Copyright - Omg How Dare You!!!!

just getting back in SL after being gone for a month, a friend of mine tps me. To my amazment someone has recreated my club Schmooze.. right down to the dj booth. I am sick to my stomach right now. I want to know what can be done about this. I have had schmooze since September 05. please see the pics that are this rip and my club and you tell me.
i HAVE NEVER EVER BEEN SO ANGRY AND HURT AS I AM RIGHT NOW.
to the rip off artist. I will everthing in my power to ensure your RIP OFF comes down.

RIP OFF PICS

Schmooze Pics

For you who dont know me I make videos in SL and after seeing the real Club Shmooze I had to make a video of it
http://naturalselectionstudios.com/videos/club_schmooz.mov

This is origional work in SL
you copy it - these are the rules - and this is what happens to you
http://secondlife.com/corporate/dmca.php

You people make me sick, Ive seen a lot of people steal origional ideas but this tops it all. Glad LL backs this up.

I was with Tya when we discovered this. It is a blatant copywright infringement. As clear a case as possible.

When confronted, the owner didn't respond to IMs and banned everyone who was there. Torley was notified with a link and pictures. Hopefully LL will take immediate action, remove the club and ban the jerk from SL.

Coordinates of the stolen club: Pollyesther's, Ear (189, 79, 46)

Coordinates of the original club: Schmooze, Pixel Dreams (31, 233, 103)

Go see this ripoff for yourself.

This Sucks as a friend and fan of Tya and her work I am outraged and as the owner of sim deveopment company I am apalled. This must be stopped. Tya darlin were with ya on this!

Wow, what a great copy.

I can't believe someone would take that much time copying in such detail a build and not trying to do something to make it look like it wasn't a complete ripoff.

You should start the ball rolling on the DMCA report, because from what I hear from others, unless its a verifiable trademark violation, good luck -- you probably won't get much help from the Lindens.

And if they do move on your behalf, there will be several dozen people who would have the right to raise hell because the Lindens didn't do anything for them when their designs were stolen.

Just follow the rules at the link to SL's DMCA policies and you should get some help, though.

the DMCA report - just did this

Playing devils advocate here.

It definatly has some look and feel to it, but where do you draw the line?

"I made a club with a bar and DJ booth so no one else can"

As far as I can tell he did NOT use your textures or copy your prims.

This would fall under "Trademark" or "design patent"

See disney "The Lion King" vs "Simba the white lion". Same plot, same theme, different colored lion.

{retorical}
How many different notes does a tune have to have before it's a different tune?
How many posible tunes are there?
How long before all posible tunes are owned?
{/retorical}

There is a lot more to making a club sucessful than it's looks.
In a way clubs are a fad in that they are only popular because they are popular.

Wow...
I really can't believe the level of some people. I will make sure everyone I can, knows about these slime... IM me if you want thier names

when someone builds they put a part of themselfs into it for it comes from their idea, which they then bring out to be seen. Tya has done this, it's hers, and it rather disturbing that someone else has come along and tried to clone what she had done. She worked hard on getting Her club to where it is, and for another to just come in and take is wrong.

From the pics, the orginal seems to look alot better, so much better that they might even look different enough to not infringe on copyright.
Have you talked to the owner, maybe they had someone build it for them and are not aware it was 'inspired' on Schmooze.

The owner wouldn't answer to IMs, she knows exactly what she did. They layout is exactly the same, the textures are different bc she does not own the same ones Tya has. There is NO WAY this is an accident. Go to both clubs and see for yourself.

OMG, I cannot believe this. This club is like every other club in SL, a black box, a bar, some particles and a DJ both wow, and those aren’t features I have seen anywhere else (sarcasm). If your going to claim copyright infringement perhaps you should hop on the Al Gore bandwagon and take credit for the internet while your at it.

its not an accident. to the dj booth and to the upper stage .. vip rooms.. even down to the bar chairs and dance cages.


I have never ever been so hurt before from this game. tonight, it takes the cake.

You three "builders" know exactly what you did. You should be ashamed of yourself. Wait til you make something and put hours and hours and hours into a build only to hav someone one take it from you.

What a wonderful welcome back to SL after leaving my husband after 10 years and moving on my own. Ty for the wonderful gift. NOT

OH.. go to snapzilla and type in Pixel Dreams. Plently of pics of schmooze.. from way way back.

EXCUSE ME! YOU AND YOUR CLAN ARE THE ONES THAT RIPPED ME OFF AND FROM WHAT I AM HEARING TONIGHT, ITS A COMMON THING FOR YOU PEOPLE. HOW DARE YOU!

You are a member of the group that owns the club, not surprising you would support the theft.

OK, this is like the dumbest thing I have ever heard. I own this club, I built this club, I own all my textures, most I got from Textures R us YEAY LillyBeth (add plug , some I even made.

The reason you all were removed from my lot, was because of your Ims to me. No one messaged me and said hey I have a problem with you’re club (can we talk about this), what was said was hey as*hole, you’re a liar , blah blah blah Ill leave the rest out as you, I’m sure get the idea (an it gets allot worse, as I can see they all have left out). I’m not going to spend hrs in Ims with yall, just arguing, over who is stupider then whom. Seems like a huge waste of my time and I’m sure yours.

If this is the worst thing that has ever happened to you in you’re WHOLE life, you must be the luckiest person I know, or even in the world. There is floods and war, and famine, and the worst thing is my box looks like yours? WOW!

I can’t say for sure I know exactly what the problem even is, that my club looks like yours and you want like a banner up or something that says my club looks like yours? Or you think I’m going to sell it, and make piles or????? I guess I don’t know. Allot of things in sl look like other peoples things, rl things, or things I have even seen in movies.

http://www.worldsbestbars.com/city/toronto/schmooze-toronto.htm as you can see club schmooze already exists, and from what I can read here it sucks.

“Schmooze has to be the worst club in Toronto! The music is horrible, the service is disastrous ... Schmooze is a good club, once you get past the door men. ...” (to quote google, these are not my words)

http://wuxx.sharepoint.bcentral.com/pix/Club%20Schmooze%2020040228/Forms/AllItems.aspx

Did these people steal your club as well? Cause looks to me like you stole their name. So let’s not be throwing stones when we live in glass houses!


Elphaba Gould

I won’t be reading this post anymore, as I don’t see what good can come of it 

Excuse me? how dare you. i had a friend sit there and watch me building this for over a month. dont you tell me i ripped people off. how dare you

LMAO i am from toronto ..and well i like the name schmooze.. how dare you rebuild someone elses creatioin and deny it

Both of the clubs are shit. As far as I can remember, shit isn't intellectual property, unless you visit the patent office every morning, after your cereal, to copyright it.

Anyway, the thread should be closed and the matter settled elsewhere.

thank you for your comments - (sarcasm)

Of course LL must take care of copyright issues... or all of us designers will not feel good in SL...

I hope that a representative from LL make an new thread and tell old or new or best AL statements about how LL will secure copyrights in SL....

Please.


/Tina

..and Tya your link dont work for me... sorry...if it are a link?)

/Tina

As someone who has known Tya from my first day in SL, which is creeping up on 2 years now, she has an extraordinary talent and has developed her own building style that is diffucult to even compare to. These asshats have obviously "created" a very piss-poor replication of Tya's Schmooze, which was started late summer of '05 if I remember correctly. How's it feel to be the unoriginal owner of a sorely pathetic and SAD copy of one of SL's best club-builds ever??