Bought freebies?

Hey kids:

Have you ever bought something only to discover that it's a widely available freebie? The Relaxin' Rug, the Super Hot Tub, various boxes of things at yard sales that turn out to be free gift packs? That sort of thing? IM me inworld, please.

Yah I'd like to hear what you find -- seeing how I created the superhottub

And yah I know its sold all over the place by rip off merchants and the official party line is 'Well chin up - keep makin the free stuff! but ah.. sucks to be you!'

That's why I wonder if I should sell any freebies. There is enough already, but I do want to be nice. At the same time, I don't like this idea of getting jipped.

I've recently discovered a copy of my older Chocobo, renamed Zelsh, being distributed as a free no-mod copiable transferable item.

Apart from that, I've found none of my other freebies (Arwind, growing trees, multimove, nonphy, camels, black horses, elephants, mammoths) being distributed. But then, maybe I didn't search deep enough ?

Its up to you - the Lindens won't do a thing.... But I wouldn't reccomend freebie reselling as a way to make friends.

It's certainly dissuaded me from doing anything charitable ever again.

The last freebie I made, I marked as no transfer, largely because of all the reports of people reselling freebies at large markups.

The point of the freebies that I sell is specifically so that people can open them up, look at the scripts inside and learn from them, so they're always going to be resellable. That's just one of the risks really.

If I saw someone selling my freebies I would doubtless give them an earful of abuse and make mention of it on my blog, but that's all the sanction I have, really, unless there's a central "Freebie Reseller Register" somewhere.

Hmm. That's an idea.

I have some freebies that I give away that are no transfer for the same reason.

HP

I would be a very useful resource. Though some freebies are sold out of a desire to get something for nothing, I think some are also sold innocently. People clean out their inventory for a yard sale, and forget what was a freebie and what wasn't. Or people buy a freebie at an inflated price, and later resell that freebie themselves.

Such a database would help newbies, people holding yard sales, legitimate resellers of used merchandise, and--of course--the content creators giving out the freebies in the first place.

I have a copy of your Chocobo, Jesrad..got it for 0 off slexchange. (mod, copy, no transfer)

How much were you sellign them for?

They're freebies o_O

I'm making them no transfer for the same reason Keiki and Hugsy.

As for detecting resellers of freebies, I hear Siggy uses to file a Classified on them with the name "ripoff"

Ok, just wanted to make sure.. was going to pay you for it if you had charged. I, for one, don't take stolen items as freebies and shaft the designer.

Yeah I don't buy the notion that people don't remember what was free or not. By the time you get to the point where you can do a yard sale, you know. And everyone knows that hottub, and the rug, and some of the other stuff are freebies.

If I go to a store or yard sale and see freebies for sale, I turn around and leave and don't buy anything there and never go back.

If the thing is copy/transfer it's obviously a freebie. Anyone who puts something copy/transfer up for sale (with or without changing the perms) isn't playing with a straight deck.

If it's no-transfer or no-copy, hell, I've got a bunch of no-copy outfits and I know some of them were freebies, some I bought, some were gifts. I know what a few of them were but not all of them. And I know I've given people stuff that wasn't free, and stuff that was free.

Best way to make sure it's obvious that something's free is to make it full perm. The real crooks are going to cheat anyway, but at least you won't get innocent infringement.

I don't think it is that simple. Someone might buy a "Relaxin' Rug" at a yard sale for 50L. This person might reasonably think that the rug was not a freebie--especially if the seller had changed the permissions to "no copy". How would the buyer know, unless he or she were really familiar with the vast number of freebies in SL?

One of my best friends in SL runs a furniture resale store. I help her with it. Between the two of us, we are very familiar with what is and is not a freebie in SL. But once in a while, even we get fooled.

And I remember when I was a newbie. I had no clue. I happily paid 25L for my "Relaxin' Rug"...

Or messed up setting the permissions



Often people selling freebies will change the permissions so that a "copyable/transferable" item becomes a "no copy/transferable" item.

In the interests of full disclosure, I was working on a non-physical movement script of my own when I happened upon yours. I incorporated a couple of "wow, why didn't I think of that" ideas (such as the idea of multiple subscripts to handle movement and turning... maybe it's obvious to a real scripterati, but I consider myself a builder who knows enough for special effects) but the bulk of the work and of the script, including the actual building of the vehicle, remains my own. (And it's available as the Keywork Skimmer at my shop (/plug) )

I rail against selling freebies myself - I don't mind someone learning from it, modifying, and reselling if I haven't specifically GPLed it, but I generally think it's a lousy practice - so I don't want anybody trying to hoist me on my own petard.

Anyone who finds an object they have in their inventory and puts it up for sale and claims they didn't know it's a freebie is clearly not shooting straight.
Err, yes, I said that the crooks will cheat anyway. I'm talking about innocent infringement.

I'm afraid to make my own freebies for sale. I hope it didn't sound like I was afraid to resell freebies cause I don't.

I would never resell freebies bought from someone else. I love to make my own stuff and really don't have time to look for freebies anyways

My advice would be to make sure you have a very thick skin - unless absolutely necessary don't allow transfer (simply to cut down on your own grief). And if you do be prepared for folks to send their customers back to you as 'support'

Honestly - after a long long time and a lot of grief I found out the hard way it simply isn't worth it.

Folks who want to help the community - its a noble cause, but time better spent would be trying to make a community worth helping.

To clarify, if someone puts a copy/transfer item for sale, then it is most likely:

A) A freebie,
B) An item they have made a mistake in setting permissions for, or
C) A very high priced item for speciality uses (such as copy/transfer pose balls for furniture makers).

In such cases, its usually easy for the FIRST buyer to tell which it is. However, subsequent buyers very often won't be able to tell--especially if the permissions have been altered. So these subsequent buyers could very easily sell those freebie items entirely innocently.

I found a Relaxin Rug at the second yard sale I hit, on sale for L$25. I contacted the yard saler for comment, identifying myself as a reporter, and her partner promptly threatened me--with what who knows, I'm new but not so new I don't know you can't be killed or hurt here. They both denied that the rug is a freebie; "everyone is selling it, and we bought it, so if you got it for free you must be connected." Yeah, I'm like connected with Yadni and NCI. I informed them that if they bought it they themselves were ripped off, but their rationale kept changing.

Yes, I AR'ed Toughguy Threatmeister.

The stupid thing is, I wasn't even planning on identifying the particular yard sale; they're correct, the rugs and other freebies are on sale all over the place, I wanted to get comments from some yard salers as to WHY they were on sale and how they could defend the practice other than as "well, I was ripped off as a newbie, so I'm going to rip off some other newbies." I mean, if I were going to identify every yard saler inworld who did this, there'd be room for nothing else in the paper.

Geez, inworld for 20 days and I've already had two Mike Wallace moments...

There are a number of things that quickly become apparent to me here:

1. Toughguy Threatmeister is far better than "Joe Schmoe" when describing an otherwise-unnamed Resident.
   

1. Not enuff peeps read the rule signs in sandboxes. I see things, freebies and otherwise, being sold there on a regular basis. They are, of course, removed.
   

1. Increased social awareness is gonna help in the future, because no matter what you do technologically, in today's "rip mix burn" world, there's going to be a way to circumvent it. People make choices, and I remember several times when some d00d was selling freebies, and friends and supporters of the original creators put up YUGE signs next door, and even riper, in at least one instance, bought the adjacent lands with a poster telling the truth about how free the goods are meant to be.
   

1. MeiLin, I'm fancying you as more of a John Stossel-type for consumer advocacy... but that's just me. Hehe.
   

I remember being ARed for such activity while the rip off merchant got away scott free.
I also remember posts from LL saying pretty much 'thats the perms - sucks to be you'

Sorry if it rains on the butterflies and watermelons parade - but yeah - I'm gonna tell the harsh cynical truth of the matter so that others cover their arses and don't get jaded and cynical about the whole thing like I did.

Basically - its a good thing - go and do it, you'll feel good about yourself... but don't expect any support from the powers that be.

And don't beleive that 'intellectual rights' bologne they spread a couple of years ago either... At best its PR - at worst false advertising.