I disagree that it hurts consumers.Its no different than RL . I can buy a knockoff handbag in midtown Manhatttan for $100 and then go to Chinatown and find it there for $50.. If I want the “real deal” I go to a trusted designer or department store.

The issue then becomes one of either poor business (giving away your rights to something that another person then makes a fortune out of) or limited creativity (they all look the same – how dull).

Whichever it is, it is very different from real IP theft, and just because it takes place in a virtual world doesn’t provide immunity from real world litigation – if you create stuff in SL, you DO have certain ownership rights, even if other folks think “it’s just a game.”

I expect to see more and more real world cases related to virtual world IP theft coming out over the next few years.

This has always been my view too. With little or no production input costs and a limited level of inworld detail it inevitable that everything will eventually be either coppied or bettered by something much cheaper. Clothing and furniture creators are just fooling themselves and trying to bully the market into being less responsive. If 100 people use the same model shoe object and retexture it – just because you made one from scratch doesn’t make you a better person – if anything it reflects badly on you because you clearly have a lot of free time. And… with 100 variations floating around you will eventually find a) the best texture and b) the cheapest product. The reason you dislike these people is because through sheer numbers of creators participating in the market, products will eventually be made which are both better and cheaper than yours. There are some products that are very professionally made and SL may suffer as a result – but most of you creators are below mediocre and diserve to be squeezed out of the market. You tend to be petty, talentless and greedy. Grow up.

I assume these people have a talent with being able to make animations o sculpties, but might not be as artistically gifted or have the desire to texture it or maybe just market it for sale to the sl community. So one of their big customers are businesses such as mine that buy these full permission with agreeing to their rules with using them. Has this been bad for sl as a whole, hell NO. It has giving store owners and creators better building blocks to use for their products, just look at the quality of furniture now compared to 2 years back.

What really bothers me are idiots that say to stop this just buy them and distribute them to the freebie warehouses. Its people like you that make this a bad thing, not the original person that sold it as a builders pack. Also, yes what you are doing is illegal if you do that.

Yes and no. It differs per country.

In the UK and Netherlands for example that goes, but in the US the ‘poor mans copyright’ (e.g. mailing the work to yourself and keeping it in a sealed envelope: thus giving you proof of the date of creation by the mailstamp) was only valid untill 1978. Also, a work must meet minimal standards of originality in order to qualify for copyright.

In SL the creation date is very easily proven, however you have to keep the original object (or texture etc) as any copy you will make will take on the creation date of the copy. (careful when building, in SL, the object you drag away when copying, is the original and not the copy!)

Minimal standards of originality, is where the problem in SL would arise. I have seen very little real originality in SL, and especially when it comes to clothing. Something like a general shoe shape wouldnt really be enough for a copyright, so I think you’re on the safe side when it comes to giving these shoeshapes to a freebie reseller.

After all, they are (from what I gather from the article) full perms and meant for resale.

It’s best tho to go with what the LL TOS has to say. RL laws apply in RL court when it comes to that, but lawyers cost money and I personally woulndt go trough the trouble of getting in trouble with the Lindens on my main account.

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