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

Well, it probably wouldn't be a logo but rather a group, which is what they were talking about. You can copy a logo, but you can't copy (or steal) the (exact) name of an existing group.

The first problem you listed would require someone with the skills and patience to make legitimate, original skins to then turn around and start stealing textures after joining, which seems a little unlikely ... but also, it isn't as though the group couldn't at least attempt to police its own membership.

Another vote for the whitelist, and while we're at it, howabout a skin show by the members of the group along the lines of the recent hair and shoe shows ? something to raise the profile of reputable skin makers ?

I figured out another way people steal skins. They take images of skins on SLexchange and SLboutique and even have the nerve to sell it back on slexchange.

again, i can only reiterate how sorry i am that this has happened, i promiose to do everything i can in future to stop texture theft and report it accordingly, by donating web space, or web design skills to set up a site highlighting such problems perhaps?

I truely did not expect any of this, and I continue to make my original items as I have for nearly a year now. i will NEVER EVER outsource anymore, its just not worth it.

Thats a good plan Raquel. If everyone would stick too "If you didnt make it , dont sell it" this may be less of a problem.

I still would like to know who sold you the textures though, and if you have spoken to them at all about the situation they have put you in .

What if we started a Designer’s Union? Each designer, i.e, clothing, hair, shoes, skins, etc. wanting to join signs an agreement promising not to use or sell stolen or improperly obtained textures.

The designer would then get a seal to display in their store and advertizement. This seal of approval ill show all of SL that the designer follows the union’s code of ethics. We then get Linden Labs to give us exposure via announcements and popups during sign in. AND, to help up police people who counterfeit the seal.

I know this won’t be perfect. Newbies will have to learn the system. However, I think it will go a long way to helping the situation. A small monthly fee would be paid by each designer to fund the union.

Jen

Make that seal give thumbs up with a confident look in his eye that says "I cheerfully endorse this skin as original!" and I'll join in a second!

There have been some great ideas thrown into the mix here. A group that looks out for each other's work is a superb idea. The logistics of it are a bit daunting but if this sort of thing is to be dealt with it is up to us, the community. As has been mentioned elsewhere, the Lindens are generally loathe to deal with these issues. As a fledgling artist and designer myself, I'd be more than happy to pay a joining fee if it meant that it would save me L$ through lost sales in the long term.

But as with everything, there needs to be an incentive for other people i.e. the consumers to report what they think might be a "ripped-off" piece of work. Yes, the designers have an interest in combating piracy but sadly there are many others who probably don't care about the time and effort we have invested.

What should be the due process if anyone were to spot a "rip-off"? Should we report it to the original designer who can then get a second opinion? Or should there be a mediator who would go check out the suspected "rip-off" (note, I said suspected). That way we could avoid baseless accusations of theft without proof.

Lost & Ambyance: I'd just like to echo the sentiments of many others here and offer my sympathies. I have had one of your skins for a little while and am a huge fan of your work.

I am totally against the "guild" concept, at least for this purpose.

I think any plan that doesn't cover all (or nearly all) types of businesses is going to be
1) hard to maintain (not enough businesses to support the infrastructure), and
2) impossible for newbies (who are most in need) to find the right "guild/whitelist" for the particular type of product/service, and
3) very cliqueish, and open to abuse

A guild is a fine idea as part of the business side of RPing in-game, as an industry association of like-minded business owners who are interested in sharing info, promoting their type of product, having drunken conferences, etc. But I wouldn't trust them with deciding who are "approved" vendors, because the organization will gravitate towards being exclusionary and promote price-fixing and other anti-competitive practices.

What will be manageable, IMO, is the SL equivalent of the Better Business Bureau. This provides one central place where consumers can identify "probably good", and "possibly bad" vendors.

One possible way this would work would be that vendors pay a small fee to be listed in the directory. All complaints would be recorded against the business with all names and dates fully available. Business owners would have the opportunity to respond to each complaint, and obviously false or spurious complaints would be removed. Complaints would fade away after a set period of time, shorter if the complainant's account is no longer active. Satisfied customers could also be recorded, but I'm not sure that's necessary.


How is this not fair? Is a respectable business owner really that worried about his/her business being ruined over one malicious complaint? I don't see that happening. First, the vendor has a chance to respond to the complaint and all parties are known and therefore available for a consumer to contact and judge for himself. Second, a good vendor will have been listed a long time and/or have a number of happy customers listed to offset any single or handful of negative reviews.

In general, this would be a positive for all businesses because it gives consumers more confidence and encourages trade.

I'm afraid I have to disagree with you here, Groucho.

I feel that trying to start a kind of BBB instead would be far, far too cumbersome and ineffective comparatively speaking, and that's a very bad trait in a medium where any effort like this is going to start out fighting an uphill battle anyway.

And yes, it's not perfect (nothing ever is), but that doesn't mean it can't work. The founder of Fed Ex originally submitted the idea for the business as a thesis in his business school, and it was rejected as unworkable. Which is not to say that this is on the same level of endeavor but simply that just because nobody's tried it before doesn't mean it can't be done.

Just because it says it on Wikipedia doesn't make it so. Wallhacks and other tricks that interfere with the integrity of a running program can definitely be detected. It's a battle between the programmers in question, essentially, but just because losing is a possibility doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.

I'm not really surprised somebody built a wire-level ripper. A real shame, what a waste of good programming talent. Still encrypting asset transfer is certainly not impossible and it's a bit harder to extract from memory, especially in the presence of anti-debugger checks and data that's in the clear for short periods.

At any rate, the alternatives don't seem much better .... though I appreciate they have the advantage of cutting LL out of the loop.

Hmmm, it appears to be...

OK, here's a question:

This thread was about texture theft, it now seems to be about creating a sort of BBB. Why is it still running in General Topics, surely it was more suited to Design & Textures?

When a post about devaluation gets stuffed into Land an the Economy, despite it being of general interest?

And other threads where residents discuss in-world events get closed on the grounds that they are discussion between residents (who ELSE can you discuss topics with here?) and should be carried out inworld?

Shouldn't this thread have been moved or closed, oh, about 250 posts back?


Just wondering...

Of course, but the fact this statement was left there unchallenged even though the subject is reviewed by numerous people... indicates it's quite correct.


And yet the established ways to 'detect' them are either based on heuristics trying to determine if the player isn't being "too good to be true", or simply on altering the game itself to combat them in work-around way (by putting players behind walls high in the air for example, so that invisible walls don't help any) Why? because there is really no straight way to tell apart an 'innocent' display driver from one that does something extra. If there was one, there would be no need for such tricky work-arounds...

W4LL H4X!!!11





Carry on.

I admit the infrastructure would take significant work to build, but we're talking about an environment where people are willing to spend months designing yet another skin or pair of shoes and build large clubs, houses, ... that rarely get used and are never profitable. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would like to be involved in such a project.

But that is precisely why it has to cover all business. A small guild is going to waste a lot of time doing a poor job of creating its own model for policing itself and that will not only be duplicated across all industries, but there will invariably be multiple competing guilds in the same industry.

I'm not sure why you think it will be comparatively ineffective. Compared to what? It certainly won't be 100% effective (just as the RL BBB isn't), but it steers at least some bit of business away from the bad towards the good.

Jamie, you are such a jerk.

That's an excellent idea !!!

the seal is a very good idea. hehe, however... how do you verify the seal . I could for instance steal the seal!

Because relative to a designer's union, it sounds difficult to maintain and somewhat less useful since it only does anything when people send complaints to it.

It wouldn't be impossible, but it just strikes me as likely less reliable and efficient. My opinion.

What you're proposing has far more potential for abuse than a simple seal program/guild. It would require arbitration, and being able to resolve disputes fairly requires access to information that residents don't have. Without the ability to check chat logs, upload dates, and the like, there's no way for a resident body to effectively and objectively do dispute resolution. It would be far too easy for people to lodge bogus complaints to smear their enemies and far too difficult to get those complaints cleared without lasting damage to the individual. On the other hand, a guild or seal program would carry simple qualitifications for entry that anyone could meet. The emphasis has to be on rewarding honest merchants, not punishing bad ones. That would dissolve into a perpetual flame war of personal vendettas faster than you can say "bad idea."

that's awesome

There are only a handful of stores that I will patronize because I know the designers to be fine, hardworking residents. Anyone that knows me is aware that since day one, I've been on a quest to look like my RL self. I've bought countless demos and skins. I'd nearly given up when I discovered Lost's store. I truly believe that no other skin will come closer to looking like me.

I am deeply saddened to see that someone would so blatantly steal your work, Lost. I hope for your, and other designers, sake, something can be done to stop texture theft in the future. In the meantime, Lost, there are people standing behind you. Keep up the good work.