Let’s take a simple analogy that lets us understand what’s going on here.

Assume, for instance, you build and sell a certain product at a specific market. This product is distinct and protected under copyright law. A good example for the uncreative is an iPod.

Now, the market allows anyone to sell their products on their property but only as long as they pay them a fee for a certain booth. Similarly, any income tenants make is taxed. They also allow their tenants to advertise and sell their products on the market’s website, however, any sales made on this website are chopped apart by a heavy tax. Overall, the market’s owner makes a very good profit on the operation.

Unfortunately, the talents that you possess in creating your trinkets are only valued by that market. You cannot sell your trinkets in another market unless you make major changes to the method in which you create them, changes which are financially infeasible and not worth your time as compared to sustaining the fees that are tacked on by the market you sell at.

Now, you make a good profit by selling these trinkets at the market – so much, in fact, that a certain unscrupulous person takes interest. Day after day he inspects your trinkets inside out but because the market allows this, you have nothing to do but stand there and threaten him.

Suddenly, one day the vendor across from you decides to move out. Guess who moves in? Yep. Somehow, the guy has a stock of identical products from your copyrighted design, and he’s selling them at a lower price. However, he does not let anyone know who he is – he uses a fake name and nobody but the market has records on him. When you confront him, he does not respond. He simply ignores you.

The next day you come over with some plywood and start boarding up his shop because you haven’t made a single sale since he’s moved in. It’s for your own protection, you say. The market owner comes by and lets you know that you’ve been evicted for a week because of harassment. You try to tell him what’s going on and he says he’ll get back to you.

A week later you come back and reopen your shop. You once again call up the market’s owner and leave a message on his answering machine. No return call. You finally decide that your only option is to lower your prices below his. You do so and begin to make sales once again.

Suddenly, you get a call from your friend. Turns out someone stole a truckload of your trinkets and they’re giving them away at the entrance to the market. You give up and give one last call to the market’s owner, but once again, no return call. You’re now broke and your business has been ruined.

Two weeks later, you get a call from the market owner. He lets you know that because the tenant is a paying customer, he has a right to be there. Furthermore, the tenant is not doing anything against the market’s terms of service. They abruptly hang up without letting you respond.

You decide enough is enough and you send a cease and desist letter to the tenant who sells your products – however, because you do not know their address, you must do this through the market’s website. You have no method of verifying whether this is sent through or not, and after all is said and done, nothing happens.

Now, here’s the question – what do you do? I don’t know about you, but because I don’t know who the tenant is, I’d sue the market for allowing such activity to take place on their property and taking a profit off of illegal activity, then refusing to enforce the law within their private property. Regardless of whether or not they allowed you to start your business, they participated in the transfer and ownership of profits from the sale of stolen property and refused to enforce the applicable laws.

It’s never about who is wrong or who is right. It’s about who has the power and if they are willing to use it or not. Cheers!

If you rip a tv program and put it on youtube it gets taken down

If you sell copied brand-name handbags at your local market, your place gets shut down.

Do it in SL? The lab turn a blind eye and just enjoy the revenue you make.

Well done Stroker, it must have been a hard desicion but I’m sure worth it for securing the future of virtual worlds and content

Oh wait – you assume that I’m not having a RL job? Wrong!

I’m a RL graphic designer (2D & 3D) having fun in SL.
I wouldn’t be able to support my family just with SL.
How dare you are to tell me to get a RL job.
Yes I had to use SL for a while as a RL income while recovering from a bad car accident
which was caused by a drunk truck driver who rammed my car.
So if you wanna blame me for that – go ahead – have fun.

<—- rolls his eyes

I highly doubt that you’re a creator in SL – otherwise you wouldn’t spread such utter BS.
LL gave us a platform – yes – but LL isn’t paying us for our design. It’s actually the
customers / resident who are paying us.
LL gives us nothing.. absolutely NADDA – since We are the one who are paying THEIR paychecks with the money we made in SL. Easy like that.
Where would be SL or LL without US the “real” content creators fighting for our goddamn rights to finally prevent these human trash stealing OUR work.

Now I wanna quote you:
“Without SL, where would you be? Go start a sex bed business in real life! People would laugh in your face.”

Err… now that was the point where you lost it completely.(Or you are living in the center of the Bible Belt far far away?)
There is a Sex Bed Industry in RL providing RL people with RL Sex Beds.
Just think about the BDSM industry (and yes it’s an industry meanwhile) with all sorts
of twisted Beds coming with cuffs – chains – and other unbelievable features.
Or why do you think that someone invented in the mid 50′s the coin operated vibrating Bed mostly been seen in cheap motels or other “known” places.
You can’t spit across your table and say… Allllllright this is the end of the world as I know it.
Maybe one should think twice before posting rubbish.

Fact is: The more stolen products hit SL the less the income of “honest” Creators is.
And this means Creators have to shut down their business or even worse their Sims.
The direct result is being reflected in the all over economy of SL.
Because Content thieves will NEVER add to the SL economy in ANY way. They are just in SL to make money for their own profit without spending it in or for SL.

The only one who profits from Content thieves is Linden Lab.
They give a &%$/( where the money comes from they are processing with 3.5 %.
Easy like that.
In some states even countries helping others directly or indirectly spreading / selling / distributing stolen Stuff is being treated as: Concealment of stolen goods.
This isn’t a funny law and should be enforced in SL like in RL because we’ve been sitting in front of our screens hours and hours – day and night just to get our creations on. So it’s OUR damn right that our stuff is being protected by law.
And if LL isn’t interested in such a law they should be treated like the ones who actually steal it. LL helps such individuals inderectely with their screwed up policy.

I think I’m gonna stop now before I’m really getting angry.

Have a good one! Cheers

I’m a content creator, have been stolen from (before you all start saying oh but you don’t know what it’s like, yes I do but I act responsibly), and I’m standing by LL. They may make mistakes at times but they gave us SL. Without SL, where would you be? Go start a sex bed business in real life! People would laugh in your face.
I’m not depending on this GAME to pay my rent and they owe me nothing. I’m thankful for what I do get from them… I mean getting money to do what you enjoy?? Get a real job.