Unable to Get Through to Creator

Ok, do you or someone you know have a luskwood metal jogauni? If so, listen up. It's flawed.

I've known about this little error for most of a year now, and since it's been about 5 months after I tried to talk with them about it, I'm going public.

If you don't believe that there's any problem, paste this into a script, then rez a sphere and stick it in:



All this script does is sets the texture to a pair of eyes (in this case, the male of the avatar type described above, though both have this problem), and then starts up a standard furry head blink that plays repeatedly. When the texture rezzes fully, watch the lighter and darker coloring dance back and forth.

None of the other colors are like this, so why just these two? If you see someone with one of those, pass the script to them (would prefer if it were made copy-only), and let them know that's what their head is doing.

Perhaps if they have quite a number of people seeing this and wanting a fix, it'll actually get done.

I'm sure the avatar creator would be thrilled that the texture is being given out like this, but oh well.

The eyeballs are stationary across the frames but the grey and white shading does a horizontal jitter, is that the complaint? Honestly, it looks like an intentional part of the animation to me. If you don't like it, it looks like something that could be pretty easily duplicated in Illo and tweaked more to your preference.

That's precisely the issue. The 7 other color choices don't have that, so when it's only one of 8, then it could very well be called an oversight or a mistake.

And honestly, when you're buying an avatar for over a thousand Lindens (this one's 1200, or about US$4.85), shouldn't you get something that is as it's supposed to be in relation to the other choices?

Edit: It also occurs to me that maybe by getting this out there, it may become 'unnecessary' even sooner.

Since you've stated that you've been unable to contact the creator, the current script you've posted, may be in violation of the creator's intellectual property rights.

I highly suggest you go back and remove the script, or at the very least, remove the UUID from the llSetTexture call.

Of the dozen or so textures used in the complete item, I believe referencing one by key is covered under fair use.

I've said I haven't been able to get a response, not that they are unreachable. Either they are intentionally not responding, or the messages (there were two at least: one via their website, and another by notecard).

If any of the creators wish to contact me, they're more than welcome to do so. I went and made sure none of them were on my mute list, so I can listen to 'em.

there`s no such thing as fair use

"Fair Use" does not apply to cases like this, not in any way, shape, or form. What fair use does is recognize that free speech rights can sometimes trump copyright, in a very limited fashion, for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. For example, if you were critiquing a book, it might not be possible to make your point without quoting passages from the book. In that case, your right to criticize might, and I stress MIGHT, be deemed more worthy by a court than the author's right to copy protection. Such matters are always decided on a case by case basis, and the factors involved in said decisions always include, among other things, "the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work".

By sharing the UUID of a texture you do not own, you have effectively damaged any commercial value the texture might have. Your script makes use of an asset that is not yours to distribute, and there's absolutely nothing fair about that at all.

Look, if you think a product is not up to your quality standards, don't use the product. It's that simple. It's not up to you to go around fixing other people's mistakes. If the creator of the avatar thinks it's good enough, that's up to him or her to decide, not you.

If you want to warn people of the perceived problem, go right ahead. You have every right to say what you do and don't like about the avatar. But don't breach SL's DRM to make your point. That's totally uncalled for. There are plenty of other ways to demonstrate the flaw, if it does indeed exist.

Since, as you note, you haven't heard from the creator of that texture, they haven't given you permission to post the texture's UUID in a public forum. It also doesn't help when you encourage other people to use the texture to create an animated eye texture for their own use.

Besides, naming names is a violation of the SL Forum guidelines:



I do agree that a content creator ought answer a bug report (assuming that they in fact received it, SL being SL). Still, said creator does still retain intellectual property rights on their creations, whether you like them or not. And truthfully, as Viktoria points out, it really sounds like simply a difference in aesthetics, not an actual bug.

Edit: What Chosen said about fair use.

You only sent a notecard and a website message? IM them. Personally I agree that this is an oversight and not intentional, but I have to point out that not everyone reads notecards dropped on them. I tend to lose them even when I get them (they'll be turned down if the person is in busy mode, but IMs will still get through) and even then I really hate getting them BECAUSE I tend to lose/forget about them, and I can't read them from me email like I can IMs. It even says in my profile "DO NOT SEND NOTECARDS". Many creators will auto decline any inventory offers they're not expecting.

Perhaps a different religion would work better.

I may have tried an IM as well (I know for certain of the other two methods, though, which is why I listed them). I know people usually will do what you've said, but if there's an offline stating the card's coming, it'll generally be accepted.

Actually in no way are they truly violating copyright.

They are linking to a UUID, not taking it from a server, not stealing it, just a link to the texture on a server. On the other hand if the image is then used for copyright violation then there is a problem. But posting the UUID is in no way copyright infringement, it leads to it though! This of course is a slippery slope...

Morally though it is wrong to post the UUID in public like this. Chosen Few makes a good point.

BUT

This is of course a little weird. Last I checked you should not be able to grab a UUID without full permissions of the texture in the first place. Just how did you acquire it?

My first impression as well- that and virgin sacrifices...

Don't answer that here, please.

Since i'm one of the 'creators' and this is the first i've ever heard of it...

We've had problems with this guy before.. he's not trying to 'get an issue resolved he's trying to get himself some attention and hurt us in a way he can later 'play innocent' or something.

I respond to hundreds of support requests a month, maybe occasionally someone might send something the wrong way (like a notecard which *very* easily gets lost) but usually then they just ask again and i'll get to it, not this kind of crap here.

There is, however, apparently such a thing as ignorance.

I'll defer to those such as Chosen with more experience with copyright law, but I'm not sure I see too much difference between posting the UUID, which allows use of the texture, and handing someone an actual copy of the texture.

I just want to thank the people showing their support here.

I do not want to give the impression that we are 'unreachable' and for hundreds of people every month, I really try very hard to make sure that we are easy to contact and fix/resolve issues as quick as we can (usually in just hours) and I am sorry if a given message did fall through the cracks to annoy Tiberious.

I do wish though that the front post here be reported as giving out info on how to take a copyrighted texture.

If people have a grievance with our service or avatars I am more than willing to listen and try and work with them, but this is no way to express it.

This only serves to degrade the cause initially stated, degrade our morale to work on improving things, and overall degrade the SL community.

Please don't let people use these forums as vectors to effect their own ego or notoriety. Especially not at the expense of SL content creators, or their fellow customers.

Finally, getting a response! I attempted to go through both your website (via the modification request form there), and by notecard for sure (there's a handy mod request form included with your avs.

That was back in late May for the website and mid June (having allowed a couple weeks to pass with no response) for the followup notecard. And not only that, I actually sent TWO notecards, one on the 16th, and another on the 24th. I'd heard literally nothing in response to anything I said. I even stated in the communication attempt on 6/24 that I was willing to meet anywhere you liked to prove that this really was something that was noticeable. Were I to be attempting to simply sling mud, why would I have tried any more than just once, or maybe twice to talk with you about it, and then waited another three mpnths to finally get annoyed with it enough to go this route?

Since you brought it up, I'm going to answe very simply. No, this is in no way related to anything that may have happened before. As far as I'm concerned anymore, there's only one thing that can happen that will, as you've put it, allow me to get past it. Since nither you nor he appear to be willing to do anything about that, well, from what I can see that remains unresolved.

This, however, is something completely separate, and isn't about a fix simply for myself. I'll be honest, I did what you've previously stated was perfectly allowable, and went in to do a (rather hacky) patchjob to the texture. If I'd wanted to be a real jerk about it, I'd start passing it out to people that I knew had the affected ones. I realized, though, that doing that would have been both completely wrong, and only get to those with one of the two.

If there's anything you wish to discuss further, please find me inworld, 'cause I'm getting rather sick of this crap myself.

A different crowd would've simply fixed the image and posted it up. That's all I'm gonna say...

The funny thing is, the OP was about to get exactly that, then started pulling attitude on people here and kind of put a damper on that notion.

it will be fixed on the av, and everyone who bought one will get an update sent out to them, as we have always done when this kind of thing has been found, no worries

As a Luskwood regular for close to two years, and a Lusk avatar owner for a little over one, I have had nothing but good experiences with the creators and their products. Any time I've had a question or issue (which have been few and far between...must attest to the quality of their work?) it has been promptly answered or resolved. I've also witnessed many, many instances where other residents, brand new to Lusk, have come in, purchased an avatar and received help or updates promptly when circumstances necessitated.

My hat is off to these fine people for what they do and what they must deal with on a daily basis. As consumers, some of us can have a very narrow field of vision, especially if used to instant gratification. For some of you, it might be humbling to put yourself in the creator's shoes.

My .02 Lindens...

"Unable to Get Through to Creator "

Have you tried prayer?