My design was copied

Well yes what she did was completely wrong but i will admit even i have seen clothing in SL and they have given me ideas for my own designs, there is a outfit out at the moment called Hunter's Catch and it inspired a outfit made out of fishnet i created. I often look through SLX or Onrez to get my ideas.

I honestly don't think you will get away from it and there are some subtle changes in the outfit.

What I want to say is that we can't start a witch hunt without knowing the facts, everyone is always ready to say DMCA, Abuse Report, delete accounts and so on when we don't have (in more than 99% of the cases) all the information - and I keep what I said: I didn't remember to rea that Zazas states that she created the textures... I'm not saying that I'm supporting the other part, I'm just claiming that we don't have enough information

That reminds me also a very well known shop inworld that have a similar sunglasses that my RL-wife have.. they are from Dolce Gabana... why aren't we starting also a thread about it?

Sometimes people are more concerned about this kind of punishments instead of asking to LL to chase IPs and get a proper law suit against the ones who sold theft content, leave SL and then all consumers loose their items (and the money they paid for) - i'm just thinking about sexgen issue. I can't believe that all those lindens that were took out of LL aren't traceable... anyone knows that money can be follow by all over the world if there is a real wish to do it (and it seams that LL don't care about it)

In other words you can't re-invent function of the wheel, but you can change the materials it is made from. There is of course a huge difference in directly copying a design ie. stealing and using a design as inspiration to create a new one

Well the big bad was you made the theif aware that you knew. The best thing to do is to take the appropriate landmarks and pics, and ship them off to the Lindens to be the judge. They can check the content creation dates and if they feel it is a copy, they will remove all traces of the illegals. Take a look at this, saw it last week, but amazing for info.

http://slcn.tv/meta-makeover-ip-theft

And I swear I dont work for SLTV, but this is such a hot topic now, and the resources are so few. Misinformation is runnign rampant, and nobody really knows what to do about theft. So I have posted this a few times, but I think it's such a great resource.

File a DMCA. Changing it at all doesn't really give her any right to continue selling it.

You have every right to be upset and frustrated. But try not to be too discouraged by the opinions of some of the posters on this thread. There are a good percentage of vocal residents on these forums who are of the opinion that they are entitled to benefit and prosper from your creative talents.

And they will fight tooth and nail with content creators who dare mention that their creations were stolen and some thief is prospering from their creations. They find no fault with the thief mind you. Just you, the content creator. You are teh ebil to them.

On a positive note, consider yourself lucky that this is the first time this has happened to you. Some SL content creators have had their creations stolen dozens of times and for them this pain is a daily experience.

I'm sorry but if you took an existing image off a website and just played with it in photoshop etc, it isnt truly original. That's not the same as having a blank document and making it from scratch entirely from imagination and skill.

What if that person whose image you manipulated came to you? Maybe they took all sorts of classes in college for art or photography, put themselves through college with hard work to get money or a work study program, all so the end result would be someone goes to the web and adapts it after some fiddling in a program?

you need to find out where she got the BIB and go after them, not her.

spot on
and that was my thought too, that one tube dress can be and will be similar to another

now if my folds and wrinkles looked like theirs, then I think it would be too similar to copying

was so strange when I saw the crush on a blog one day, as I have been working on this one for months (those stupid side seams have been alluding me)

Thanks for the response

Edit: oh yeah the textures are as unique as they can get, being they are done completely by hand using dodge and burn LOL
I was thinking when I first made it to use the pants layer and a prim to make it super snug, but now I have seen that is how blaze did it, so I am not going to do mine that way

I am just doing the simple flare prim skirt, and the system skirt

besides I think it came out cute the way I ended up doing the skirts hehe

but the stupid glitch shorts are driving me nuts with the texture stretch on the legs, I think I get it all and bang there is more

Don't you need to file copyright for your designs in the first place before you can claim infringement?

Anything you create is copyrighted the moment you create it, by current law. In the past you did have to file, but that hasn't been the case for some time.



As for the OP, I really can't see either dress in any detail in order to make a determination if it's a copy or not. These things always end up boiling down to a 'he said, she said' type of thing, it's best to just head straight to LL and file a DMCA if you believe you have been ripped off.

Fashion designs themselves are not protected by copyright.

The textures used to create Second Life clothing can be protected by copyright.

You have a rare case in which the potential infringer has been willing to give you additional information to bolster a DMCA claim if you should go that route.

You're really playing whack-a-mole by going after claims like this though.

If the potential infringer with whom you are dealing is being somewhat cooperative, you might be better off offering some sort of licensing deal with the person, rather than filing a DMCA claim. Gaining a little bit of control back over your creations might be a better solution for you, rather than trying to stamp out the infringers and finding that you can't stamp them out effectively.

What I find interesting is how the subject of where the texture or design originated from not the fact that the person had MY outfit exactly (not her copy of mine). A few have answered my question and to those I thank you so much for your support and opinion.

Now as far as this other subject..... considering how long ago it was there is no way I could tell you exactly where the texture came from. But please consider that there is many many free texture web sites on the web and I do use them. You can make things out of them and sell the item they just dont want you to open your own texture site and sell the textures.

What I find amuseing is there are many designers that do photo source designing ... One Big designer that puts out 2 to 5 maybe more a week that you can plainly see are total photo source and yet is well accepted in sl. In fact she has people that will go to stores and if they see something she put out and they have something simular they are on that designer like white on rice about "she already created it"

The texture on this design I most likely got off the web somewhere, so long ago couldnt tell you where, but the point of this post was the design I made (exact) was hanging in her store. She gave me a lm of where she got the box and I looked through endless rows of designs and never saw mine there so not sure if what she said is fact about BIB either.

The slap in my face was she said she changed the texture and design and put it back out and I dont see any texture change and the very subtle changes arent much. She is also involved in a "special LL/SL group" and should know better then to do this. She sould not have put it back at all.

She said to go ahead and file on her it wont work. She told me of two other people she knows who filed and they will get my rl address and they lost her whole business when the ones who copied should have been the ones who were penilized so be prepared for alot of work and what ever may happen.

Thank You everyone for replying to my post not sure what I will do because of my health issues I have to consider if it is something I should try to do because I dont have a clue how to file. At least I know I wasnt wrong in my feelings of frustration.

This is what I was thinking, although I'm now confused by Darien's comment that everything is copyrighted on creation. I guess digital content is different to standard fashion designs.

This is a really messy area, content creators need a means to protect their creations, I don't see many logos on clothing designs, maybe this is by choice as residents don't like them but surely having a brand and logo on your designs would aid these sort of disputes.

I think he was responding more to the question of whether something would need to be filed to protect copyright, rather than what may be protected by copyright.

If a particular work is of the kind that may be protected under copyright law, it is protected upon its creation, without the need to file anything. Registering the copyright is only necessary as a prerequisite to filing an action in a federal court to protect the copyright.

you can file a DMCA
https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4417&task=knowledge&questionID=3989

Everything created by humankind (at least in countries that support the Berne Convention and other more recent copyright treaties) is copyrighted at the moment it is fixed in a real form (ie, "created". It is also called "Natural Copyright", because it requires no special actions to receive the protection.

Registering your copyright, at least in the US, is necessary if you want to be able to collect statutory damages (rather than simply loss-based damages) from infringers. However, it has to be done well prior to any claim made, not simply "at time of suit".

Designs cannot be copyrighted, unless they are also somehow fixed in a real form, but if they are simply ideas on how something is made, then copyright cannot protect them directly. Some designs can be trademarked, if they are used as a signature identifier.

Best bet is to read through the law and determine for yourself if the situation is indeed infringement and what your rights are: http://www.copyright.gov

Patent much?

It's an interesting question that you have raised, Zazas. If you see something you like, and make one similar to it, is it a copy? Is it wrong? I would say no - it happens all the time in RL and in SL. To be honest, clothes like that are all much of a muchness to me, and I wonder if you would think they are copies of your work if you hadn't come across them the way you did.

It's an interesting question though. I had a recent case where I'd copied a tiki bar a year ago. I'd been buying them for my skyboxes, but I decided to make them instead. What I made was very similar to the orginal, but it was improved, and used different textures - except the main texture, which is in everybody's inventory library. Side by side, it's blatantly obvious that they are not the same, but they do have the same overall design - oval bar with base and stools, 2 poles and an oval roof. The prim sizes are a little different, the oval shape is a little different, as is the oval shape of the roof, and the roof texture isn't even remotely similar to the original. The original uses poseballs, but mine achieves the same thing without them. However, mine was definitely based on the original design, and comparing them makes that obvious.

When I started the shop, I put them up for sale, and I still sell them. A few weeks ago I recieved an IM from someone connected with the original, asking me to remove mine from the shop or he would file a DMCA. I refused - and I'm still waiting.

So the question is, is it wrong to see something you like and make a similar item, so that they are both basically the same, and yet they are different. I don't think so. It happens all the time with every day things. If the other person made the clothing herself to be very much like yours, but not the same, I don't think it's wrong. I don't know how she made them though. If she took one of yours and simply coloured it differently, or made a few changes to it, that would be wrong, but if she actaully made the clothes, I don't see it as being wrong.

The short answer from the U.S. Copyright Office is:

"Only the owner of copyright in a work has the right to prepare, or to authorize someone else to create, a new version of that work. Accordingly, you cannot claim copyright to another's work, no matter how much you change it, unless you have the owner's consent."

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html#change

There is a link to a circular more information, which might offer further guidance as to what is really a version of someone else's work, and what might be completely different work. Unfortunately, the link leads to the message, "This circular is being revised and is temporarily unavailable."

'nuff said.


But don't tell them that or risk breaking egos.

Memo:

This is not real life. When they begin issuing patents in sl for items made then and only then can anyone complain of theft. Until then "designers" will have to learn to live just like the rest of us mere mortals. It's tough I know but they can do it if they try. {Sigh}

Ding, ding, ding!!!!

And we have a winner!!!!

It's not a matter of ego, it's a matter of not giving away your business. If you put hours of work into a product you should get something back for it other than the kissoff from some dingleberry trying to earn ducats off your work. There are legit ways to sell other people's work that many creators are amenable to, and everyone wins. No one has to be an anus about it.

No, we have a loser! Copyrights are inherent to everything written and do not necessarily need to be registered to be protected.

tell that to the owner of the sex gen stuff...