Heads-up!

[crssafox.livejournal.com]

Wow, Second Life. What a chance to rip people off, as we were just discussing Second Life in another post! But this time it takes a turn.

There is a girl re-selling furry artwork on Second Life, she says she "has been doing this for some time now." I asked if she'd gotten permission from the artists, and she said no she hadn't, it's okay because she's not doing it for real money, etc. She told me I'm the first person to point out to her that it might be a good idea to get permission before re-posting images.

I'd been uploading some of my own clothing to one of the "marketplaces" known as Second Life Exchange when I came across some furry art being "featured" on the main page. A little red flag went up when I recognized one of the characters in one of the drawings as belonging to tanidareal - in fact, it was a drawing done by her, upon closer inspection.

Anyhow, here is a link to the girl's "stuff for sale." If any of you guys have art there, or recognize art there, you may want to contact her, or contact the original artists to be sure she's obtained permission. I somehow doubt she'll go through with contacting artists to find out if it's okay if she sells their art in this game.

(Also, for those of you that don't know much about Second Life, please realize that even though she's doing it for "in-game money," money on Second Life can be converted to money in real life. Whether or not she actually ever makes enough OR converts it can't be certain, but there still is possibility for her to make money - albeit a miniscule amount - off of other peoples' artwork. Adding a nice "frame" and the words SAMPLE across the top don't make it yours.)

Just figured I'd toss it out there for everyone to chew on. I know there've been debates about people uploading someone else's artwork to show a friend, but I think it changes when people can actually profit somehow from it.

Comments

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

Is there anything that the mods of SL will do to her? I mean really that is the only avenue an artist would have for stopping this behavior...

[drake-anaya.livejournal.com]

Some of the art is by Samantha Whitten / Celesse. I'll forward this link to her on DA...

[drakenhart.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that "Redistribution" is a sue-able offense, wether she is making money (real or fake ) or not. Second Life, unless they have a notation in their Policies that protect them, could get hit with a huge lawsuit.

It actually happened to the company that produces "Gallery", the online Gallery script.

http://www.copyright.gov/

"To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

and/or

To display the copyrighted work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work;"

Quote - http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wci

[drakenhart.livejournal.com]

They better or they can get into deep trouble over it. Just get ONE artist that she has stuff of, that has their works registered, get a lawyer.. and its likely that Second Life might end up in teh crapper from being sued to death.

BECAUSE, they are, technically, a publishing medium.

Wow!

[sorethumb.livejournal.com]

What a pretty avatar! :3

[thaily.livejournal.com]

They're also selling Giger, Van Gogh, Escher, Klimt, Franz Marc, Gauguin, Dali, Chagall, Picasso, Da Vinci and ripping off various photographers. I think you can also sell Linden dollars for real money so in a way they can make real money off it and are hurting the artist' income (well, the ones that are still alive anyway).

Notice how they all have "sample" on them and are set to "no copy" because they're afraid of getting ripped off.

[korrok.livejournal.com]

I'm not seeing any of the stuff other than Giger/Da Vinci/etc. Has it been taken down?

[crssafox.livejournal.com]

Possibly. I didn't e-mail Second Life about it (was going to do that this morning) but maybe someone else has. Or maybe she just figured it wasn't worth the hassle. I explained to her that it's probably not a good idea to go reposting furry art specifically; she didn't strike me as the type to me in "furry circles" so to speak because she didn't understand why people would be upset about the re-posting of their artwork.

[crssafox.livejournal.com]

She appears to have taken it down by now.

I believe there is a clause in the Second Life terms of service stating that things you upload should not be copyrighted. There are all sorts of questionable behaviors going on in regards to that; people attempt to have movie services or sell vehicles that look like real-world cars, complete with logos, and they get told to change it/remove it by Second Life mods. They still want to cover their butts, in this case.

[crssafox.livejournal.com]

I do believe Second Life has a small paragraph in their Terms of Service to try and cover their butt in this case. If I'm not mistaken, they don't allow people to upload and sell copywritten works/objects. One example I remember reading about on their message boards was about a guy that was upset because the SL mods told him to stop using the Toyota logo on cars he made and sold. He made them to look like the real thing, but the mods had to stop him at using the logo, because that made it potential for lawsuit from Toyota. (You can't claim artistic license and parody when you're relying on someone else's hard-earned name to sell the object for you, you know?)

I was going to contact the mods this morning, however, she appears to have taken all the art down. I don't know if someone contacted SL admin... I don't believe the girl was in "furry circles" so to speak because I know that any "self-respecting furry" would know, understand, and realize that most furry artists work hard to retain their rights, don't approve of other people re-posting their works, etc. There were sentences in there that made me think that English wasn't even her first language; possibly she thought that all of these anthro animal avatars running around Second Life would appreciate her making some art available to them? And didn't realize that furries would recognize the artists and know that they might not appreciate having their works reposted.

Regardless... there have been debates in Second Life about whether or not it's ethical to upload and show someone else's drawings. I think that if you're doing it just once, to show people a drawing someone did for you or something you think is cool, that's fine; when you start turning around and trying to re-sell it to people for money that can be turned into REAL money.

(FurNation hosts a gallery but I believe they require that you are the actual artist when you send them a picture.)

Re: Wow!

[crssafox.livejournal.com]

Thanks ;)

[crssafox.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you can sell Linden dollars for real money. That's why I didn't think it was harmless even when she says "I'm only selling it for in-game money." The possibility to convert to real money is there, and so personally, I think that L$ should be treated just like another currency, you know?

And yes, I thought it was amusing that she'd put "sample" on them as if she owned them. She didn't want anyone else to take her idea. ;)

I'm guessing that she's just someone without a clue as to how extremely vast the world of furry art (and artists) is, and she thought that all these people in SL running around in anthro avatars would appreciate her making some art available to them. She probably didn't realize that there are a bunch of them already "residing" in Second Life.

[tanidareal.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for the information!
I am really open to nearly everything people want to do with my art. But reselling it (also just in a game) is just a no go.

I am absolutely not familiar with Second Life... Are the pictures of my art still online in her "shop"?

[aaaamory.livejournal.com]

Huh, I saw a picture of Kyoht's on there, posted in a sale shop by someone who isn't her. I should find out about that.

[aaaamory.livejournal.com]

Nevermind, the picture seems to have disappeared. I saw it there two days ago. It must have been the same person.

[crssafox.livejournal.com]

Not to my knowledge. She's taken them off the web site, in any case, but I'll let you know if I come across it in-game at all. She had a couple pictures of yours, though one in particular I'd recognized from visiting your web site before. I told the girl I sure would've wanted someone to ask ME before re-posting or re-selling my art, and I think she got the point.

At least she's been cooperative in taking it down, instead of insisting that she can do what she wants. I just don't think she realized how protective of original drawings some artists can be.

[oby.livejournal.com]

I believe most of Picasso's works have passed the 70 year mark on copyrights. And Van Ghogh is over a hundred years dead, so his works are no longer protected by copyright either.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

No shit Sherlock.

[maui-dolphin.livejournal.com]

She still has an image from Jason Engle on her for sale images.