. I even laughed at myself over it all, but you really can STOP pointing it out now. Thanks........

As it goes, all threads eventually try to go off topic, and this one is now, which is one of the reasons I wasn't originally going to check back at this thread. I hate bickering, and I hate defending myself over nothing when there is a real issue at hand. My interest in this thread has dropped. If any creators need any info from me, they can IM me online, but I think I did my part getting the word out.

We already managed to find the thief in a brand new location, the SLurl and picture proof is posted on my now musicless blog for all to see. I'd love to wake up in the morning and find this place gone as well. Don't back down on this, I know I won't be. Keep IMing me when you find him if you want to, and I'll keep people informed.

As long as there is open registration and readily available tools that make texture theft so incredible easy this problem will never go away.

AR all you want, JIRA your little heart out, but even the much media-ized Stroker Serpentine case only netted a little over $500 USD for the content creators affected by the rip-off. Their legal costs could have easily gone over that figure.

Say, for instance, the person who ripped these skins from the platform burned copies of the TGA files to a disc and then mailed those discs to 25 of his friends, all over the globe. Then, those 25 people make 25 accounts each in SL, which is really easy to do as well. In a world as large as SL has become, how are you going to find all those people, sue all those people, and stop your content from being stolen or used without your permission?

Read the convoluted Section of the TOS that addresses this issue, which is long so I wont quote the entire thing here but it is Section 3.2 and states, in part, the following:



If you want real change about the way your content is protected in this platform, you'll take issue with and demand change of that aspect of the TOS first, because "going after" these "content thieves" is futile when in effect, Linden Labs states in this section of the TOS that (paraphrasing)... "If you upload it, it's everyone's".

By all means, be angry about being ripped off. But that section of the TOS says that I have a right to "use for all purposes" any content I find within the service, regardless of the permissions set on that content by its creators.

Other then the $525 from the Stroker lawsuit, does anyone have any information about anyone successfully sueing someone for a DMCA violation within this platform?

Pie, that section of the TOS is about patents, not copyrights (which you may notice by its use of the word "patents" ). You're right that most people aren't going to have the means to sue over having their work stolen, but LL does comply with DMCA takedown notices. It's great that the community tries to look out for and expose stolen content so that the creators can take steps to have it removed. There's really not much LL can do to prevent it from happening. The best thing people can do about this situation is to support their favorite content creators by purchasing their products so that SL remains a platform worth creating for, and keeping their eyes open and letting creators know when they spot possible bootlegs. The grid is just too big for any content creator to police themselves, and most would rather spend their time creating stuff.

wow Stroker got only $525??!!

Though like Chip said they do comply with DMCA takedowns

Of course THOSE items mysteriously become freebies soon after.

You would Blog too, if it happened to you!

Nicely done

Great post. I don't know if anyone realize this though, I don't care if it's my favorite creator, or the worst creator on the grid, I will stand up and confront stolen content when I see it. I've had enough of the out and out thievery. We MUST put an end to it before the creators really DO start leaving.

so.... it's the next day. i tried to find this person and noticed that they had paid $50 for a classified ad. so i TP'd to the mall where this ad was mentioned and saw tons of little shops (i almost thought they were all BIB but i can't be sure). some stores had skins that you might want to check out. i didn't see 'a' shop like we are all discussing, but certainly this person will open a new store somewhere.

is this person giving away the .tga files? if so, we need to find out which ones, and maybe the creators will have to decide to make THOSE particular skins freebies in their shops now. stop this guy in his tracks by taking control, ie.

No, he got his cases mixed up. $525 was a different case all together.

Why is this so important to me when I'm not even the one being targeted? My love in RL is to come into Second Life and create. It's not only what I do in place of a real job, it's what I do for fun. I thoroughly enjoy shopping and seeing the awesome things that people create to further enrich Second Life. The new onslaught of thieves is different it feels like than it ever has been before. This is a group of people who really don't care. Before the Lindens opened up registration, this wasn't sucha reality, in that it cost the people money to keep creating alts.
These people ARE going to drive away all the creators. Mark my words. Jesseaitui has been working on a new skin line for months now that is absolutely gorgeous, but you want to know what's sad? He's not even sure if he should release it since it probably WILL just get stolen. Is this how it starts? Creators we know and love stop releasing this and that here and there and then one day, they will just stop, I fear.
I've been working on creating a unique looking skin line for over a year now, but do I want to release it in the midst of all this? HELL NO. I am honestly afraid to even leave my sculpties out so people can see my work because they can just steal those textures (the sculpt maps) as well! I honestly think this does lessen the amount of business I would get if I could just set them out on display, but I can't, and I will not let myself.
Thieves are killing Second Life. This problem is much bigger than I could have ever imagined standing in that vendor shop yesterday. I've tracked this guy to over 5 new locations in just a little over 24 hours. All the abuse reporting isn't working quick enough on this, that or the Lindens really just do not care. Why is the guy still in operation? A blind man could see he's a thief, and the stupid ass even admits it...*sighs*
I feel powerless right now, but I still will not be giving up. Continue to IM me when you find this guy..we must put an end to this.

where are they?

Ohh okay. I was thinking $525 is insanely low considering he sells his sex beds for 20$ish+ US EACH

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Tangent -

Its a sad day when SL has gotten so big that people don't know Pie, the original founder of Lesbian Second Life is a SHE

LOL
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I think it's important to remember who you create for. It's not for the thieves. It's for your own satisfaction and for the honest people (who make up the vast majority) who'll appreciate and enjoy it. It might get ripped. That's a sad reality. But it's not a good reason to keep your work from being enjoyed and serving the purpose you intended it to.

It sucks that so often we end up having to compete against our own work or see it turn up in some freebie pack or BIAB, but that's the reality we have to live with. Don't let it take away your joy in creating or deny others the chance to enoy your work. I'd be quite shocked if there aren't bootlegs of my stuff out there, but I don't spend a lot of time agonizing over the possibility or running around checking every skin store. And when someone points out a possible bootleg to me I check it out, but if I'm uncertain then I always err on the side of giving people the benefit of the doubt.

People still find their way to my store and buy stuff. Not as much as they used to, but they do, and they're the ones I work for. As for thieves, I'd like to believe there's such a thing as kharma, and in a way I feel sorry for them. It can't be altogether pleasant having a lump of coal for a soul.

I for one am not making any more skins or if I do I'll be very afraid. The time isn't worth it anymore.

ok.

so.... did he/she/it buy each one and then copy them? i don't see how this can happen. i will AR it when i go there.

That's a good way to look at it. I guess nothing comes without some price.



It can happen a number of ways.
He might have bought them all and done it off somewhere by himself
Or he might have just gone to each store and ripped them off the people standing around him, who knows. The hack I know of for doing this doesn't care if it's on your body or Phillip Linden's body, it'll grab it right out of the game. I don't like talking about this anymore. It's obvious that it has leaked BIG time. I've even had people IM to ask me for the name of the program, even seeing my stand on texture theft. Isn't there some way LL could keep an eye out for people running with these programs?

No more than LL can easily look into your PC and see what web browser you're running or which word processor you use. The only way I could imagine it being done is if installing SL were to also install some spyware.

WOW! that's bold. well, i haven't gone there yet, but i will tomorrow. don't stop creating because of this.

it`s not exactly a program as in tracable by a procces, to skip some unwanted hinting, it dumps it harddisk at the press of a button


people are stupid and will do what ever they can to cheat and save money!

have this knowledge for the past 6-7 month...atleast i can stand proudly next to the few others that know how to do it and not abuse it unlike some of these f***ers will do if they would get their hands on it heh



and if anyone decides to IM, i`ll save you the trouble of trying: FUCK YOU!!!

Yes but I wouldn't add music to it.

You are just jealous about Johnny