[Opensim-users] Speaking of Content Theft, How About Our Own Backyard?

[Michael Cortez]

On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 2:09 PM, Len Brown <lenwbrown at gmail.com> wrote:
>      Sadly, there's not a single thing she can do.
>

Actually, technically there is.  Every writer or photographer since
copyright laws went into affect can file a lawsuit against anyone who
plagiarizes their content and since the introduction of the DMCA they
have a certain level of recourse in compelling the service providers
that host infringing material to reveal what identify information they
have on file for someone illegitimately using their copy-written
material.

It's probably not worth the cost of the time and effort needed for it
to come to fruition, and it would likely only result in the offenders
removing her copy-written material with no way of getting monetary
damages or recouping legal fees.


on Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 5:57 PM John Mieske <johnmieske at gmail.com> wrote:
> three years ago, I started to just give stuff away. I realized there is no way to secure
> your items you try to sell in SL or in anything online social network now days. Not
> enough money in it and pirateers will always.. and I do mean ALWAYS find a way if
> they want it bad enough. The way I personally look at it, if you don't mind your stuff
> getting stolen then put it out there, otherwise your just wasting time trying to secure
> it.

For some reason I have never really been able to agree with this
particular point of view.

Photographers, writers, music, radio, television and movie producers
have all been subject to people copying their content, using it in
ways they never intended, giving free copies away, selling duplicates,
or even plagiarizing, often without the original creator getting
credit.

Yet for some reason when someone fails at any of the businesses
associated with these types of products, the fact that their
intellectual property can (and will be) illegally copied, is rarely
cited as the primary reason for failure to be profitable, become well
known, or help out your fellow man (depending on your original goals.)

With proper marketing making it easy for people to find you, with good
pricing so that your competitive, with support that makes it clear
it's better to use your direct products rather than knock offs or
copies, with continued innovation of new products and services it is
possible to not only make a profit, but to make a living producing
material than can (and will be) stolen.

Yes, I'll admit there are many out there that wish they could
create/invent a handful of items and through the patent, copyright, or
trademark laws be able to sell their creation without the associated
business costs of dealing with copy cats and thieves, so that they can
make profit from their intellectual property in perpetuity.  But the
simple fact of the matter is, that type of business climate started
slipping away in the 40's and is increasingly difficult to achieve.
Especially in a digital market place, where it is relatively easy for
your IP to be stolen.

For me it's not really so much "if you don't mind your stuff getting
stolen" -- I don't really think anyone likes to have their stuff
stolen.  For me it's more about recognizing the market place, and the
requirements and repercussions of doing business in that market, and
making an informed decision to compete or not.

On a personal note, I think a lot of the artists could make quite a
bit of additional profit bylicensing their textures and creations via
a normal web site, using paypal, that does not directly target SL or
any particular Grid.  I have for example, tracked down an artist that
sells textures via TRU (who has a strict no non-SL policy), and found
that the artist licensing their own textures via the web for use
*anywhere* and doesn't even mention SL on their website.  The web site
happens to directly mention Poser/Daz3D, game and 3D content
developers.  I was more than willing to pay $30/USD to buy their
texture pack outside SL, and as per the terms of the license I can use
those anywhere (including in SL or OSGrid) as long as I don't
redistribute them as a texture pack -- I'm free to use them on my own
creations, even if I'm selling them.

Cheers,
--
Michael