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

Sometimes I go a long time with out reading the forums and even when I do I certainly do not read every single thread. I appreciate seeing posts like these because while the exploit has apparently been around for awhile I didn't know anything about it. I've seen the threads on XYZ person selling freebies and other general topic ones on texture theft.

How can you not be aware when you clearly said you knew it was happening you just "thought it would never happen to me"?
I agree I may sound a little harsh, but maybe you should have came across a little different in your original post.

I'm not surprised this has happened and I dread that more instances like this will occur. Becuz even a technically unsavvy person like me knows how textures are ripped from SL. Even though people who exposed this exploit in the forums might have thought the cause to be noble and help justify their campaign to watermark or encourage people to copyright their stuff ... I think it really just made the exploit accessible to anyone, and it's now just a matter if most people are decent enough to not take advantage of it or not.

Speaking as an amateur, I have no idea how to copyright or watermark my work. And even if I did, if someone ripped me off, I doubt I'd have the financial means to take the issue to court. I'd think I'm too small time for that. Most of us are amateurs, who learned photoshop just for creating in SL. So the fact that someone can just rip a skin another person has slaved hours over and not have any punishment or fines slapped on their actions is really disheartening.

You have my sympathy, Lost. I think your skins, especially the male "Dante" one, is one of the best out there. And whenever people ask for a good place for skins and whatever else, you're still one of the first I mention.

Sensual -

I really believe this is personal with you . If i remember correctly you were quite upset that lost wouldnt give you his avatar shape for whatever guy you were with at the time . So why not just say thats what upset you and thats why you feel he is selfish .This isnt about anything else but that .

I have an idea, why dont you pass out your shape ,your textures ,and all the things that are important to you and share them with the SL community ? Im sure you dont rely on the sales from your items to help pay your teir so why would it matter if you gave everything away including your shape and identity .I would also love to see a finished photo sourced skin from you .Ill even buy you the photos . Then you can tell me how simple it is , how little effort goes into it .

-Amber

? Did you read incorrectly? I was not aware of the previous posts concerning this issue. I was told in the past about this, yes, and i was aware of it going on in SL. since I did not know much about these instances of course I thought it would not happen to me... I think other designers think the same thing...and should see for themselves it can very easily happen to them.

You can not be serious? Why do people think that when they speak thier mind it because this reason or that reason... I was not upset with Lost... in fact my friend purchased a skin from him after he didnt want to sell the shape.. also I have sent many people thier to purchase his male skins...I never said they didnt look awesome. cus they do! If you can't read my posts to find out exactly what urked me, as I already mentioned a few times, then it isn't worth explaining again.

I would go a step further and say many designers are probably not even aware that it's already happened to them. SL is just too big a place for a single person to police their own work.

Yes, good point

I read all of your posts. Maybe, you need to re-read them . Lost and I dont spend oodles of time in the forums like many others so we dont always know when somthing is going on to give our support .

If I did happen to run across a thread such as this I definatley would'nt try to divert the attention from the actual problem with lame comments about somones work and quality of work nor their technique like you have done . It would have been much better to have said nothing ,or defended the girl in question if you believe she is being wronged . most people by HUMAN NATURE dont believe bad things will happen to them .

Sensual,

Why is Lost stating that he didn't think it would happen to him so horrible? You know that when something like this happens, it often takes happening to you or someone you are close to for you to really take it seriously and have it be a wakeup call. I know you take content theft like this seriously and have worked with LL to help stop it, as have I. I just think it is a bit unfair to single out Lost here - it is human nature to be more concerned about what happens to you and to your friends than it is to what happens to people you don't really know. I don't think Lost is being selfish or acting in his own self-interest at all here. The blame is fully on the people who are using these tools to steal content, not on the victims.

Thankfully, there are people who will step up and report things when they see copies being sold. It is the one encouraging thing in all of this - as frustrating as it is to be ripped off, it is at least comforting to know that there are people who do genuinely want to help without anything in return.

Right, they just sit back and watch as it happens to others as they think it would never happen to them.... Lesson learned I suppose, when you see the community around you being wronged take a look around and step up, just as you would do for yourself...

I just watched 5 banks get robbed, I sat back and shrugged it off... at least it's not my bank...
O good Lord. MY bank just got robbed... I must call the police, I must warn the media, I must do whatever I can to burn this person that robbed my bank into the ground!

At least be thankful they stopped selling the stolen goods.. if only some of us were so lucky, I still have a designer selling my hand drawn work...

Agreed! Thankfully I have met some of those people. Rockwell Maltz, Blake Rockwell, and Roseann Flora are some of those people. Thank you!

Yes exactly, step up and kick them when they're down. Maybe make some comments implying they kind of deserved it and perhaps criticize the quality of their work while you're at it. Thank you for leading by example.

Sensual - Had we known that happened to you we would have given you whatever support we could , wether we like you or not . Because its wrong . If i saw somone robbing a bank I would definatley do what I could to help .I would NOT strap guns to my hips and go on some vigilante firing spree and try and stop them alone nor would I blame the bank or put down the bank for their banking security measures. If it was MY bank of course im going to fight harder to protect my own investments .

OK hypothetically speaking, what if someone used one of Losts skin as a "photosource" would that be theft also?I do agree this person stole his textures or used stolen textures... who knows the truth to that part...
but lets say I saw one of Losts skins and I took snapshots of it, and used it to make another skin, would that be my work or Losts? This is really something that should be discussed, since so much texture theft is going on.

Sens not everyone reads the forums because most of it is Gossip, bickering, and childish arguments. Many people actually mind their own business and just make things.
I've held off saying anything to ya, I'm not looking to fight with you, but you are really making yourself look bad right now. Is this how you want people to view you? I haven't seen one mature and civil comment from you yet, it jsut soudns all personal whether it is or not.

It would, without a doubt, be Lost's work, and yours would be derivative.

I never once said that the quality of his skins were poor, in fact despite the way I think he worded things in this thread, I think he has the best male skin in SL...

Then how can someone claim work that is photosourced from another source? That is what needs to be explained..

My only personal problem is that so many other deigners are getting ripped off, myself being one of them... but no one cares until it happens to them... If people are concerned with thier investments they need to be concerned with what goes on in the community around them as well...

Photosourcing uses royalty-free, source-specific material. Using a photosourced skin does not mean you are photosourcing, it means you're infringing copyright.

the photosources are sold as commercial use, when purchased you are purchasing a license and right to use it for things like 3D character renderings. but you do not have the right to sell them as photograpic packages as like how they are bought.

unlike taking a snapshot of someone else work without permission or license to resell them for your use.

I understand that part, aside from the copyrights, how is the photosourcing and making it ones OWN work any different? Thats what I dont understand..

It's a good thing all Live Helpers aren't so "helpful", eh?