Congrats to all the content creators...

...that have the wherewithal and foresight to remain open and in business during this trying time!!!

It's easy to say "I quit", or to put up a barrier around your shop, it take guts to remain open for business when things are difficult.

SL has move well beyond "just a game", it's a community...and as in any community there are going to be troubling times. I will continue to believe that the good people far out number the bad people(the ones that will abuse tools like CopyBot). We all need to rally together to help our keep our community strong, not pack up our toys and go home.

LL has made mistakes, and will continue to make mistakes, it only human nature...but, they have listened to our voices as of late, and have responded quickly to our concerns. If we just pack up and leave when we see a problem, then nothing will get better.

So, again...Congrats to the business's that have stayed open!

we're not skurred! bring the shizzle!
i'll trizzle the shizzle all over the hizzle!

(in other words, i agree )

I also stand with Wicked Picket on this. Evreyone now has a to make a hard decision. I for one know three things about SL. A: No amount of convincing, money throwing and shouting will convince me that SL isn't a game. It is. It is a community as well, but people still have to sit in front of a computer with the client running.

B: If you are running a business in world and it supplys your primary RL money, You are an investor and a contributor to SL but you aren't a business unless you sell the same objects outside SL. So unless you show me a business licence, you aren't a business. There are people that do make money off SL clients. Ashle Chung, Aimee Webber, and Kat Kongo come to mind. But it is a small minority.

C:If you leave, SL will still be. Because of the way SL is, your closure and refusal doesn't change me. It shows your character flaws. If all the moeny makers and island holders left in one month, LL would simply make a=everyone else pay and there would be still plenty of people who know what truly happenes online to stuff and will risk it any way.

And as much and I want so say foul things and sharp, rude things, I won't. I did my research. I know what Copybot can and can't do. And this is the best of the 3d avatar worlds. It is a world and a community but it is still a game and hense not reality. And no amount iof money and other things can change that.

And Zoe Llewelyn:
You chose to make a business out of this game. That is your choice but you must be responsible for your actions and protect your stuff.
I said enough. I am tired of all this chicken little stuff.

I think they have shots for that now. =o.0=

Wicked-

I totally agree with you.

--
(even though this thread (like all to many others today) probably shouldn't be in Resident Answers. sorry... I just had to say it. )

A good thread and a good read! Mebbe I can 'legalise' it?

I posted yesterday about finding something commercial in a shop which I'd previously found in a 'freebie' box.
Well, it happened again last night when I went shopping for a skin, albeit a budget one. I found among a small variety in 1$ mart or something, my favourite 'freebie'!
Now I can't remember for the life of me where I found these but have a question:
What is your opinion of best course of action when finding a 'freebie' is someone's commercial product?

I would suggest in any case to notify the original creator, and perhaps to abuse report the item yourself.

IM the original creator, bilbo99.

Why are people who stand nothing to lose by these stores closing for a day or two in protest so farking worried about it?

Many of them were open again today.

I don't get the "concern".

To stand united as a louder voice for what you believe in. You don't have to be gay to march in a gay rights parade.

Aside from that, if this thing is allowed and backed by LL in sorts, those people that stand to lose nothing today could lose something tomorrow.

Nice way to backhandedly insult the business owners who closed up shop to wait this out.

Personally, I didn't -- mostly because I doubt I'm important enough to steal from, along with a couple of other reasons related to the difficulties my merchandise would pose -- but I don't blame those who did. At all.

Take your congratulations and stuff it. I stand by those who shut down to protect their designs and completely understand their decision.

I think if we look closely, we'll probably see that copybot users make up a small fraction of the SL population at large, and that reasonable, respectable people will still continue to buy things from legitimate shopkeepers, and that no, in fact, the sky is not falling.

I've got four shops now, one even opened after the copybot news broke, and I fully intend to stay open and put my faith in the essential decency of mankind.

If someone wants to steal one of my fountains, then they can have it. Chances are they wouldn't choose to buy it otherwise, and even if they did they probably wouldn't have the lindens anyway.

Our best defence here is keep shopping, and to keep supporting content creators who are adding value to our SL experiences. We ought to keep living our lives.

Don't let the bottom 4% ruin the fun.

That said if anyone sees a nice-looking zen-inspired basho fountain lying around with someone else's name on it, do be a dear and IM me about it!

I wish your love post was honestly true. I really do. However, that 4% or whomever, can sell the content they steal... so while everyone keeps shopping... now the new creators have an obstacle to overcome because there are literally thousands of designers and no one will know if it was ripped off or not.

So in essence, in the current situation, keeping up shopping could be giving them money.

I agree, SL is basically a MMOG. You can play it like a game at least. But there is something special about this game. The publisher didn't provide any game content other than untextured avatars in jeans and white T-shirts with ugly plasticine hair, a lot of empty land mass and free trees for everyone. Yay! What a fun game. Everything you see around you that makes your game worthwhile is built by a freelancer team of content creators. Would you agree that these people deserve to get paid for their effort? The people who designed your clothes, your hair, your car, your weapons, the house you probably live in? Is the content in SL that lured thousands of players to this world not worth paying for?

Wrong. The majority of land owners earns at least enough to pay for the monthly fees. Do you really think anyone would pay $210 monthly (195 + premium account fee) just for the rewarding feeling to own an island or a mainland sim? Then think again.
I sold some Poser accessories on Renderosity (well, Renderotica rather, but that's less well known) before I joined SL. Is that a business or not? How is it any different from what I do in SL? Is Microsoft not a business, because they don't sell any "real" wares, just software?

And this little rant shows your character flaws, son. I don't make money here, I always envied those who do, now it's payback day - haha, I don't need you, leave the "game" of you want.

Ah, it is not reality. I guess Linden Lab shouldn't be paid a dime then, because this whole world is not real. Who will provide you with your game if you only pay for real things?

I know what the CopyBot can do too. It can kill any business of hair or shoe designers. Complete furry avatars can be cloned in the blink of an eye, and no one cares that the furry's eyes won't blink afterwards because the avi lacks a single script. You can clone a car and add a simple vehicle script copied from the LSL Wiki. Same goes for house door scripts. Garden supplies, furniture... well. You likely don't want to see and admit that anyway. You don't care, right? We can all leave and you will happily search for the least gross prim hair in a box with 200 unsorted freebies.

Tell that to Spielberg and Lucas - you chose to make a business directing movies instead of providing them for free, it's your own fault that DVDs get ripped now, movies are not real. Tell it to your favourite band - it was your choice to try and make a living in the music business, now search the Gnutella and EDonkey networks and try to protect your stuff.

We have to be responsible for our actions! Yes, we have to show responsibility for trusting LL's promises about a secure DRM system. We are responsible if someone breaks our shop window because LL didn't provide us with bulletproof glass. I bet the thieves aren't responsible at all. They just do what people do in a game. Do you know what my lawyer tells me, when I as a german tell him I want to sue a US citizen or a japanese person for violating my intellectual property rights in SL? He will laugh into my face, asking me how many millions I plan to spend over a jurisdictinal amount of perhaps $300.

Well, if SL is a game, I want LL to act like a game publisher. I want GM support if someone steals from me. I want them to act when I report exploiters. I want them to police this world and protect the rights of each single player. And I demand to be paid monthly wages, as a game content creator. So far i don't see that happening. You can't have it both, a worthwhile game on one side and a publisher who is only interested in the license rights of this world on the other side.

And if the residents are left to govern and police themselves, give us the needed law enforcement tools and weapons. Do you know the MMORPG "Roma Victor"? Griefers and offenders can be hung on a cross there. Please give us this option, LL, including permadeath for an offender's avatar and annexation of their land as compensation. It isn't real, right? It's just a game no harm done, no real land or anything valuable lost. Why should we bother filing RL lawsuits, if we don't sell any RL wares? Is this conform with your logic?

I gather most shops have re-opened. Only open shops will generate revenue. RL commerce is plagued with shop-lifting, piracy and 'grey imports'.

This isn't Utopia. Every step forward in 'protection' meets some hacker/pirate's workround or we wouldn't be seeing Microsoft updates every month. Ultimately, we have to rely on human nature and try and trust the majority.

As suggested, I believe many of the copiers simply wouldn't afford to buy. If they are seen they are in themselves, advertising. I was given a 'freebie' which has become a big favourite. I've found it was pirated and found the store. I'm going to buy it. Might not have done if I'd only ever seen the picture.

You could form a foundation together with the other land-owners and content-creators to finance it and file a class action suit against LL for negligence. It could be an interresting precedence regarding the legal status of privately owned bussiness in online games.

You can't compare virtual goods to RL goods, and it irks me that people try to use RW comparisons that have police. We don't have any, LL won't allow any and they won't do it. People can be arrested on the spot if they are caught stealing in the RW. As far as protection, the problem lies that they are refusing to protect. They don't want to get caught up in having to fight off hackers and such. Not my words, thiers. Filing DMCA complaints can take weeks, months, and longer, and these people will be long gone by then. In fact, LL didn't even take a hard stance on illegal use. We *may* ban people found using it maliciously. Not even PERMABAN upon proof of use. Just a may ban.

I'd even be semi complacent if they'd take a hard stance against the use of 3rd party programs accessing SL. However, since in thier own ToS, you aren't supposed to reverse engineer, yet they allow a selected group to do so... that hard stance won't matter much until they stop supporting LibSL. The common person never likes elitest attitudes and considering what's happened, and LL's continued love fest is a slap in the face to the 'common avs' without the love to bypass the ToS.



The question is, how did you find it was pirated? And also, for some who paid for the outfit initially, do you really think they are gonna pony up the money when they don't know who is the real content creator on new items?

In the vast majority of countries, you do NOT need any kind of "license" to run a business. You just start trading, and only if you sell certain categories of goods or if your turnoever exceeds a rather large sum are you expected to register.

Sorry, but your post reeks of high grade natural fertilizer.

I found out by seeing same in a shop, luckily (or stupidly?) with the same name. I see that this was mere fluke and among my many other 'freebies' there are probably a lot of pirate copies.

I didn't mean to fan the flames Seola and apologise. Being relatively a noob still I haven't quite got away from the 'game image' and would hate to see a lot of the creative geniuses leave.
Regards.

So I, as a German, should probably file a law suit against someone on the Bahamas, for stealing something worth $10 in an online game hosted in the USA. I don't know how that would protect me at all. My lawyer would laugh so much, he'd fall off his chair if I present him that idea.

No you, the content creators as a group should act concerted in creating a precedence that would give legal certainty to doing bussiness with virtual goods in virtual worlds. Should you win you can point at this precedence in every further game were you try to make money from your designs and force the provider to implement appropriate measures for your protection.

Should you loose the provider of virtual worlds gain a bit of legal certainty that they probably won't be sued by the next artist who gained short of his expectations from his art in a simulation due to not 500 percent perfect digital restriction measures.

There is somewhat of a difference between 100% security and the business I pay to provide a service and whose TOS I agreed to, willfully undermining what security did exist as well as their own TOS, and exposing my content to needlessly higher levels of risk.

Copybot will still be here when they reopen.

Just a disclaimer on top so I don't have to type "in my opinion", "as far as I know", or "I think" in every sentence . This is just what I happen to think.

You have one of two choices: either you choose to believe that any impact from copying is minimal, or you choose to beleive that it's a direct threat to your business and you need to do something about it.

There have been instances where the community polices itself regarding content theft. A residents spots a knock-off, informs the original creator who blacklists the offender from their store and everyone else they can get to agree, confronts the offender and asks for it taken down.
There have also been instances where the above later turned out to be a false accusation. Meanwhile that person has been forever labelled a content thief while they didn't actually ever do any such thing.
There's nothing particularly fair or impartial about this and whoever ends up having the longest residence or the best reputation will win. If respected content designer A steals from newcomer B and calls B a thief then B gets shunned and trampled out of business for good.

That just leaves LL which isn't ever going to do more than it is legally required to, and as far as it makes business sense for itself to police its residents. The promise has been made that they'll make it easier to establish ownership of IP and it would seem far more useful to drill down into that, asking critical questions how the proposed system will be any different from the current one or more effective and pressing for actual proof that any real work is done on it.

The main thing to finally accept is that LL isn't required to protect your IP or anyone else's, you are, always have been. Any steps LL takes to limit it is because it makes sense to keep SL a viable platform for content development. Permissions aren't there because LL needs to have them, they're there because it benefits LL to have them in place. The fact that it helps you control your content is secondary to the fact that it gives you peace of mind and will as a result help LL make money.

Another important thing to accept is that licenses can not counter legal rights or go against established laws. You can not make or point to a license and go "it says this and that so you can't do so and so". That might be true, it might not be true. A lawyer might be able to clarify and give their professional opinion, but in the end it takes a judge to rule on that if someone decides to challenge it.

There's at least one content creator who has consistently pointed out that she is in no way opposed to taking anyone to court. That's an option everyone has. Nothing is stopping you from making a case against someone and supoena LL for any relevant records they have on the resident in question.

LL can't and won't stop you from joining hands and forming an organization that you allow to enforce your IP on your behalf either. Is that going to cost you money? Obviously, yes. Is it worth sueing someone over a L$ 300 piece of clothing? Unlikely, but if you're so convinced that without the fear of accountability anyone will just go ahead and steal it sends a fairly strong message that, as a group, you are willing and committed to protect what's yours.

All the "but"s and "oh it's not worth it" do just one thing: give any potential thief the clear and unmistakable message that deep down you can't be bothered. It's too hard, too much work.

Or you can accept what a whole lot of people already know, accept that it's there, accept that it's not going to be the last thing to come up and ultimately not very likely to be a whole lot of a threat to your business because most people are indeed honest and not thieves.

But they can't be arrested onthe spot if they're caught violating copyright in RL. In fact LL has made it *easier* for you to sanction someone using copybot to violate your copyright than it is in the real world, by making copyright violation using copybot a specific AR-able TOS violation.

Indeed, and LL is no longer requiring you file DMCA for this situation.

HOWEVER...
That's not the real problem.

The real problem is that free unathenticated alts make banning and permabanning toothless sanctions.

You want to fight copybot, put pressure on LL to come up with a solution for people outside the US to get access to SL without opening it up to infinite free "get out of jail" cards for griefers and other in-world criminals.