Reel Expression

Conflicting things have happened lately that have made me question the ethics of the SL community. The entire IP battle has been fought at least since you could exchange you hard earned L$. The problem I have is where the line is?

It seems to me that everyone has their own opinions on the rights and wrongs of source material. I remember quite a while ago when a resident posted proof on the forums that a well known designer was copying designs from a clothing website. Some people were outraged, while others defended it. Now, I understand this is pretty common in SL. A designer finds an outfit they like and they takes bits from it, use as inspiration, draw it by hand, or even just photo source it.

One of the explanations for this is that changing it into working with the SL mesh is enough. Fair use is brought in to play as you can use anything as source as long as you change it enough. But what really is enough? The sidewalk purse vendors change the labels of Louis Vuitton, Prada, Kate Spade, Coach, Burberry, Gucci and Fendi, is that enough? Can a person who copies RL designs still be considered a designer?

There was also a while there when designers were calling other designers out on copying them. Most instances of this seemed to be shrugged off with responses of “probably used the same source photo,” “changed enough,” and even “the copy is higher quality.” Most of the original posters were tar, feathered, and run off. Granted this could very well be the explanation, but we never really do know as it tended to be decided on by who had the most vocal friends.

Then we have the photo sourcing debate. Some say it is ok, others don’t. Then there are those of us in the middle that believes taking bits like I dunno, buttons or something is ok. Again, it seems to be this grey area that no one can agree on.

Next up is downloaded material. Things like textures – not really called upon but happen all the time. 3d clothing sets found on sites like renderocity. And then there are BVH animation files that have saturated SL like a bloody plague. This all seems to be a non issue for some reason. I’ve seen more then enough animators commended while doing this, it really makes me ill. At least for the animation debate (the two posts) seemed to take the side of “if you change it enough.” There is that word again – enough. But no one can give an answer for what constitutes enough. There is also the idea that a lot of them are “for commercial use,” but I’m sure that the intended use was to be within a project and not the file sold almost as is.

So this weekend, Second Style posted this post commending the “fabulous” Paper Couture and their “interpretation” of a gown directly off the runway. Even applauding for how close it matches. This was actually the first time I’d ever seen something like this before and I actually fell out of my chair. Well, not really because of how odd the community is, but it gives you an interesting visual. Now, I have some pretty strong ethics when it comes to copyright – being in the media industry and all – and I know, not everyone shares my views. But I always thought this to be a not really talked about aspect of content creation. How is this changed enough?

Next up we have a report of Last Call being GLintercepted. Yes it’s a verb I made up. Sadly, not as interesting as googled… Whatever, it’s early. I think most of the community is pretty much on par saying that is stealing, unless of course you use it for personal use (debate). Again, my ethics is pretty high up there and say that’s pretty wrong, but the personal use is a bit touchy. I’d never do it, bloody hell I don’t even edit anything I have that has mod rights (unless of course its ugly flares or something) not because of some ethical reason, but because I just can’t be bothered. But we all know I’m some sort of odd ball so it’s ok.

What I don’t understand is how one is right and the other is not.

Now to the more personal issues. No, not those kind. The more people who buy my poses, it seems the more who copy me. Granted its not many, and I’m not going to scream it from my blog pedestal, but it still frustrates me to a point. Even though the annoying shits at libsl say animations can be “stolen” I have yet to see it. What I’m talking about are poses that look a bit too much like mine. In some, minor differences and others not so minor. So, all in all a very grey area but can still get to me. The first time, as you might have read before, really pissed me off. The second and third, I just shrugged it off because the technical ability was extremely lacking. This last one, for some reason, had really bothered me. Maybe I’m just missing my center, my husband who’s away for a poker weekend.

So, from what I gather from the community is the following:

· Copy RL designs

o Get commended

· Copy from SL designers (not GLintercept)

o Can go either way depending on who has more or more “important” friends.

· Copy from SL designers

o Have tps blocked because your “store” is filled with protesters.

· Selling downloaded files

o See no evil, hear no evil. (I’m watching you though)

As LL has taken the stance of not doing much about anything, we the community have to figure out the rules, stick by them, and call people on them. The only problem is none of us seem to agree on anything unless it is skirting the permissions system and stealing from another designer.

See, I’m not trying to take some moral high ground. The problem isn’t that I see stealing as wrong. The part I find wrong, is taking credit for something you didn’t do. If you make poses using someone else’s style and call it your own, you are cheating yourself and your customers. If you are commended for your designing abilities, then you should have designed it, not copied someone else. If you are praised for smooth animations, it should be because you created them not downloaded a motion capture file.

It aint fair… then again fair is a place where pigs get ribbons.

I try to stay out of the scene. The blog scene, the kissing ass to certain people, the making friends with other certain people scene. I pretty much stick to myself and talk to a very small number of people. There are actually only a limited few that I talk to on a regular basis. I attempt to be nice and respectful to everyone, noobie or oldbie, creator or buyer, whatever. Sometimes I may come off as a bit brash but thats because I don’t care for the fine art of small talk. I speak when I have something to say.

I’ve gone to releases, openings, parties and things as little as possible. I enjoy recieving the invite but generally opt out of going. When I do, I tend to sit in a corner in IMs or tabbed out in poser.

But anyways, thats not the reason for this post. While I am generally unsocial, I really try to stay as far away from the cliques and groups as humanly possible. As a creator one of the things that really piss me off is how high fashion is placed above all other content. I have spent the past 2 1/2 years trying to push the fact that poses are important also in creating a personal look.

Before, the thing that irked me was review blogs. Until recently, reviewers only blogged animators who were also fashion designers. Torrid, Sensual, ect. Now, while it was great that poses were at least getting some coverage, there were others of us out there that have an eye, talent, skill, but severe lack drawing ability. Why is it important for me, as a business owner, to be reviewed? Because where is the one place all designers are captivly watching? The fashion blogs.

Now as most of my work is poses, my main customers are fashion designers. They need us just as much as we need them. For desginers, the presentation of their boxes is a lot more important then you’d think. With poses, they can enhance the feel of the ad. The avie giving off some kind of emotion that works well with the outfit is going to sell a lot more clothes then a default stance. We all know this. So why am I still feeling like I’m scrapping the bottom of the barrell?

I will flat out tell you that I do not think designing clothes are easy. I tried it once years ago and it was pretty bad. Remember, I can not draw myself out of a box. It takes time, talent and skill. But making poses? Pfft. Thats easy. Bull shit. Anyone who says that should be… I dunno… made to try it themselves. Yeah its really bloody easy to make rubbish poses. Just like it’s easy to rez a box and call it a house. But doing something with style and as few breaks in the avie skin is an artform. Think of it as sculpture. Anyone can make a figure out of play-doh but giving that figure expression, movement and life is an entire different thing.

I had started to think that all this was in the past. I’ve been reviewed multiple times along with other pure animators. I was starting to get a bit of respect for the hard work that I do. So, yesterday I read this on second style. A new group, fashion consolidated, for all designers welcome to send out a notice about updates. Sounds like a fab idea. I join it thinking what a good way to give the designers updates about my releases. Then, I found out that you had to recieve permission to be a “vendor” to send notices. Oh no I think to myself. Is this person going to be another fashion > animations? Or are they going to see the part I play in the grand scheme of the SL fashion industry?

Fancy to guess?

No. And I quote: “for clothes/skin/hair… things that make up personal appearance.” Ok. But isn’t an animation override part of an avatar’s personal appearance? This stumped her. She then gave me a line about having to reduce “spam” (her word not mine) in notices. Ok. So anyone who makes clothes, good or bad, can advertise their stuffs but not someone who helps those designers sell their stuffs. OK… Then another line about allowing me in would make others left out. OK…

It ended with her needing to ask the sister group of fashion emergency. I had this entire few paragraphs how I was annoyed and rather pissy towards her. It was 4am and I was certainly craky. This sort of thing wasn’t something I like coming back to after a week off of SL. It really makes me want another break. Bleh.

(Next day)
So today, I’m alone on cappiello doing some terriforming and she tells me I’m in.

Sorry, no animation updates (again). Its been a crazy few weeks.

Worked at the beeb (yuck)… crazy neighbour threatened to kill my kitten… LL handed over my private isle Lalique… SL stability has gotten even worse… Husband brought home strep throat. Fun huh?

The one thing I don’t like about being freelance is that I’m always the new kid. For me, it takes a while to warm up to people. But that’s about it. Being freelance means that its not just the same ol shit every day. Yeah I don’t work everyday or every week, but that gives me time to create in SL. At the beeb (the bbc) everyone there seems to be lifers. They act like they have it made. Then treated me as if they were better. My agent asked me to work there longer, but I said no thanks.

A few weeks ago I was leaving the flat to go to work. On my way out I ran into my crazy neighbour who seems to think I’m the sole reason why she’s getting evicted. Well, had gotton evicted but snuck back in. She screamed a lot and called me names. But the one thing that really got to me was when she told me she’d break into my flat and kill my kitten. How could you kill something like my chuck?

Luckily last week they finally got her out of there.

As of Nov 30th I am a private isle owner. Sim name: Lalique. I’ve been building when I can and have no idea when it’ll be opened. Stay tuned.

What the hell is wrong with LL? Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, it does. Nothing is working right at all. Building has been a nightmare. Prims snapping, textures have to be choosen a few times before it’ll stick and serious prim drift when I log in the next day. Not to mention “copy selected” makes the new prim not actually lined up with the other one. Thats not how it’s supposed to work! My sim is fucking empty. Well, a lot of the times. But come on. It’s driving me mental.

Last week my husband came home early from work with a nasty fever. The next day, I can’t even get out of bed. After a few days of this, I wake up on Friday with him telling me he’s got white spots on the back of his throat. It took me an hour just to convince him that he needs to go to the doctor. You have to call by 8:30am to get an appointment for the day. It was WAY past that. So off we went to the walk in centre at the near by hospital. London is an odd city. You can find a nice flat in a nice area and then walk about 10min and you are in a NASTY part. Luckily we called a cab. Needless to say those walkin centres take a damn long time to be seen. But got some antibiotics and we both are starting to feel better.

Hopefully some animations will be done for next week.

Luth

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

(Protesting at Linden Offices this afternoon. Many more to follow)

I am a small business owner in SL. We have been touted in the press and investor meetings to make SL as popular as it is today. Look! People make things and sell them and you can too! But what they don’t tell you is that we bear the brunt of all the bad of SL.

If we didn’t make our widgets would the population be here? No.

Who suffers the most from griefer attacks? Small business. The grid shut downs mean some can’t feed their kids (or kitten in my case).

Who suffers the most of bugs and lag? Small business. If textures don’t load people don’t shop. Constant bugs in animation uploads means I can’t work. The inability to make clothes has been detrimental to the fashion industry. Exploits that allow users to steal our work takes the food from our table.

Who suffers the most from the find places sorted by traffic and then classifieds sorted by price? Small business. Those of us that paying 30k L$ per week to be on the first page means we can’t pay our RL rent. If higher traffic usually means more shoppers which means more profit, is it a wonder that the same people easily found in find the same as the classifieds?

Who pays for SL? Small business. The majority of landowners are small business owners. Yes we don’t hold the most amount of land per person but if we didn’t need land to sell our widgets how much land would there be? And those land barons who give no value to SL at all rip us off on prices of that land.

Who lost out when auctions for the mainland went from any size of parcel to only full sims? Small business. Now if we want to buy land we have to go to a land baron or win an auction that’s so over priced that a baron can’t make enough money.

Who lost out when the rules changed (silently) about buying land on estate sims? Small business owners. Have you seen the prices of some of these? You pay regular tier, which they make money on because of the tier break down. For instance, a land baron breaks an isle into 2048 m2 parcels. You know how many fit? 32! For the math lets say 30 and the rest as free space and roads. The tier for 2048 m2 is $15US. Times that by 30 and thats $450. Minus isle fee $195 and you get a monthly profit of $255US. That should be enough right? But no. They sell the land first. Anshe has hers at 19999 L$ per 2048m2. Times that by those 30 parcels = 599,970 L$! Devide that by todays exchange rate 270L/1USD = 2,222 US!! How does she con people into paying far more then the initial set up and over 2.3 times her tier? Lies. Catchy advertising. Remember this used to be against the rules until LL changed them to suit their favourite citizen, Anshe Chung.’

Who looses out the most from isle price changes? Small business. Anshe and her ilk have already bought how many used isles from unsuspecting owners because of insider knowledge? She upped her prices for sales and tier prior to the official statement. That means anyone renting from her estate sims, will be paying the new sim prices + AC profit whether they are on a new sim or not. She stands to make even more money ripping off residents then she did before. Will this break her? No. People will always be too preoccupied then to figure out this. Just like every other bloody corporation.

Why do we loose out? Every single content creator I know (including myself) dreams of one day owning their own sim. How many dreams along with mine have been crushed by this? We get jerked around endlessly and then we get this: “and in fact - this increase was in part a recognition that large corporations are willing to pay much more than we were charging.”- zee linden

Fuck large corporations. They are only here until the novelty wears off. But we have been here through bad update after bad update, growing their world and paychecks to be spit on like this?

• We aren’t asking to be handed isles like candy. But what is really the harm in giving a discount to small SL businesses? Where if you make between certain amounts per month in L$ you will allow a petition for lowered tier? For instance anyone able (L$ wise) to pay the $195 tier but unable to move into the first business Linedx tier with the current restrictions.
• Yes land is a privilage. So should a lot of things. What would be the harm in a free limited account for 30day then a one time fee? Then they stay limited, ie certain harmful scipting and inventory limits, until they pay a monthly fee. $10 USD per month is less then every MMO I’ve ever played. Then any land holding is on top of that.
• Bloody fix the damn program before charging us more. I’m tired of the years of promises for fixing all the issues, where we get usless new features instead.

LL should feel lucky every day that we stick around. Lucky. If they aren’t making a profit nor making real progress with the program itself, they should look at internal changes within the company. Philip has stated many times they have more programers then most other companies. Obviously they do not have the right ones. Fire off the dead weight and think about hiring some that can actually fix something without breaking something else.

I’m here in SL only until something better comes along or LL steps up to the plate and starts to give a rats ass about the backbone of their program.

Cheers.
Luth