How do you PROTECT your Ideas in SL

I'm not a scriptor or animator. Yea I know I've been in SL like forever but I just dont understand how to do either of those things.

Anyway, I have idea's for stuff and I'll need to hire a scriptor & animator to make my idea become something sellable.

So my QUESTION is: "HOW DO I HIRE A SCRITPOR & ANIMATOR WHILE PROTECTING MY IDEA"

I just want to protect myself and keep them from basically stealing my idea? And running it themselves. Leaving me, in the dirt as they run off laughing with my ONLY chance, of making any Linden's in SL while keeping my clothes on. (yes I'm really this dramatic)

I mean seriously, do I need to hire a lawyer or something?

Is there a SL code of conduct when it comes to this situations?

Is sending myself a sealed REGISTERED letter with the idea in an envelope and mailing it to myself be something I can use to prove the idea was mine first... and that I spoke to so & so about it? But then they could just create it and sell it under an ALT then the person I spoke too wouldn't matter. Hey it could happen... its a REALLY GOOD idea (told you I was dramatic)

Basic Questions still is "HOW DO I HIRE A SCRIPTER & ANIMATOR WHILE PROTECTING MY IDEA"

I searched, SO FAR... (from this moment) it does not exsit in Second Life yet... (boy will I look stupid if I'm wrong) but I'm willing to take that chance if ANYONE can help me

SO please, please if someone can give me some advise... I'd appreciat it. BEYOND appreciate it.

Did I meantion it was a REALLY REALLY GOOD idea?

Basically you have to find a really good scripter you can trust. There is a higher charge for scripting if the scripter promises not to use said script themselves or sell it on. After being in SL since 2004 I am sure you know someone you can trust. I know two scripters I believe I can trust, but that's not a guarantee, if you want their names, IM me in world and I'll ask them if they are interested, if they are I'll past their contact details on to you.


Yes but it's like shit on a hot shovel.

This is quite tricky. As you say, you have to find someone you can trust. If you want legal enforcement, you need to actually make a contract with them (copyright law doesn't protect ideas in your head, only the products of those ideas).

Yes. If it's really that good an idea, yes, and you'll need to find a scripter willing to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement in RL. And that would be very damned few. Be that as it may, if you're talking about real life kinds of revenue, you need a real life kind of protection.

(Note that in RL, there are limited means for protecting ideas. They can't be patented, for example, without being brought to practice in some form. So... well, none of that may apply in this case anyway.)

there are some trustworthy people at College of Scripting.... we have several scriptors here in the forums (not me) who are trustworthy. only three names come to my mind immediately, so hopefully someone will speak up. Gab and Conifer and Annabelle.

PM me I can give you the names of some scripters that I know wont rip you... I also know one aniamtor that has done me proud also

*bump*

I'm not sure if you'd actually need an NDA necessarily though. A regular contract that states that the work they're doing for the OP means that the copyright of what they create belongs to the OP and not themselves and that they have no license to use the content they were contracted to create without explicit permission from the OP.

---

Of course all the signed papers in the world are meaningless if you don't actually sue when the contract is broken so for most practical cases in SL it would be overkill since noone's going to sue in the first place.

If you hire someone who's well known and who has an established reputation then that by itself might already be a good guarantee without the need for RL paperwork. Their own reputation is going to be worth more to them than whatever bit of money they can earn by reselling something they were contracted for and risk damaging their reputation from the resulting drama.

That does likely mean that it won't come as cheap as hiring someone unknown who might be able to do it just as well for 1/10th the price but you can either take the risk or see the premium price as the price to pay for "insurance".

As I think about this a bit more, if there's any question at all whether the thing is really possible, it might be good to try to "sanitize" a description of the idea into something that doesn't reveal the real idea, but has enough of the critical technical features to determine its feasibility, and then bounce that off a scripter. LSL is very restricted for all kinds of good reasons, so it's often the barrier between good ideas and their execution.

Because it has to do with animations, one might want to try one of the scripters who have a deep background in that. Lex and Lear come to mind.

I think it has to boil down to trust, OR one has to know the person in RL and sign RL paperwork. This is hardly saying that intellectual property doesn't exist in SL, it's just much harder to enforce when one is trying to track down people who are using pseudonyms.

That said, I've worked on several collaborative projects with people in SL and all parties concerned have maintained anonymity--but typically the person had a good inworld reputation as well.

Thanks for all your advise... and those who told me to IM them in SL I will when I get home later tonight.... or just IM me those names. or BETTER have the person IM me I do read IM's in email... so I'll be able to talk to them while I'm in RL work.

The idea is kind something that club owners will want. An of alternative to stripping... and I've seen some of the animations in SL that would work but I'd also need other types of animations.... so I think its possible.

I think the scripting or combining the animations I need will be the tricky part of my idea.

Anyway... thank you AGAIN for your help... any more suggestions will be appreciated.

as for my age, I do have a LOT of my friends, but most of them have come and gone

but I will ask the ones I do have.

i'm innterested in ur fina product im me when u get a model working

Here i come stomping allover with my big boots...


YOU DO NOT PROTECT YOUR IDEAS!!!

Ideas are plentyfull, everyday peoples come up with new ones, and most likely someone already had yours.
Ideas are free, if you can't make realise them you're as good as not having said idea in the first place.

Ideas belong to all human being this is what makes us able to evolve and grow by being able to build on the thoughts and creations of our ancesters.

If you're so worried someone would profit from your idea maybe it isn't THAT original.

If you don't want them to be used bu someone else than you file a patent *giggles* but be aware that a good slice of the world do not recognise them, and for good reasons.


Most persons that want to make you sign NDA and stuffs aren't afraid of their ideas to be stolen , they are afraid that someone much more skilled than them use the same idea and simply stomp over them.

Which is, the natural way of things.

There are no protections, except trust (even then, remember that scripters alts can script, too), if you keep it entirely within SecondLife. For actual protection you get the real world involved. Notarized contracts mailed around to relevant parties and the promise of legal action for breaking them. NDAs. I know a project that did this among their development staff when they were developing an awesome product (One of those 'how did I not think of that? They're going to make a fortune!' ideas :/ ). If your ideas really are worth protecting, in terms of anticipated financial return on implementation, it's worth the trouble.

Other than that, do it fast, do it best, and release first and promote hard, because once it's out there if it's that big a deal people WILL copy it. Odds are if you're going to lose, it'll be this way, not because your scripter reimplemented or re-released your idea.

Always get a resume and lots of verifiable references not shills...oh, and many times rez-age does matter.

Well, saying "I have a great idea, why don't you code it/animate it and we'll split the profits" is a little like saying to Tom Clancy, "I've got this great idea for a novel, why don't you write it and we'll split the profits".

Hiring someone you trust is one way, sure. But you'd be better off learning scripting or animating and creating the product yourself.

Even if you created something all by yourself the only 100 percent way of
others not wanting to reproduce it would be to keep it to yourself is
make sure no one else sees it.
Because there is always going to be someone who going to want to figure out
how it was done or thinks they can do better with the idea, or can make
more profits then someone else with a idea or creation.
Usually though only way to be 100 percent safe is just never share the idea or creation with
anyone either for profit or whatever other reasons.
Even if you never talk about the idea, strange thing is sometimes others
come up with similar ideas and inventions to that you've never met or talk
too. Spooky huh?

Outfits like Electric Sheep and Millions of ...whatever, sign NDA's all the time and are used to working in a corporate environment where these kind of legal guarantees are part and parcel of their everyday work.

Of course, they'll probably charge you real money, too, since this would be someone's method of making a living and not "fun money". Costs change when people need money for auto insurance and groceries instead of the latest SL fashions...

That only protects against that particular instantiation. If we're talking about a script, there are often multiple design strategies that achieve the same thing. A simple "work for hire" wouldn't protect against a scripter reimplementing the same features using a totally different code base.

But it's kind of silly to even consider omitting the NDA. If you're going to have a contract at all, why not add the NDA? The paper is cheap enough. If you're using boilerplate contracts, NDAs are just as available as Work for Hire contracts. (TaxCut's Business Attorney software asks if you want to add a NDA clause to the independent contractor contracts it generates.) If you're hiring a RL attorney, then asking for a Work for Hire contract without an NDA clause is being penny wise and pound foolish.



It depends on the amount of money involved. But this suggests that it may really be worthwhile to find someone physically local. Not only is it easier to build trust if you can meet face to face, but for something like this, small claims court for enforcement is perfectly reasonable when both parties are known and living in the same general area.

You have NO idea how I WISH to GOD I could do that.

Thanks for you help everyone and that really sucks. I know people steal stuff, this isn’t heaven after all, but it still sucks...

Well I guess the best thing to do is get references... pray I don’t get screwed... and if in the end I do... I'll at least have the product to use in Second Life... and cry about the unjust of the world to anyone who will listen.

Everyone else covered it pretty well, I'll add one thing:

you can't protect your idea, what you can do is be first and best. First out the gate is always hard to catch up to, especially if you maintain the lead by being the top of the market. Any good idea will be copied - that's how you know it was a good idea

Someone you can trust and you're looking at content creators for this? Might as well sign everything on over right from the start.

Another way to approach it is to make sure no one outside person is working on enough of the project to be able to piece together the whole Idea.

In other words animator 1 works on one kind of animation, animator 2 works on something else. Etc.

Then no outsider has the idea only odd bits an pieces.

That's an idea... thank you. Thanks EVERYONE.