Reel Expression

I love me a good protest.

By now, most of you know what has been going on in SL for the past few days. Blogs, forums and IW groups have been hopping all over this ‘issue.’ Now that time has passed and more and more things have become very clear.

First of all we have the fact that copybot can only copy prims. Granted that should not be overlooked, but it was initially presented to us during the Seller’s Guild meeting by the libSL people that it will make permanant copies of everything. Including clothes, skins, hair, acessories and even animations. Never once did they say it is only temporary. Why? Because of the contempt they hold for all SL content creators (that aren’t them)? And how it was so blantently put on that IRC log how they want us to be hysterical? They thought it was funny.

Look at what has happened to the residents of SL over this. Bitching, screaming, insulting, backstabbing, fearmongering, railroading, generalizing and out right dismissing other’s opinions not based on what they are but why they believe the other thinks that way. Ok yes, actually quite typical in SL, but come on.

It seems that everyone falls into at least one of the following catagories and most even in multiple:
1. Content creators in fear of someone profiting off their hard work.
2. Content creators pissed at LL.
3. Content creators stuck in the middle not knowing what to do because of the amount of spin from all sides.
4. Content creators who believe thieves will never be able to steal our creativity.
5. Copybot creators and supporters.
6. Drama queens with really no agenda.
7. Our faithful customers who are affraid for us.
8. Our faithful customers who are upset that we think they will steal.
9. LL lap dogs.
10. Residents who believe we are overly egotistical and charge too much as it is.
11. The rest that didn’t know what was going on.

I’m not here to point fingers. This is my blog so I’m going to describe what happened in my slice of the world and the timeline of the past few days including events/conversations/thoughts/feelings.

When I first was pointed to the yourtube video of it I was disgusted. Typical for me it was directed to baddly shot/cut aspect and the fact that I had absolutly no idea what the stupid thing was doing. Seriously I thought it was just another randomly bad SL machinima.

Then I started actually reading the rants going on in the seller’s guild IM channel. And actually it didn’t bother me so much. Why? Because people steal every single fucking day. Whether it be via glintercept, ideas, downloaded animations, ect. LL does jack shit about it. Whether they can or not is actually not the issue. There are steps they can take. How about more tiers for accounts? Like limited free basic accounts, less limiting verrified basic acounts CC/Paypal/license/passport to put a RL actual name to the avie, priemium, and then landholders. Then you have the enhansed metadata tags that for years said was impossible but now are spoon feeding it to us. And then a zero tolerance policy on theft.

Don’t get me wrong. Theft is bad. Really fucking bad. Especially in SL. I have never been technically stollen from but I’ve had my ideas copied twice that I know of. Once I’ve explained in the first post. The other is from someone getting an early viewing of a set I was creating then they made the same damn thing. Some of the poses match a bit too closely for my taste. And oddly enough a few others. I hadn’t been around SL a lot due to work and family visiting and I put the finished set out far later then I expected. The other person put theirs out before and I actually recieved hate IMs about copying! I actually laughed when the alt wished for my death for copying my own idea! But that’s just my odd sense of humour at play.

Oh yeah I was talking about something else wasn’t I? Then the personal IMs started coming. Wasn’t I pissed? Not anymore then I already was. What was I going to do? Nothing much out of the ordinary. Then I got an offline IM about the Seller’s Guild Meeting about it. At the time I was beta testing my new favourite kill kill kill game, so I fired up SL on my laptop. Saddly I had gotten there after Robin Linden had left and had to get the chat log.

This is when I started to get pissed off. Typical for me, it wasn’t the bandwagon sort of anger. That baba fucktard oozed ego. I mean this was just as bad as some of the FICtards. There was something just off about him. For me reading it, even then, it was like he was trying to stir the pot. You can believe me or not on this one. I’m pretty fucking good at reading people. I really can’t explain it much more then that.

The bit about Robin and LL’s response at that meeting was typical. They don’t care. They might make something far enough down the road to shut us up. PR smoothing out BS.

Then the shit hit the fan. What moron at LL allowed that first blog post? Ok LL, you are starting to get hysterical content creators so what do you do? I know! You post on the blog naming the program, that copying isn’t bad, and give a link on how to get it. Smart. Real fucking brilliant.

So I’m standing at my shop while reading the blog on the lappy. I’m reading all the IMs. I’m getting message after message that protests are happening. I take one look at my mini map and see people shopping at mine and the other shops at Lalique. It’s something like 5am. I’m wired off of tea and killing MMOs. And I start to panic. I worry about what people are going to do to the vendors on Lalique whom I adore. I worry about my shop. I worry about the economy tanking and the island I’m buying at the end of the month. I worry about the idea I might have to get a *gasp* office temp job during the editing down season that will last until spring. I worry that the plans for Lalique 2.0 will go down in flames for the second time in a month.

And then the cunt from downstairs starts to play her thumping music. At this point I had taken to wearing high heels all the time and pacing on the woodfloors no matter what time it was. So I start to pace. It’s 5am. I’m in my pjs, a thick jumper and heels.

This is the real kicker

And then I get pissed. I get pissed at LL. For promising all these things and taking them away. For me it wasn’t about the copybot. It wasn’t about the hysteria, even if for a brief moment I felt it. It was LL and their disreguard for paying customers. To those of us who work our asses off for less then minium wage to create a better world. To create things we are proud of. To put ourselves so fully into something. Just so they can twist it into a PR scam to get corporations, investors, and unsuspecting customers. And then to shove it all down our throats and treat us like children with their double speak and broken promises.

And so I put my land to group only. Why? Not because I thought LL would listen. They never do. It is because I didn’t want to be here anymore. I didn’t need the stress. I haven’t been able to create a fucking thing since the price hike because corporations are willing to pay it. It was the nail in the coffin for me. The continued degradation of quality residents. The horrible tech support when my expensive laptop should run SL but didn’t. The broken promises. I feel betrayed. I have put so much into the past 2 1/2 years in SL. From giving free editing classes that no one attends. To attempting to step up the quality of modeling poses into an art form because your amazing designs deserve it. To helping someone build a large shop in a rush because a builder shafted her. To the time spent as a mentor and live helper. And all the little things I’ve done to make people feel better.

The fallout of this decision? Now I am greedy. My ego is too big by thinking people would actually steal from me. I am a bandwaggoner. I am hysterical. I am nieve. I am an idiot. I am a witch-hunter. I am McCarthy. That is just some of the things we have been called by residents and other content creators. This shit made me sick.

Not only that but it was going both ways. Fucking hell it was going all ways. People seemed to be on this fucking “you are either for us or against us” shite. I really hate closed minded people like that. The process one takes to form opinions is the important part, not necessarily the exact opinion. It is something to be respected. Not this bashing eachother over the heads with sticks to see who’s is bigger.

Now logically there are morons out there. There are morons in SL. Far more then I’d like to admit. There are a few who’s opinions are downright horrible. Their reasoning is even worse. But to group every single fucking person who shares that opinion as a moron is idiotic as best. Sometimes even the most assinine opinion has to be at least respected because of the reasoning behind it.

I know by now Alle is freaking out on if I’m leaving SL. The answer is I should, but I’m not. I like the creations I make. I like the process of it. I like those moments of dancing on cows. That’s what SL is to me. A place where if I don’t like you, I can just mute you.

Cheers
Luth