I was reading through some very interesting discussions on the SL Resident Answers forums earlier on today. One in particular being a discussion about ‘theivery in SL’.  Questions arose about such topics as ‘have we all become too paranoid?’  ‘Why do people steal ideas or indeed items from others?’ 

Well the concensus seems to be that they are just too lazy to go out and learn how to create themselves, or they are inherently dishonest people in RL so it must also translate into SL that the same is true.

There are so many wonderfully talented people in SL who manage to create all sorts of amazing and unique things that many of us would be slightly lost without.  Personally, I’m a gadget freak…I like to go gadget hunting on a regular basis, whether I need to or not, makes no difference to me! There are some amazing clothing designers out there also, people who have made a name for themselves and are counted as being at the top of their chosen field.  Then there are the scripters!  I’m the type of person who will try anything once (within reason )  I took a scripting class a little while ago…it flew so far over my head that I actually got whiplash trying to follow it’s path.  Anyway, my point being that I have an enormous respect for scripters, It appears to be such a complex activity, well for me it is, and I admire anyone who has obviously taken the time to learn and understand it the way that they do.  Another field of expertise that I’m constantly amazed at is ’skinning’.  There is such an artistry to it and I believe it is extremely time-consuming activity.  

Anyway, you may think that I’m rambling slightly here, but there is a point to it… I promise

Let’s say for instance, that you were a ’skinner’  and you’d just completed work on a skin that you thought was your best ever, the most realistic and unique skin that you’d ever created.  Here’s the scenario…….  you put it up for sale for a decent price, which for really good skins can be well over 1000L$.  Then, someone comes along and somehow ’steals’ your skin by copying the textures..which I’ve heard can actually be done!  How would you feel about it?  Would you say to yourself, ‘well, it’s just ‘virtual skin’ , it doesn’t really exist in the real world so I’m not really getting robbed’.  Hey I can still sell my skin, someone else selling it for a quarter of the price really doesn’t hurt my business’……OR……..’ Bloody Hell!  How dare someone do this to me…I’ve worked damn hard on that skin and now it’s being sold for peanuts… I’m taking this issue up with the courts…since it’s my ‘intellectual property’…….

I myself make items in Second Life…a bit of this and that.  I’ve tried my hand at almost everything.  I think that if I had made something extraordinary, that took the SL world by storm only to have it copied and sold from under me, then I would be very very very angry indeed.  Personally, I rent a store to sell my items because it’s fun for me, it actually relaxes me at the end of the day to ‘play shop’..lol   If I were depending on my SL income to support me in RL, then I would be one very broke and very hungry avatar!  But there are people who do use their SL income to support their RL one, or indeed replace it and I think that their outrage at being ’stolen’ from would be quite understandable.

What would your thoughts be on this matter? I suppose it all depends on how your view SL, is it a ‘game’ or has it become more a part of the real world than we’d like it to be? 

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Whilst browsing the various forums today, I noticed quite a lot of posts concerning ‘age verification’.  Some people don’t mind it while others seem vehemently opposed to the idea.  Personally, I haven’t really made up my mind yet.  Part of me thinks that maybe it’s not such a bad idea and hopefully it may stop minors from flooding the main grid and being places where they’re not supposed to be.  On the other hand, I have to say that I wouldn’t be that happy giving out my personal identification numbers to Linden Lab or indeed anyone for that matter. 

According to the various forum posts, there are some people who have tried to ‘get verified’ by using their passport numbers….with no success I might add.  You can also use your social security number in order to complete the verification process.  Now I definitely would not use mine to verify, and from reading the posts on the forums, neither would anyone else.  

Apparently, parcel owners can voluntarily flag their land as ‘mature’ and the responsibility to use the age verification system lies with them.  I’m just wondering how long it will be before the system becomes mandatory.  

It seems that which each day that passes, Second Life becomes more and more like real life.  Surely that sort of defeats the purpose for a lot of residents.  Paying VAT, verifying your RL age, taxes etc….  What’s the point in having a premium account and paying a monthly or yearly fee for the privilage, when you could just as easily have the same hassles and issues in RL….for no subscription at all!!

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Content and copyright theft within Second Life is a very real and serious issue and there have been many heated debates as of late regarding this very matter.  It is being claimed that items from some of SL’s top designers such as Simone Stern and Nephaline Protagonist are being ripped off and being re-sold without the original creators permissions.  I think you’ll agree that it’s quite understandable that such designers are very angry and upset at this.  They are amongst SL’s top designers and have obviously worked incredibly hard on their designs so their rather strong  feelings on the matter are quite understandable under the circumstances. 

There are a few names that are constantly cropping up within discussions about theft.. one of them being Adrianna Marquez who runs her own re-sell business.  She has been accused of alledgedly selling stolen skins and clothing.  I contacted Adrianna in-world and spoke to her regarding the recent accusations against her…….

[13:39]  Adrianna Marquez: first off id like to say many of those
acusations are fasle and made up
[13:39]  Adrianna Marquez: they are sayiong ihave things i dont even have
[13:39]  Pocket Pfeffer: well, that’s why I wanted to talk to you
first……what are your thoughts on the whole thing….

[13:47]  Adrianna Marquez: and they are crucifying me over the rase
kenzo thing and didnt bother to ask me when that conversation took
place or why
[13:47]  Adrianna Marquez: a few months rase came to me saying he was
getting out of the resale buisness
[13:47]  Pocket Pfeffer: I was going to ask you about that….what
exactly is your connection to him
[13:47]  Adrianna Marquez: and offered me some of his clothes
[13:48]  Adrianna Marquez: and i bought clothes off him
[13:48]  Adrianna Marquez: i got scammed
[13:48]  Adrianna Marquez: when i got the boxes half of it was missing
and or missing from data base
[13:48]  Pocket Pfeffer: that’s unfortunate alright…..
[13:48]  Adrianna Marquez: so i saved that conversation and sent to
other resellers so they dont get scammed
[13:48]  Pocket Pfeffer: ah I see……..
[13:48]  Adrianna Marquez: it was a month later that this thing with
rase came out
[13:49]  Adrianna Marquez: how was i to know it was gotton illegally
[13:49]  Adrianna Marquez: iw as fighting with him cause he sold me crap
[13:49]  Pocket Pfeffer: have you spoken to him since about it
[13:49]  Adrianna Marquez: nope
[13:49]  Adrianna Marquez: i dont talk to him at all after that
[13:50]  Pocket Pfeffer: I understand that completely…..
[13:50]  Adrianna Marquez: i havent been biuying as much resale either lately
[13:50]  Adrianna Marquez: i have been doing much better with the new
items i have
[13:51]  Pocket Pfeffer: There was another thing I wanted to ask
you….and I’m only asking so I can try to fully understand everything
and to give you a chance to have your say.  There was a mention of
selling skins under an alt’s name…..
[13:51]  Adrianna Marquez: and as yous ee from my note cards i got
them all from creators
[13:51]  Pocket Pfeffer: Is that store stll in business?
[13:52]  Adrianna Marquez: the only thing gretchen is guilty of is
selling things she found at yadni s junk yard

For those of you who are not familar with Rase Kenzo, he currently has a lawsuit against him regarding theft within Second Life.

[14:02]  Adrianna Marquez: i have one side question for you
[14:02]  Pocket Pfeffer: sure…
[14:02]  Adrianna Marquez: not pertaining to this note or anything
[14:02]  Pocket Pfeffer: okay
[14:02]  Adrianna Marquez: do you know where most people get their designs from/
[14:02]  Adrianna Marquez: meaning clothing
[14:02]  Adrianna Marquez: even furniture?
[14:03]  Pocket Pfeffer: well I’m sure a lot of it is photosourced
etc…. I make clothing…and I just use ideas from my real life
wardrobe……
[14:03]  Adrianna Marquez: so is that not stealing?
[14:03]  Adrianna Marquez: if someone else created it?
[14:04]  Adrianna Marquez: everyone is so quick to say they created
something and have dmca rights
[14:04]  Adrianna Marquez: when they took it from something someone else created
[14:07]  Pocket Pfeffer: I think that may be true for certain items
that have textures from copyrighted characters such as disney…or
using a well known logo……but I think that if someone has created
something in-world then they have certain rights to it…  I mean,
everyone creates t-shirts skirts, tops, etc…
[14:07]  Pocket Pfeffer: it’s the design, colour, texture etc that
makes in individual to the creator

 To be quite honest, I did find Adriana’s question to me quite hard to answer.  Regarding design ideas, I can only speak for myself. I do feel that designers who create original items in-world have rights to them.  It would be wrong to say that someone who creates an original gown or suit is ’stealing’ just because someone else has already created a gown.  I’m sure that whoever invented denim jeans is rolling around in their grave right about now.. It’s a bit difficult for me to explain…but can you imagine Ralph Lauren sueing Tommy Hillfigger because he makes jeans also?  I’m using jeans here as an example…but of course it applies to clothing in general. 

Adrianna also mentioned that if "something is photosourced then it’s fair game".  I’m sure that if two people created something using the same photo, it’d probably turn out quite different according to the designers skill and expertise.

We also discussed ‘Business-in-a-Box- items and the concept in general…but I think that topic deserves it’s own seperate post so stay tuned for that one.

I will be exploring this subject further in the next week or so..  I am following up on some information given to me by various people so when I know more, you will too.. :-) 

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