Name associations?
Yesterday I was having a chat with Sara - my super nice customer service person - who told me that Zach Wolfe of Outrider Animations had contacted her. Comes to find out that someone is using our names to sell his animation business in a box.
BUSINESS IN A BOX ANIMATION
500+ ANIMATIONS.
gestures, dances, animation overriders,dance animations, poses, dance machines, - Animations and Poses
Dances & Synced Couples Dances
Animations & Dances for tinies
Couples Walks, Animations & Attachments
Resell, Reseller, Full Perms, Business in the Box, Permissions, Permission, Yor own Business, Transfer, Start, Wholesale, full permissions HUDDLES, ZHAO, Outrider, Abranimations, Reel Movement, Syncamation, Motion Merchant, Rickymations, Hammer, gestures
urnitures,sleep,lesbian,les,fuck,sexbed,gentec,sexgen,sexbed,menu,animated,MLP,multilove pose,multilovepose,Xcite,Xcite!,x cite,poses, ,menu driven, sex beds, sex bed, heart shaped bed w/ menu Valentines sex bed, heart shaped sex bed, Sex Rugs, Sex Hot Tubs fine furniture,fine art granite marble fireplaces rugs, ,cuddle, rugs, leather sofas ,sofa, rug ,CG Design, sex rug, fuck ,animation, furniture, dragon beds,
When I read all that mess of a classified, I ported over there to see if some of my work from any number of permissions bugged poses fell into the wrong hands. Saddly, he’s selling a box within a box so I can’t look inside to see. The entire set is L$2k which I normally wouldn’t have a problem paying but I don’t want to give this jackass any money.
Even if he isn’t selling my poses, it’s still a trademark violation. It’s implying that my work is in that box. LL does nothing about those sorts of things. I’ve worked my ass off for the past 3 years for name recongnition, mainly due to the high quality of work, and this moron is trying to make money off that work.
Another problem I have with it is associating my name with all those sex keywords. I’m not a moron, I’ve always known that I’d make a lot more money making sex animations, but that just doesn’t interest me. I’m no prude nor am I against sex in SL, I just wanted to make something artistic and origional. Itegrity may be part of it, but spending hours animating avies fucking just doesn’t sound like fun. The problem is that I don’t want to be associated with sex animations. Just like some chic fashion designer wouldn’t want to be associated with stripper clothes. It’s partially an image thing and it’s partially that I’m bloody sick of the at least 1 IM a day asking for sex animations. Times that by 3 years and its atleast 1,095 IMs asking for sex animations. I don’t make them. I don’t want some random classified associating me with them.
The last issue is reselling. I fucking hate this new reselling trend in SL. Some have even tried to do reselling contracts with me as if I can’t market my own stuff. The only person making money off my hard work in SL, is going to be me. No one new coming into SL will be able to market my products so much better that it would be worth more then my 3 years of an established presense. Not to mention that I’m very very picky on the ads and the buildings my stuff is in. I get countless notecard mall invites spam that very rarely is anything worth looking into. All of them say it’s the “best place” or have the “best content” in SL and it’s always incorrect. If you have to tell people you are the best, then you really aren’t.
While there are legit reselling going on, these business in a box crap has proven time and time again to not be. Most are filled with freebies while others are stollen items. I do not want my name associated with that at all.
Technically, I shouldn’t have to worry about this sort of thing. I should be able to file a report with LL stating that someone is using my name who is not authorized. LL then should make them take it down. Just like how the DMCA reports are supposed to go. But because of LL’s policy of not getting involved, there is nothing we can do about it. Zach told me today that 1 person has filed trademark violations about it.
How it stands now is that we are going to stand together and make a stink about it. 1 voice isn’t going to do much about it, and knowing LL all of us isn’t going to make a difference. But who knows?
