Copycats in the SL Fashion Business

People should look up the digital copyright and internet laws


*runs back to the shadows from wence he came*



PS.. Oh and hand painting items that have a real world copy or design or changing something photosourced is still a derivative of a item.






Good thing noone has cracked down on SL huh

Please forgive me! I simply was not aware of the phenomenon which has been described already in the first few posts of this thread: more than one designer getting 'inspiration' from the same source (which I don't think is a bad thing per se, even if it may lead to copyright probs). That this will lead to similar designs - is understandable and not a sign of purposely copying a design from some other designer.

When I saw that dress the similarities were so striking (aside from the longer skirt) that I could not imagine any other explanation then a simple copy. (That it wasn't a resale was clear because of the small differences.) Obviously there are other explanations.

As I said: I apologize for my false assumption!

Kim I hope this thread hasn't beaten you into a corner

Designers everywhere really appreciate it when folks stay vigilent of wrongdoing (I know I do!). Normally it's best it contact a designer privately with your concerns and let them make the judgement call if a problem really exists.

Thanks for caring Kim

Most definitely! If it's a case of one designer using the textures of another without permission that's deifnitely the kind of thing you want to alert the designers about. When it's just a case of two people using the same source or being inspired by the same real word garment it's not a big deal but still doesn't hurt to let the designers know there might be a problem. I know I've made the same item as other people more than once, and we've always just gotten a laugh out of it and compared seams hehehe. Like Aimee said, thanks Kim.

How dare someone say lowrise pants are boring! I'm joking lol In all seriousness I don't make what *sells*, I make what I like lol. I've gone out on a limb a few times to try something really different than my style but it's difficult. For the longest time there were NO pants in SL that were lower than the avatar waist and I hated it lol. I don't wear my pants at the waist in real life and I can't stand for my avatar to either, therefore Torrid's pants will be off the waist .

I believe there is alot more variety in SL then what some people say, you have alot of designers with original styles and you have those that like to stick with what's most popular too. I have women im me sometimes and ask if I have anything *sexy* in my shop lol. I reply by saying well *I* think I have some sexy things in my store but if you're looking for all leather and thongs you should probably look elsewhere. In the end it's all about each person's taste and what they're comfortable in, we can't dictate exactly what designers should create.

My belief is that if a designer is photosourcing clothes either for sale or their own use then it's a really good habit (morally? ethically? legally?) to take the time to read the TOS of the page you are grabbing the images from. The vast majority of sites have them and clearly state how you can or can't use their images.

What REALLY annoys me is when artists who are generous with the use of their
images are copied pixel by pixel and break the artists TOS by selling those items...and when you point it out to the designer in game they blow you off. I hate that feeling of..."I really respect the artist and I know you are stealing from them because I've read their TOS but don't want to play the role of copyright police" but at the same time...if these artists continue to get stolen from they pull their generous TOS. If you've ever been on any yahoo groups with images you know what I mean.

But anyway, I feel if you have to justify using images that aren't yours to create clothes and choose to violate the owners TOS then I think you in turn lose the right to gripe if someone else does too and sells something similar.

-Sun
(who got a little meandering and off topic)

Sun, this was a huge problem when v1.4 came out. Several of the well-known business types in world today were downloading BVH and Poser files from freebie sites... free for NON-COMMERCIAL USE. Since they were the new thing, many were being sold for thousands of Lindens. It was pretty disgusting.

Regards,

-Flip

Photosourcing clothes isn't copyright infringement of the clothes its copyright infringement of the photos. Photos that are more than likely copyrighted by either the clothing manufacturer or the photographer. Regardless of if you give these clothes away for free or sell them for L$ its still illegal. If you really want to sell clothes and make a business for yourself you should create your own original works. In the long run it will be far more valuable to own your works completely than to risk everything because you started off stealing the work.

I LOVE your clothes and i wear mine, mu hucci tshirts the best and i love my hucci free jeans! so there!

<<<---------is proud of her hucci top

Yes, there are two copyrights - the photo and the clothing.

I think a case could be made if you use a very small part of a photo it could be excusable. However, if you're photosourcing more than 30% of the whole image.. then, yeah it's likely copyright infringement unless the image has been specifically been put into the public domain.

Heh sad to say but any modifiable clothing item is copyiable all you have to do is open the...eh.. I'll jsut stop for people who want to konw...damn you stealing beastards

well i got blown today by a nice copycat too on one of my collars, same shape, same prims, just different color -_- on top of this the creator has my coillar on in her profile...

what am i supposed to do?

make a better one and put her nose in the dirt -_-

I would tend to agree with this given the entire real world fashion industry from top down has the ability to create "knock offs". For example, Top Couture Design X creates a line of highly expensive clothing that say cost $4,000 each. Now only a certain percentage of the population can afford to spend $4,000 on ONE outfit. So, the mid and lower level designers/stores/companies create "knock offs" of those designs perhaps out of cheaper, yet similar fabrics, without the top level branding, the overall construction will be mid-level quality (or lower) and then what was once a $10,000 outfit now can be sold for say $200 making it much more accessible to the general population. Then you will have even lower level companies knock those designs off and make them even more accesible to the general population and so on and so forth