Is what I did so wrong??

Hi,

I have been in SL for about 3 months now. I loved the underwater stuff I found and was also really interested in scripting and building as I have done a bit of this before. First thing I did was some build tutorials, texture tutorials etc and then I set about making my own scuba diving gear. I own all my own scuba gear in RL so I modelled my gear on that. The only scuba gear I had seen in SL was some I found for free somewhere and I wanted to make something better. I spent ages making my gear, adding animations, sounds, bubbles etc and also made some submersibles. I was having a lot of fun playing with the scripts, animations etc. A while later I saw a forum post about someone wanting scuba gear for their island, so I made a post, contacted them and they agreed to let me set up a dive area and dive shop on their island for free. The only stipulation is I make my scuba gear available for use on the island for free to visitors or residents. I was quite happy to do this. To try and make a few dollars I was going to sell my gear for use anywhere in SL at a fair price.

At this point I needed some fish and started looking around SL. During these searches I came across a lot of great stuff and spent over L$6000 on stuff to put on the island. On one of these trips I noticed another person had some scuba gear, similar to mine. I bought a lot of stuff from them, fish etc. Someone had given me a holovendor which I hadn't set up, but while looking at this persons scuba gear I liked the way they had displayed it on their own holo vendor. So I went back to my place and arranged my gear in a similar fashion on the Hiro holo vendor I had been given.

Recently I posted about my scuba gear and since then I have been accused of "blatantly copying" this other persons scuba gear and ripping them off. They kicked me from their group, removed me from their friends list and banned me from their land.

I certainly did not copy their scuba gear in any way at all. All I did was display mine in a similar way. Is this so bad? I am concerned that my name has now been tainted as this person has been in SL a long time and has a lot of influence, where I am quite new and have no influence. Have I really crossed boundaries that I should not have?

If what you're saying is true, and you build all that on your own, modelled on what you have, then you haven't done anything wrong.

Let's face it: in the anonymous way we live our second lives, it's very easy for people to over react to things. I've seen this kind of thing a lot on forums, MMORPG's, and on SL. It's just part of the nature of the beast: People don't particularly care about offending someone that they've never met and will likely never meet in person.

Just go about your business and do your thing. If you really are better than all this, it'll show in the long run. Likewise, if this other person is a drama queen, then it's likely that this person's acquaintances already know about this individual's mercurial temper. If the other person did indeed wrong you, he or she may admit it, but the truth is that it's not all that likely.

In short: let it go. Very likely, the only thing you could accomplish by pushing the issue is to make yourself look worse, and here in SL, all we really have is our reputation.

Drama

Dont worry there is a lot more people you can meet in second life,and a whole lot more to do

I was recently accused of copying a jetpack made by a friend of the accusers... a jetpack that was used in "There".. a game which I have never even played, much less seen.

I laughed so hard about it.. because I *HAD* in fact copied something to make my jetpack, a 1982 G.I.Joe "J.U.M.P." jetpack.. one of the very first toys that hasbro released in the line... I had spent a great deal of time making my "replica" jetpack, and at the behest of my Mistress, created a midnight blue "Cobra" version.. complete with a cobra logo I had traced from an original Hasbro decal about a dozen years ago.

What made me laugh, of course, was that I was being accused of copying a person who was obviously copying the same thing I was. And it's fairly ovbious to me that this is what has happened here in your case as well. You modelled off of a preexisting item, and the other person did so as well. Sadly.. almost all scuba gear looks alike. (much like skateboards and surf boards.. there's an object that's almost always the same shape, with different graphics. We can go back and forth about who did what first in SL.. but the reality is, you both made similar things, and were competing for the same linden dollars.

Now.. as for copying the display strategy.. you did.. that's true. is it wrong? no. Was it wrong that the land owner took their word over yours? if the situation went down as you described it.. yes it's wrong... but you don't really have much recourse.

I keep saying this, ironically I can't follow this kind of advice myself. Give it some time to cool off, and then write a carefully worded, calmly paced letter in a notecard, and contact the land owner. You might want to take a few snapshots of the real-world objects you own, and upload those so he can see precisely what you did model off of.

In the end, the Baron rules his barony.. and if he says "be gone" you can only pack up your wares, and move on. Work on a distinctive logo, and a "Theme" that you use in your sale displays.. something uniquely your own. Consider varying on the theme of diving.. make some distinctive, futuristic versions of the gear.. or some "retrotech".. like diving bells and so forth. List your items on SLexchange and SLboutique.. and look for other people who sell similar items.. think about teaming up with someone.

If you take hold of this turning point, you may just look back on this event as the point where your business really took off.. being forced to get off your laurels and push the envelope. If you make YOUR scuba gear look flashier than the other guy's.. then you can quote agent "K" from Men in Black.

"You know the difference between you and me? I make this look good!"

you did absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever. They are just into trying to hurt the competition rather than talking about interests you both have in common. They're punks in my opinion

ahh..so goes the skiller's conundrum...

Try IMing some of the people in the group and then maybe they can get the word out that you didn't actually rip off anyone. Maybe point them to this forum topic?

Don't push too hard though.

It's very common practice for people doing similar things in SL to look at what their competition is doing and adopt practices that seem to work well. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. The skin business is a great example of this. At one time no one did demo versions for people to try on. Mistress Midnight came up with the idea and suggested I should do it with my skins. I did and it was very popular. People loved being able to try them on even if they didn't intend to buy anything. Before long every skin maker in SL had demo versions. It was a good thing for everyone and I certainly didn't mind. I've taken inspiration from smart things that other skin makers have done too. Doing a complete knockoff of someone else's design isn't cool, but seeing a great way of presenting a product, or of marketing it, or packaging it, and deciding to do your own that way is absolutely fine. Some people are pretty sensitive when they feel like they have a niche and someone else comes along with a similar product or service. Hopefully you can patch it up with them and somewhere down the road they'll take inspiration from something that you've done

If all happened like you said, you have done nothing wrong...

I do not know a lot about scuba diving... but how different can be one scuba gear from the other? (Saying this, I know the risk of all scuba diving lovers giving me everlasting lessons about scuba gear ^^).

With so many people developing things here in SL, they risk there that some things will look very alike.

And yes, just ignore the drama some people like to cause

Morwen.

That reminds me of the scuffle between Dazzo Street and Yuri Fonzarelli. When Yuri first found GAR, he made a blocky kind of Clone helmet. Then, he used Dazzo Street's Clone helmet as a model for a new one, and Dazzo's Mandalorian buddies said it was full-fledged copying, even though I've seen differences between them.

Thanks for all your thoughts and comments. I have contacted the other party and explained the situation, I doubt they believe me as they did not offer any form of apology for their accusation, which I feel they owe me, they just asked me to change the way I display my gear so there is no similarity. So to avoid further accusations I changed my display method back to my original way, before I had even seen anyone elses methods. Not that it differs a lot anyway. And as Morwen said, "how different can be one scuba gear from the other?" and the answer is "not a lot".

Thanks again. I feel a little better about the matter.

That's friggin rediculous. These people are pissed because you have a "display" that resembles theirs? They're friggin nuts. You should display anything however it works best. I'm sure the first person that decided to "box" an item and place it on the wall isn't going around bitching to every store that now has boxed items on the wall.

I'm sure once you get the idea to have a small kiddie pool next to the display where a shopper can try on the scuba gear in the store, those others will put a kiddie pool next to their display too.

BTW, because Hiro's vendors are available for free, if you are using the Holo-vendor, that's your own business. If that's what you like use it and I'm sure quite a few vendors at some time or another passed through Hiro's programs or are still using them.

Hell, not just SL. To all the people who bitch and moan about competitors copying them, do you see Coke taking Pepsi to task for making the exact same product? Seriously people, if you can't deal with competitors making a product similar to yours, perhaps you should get out of retail activity.

Exactly! There are inherent differences in jeans, but they are still jeans. Levi isn't suing Rider, who is suing Old Navy, etc.

People in SL are alot more... 'open' to complaining when they don't get their way to make their money. I.E. Not being able to shut down a competitor so they can make all the money. If it was a serious issue, then LL would have been contacted and more or less, they would have been on the scene at some point.

Yeh, the more I have thought about it the more annoyed I am that I was even accused of copying. My scuba gear is a lot more than a bunch of prims. I have scripts and sounds and animations, all of which I made myself. I spent 100's of hours playing with all of this till I was happy. And I did not model it on anyone elses stuff at all. I have tried to make it as realistic as possible and every single aspect of it is mine. (I'll correct that, the bubble texture I found in a free particle script somewhere). Funny thing is I have read other discussions about scuba gear and there have been a few names thrown around about having really good scuba gear. The guy accusing me of copying him was not mentioned. If I was going to look at anyones gear to get ideas it would be one of these people. I haven't looked at anyone elses gear to get my ideas.

As far as the display, I am still using a Hiro holo vendor, I just rearranged the holo to the way I had it before I saw the accusers display. If they have a problem with it now, tough.

How about going into your SL profile, and adding a link to your shop under "picks?"

Just did that, thanks.

This person's accusation is flawed. You have acted properly. It seems to me that, if in their mind you are guilty of copying, then surely whoever invented the SCUBA system in RL is justified in laying the same accusation at their door too - after all, most things in SL is copied from somewhere in RL. This person is probably just jealous that they didn't have the business acumen to make the potentially lucrative deal with the island owner that you did. I hope that works out for you. I'll keep an eye out for you next time I get on SL and maybe drop by and do some suba-ing myself