BEWARE: Stolen Textures not just limited to skins!!!!!

Hi all

Have you seen that Counterfeit Mini Cooper joke? Essentially, the punchline is that people are taking incredibly inappropriate cars, like a Buick LeSabre land-yacht, painting bonnet stripes on them, and selling them as Mini's.

Link: http://counterfeitmini.com/

So you can imagine what I was thinking when someone alerted me that my textures were being used for another car in Second Life.



Bahahahahahahah *wipes tear*

I reallly don't know what else to say, other than it's not a joke. These are my textures. Someone is actually selling this.

Technical commentary:
I believe that the person responsible used a GL capture program because:
1) It wasn't using an SL cache ripping tool - if it were, the stolen textures would still have their alpha channel preserved. As you can see from the white edges on the counterfeit version, someone had to redo the transparency (badly).
2) It wasn't a screen capture. My textures are distorted, so when they're applied to a prim, they'll appear correctly. The counterfeit textures are identically distorted, but not applied to the appropriate prim - the headlights in the counterfeit are not round, having been stretched towards the side.

PS. Not meant to trivialize other IP issues in SL, like Lost's skins:
/108/29/110582/1.html

PPS. Thanks for reading This was just too amusing not to share.

lol do u kno connie chung

You should open your own Dominus "chop shop".

can i get a job there

Nice work Francis on the car! I don't anyone is going to confuse that box thing with yours! They have the tools but not the talent!

Hi Francis,

I wouldnt worry too much, evry one knows the Dominus is yours and what a great car it is
If I saw that thing for sale I would laugh at it.

You can see the person who has tried to do a copy hasn't got a clue about what they are doing anyway. It looks pathetic. Anyone buying this thinking its a Dom need to go visit their opticians and get their specs re-adjusted.

Fran keep up the good work that we all love and aspire from

Sam )

BOUHAHAHAHAHAH!!! Nice Fran, man this IS sad...

Question, what would LL do if you would send them an official complaint?

Wow. The Dominus Shadow is the only vehicle I've bothered to buy in SL. It's just so beautifully crafted.

That other thing... even stealing your textures can't disguise that that is the most poorly made car I've ever seen. One of the most poorly made almost anythings I've ever seen for that matter.

Your poor textures. They deserve better.

I have seen the Rezolution Tiki range textures have been stolen, although they have been done through the old fashioned screenshot method.

Lucah Solvang told me she heard her avs have been stolen but I haven't seen anything of that. I wouldn't be suprised though, it seems to be an epidemic

Hmm. I haven't even officially released my newest vehicle and someone has already tried to copy the physical design and then insinuated to me that they'd love to steal the textures. Said person was a newbie though, but hey, what better person to use a GL capture program? ;)

Nothing

Yeah and that ripoff isn't even 1/10th as nice as yours. And I know that's not the point, the texture is obviously yours.

This is probably one of the biggest problems I personaly think Linden needs to deal with.



http://secondlife.com/whatis/ip_rights.php


Sorry Francis, happens to everyone more and more, some people have no creativity.

We need copyright lawyers in here!!! and a court

And no Lindens won't do anything but I always report abuse when it happens to me just for the sake of it. Wonder why the've stoped replying

I had thought that the GL capture trick didn't preserve alphas, too, but someone in a prior "stolen texture" thread corrected me. Apparently there is a way, but I don't have any knowledge of it.

I was all set to get irate for you, Francis, but looking at the screenshots you included made me giggle. That's not even a good looking vehicle in the first place, and held up next to your Domina it looks like a Soviet-era Russian car made of plyboard.

Still, ethically this is still an outrage. There is no easy technical solution. There is no easy enforcement solution. Perhaps things are being discussed and resolved behind closed doors, I don't know, but we the subscribers aren't seeing anything. All we are seeing is LL throwing their hands up and urging individual action.

I have a question for everyone of you who run SL businesses: This problem reminds me of the old Chinese "death of a thousand cuts" torture. Each tiny pinprick alone isn't going to destroy anyone's business or bring down SL. But given enough of them, and given the seeming spread of IP theft and the unethical Second Life culture it suggests, I'm wondering if an organization of SL businesspeople would be better equipped to do their own DMCA enforcement and, maybe most importantly, establish ethical standards in the world of SL business. We've even had some members post here who are attorneys and have openly offered their pro bono assistance to such efforts. Pooling efforts can't be a bad thing, can it?

I'm not the one to organize it - I have projects in the works to start my own business before long, but not yet - but I would be a whole hearted supporter. It doesn't have to be elitist or exclusive, simply a Second Life Businesspeople for Ethical Conduct group with a plan to counteract this infection.

Sad excuse for a car. But very very sad to say that it's not the worst I've seen.

HAHAHA omg, that's...that's just wow. Francis I am sorry that bastid did that to you but omg, look at that thing! Some people are really really pathetic.

meh just more unorigional bastards in SL trying to take other ppls work, nothin new and considering your quality or work it was only a matter of time. Ive seen a couple of Neils also. The one of Tya's club. and yea, Lost's work. In the end the copyed versions are total crap. But the line gets drawn when ppl clame it as their own work, and even more so when they try to sell it. ah well, not like LL is going to do much anytime soon about blocking such acts. Such acts should never stop anyone from doing what they love though =) for fun or money. keep it real =)

Thanks for the laugh, Francis, and the good spirit. That knock off REALLY should be on cinder blocks in front of the trailer.

Regards,

-Flip

Sorry to hear about the theft :< but the way that other car looks... hysterical, doubt even having your textures on it are going to help the poor thing ^~^

While I'm sorry to hear about another texture theft, I can't help but look at the two and go.. a car being compared to a box on wheels. Or a rollerblade being compared to one of those 'skates' you put on your shoes. Maybe even, a pro-kit car compared to those little block of wood cars that kids make for racing?

Also, this is a great advertisement for your car...it rocks!

Francis,

This comment caught my attention in light of all the controversy about how textures and items are ending up on the teen grid.

I am not a computer saavy person, but this comment made me wonder whether the following scenario was possible:

Parent accesses adult grid and their cache fills with all things SL. Teen kids in the house later use the same computer, and use a cache ripping tool to grap whats in Mommy's cache. These items are then produced by the teen in the teen grid.

Is this possible? What kind of information is stored in the cache, is it just textures or can it include animation, and script information? Is there a cache ripping tool that can render all content unsafe in SL?

wow. If you're gonna be blatant about ripping someone else's work, you think you'd temper that with a little talent and turn down the stupid knob a little, but no....

I guess what kinda gets to me is they put a little bit of work into it.. trimming the textures (badly) Some folks are pretty brazen...

It's my understanding that the GL intercept method can be altered to rip animations and scripts as well. Not out of the box, but with some modifications.

Francis! I TOO have fallen victim to texture theft! Will nothing stop this cat burglar?!

As a side note, will you please do a skin with texture baked boobs? kthnxbye