It's a uniquely Web 2.0 dilemma: let's say you're a Second Life user who enjoys blogging about the virtual fashion you enjoy wearing in-world; it's a personal hobby, but at the same time, you know the industry for avatar enhancements is huge, with the very top designers making a real world income. Consequently, you also know it's a fiercely competitive market, and allegations of content theft are taken seriously-- sometimes even leading to real world lawsuits. Now say a SL fashion designer approaches you one night, and mentions a post you wrote recently, in which you raved over a lovely evening gown from another (competing) design firm. In fact, the designer informs you, the gown is actually a blatant knockoff of a item in her collection, and that she's subsequently filed a DMCA notice with the Lindens against the alleged infringer. So now the gown you blogged about for no other reason than you loved it is the subject of a legal dispute. Worse, your reputation is now on the line, because there's an implication (however unfair), that you're promoting knock offs. What do you do?
That's more or less the issue now roiling Second Life's large fashionista media world, which consists of hundreds of blogs (not to mention in-world magazines, podcasts, and more.) At issue is a customized skin which numerous SL bloggers have already praised-- only to discover a competing designer has filed a DMCA notice against its creator. In a widely read open letter to designers and fashionistas, Ryker Beck and Sasy Scarborough of Scarborough Flair address the issue directly: "We hope that people will help us in the future," they write, "by letting us know, privately and anonymously if necessary, that there is questionable content making its way around the blogosphere."
But is that the solution?
Melanie Kidd of Grid Expectations doesn't think so: she points out how deeply entrenched the SL fashion media is with the fashion industry it covers (not unlike the real world industry, come to think of it), and so allegations of theft among competitors are likely to drag bloggers into a web of conflicting interests. (If they aren't in it already.) Making things even more complicated, I should add, is that many allegations seem to be ambiguous and unproven.
When the issue comes up, Alicia Chenaux thinks the best thing to do is apologize to readers and the victim of the infringement, and "take down your pictures and the blog posts in question, and go on with your day. Not like we're reporting for CNN or something."
There I respectfully disagree (though I can't speak to the specific case in question.) Perhaps the better solution is not to delete a post featuring disputed content, but in most cases, merely add an update to the original post which notes the allegations, names who is making them, and let the reader decide. This places the moral onus on the accuser, and the final judgment on the consumer.
Just my general intuition, though fortunately, I haven't had to exercise it yet. What would you do?
Image credit: scarboroughflair.blogspot.com.
Meh. I've never seen so much hand-wringing over something in all my time here. Somehow this story stopped being about Laqroki and PXL and became all about the bloggers. Its funny that in all the "what about us?" posts, everyone forgot to link back to the original story.
http://www.laqroki.com/blog/?p=43
Posted by: Annyka Bekkers | Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 08:59 PM
Last time I made a comment anywhere about blatant IP theft in the form of major footwear logos being used in SL quite obviously without permission I was attacked by some of these people that were all up in arms about content theft. They actually supported and promoted the blatant theft of intellectual property in the form of an internationally known brand logo. Seems theft is only bad when it involves your or a friend of yours competitor and you want to erode market share. I.e.; clear cut cases of intentional libel. Apparently when it is your fav designer or buddy then blatant theft is perfectly fine. And then there is the topic of texture theft. sheesh!
Posted by: Ann Otoole | Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 09:28 PM
Like to stick to the basics There's plenty of demand for classroom staples like dictionaries. http://fashion.postedpost.com/
Posted by: Pollack Fashion | Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 03:54 AM
I should start by saying that Free Finds For Men does not accept items from designers for review, nor do we offer advertising space on our website. This is solely due to the drama inherent in the fashion industry in SL. That said, we've only had 2 instances where we were informed that something we'd posted could be stolen.
The first was just letting us know that there was no creator listed on a hair being offered in a prize camp chair. I immediately hid the post and contacted the owners of the shop in question as well as the creators listed in the skin and shape that was also being given out. When I didn't hear from any of them I contacted a well known blogger and let her know what was going on, and thankfully she let me know that the skin in question had been stolen long ago and was widely distributed in freebie areas. The owner of the store may not have even been aware of the theft in the first place, and I deleted the entire post.
The second time it happened, there was a comment accusing a well known designer and distributor of starter packs for newbies of all kinds of silly things, as well as lecturing me on responsibility. Again, I contacted the accused, as well as the creator listed. The accusations have proven to be false, and the comment was removed and the post left as is.
All accusations should be investigated, but each one may need to be resolved differently in my opinion. There is a strong need for discretion in all cases though, as the drama factor only makes everything worse.
Sorry about the long comment : /
Posted by: Eliza Wrigglesworth | Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 07:55 AM
but you all are just ripping off rl designers anyway, don't you.
its time to realize that 'stealing' anything in sl is as easy as downloading anything via torrent.
its just harder to navigate to the website of the 'theeve' program than to go to utorrent.com or sg like that.
its also time to realize that you wouldnt be able to continue with these half-amateur guys (like that starax who doesnt seem to know anything about anatomy, see his angel statue, lol), IF the world cared about second life.
lets face it: we have the same number of active users than we had last year and half of them are bots. :-/ so its better to start treating it as a hobby than a source for earning big $$$.
Posted by: Anonymus-Not | Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 08:37 AM
Anonymus-Not appears to be afraid to speak in the open so perhaps Mr. Au needs to adopt a policy requiring sl or rl names on comments.
Anyway I seriously doubt a lot of my work is even possible in rl and if it were it would be really heavy lol. So the blanket statement that everything in sl is a rip off of rl designs is a lie. And you are ignorant of fashion and fashion technology in which sl designs can be converted to rl patterns and fabrics via computer automation. And sl shoe designs are filtering out into rl as well. This just makes it even harder for us nobodies of SL to monitor for stolen IP since the 's sweatshops could be converting your/our work from sl to rl right now.
Posted by: Ann Otoole | Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 01:34 PM
Hey Anonymous, if you knew anything about the fashion world IRL, you would know that clothing patterns are generally not protected under US Copyright, which explains why one can find patterns for shirts with a similar construction to one that say Armani sell. Logos are of course, so it's obvious you need to do your homework before you talk.
Posted by: Gahum Riptide | Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 02:50 PM