BEWARE: Stolen Textures In Second Life!!!!!

Yes, it has been heard about in the past. Now unfortunately it has happened to me. I had spent MONTHS creating a line of female skins....which someone had the nerve to steal. After being alerted about this I thought okay, maybe the same photo refs had been used (which I would not have had a problem with). but no. after closely examining them, they are in no doubt my skin textures...this person didn't even take the time to stamp out or reposition moles and major parts of the skin which even more indicate that they are in fact my textures.

My skin vs. Rip off: (Large so you can see how similar even the smallest detail is)





***Watch out designers...your skin textures could be stolen unknowingly and resold as "someone else's" creations!!!***


....After asking the person who was selling the skins how they got their textures, she claims she bought them from a source, but refuses to say whom. She is protecting a person who has stolen a designers textures, and resold them to her selfishly...only thinking of what they would gain rather than what another has lost. --that is if she is telling the truth...

I sell my skins as COPY ONLY to avoid this kind of thing

I was in complete shock after uncovering all evidence that these are in fact my textures.. I never thought this would actually happen to me... :

We have been in contact with lindens, and will hopefully get this straightened out in some way...

And another image of comparison (Ty Garbage)... Notice hair and body, collar bone, breast clevage, tummy are pretty much identicle (different face and minor change in skin tone)

that blows...

it's pretty obvious that it's a rip off from yours, i like how the face on the other one doesn't quite blend in with the rest of the body, kindof like chucking a decapitated head onto a headless body.

I'm not making much sense sorry... but i think it's pretty poos that your textures were theifed.

makes me a bit wary about using some full perm hair textures that i bought recently incase they were stolen from someone else.

I'd rather not say here how, but there is a way to rip exact copies of textures in SL. Unfortunately, I do not think there is a way to prevent this.

I'm sorry Lost Your skins are beautiful and you don't deserve this.

Oh dear. these skins did strike me as quite similar to Lost's when announced, but just in sense of someone trying to copy the style... didn't occur to me it'd be such straight rip off :|

Lost,

I am really sorry this has happened to you. All designers in SL need to be aware of the fact that there are now quite simple methods of complete texture theft in SL that are impossible to stop, so this is not an isolated incident and one that will become more frequent thanks to the combination of the MAKE MONEY MAKE MONEY MAKE MONEY mantra of LL and the hands off approach they take to this kind of theft. The only thing that you can do is hope that people who know your work will spot the copies and let you know it is going on.

Lost, your work is valuable enough that I hope you consider filing a lawsuit and don't just roll over and play dead on this - even if it is just to go to small claims court over it, it would be worth it to set some precendents here and give a wakeup call to people who think they can just get away with this kind of stuff. So often, there is no consequence for this theft because people think it will be too expensive to pursue. At a minimum, hit the asshole with a DMCA takedown notice and please post in the SLU forums the name of the person selling the stolen versions. Linden Lab cannot stop this problem from occuring - and unfortunately it can no longer be prevented, so the only recourse is a strong reaction to it.

Linden Lab really has to create a way to lock down textures like they do objects because this is an extreme disincentive to people who want to design things for SL. They want to talk about this "virtual economy" they ought to protect the people who are fueling it and I don't mean "get yourself lawyer". Textures need to be protected just like any no permissions object.

That sucks. I was afraid this would happen with the skin demos.

At least they did such a lazy job at ripping you off it is easy for you to prove your case to the powers that be. And you should.

I agree with Cristiano on this. (I don't think) anybody has gotten punished for copying textures yet. Be the first and show them that it isn't right.

Oh gesh Lost I hate seeing this happen.....He did a bad job trying to trying to make it look like its diff.......LLabs will take care of him sooner of later. Lets Hope it il be tommrow!

Sadly this is shaping up to be the lay of the land. My understanding is that there is no way to prevent this kind of theft, even if LL wanted to (correct me if I am wrong.)

As this kind of theft becomes prevalent (and it WILL), I think you will see some interesting transformations in our economy. There will likely be a shift in interest from the easily copied, inexpensive products over to one-time custom services at a high price tag. Let the high rollers pay content creators for the honor of being the "first" and the "cutting edge." Once the short term event is over, they can do what they like with the items created, even distribute them for free knowing full well theives will do it themselves eventually.

It's not ideal, and it's not how I would like things to go, but unless LL can curb this problem I don't see any other way.

Jesus, some people's children..

I've only made a few textures, and only spent an hour or two on them, but.. yeesh! Talk about feeling violated. Aimee, sorry you got f*cked so horribly on this. Theft is theft anyways, so get some help from the lindens and hang this bastard(s) out to dry!!

The sad thing is, afaik that there really IS no way to prevent this kind of bullshiat, at least not without changing how video acceleration as we know it works. Here's hoping i'm wrong and the lindens can come up with something clever.

If Linden can't, or won't, program this problem away maybe the designers of SL could form a group, maybe their own LLC or a "union", and pool their money and hire legal representation when necessary. And encourage each other to copyright their material. I know it sounds weird since you are all competitors to a certain extent, but people would think twice before doing this if they were aware that designers were dead serious about theft. Now it's the wild west and it's worth the "risk" when LL doesn't do anything but dump the problem on the designers to deal with on their own, knowing that the idea of hiring a lawyer is too much for most to take on themselves. Just the threat of a real lawsuit would make most of these people just drop it and stop and that's all most designers would want, anyway.

Just throwing the idea out there. May be completely off the wall, I'm way past my bedtime.

My sympathies!

You obviously put a lot of work into your skins and to see someone just rip them off is terrible.

Those thieves deserve to lose every last L$ of their ill gotten gains and to lose their accounts too.

There really is no way to lock down textures due to the way graphics works. There is no support for encrypted textures in graphics cards so it will always be possible to intercept them, which is pretty easy with Open GL.

I asked Pathfinder about this a long time ago and he said it would be a clear violation of the TOS, however as we know LL aren't very good at going after thieves.

Legally you would probably have a good case but it would be very difficult, especially if they live outside the US.

Second Life seems to be turning into a thieves' paradise.

It's not thievery if two people happen to be using the same photosource....


I design skins only for myself, I dont sell them....

check out http://www.3d.sk/

Look up either the model Anetta or I think Simona


that's the trouble with photosourcing, it's finite.

Very good point. Before it degenerates into an argument here, I think we should bear in mind that both phenomena are prevalent here in SL, many disputes are caused precisely for this reason, but it doesn't diminish the fact that there are people are engaging in theft also.

This must be very upseting and a reason for simply giving up on spending all that time on something unique But please don't your skins are beautiful!

It is surprising that at the begining LL did not use some kind of unique or modified graphics engine seeing the basis of the world is an economy based on designing. People will always find a way to cheat but opengl being a standard engine gave them a head start.

MUAHAHAHAHA















AHA





aha

Thieves suck.

I have a question though:
Why do many skins have that little brown dot directly over the belly button? At first I assumed it was a skin artist's idea of 'place navel piercing here', but how many artists are just going to decide to place that there? Is it that the same photosource was used for all these skins?

-Ghoti

I'm so sorry that this has happened to you, it sucks to put in so much effort just to have others make money off of it.

As with the others, I won't give details, but yeah, there's no way to keep textures off of other people's computers.. anyone with time, a bit of knowledge and no scruples can get them.

And I don't really see how the Lindens can expect creators to keep making things that help to drive the economy if they aren't inforcing property rights. They certainly don't tolerate misbehavior/scamming of any kind when it comes to SL Land.

Quite.

Looking at the images earlier in the thread I can see similarilities, but a rip-off copy? Sorry, no
.
HOW the two skins came to be similiar in appearance I have no idea - but they definitely aren't identical and hence I can't see what the 'problem' is.

Put it this way:

If someone texture grabs a skin and sells it, as is, that's a rip off.

If someone texture grabs a skin and alters it significantly enough to see the difference, that's not ripping off your skin.

It's selling a skin created using your skin as a starting point.

Maybe it's not nice, maybe it's not moral, but it's the way the law would view it. Maybe 'there ought to be a law', but I'm afraid there isn't.

Let's just pray that all stipends aren't discontinued because I can see dishonest business practices spawning everywhere when people have to fend for themselves for $L