Sex Gen Removed!

I am not confusing anything. I got it immediatly. I got it 1.5+ years ago.


How would I handle it were I LL? I would have made it the number one priority to protect content creators rights and redone SL systems to prevent it in the first place. But okay fine that wasn't done. so now how would I handle it now?

First I would leave the content as is, alone, and change all offending copiable items to non copiable but not remove anything and make a dollar/license arrangement with Stroker--just as if it was ME who had infringed on the copyright and pay what court costs were incurred.

I would stop further production of products that infringe on content creators rights and make a new system to prevent it. I would give one warning to all that anyone IN THE FUTURE, violating copyrights would be banned permanently from SL. I would NEVER Open Source LL and I would make sure all Alts were tied to master accounts so no banned real identity, could ever get back into SL, without a major appeal ----and outlaw all bots with a heavy ban stick. Furthermore, if any of my employees ever said, "That can't be done" I would fire them and hire real professionals, who KNOW that it can all be done.

Scripts, textures and products and product name would all be registered and accounted for so duplicates just cannot EVER be sold. If LL is serious at all that SL will ever be real, then there would be no other choice but to do that.

I would have SL redesigned, and rethought, so as to keep real world hassles like courts and attorneys and DMCA's and people having to complain to outside parties---ANY spilling into MY PRODUCT of real world need for intervention-----to an absolute minimum, including the removal of the Linden$ exchange. Products would have to be purchased with real money if the money was ever to be taken out of SL and into the real world.

As long as anything puts SL in legal jeopardy, because of violations of real world laws, I would make whatever changes necessary to eliminate those possible violations.

The only winners here, are the pirates.

LL allowed it to carry on unchecked for a very long time, by allowing the sale of pirated objects to continue and by processing money credits on their behalf.

Even with personal information about the pirates, I'm quite sure Stroker is faced with a dilemna in proceeding, likely because the pirates reside in foreign country.

It's a license to steal.

This has all the earmarks of a DMCA takedown order. Only the items in world (e.g. 'published') were affected, items in inventory ('not published') seemed to not be affected and all the items of the alleged infringers were removed without regard to whether the specific item was infringing or not (e.g. the MLP scripts could not have been infringing as they were BSD licensed). One of the beauties of the DMCA is that the takedown order can be wonderfully vague; essentially consisting of nothing more than something along the lines of 'E.C. is infringing my copyright, remove all infringing items' If such a takedown notice were received by LL,. they would have no choice but to remove all the E.C. created content from the grid because they are not in any position to determine what was infringing and what wasn't

Yep - that was my suspicion too.

Matthew

QFT.

And I take your (separate) point about Moopf's vendors--that would totally suck. Of course, the problem is that the target of an AR would most likely be the creator of the prim, not that of the script, and the utility of what few things I actually sell kinda depends on the prims being user-modifiable. So I'm pretty much screwed anyway. But that doesn't diminish your point: if one can lock-down Mod perm, it would reduce the risks.

(I still refuse to buy no-mod shoes, though! )

No matter how obvious or conclusive a copy might be, only a court can turn an allegation into actual infringement, until then it's just an alledged claim. Requiring a judge to issue a subpoena to get an alleged infringer's RL details is the way it works.

LL can make a judgement call on "ok, this was copybotted" and invoke the TOS section on abiding by the permissions system and suspend/ban account, but they're not banning someone because they stole content, they're banning someone because they circumvented the permissions system. They can not make a determination of who owns what and who infringed on who, only a court can.

You need to go to court anyway, getting a subpoena for the RL information is just a formality at that point, but a necessary one.

This is the sad part of this issue.

Even though Stroker's product was protected by DMCA, LL fought this to the wall, upholding the rights of the pirates, while side-stepping the rights of the creator only until it was no longer possible from a legal standpoint.

The pirates made a pile of money, and LL sent it to them.

This reeks of LL intransigence,

/agreed. And LL needs to take responsibility for it because they have been like a bank that left the vault unlocked and the front door open and then blame the thieves as though it is a big surprise that thieves will appear.

LL has made it possible for the theives to be here easily and get away with murder. They even supported the hackers who created the copybots as though they were just one big happy family.

Talk about beds---they are in bed with the ANTI-SL, anti-IP hackers.

Although ignorance is bliss, you and I know it's not an excuse applicable to law. Corporate law in the United States dictates "It's not what the company's officer knows, but what they are charged with knowing". Limitation of liability is only applicable where the officers of a company had no privity and/or knowledge of negligent or fraudulent acts. In this instance, LL was well aware of the likelyhood an infringement, yet refused to act accordingly. By allowing the pirate to continue, they perptuated the act of piracy and it's consequences, by making the situation irrepairable.

If you steal something, call me old-fashioned, but you are the one ultimately responsible for your actions.




Um. Hyperbole?

So to recap, you're very, very angry, and it comes through loud and clear. We get it. But what are you angry about exactly?

Reading all the posts in this thread just shows that in the end it is infact the consumer who gets bent over w\out the vasoline because of Content theft. People who purchased Items in good faith are the ones getting hurt from what I can tell. The creators who used Stolen Scripts. animations, textures or w\ever made thier $ and by now have cashed it out. Unless Real life Legal action is taken against these individuals, I for one can not see them being punnished.

Not entirely.

Although most acted in good faith, in all likelyhood, there is a group of users, who bought the object knowing full well it's a knock-off.

Cheapskates will be cheapskates.

How very true Mr. Herbst, however this just shows that being a Cheepskate and buying a Copycat\knock-off item will only hurt you in the end.

The SexGen case was about trademark infringement. DMCA covers copyright infringment. Two related, but still vastly different, things.

Yep. DMCA stands for Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmca

If this is infact over the use of full perm animations bought by E.C. and used in a way contrary to the license in effect at the time of purchase it then it would depend on the exact terms and the enforcablity of the license in question. If you sell something with full perms to be used in someone else's product and depend on a license to protect your rights the wording of the license becomes very important and is a matter for the court to decide. LL®™ removing all of an item that is used contrary to license without a court order would be wrong. Licenses are only as good as the money you use to defend them in court. And if they were sold as full perm for use and resale in other products then it is not a DMCA violation even if used out of license.

/agree

As well as providing a barrier to those who should be entitled to compensation.

By allowing the sale of the objects to continue during the "grey area" period, LL created the situation where any damages occuring are rendered irrepairable.

Yep, it is actually. The C in DCMA stands for copyright. The right to copy, which you hold, and may lease out to others under terms of your specification. Dates back to 1709, I believe.

When sold under a license the license takes predicdence. So it now beocomes a licensing disput not a copyright dispute. You have sold it to be copied, its just how it gets copied that is now in dispute and is now controlled by the license, a form of contract.

The underlying problem is SL's permission system.

Copy should not be alternatively linked to transfer, and by that same note, trans should not be inextricably linked to resell.

Yet again, these deficiencies are the creation and implimentation of Linden Lab, which stipulates to my assertion, that LL facilitates piracy in their interface.

Stroker's case involved both illegal copies and trademark abuse. Don't conflate the two issues.

True. But if this is a DMCA issue, copyright enforcement trumps all as the service provider (LL) must act on the infringement notice immediately, even before any judgement is possible, to ensure their safe harbor status. Essentially, the DMCA requires that LL come down like the fist of a vengeful god first and worry about sorting out right and wrong later (if at all).

A bank leaving their front door open and bank vault unlocked would be ultimately responsible to their depositors.

We all know that thieves exist that is no surpirse is it?





lol...How angry am I? It's not anger it is just plain disgust at sheer idiocy, of LL actions and for the resident complicity. One stupid move after another. Why do I care? Because, I too like the original concept/dream of SL and because I can spot self-destruction and scammer heaven when I see it.

True also but if these were sold as copy/transfer either with or without a license to use DMCA over a license dispute cold get the complainer in some deep legal trouble. Some of the animations that may be involved in this have For Resale in the description.

This thread is why other 3D worlds do not operate like SL... It is not because they can't, it is because they won't... For obvious reasons. One world allows creations but it has to go through an approval process before uploading.... There are limits in the other worlds for the very reasons posted here and for stability... I think LL is learning the hard way why the other worlds operate less freely...