What Precautions Can I Take Against Theft?

I'm thinking about opening up a store to sell paintings. This would be my first attempt to be a merchant of anything. The paintings are .TGA pictures that I have created and placed on a prim too look like a nice little painting one might hang in their homes.

I'm considering selling each painting in two forms. One would be a transfer/no-copy version, which would be available with several different frame/size options. The other would be copy/no-transfer. The latter would include a standard framed painting, plus an additional copy of my picture TGA file for the customer to resize and frame however the customer wants.

I don't expect to make a lot of money with this. If it can help me break even on my Second Life expenses, that would be nice. Probably more important to me, though, than the money I may or may not make on the paintings is that the work remain mine.

I would like advice on what steps I can take to reduce the chance that the textures will be stolen, and what steps I can take to increase my chances of success with DMCA complaint to Linden Labs if (or when) I have to file one.

One thing that I have done with each of my paintings is print my name, and the title of the picture, conspicuously in one corner of the picture. It would be difficult- I think- for anyone to remove my name and title from the picture in such a way that the picture would appear to be unaltered afterwards.

1. What other precautions can I take to reduce the possibility of theft?

2. Is there anything else I should do that would help me with a future DMCA complaint, should I need to file one?

3. Would it be helpful to do digital watermarking on the TGA files?

I'd appreciate any input.

There's nothing technical you can do to prevent texture theft. Anything that can be put on screen can be captured, absolutely anything. There's no way to change that.

The reality is a certain percentage of people will always steal, a certain percentage will never steal, and the rest fall somewhere in the middle. The middle people are those who consider themselves generally honest, but who might take something if it just happened to be lying around.

There's nothing you can do about determined thieves, but you can dissuade the "middles" from casually stealing just by making it a little bit hard to do, or by appealing to their better nature. An example of making it a little harder could be to watermark the images that are on display. An example of appealing to their better nature could be to include license information with each texture, explaining what can and cannot be done with the copyrighted material. Neither example will stop anyone who actively wants to steal, of course, but both will cut down on those who would take by happenstance if the opportunity presented itself.


First, make sure you submit your notice properly. Follow all the instructions to the letter. Most people screw it up in one way or another, and then complain afterwards that "Linden Lab doesn't respond" when the truth is they can't respond under the law unless the notice is properly submitted.

Second, understand that the alleged thief can always file a counter notice, which would result in the allegedly stolen content being restored. If that happens, then you'll have to fight it out in court.

Third, if you're serious about protecting your copyrights, hire a lawyer, and be prepared to sue people.


You're already doing that to a small extent with your signature. If you feel that that's not enough, then you could watermark all your sample images more conspicuously. Just understand, as I said earlier, that NOTHING will stop a determined thief.

A certain amount of theft will always happen. It's up to you what you want to do about it after the fact, but really, if it were a showstopper, no business in SL (or in any other digital medium) would ever be done. My advice, don't worry about it so much. If you happen to get hit hard by it, then cry havoc and let slip the lawyers of war. Otherwise, focus on what you can control, not what you can't.

this is a tough one, but some of my favorite artists offer some great freebies, such as michelangelo david's amazing sculpted ant for $L1. this gift in turn drives people to have more interest in supporting the artist by purchasing other items. This is common in regular retail as well. in the art world, its the reputation that drives the income more than the works themselves.

Offer a couple works that are free to copy, free to transfer etc. It can help propagate your work in a good way.

If you try too hard to be secure, or charge too much, it will drive many to be malicious just out of curiosity.



imho.