Strange Goings On

Hi there.

I have recently set up a skins store and I have a mystery situation where a person came in and took several demos each of every single skin set available and continues to come back every time I release a new skin for the same reason. The demos permissions are no modify and no transfer so I am slightly perplexed as to what he could possibly want with so many demos. On his first visit alone he took 124!

I am concerned that he can do something with them that involves copying and selling them although I am at a loss as to what.

yours confused

Wildcat Snowpaw

Um....really, it *could* be innocent.

I'm a model, so skins are my business. My computer doesn't handle mainland well, and skin stores are usually laggy anyway, so I'll go in and pull all the demos I want, go home, try them on and then, if I want to purchase, go back to the store.

I also like to look at *all* aspects of the skin...and I'm just not gonna stand in a store to do that.

There are tools available somewhere for about 10.000 Linden that allows you to process a demo item, unlock it, resell, modify, etc.

Try to stalk this person yourself and see if they resell your altered demo models.
Then visit their RL home and shoot the word DEMO in their head. I would do that.

I grab a lot of demos and bring them home too, but 124 of them does seem rather excessive.

You don't have a big 'DEMO' box or the word 'DEMO' stuck to the skin somewhere obvious? Just curious, as I have never tried on a 'DEMO' anything without that being there, as it should be.

i've never seen a demo skin that didn't have demo written all over it, including the face & hands. even if they unlock it and copy it, if the word demo is burned onto the skin, i don't see how they can resell it.

do you mean they took 124 of the same exact demo skin?

I'll admit that when I went looking for a skin (I don't anymore, well, because I already have one), I did take some demos home and try them out there. But I only took maybe four. The place I went to had about 30 different skins, but since I had kinda a general idea of what I didn't want to look like, I could eliminate many of the possibilities, and it only took me a couple of minutes to look at the remaining choices before selecting the four demos that seemed best to me, which I took home.

If the OP is describing innocent activity, that fellow must be the most open-minded individual in SL, because he's apparently willing to look like anything at all - and not only that, but once he's decided on a look he's willing to change it immediately to anything else if new stuff is released. I mean, I can understand if someone wants to try many different demos - but every single demo in the entire store? Just to clarify, are we talking all of both the male AND female demos, that he took? Nothing wrong I guess with a male avatar buying a female skin or vice versa, but again - every single one? Yeah, I can understand you being concerned. 124 demos would take a bit of time to collect too, so it being a case of someone "in a hurry" and just trying to pick up all the demos to try later doesn't really hold much water.

Doesn't seem that odd to me. They probably just wanted to go try out a ton of different skins and see what they like. Now... personally I wouldn't have to patience to buy 124 demos.

Another possibility could be that they are trying to learn to make skins, and that while they may not plan to exactly copy yours, they admire how you've made yours and want to examine tem closely for ideas. Maybe... But that seems to be streaching credibility.

Have they bought ANY of your non-demo skins at all? The other possibility may be that their avatar has a wide-ranging appearance, or they are undecided about what skin tone would look good for the avatar, and so they grabed a whole bunch to try on at home. The last time I made a major change in one of my avatar's Human appearance, I did grab quite a few demos from various skin makers, to compare and contrast and decide how I wanted the "new me" to look. But I still only took a fraction of any one line - for example, I knew I wanted a skin that looked Caucasian, and ranging from an almost vampiric lack of tan to a pretty deep tan - and maybe facial styles suitable for either Japanese or French heritage. But I wouldn't have taken very dark skins, or a skin for a Drow Elf, or other things too far from what I had in mind.

It seems more likely to me that they are hoping to find some way to extract enough information from your demos to re-use most of your work, and "touch it up" to remove the demo markings on the skin. Haven't seen your demo skins, bit if you only marked each of the three pieces in one or two fairly subtle places, the strange visitor may feel it would be easy to use your work as a base for their own.

Only ONE? Jeez, I've got you beat about twenty-fold at least. I'm SO SO glad I'm not a guy. Life would be so dull.

I only have 3. One for everyday, one for dress up (more makeup) and one just because I liked it, it was actually a good representation of a black woman, something rare. That skin maker is out of business now so I am glad I got it. That's all I have, though.

Remember that the person took multiple copies of each demo - not just one of each. And that s/he does the same thing when new ones are available.

I'd do what Kasuga suggested and try to find out if they are on sale anywhere. If they are on sale using the same product names, then an All search for a few of the product names might turn something up.

There are also viewers that have this option built in.

Personally I would try to collar the person doing this an ask them what they are doing. Report them if you don't get a satisfactory answer (Linden lab can see what kind of client/scripts they've been using).

Yeah I only got one. How weird would it be if I suddenly showed up one day and didn't have any freckles? Or suddenly had a Fabio tan, and different-color eyebrows? I wouldn't look like me anymore - nobody would recognize me! Well, unless you cheat and look at my name tag.

I can't see any reason for taking multiple copies of a no-transfer asset. At all. Whatever's going on involves a huge heaping dose of cluelessness.

The other possibility is that he's new and inexperienced and didn't really know what he was doing. Perhaps he thought he was buying actual skins and kept re-trying every time he got the demo LOL Or maybe he was getting errors on his side that didn't show the transaction taking place......or......he knows how to buy stuff but doesn't yet know how to find it in his inventory LOL

All of this may sound ridiculous.....but I've helped enough new folks to know the possibilities are endless LOL Anyway....perhpas just IM the guy and ask? I mean...before ya start stalking him and accusing him of trying to rip you off.....a quick freindly conversation might give you a simple and harmless explanation.

A question--do your skins just have a box attached that rezzes over your head and says "demo" or do you have the word "demo" burned into the skin? If it's just a box, it would be easy for someone to copybot the skins and disconnect the box. Second, have you had an alt/friend pick up the demos? When hubby and I noticed a ton of sunglasses being taken as demos from one particular style, we investigated only to find that we had mislabeled it--folks were getting a FREE pair of regular sunglasses, not demos.

Skins aren't prim attachments, so they can't.

I could not survive with only 3 skins hehe

I have at least 100 skins, maybe more...

Holy crap. I think I have 30+ CS skins in various tones, 20 or so Redgrave skins and then another dozen that are character-specific. I have SL ADD baaaaaaad. LOL

This situation sounds EXTREMELY fishy to me, and definitely warrants investigating.

Now, I admit, I have gone to skin stores and grabbed a demo copy of every skin they had and took them home with me - partly because of time constraints, and partly because I wanted to be able to view the entire skin - privately.

Sometimes this has resulted in me buying a skin from where I got the demos, and sometimes not. If not, then I will have usually moved on to another store.

This person is grabbing all available demos, and coming back each and every time a new skin is introduced - and never buying anything. Clearly, this individual has demonstrated an interest in the product line that goes well beyond the casual browser or the "I'm looking for the perfect skin and need it now" phase. Sure, it may be entirely innocent; but my tingling senses tell me there is a 95% chance that it is not.

I would send a friendly, non-accusatory IM to the individual stating that you've noticed he/she has taken a particular interest in your products, but have not yet purchased anything; ask if there are any particular questions or concerns the individual may have, and so on. Be the friendly-but-nosey salesperson, and see how this individual responds. While doing so, it may be a good time to do some profile-crawling to see where this person hangs out and associates with, if this person has a store and, if so, what is sold there, and so on. Depending on this person's response and what you find during your investigation, you may need to elevate the matter to an AR or DMCA filing; or you may just find that the person simply has a weird fetish for demo skins.

Certainly, investigate this issue; but don't be too quick with the report button.

What others have said. Start by just asking him whats going on. And then go from there.

if i am in a hurry and shopping for skins i will fly in grab a lot of demos and go to my house where i don't lag and start trying them out..
only my shades though..i don't grab every single demo..
bt i will of everyone that is a shade i may like..