Stolen content and the greater good?

A few weeks back I watched a content creator finish making a sculpty version of the classic male newbie, in an "away" pose. The work ended up being used in a display in Black Swan, and sold in the gift shop out front. It's a fun piece, one that nearly everyone in SL can relate to in one way or another.

Then it was copybotted and distributed as a full perm freebie.

The 'botted version is everywhere. I've seen him tending stores, as a erstaz "Philip Linden," and used in a number of the upcoming Burning Life displays. His clothing has been retextured, his hair recolored, and he's had any number of items grafted onto his hands, head and other attachment points. He's been used as both ammo and target. He was given away on the Forum Cartel group once. Indeed, it can talk you little time to come across one of these fellows.

Obviously the original creator has been seeking redress, but I find myself with a lot of questions.

1. the figure is obviously based on the SL male newbie. Wouldn't it be a derivitied work itself? Could it be considered ones own intellectual property even though it is so clearly "Male newbie?"

2. Knowing the work is copied, should LL delete the UUID of the 'botted sculpts and textures in question from the asset server, even knowing how much content this would break -- or are we stuck with a item of questionable history remaining in use given the sheer amount of creative works based on it? A precedent on the latter might be, for example, megaprims.

What do y'all think?

Mari
(Who owns one of the legit ones, but is otherwise not directly related to the artist in question)

I think the creator himself should be flattered that so many people are using his works, they say theft is the highest form of flattery

I picked the philip linden up on SLX FOR 25. so guessing this is stolen, I shall delete this when I get back in world. Thanks for the heads up Mari

Great! Now we just need to get the Lindens to accept tier payments in flattery...

Oh no...I didn't know it was a "bad"one..I will delete my copy.

Mari, it's like claiming a copyright to a hairstyle. The subject matter hairdo is obviously not copyrightable, but the specific design and arrangement of the prims would likely be and typically is copyrightable. IMO, it should be deleted.

I've actually wondered about the legality of the original.

It looks like the SL avie mesh but unless it's based on the actual mesh (as opposed to modelled from scratch to resemble it), the sculpties themselves probably are an original, if not particularly unique, work.

The hair, skin and clothing textures look like the actual SL ones to me (opinion, not based on actually bothering to compare) on the other hand so unless LL explicitly granted permission (either to the creator specifically, or in general somewhere) the orginal could be stolen content to begin with (not that makes copying something that's stolen in the first place alright, just referring to the "original".

dang Mari thats a tough one.... I feel that only something never thought of before could be IP. Different renditions of a object already thought of perhaps could be copyrighted. Ive never really bothered myself with the whole IP thing in SL. I never will unless someone is loosing 100's of thousands in RL. If I put katsup on a burger a certain way is it IP? Copyrightable? or just immaterial?

I agree with this. I saw the pics of the original in the forum gallery and it's great work. Extremely well done (and not at all easy to do). I'm saddened to hear that yet another person's hard work has been shown such disrespect.

As to the IP issue, converting the SL av into sculpties is nothing like just grabbing the existing mesh. It's better thought of as someone making a sculpture portrait of a person or of a real world thing. I doubt LL would have any issues about considering it the sculptor's legitimate property.

Spend your time busting your rearend on making something unique, creative, or high quality, make it full perms with a do not distribute disclaimer, watch everyone make money on it and then get back to us.

Wow, I thought that was a freebie. I have one that I accidentally scripted to be a fast flying weapon of breakdancing destruction....I don't want to lose that hilarious piece of my inventory, so I'll go get a legit one when I go inworld. Is it still available at Black Swan?

According to the post in the gallery it was made by Art Laxness.

Perhaps all the stolen versions should have a script added to them that delivers a LM to the original creator's store?

I know this probably isn't possible both from LL not having enough employees to do it, and the system not designed to do this, but wouldn't it be lovely if instead of the stolen versions simply disappearing if all the DMCA stuff went through, owners of it received a message giving them the option of paying the original creator or destroying their copy of it?

Sadly I was delighted when a friend gave me a copy, and I had oodles of fun dancing with "newbie Philip" , I was rather surprised though, as it seemed creating something like that would have been hours of work, totally popular and worth lots, instead of being a freebie.

Someone I trust to be honourable about freebies gave me one of these a week or two ago I believe (though I get about a dozen things a day and can't really go through it all). Just because they thought it was a fun freebie, and I'm sure they didn't realise it was stolen.

I'll find it in my inventory and delete it for sure. Nuff said.

Well, odds are that LL will delete the UUID, and anytime a real new male av goes AFK, they will be summarily banned and deleted. The population count could drop very fast then


* I do think that LL should be notified, and action taken though.

...and at what point does the item become ubiquitous, like the "freebie" skins that are now so prevalent.

There's an old saying, that you can't put the Genie back in the bottle.

Perhaps the original artist should use these lemons as an opportunity to make lemonade.

Their skills are clearly impressive. I've lamented that I wish that the purple-shirted female noob was also available. The artist might consider releasing their "signed" works, full perms as freebies as well, like the many freebie Starax sculptures floating around. Some are precious, some are everywhere.

Gets their name out there.

Clearly, there's a "market" for this sculpture.

The sculptmaps are only one half; the origin of the hair, skin and clothing textures are the other.

If they were "copybotted" (referring more to technique than the actual proggie) the sculpt and texture UUIDs would just match the original's.

Blacklisting either the sculpmaps or the textures would end up making the original useless as well in that case.