SecondLife

[oby.livejournal.com]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to report a warning of a "Shani Nosferatu" on the game of Second Life who has been asking various builders to make avatars using copyrighted images from websites such as www.sexyfur.com. She claims that these artists are her best friends and that they gave her permission to use the images, yet she is never able to have the artists email me driectly with the permission granted.

I am now contacting said artists directly to notify them of her actions and with how to file a report with Linden Labs (the makers of Second Life) to prevent their copyrights from being broken.

I will also be posting this to the secondlife_furs and sl_furs livejournals.

Comments

*yawn*

[mix-hyenataur.livejournal.com]

So... you're posting about her on here because you THINK she's an art theif because "she is never able to have the artists email me driectly with the permission granted"? i think that's a bit TOO much work to do for someone accusing her of being a theif.

I doubt anyone cares except the builders.

Besides, ANYTHING made in SL BELONGS to SL. Nuff said.

I don't see Konami or Nintendo bitching about renamon and Bowser and etc avatars being created... IT'S JUST FAN ART FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!

3d art is way harder to create than 2d art... kudos to the builders who do it.

Re: *yawn*

[frisket17.livejournal.com]

think they're saying is they're taking images from elsewhere to use for their own gain from pay-sits like Bernal's.

I don't think it's the character in a whole.. However, if it is, some people do have them trademarked. (not the whole emo 'OMG! It's copyright MEEE cause I say so..) but legally binding (this usually happens with comic material n' stuff.

But we'll see. Frankly I'm a little in the dark myself in regards to what is going on too. :) So that's jus' my two cents worth of ramblings...

Re: *yawn*

[mix-hyenataur.livejournal.com]

oh...

if that's the case, then yeah... that's wrong.

Re: *yawn*

[frisket17.livejournal.com]

Yea.. But we'll see what's going on. :)

Frankly I'm a bit confused too as to what exactly is going on. If they're using the images as inspiration and stuff.. Like, enjoying a particular rabbit design and want something similiar or whatever. No big deal.

Additionally. I completely agree about the whole:
" 3d art is way harder to create than 2d art... kudos to the builders who do it."

I personally don't see how they do it. Really awesome for those that can.

Re: *yawn*

[crssafox.livejournal.com]

Depends on how much money someone makes on it.

I remember hearing that someone got in trouble for duplicating real cars on SL (down to using the real logos, instead of creating a parody logo) and selling them for L$. Obviously, they're not going to do all that work and give them away for free - especially not if they put a lot of detail into it. But since L$ can be cashed in for US$, it can catch the eye of companies. ESPECIALLY now that a few companies are turning toward SL as a means of advertising.

And it's not a matter of "what is made in SL belongs to SL." In the terms of use, Linden Lab has a clause that mentions that you are not allowed to create and/or sell something that truly belongs to someone else. Because, as you say, if it's created in SL it technically DOES belong in SL... and SL doesn't want some big-name company with deep pockets meant for funding lawsuits to come after it because they allowed its users to recreate someone else's hard work.

I can understand both ends. I can understand wanting to duplicate things in SL because it'd be cool, but at the same time, I don't want to see SL have to restrict things further because people abused the freedoms within. Second Life is an amazing game and tons of fun - I have fun creating my own things all the time - and I just hope that the majority of its users realize that it's a privilege to be able to create almost anything they want to.

[frisket17.livejournal.com]

Well I can settle that pretty fast...If she has access to sexyfur and is misusing the site, I'll tell Bernal. He's a friend. I just need the email addy of this person and/or ip.. Pretty sure Jer can find the account since you need to subscribe/pay to see.

Let me know so I can tell Jer.

[oby.livejournal.com]

Don't know the IP. She gave her email address as kiara_foxling@yahoo.com but that may not be her "real" email. She is under the name of Shani Nosferatu on Second Life, so you can find her by that.

Here are the instructions to filing a copyright violation with Linden Labs:

http://secondlife.com/corporate/dmca.php

I can provide the UID numbers of the images she passed to me, which will help the process. My email address is Kindragon@comcast.com.

[stoneth.livejournal.com]

Explain to me how you make an avatar using copyrighted images. There's no realistic way to use a still image to make an avatar if only as a texture. You say you build an avatar that looks just like Bernal's Sasha, complete with her weird tribal looking bodymarks, but all that requires building and texturing from scratch and avatar making is a difficult process. As long as you're not selling it, I say go for it.

[drake-anaya.livejournal.com]

I think part of the issue may be that she's redistributing images from sexyfur.com (which you're not supposed to do) without permission, not so much that she's using them for reference?

I never understood the concept of pay-only furry porn because there's so much free stuff out there, but whatever :0 (I don't understand paying for "real"/human porn either)

[stoneth.livejournal.com]

Even so, I am a SL user and I have seen furry porn from every artist imaginable redistributed as textures and some even up being sold. (Take a wild guess as to how many probably gave permission for said images to be uploaded.) For a mere ten Lindens you can upload any image file at all as a texture. Once it's uploaded, it can't be taken down because somewhere there is always a copy of the texture if not in the uploader's inventory, then on the SL server. IMHO, it's fruitless to fight against. All you can do is politely ask that people not do it and not be bothered by it if people go against your wishes (which they undoubtably will).

Besides, it's only furry porn. Who the heck feeds their family on furry porn?

[drake-anaya.livejournal.com]

*shrugs* I only used Second Life briefly for a day or two, so thank you for giving me more information on how it works :) but even given that, does SL really not care about copyright infringement? It's only a problem because from my understanding SL money can be converted into real money.

as for "Who the heck feeds their family on furry porn?", apparently Dr. Comet does (or did), but I can't find the links with the relevant info.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

Hey, no matter how many thieves you arrest, there'll always be more. So let's stop wasting time and money on arresting them and let them run free! Whee!

Try using earth logic next time.

And characters can be copyrighted, although the process is labourous, but even when they're not they're still someone's intellectual property. Legalities aside it's just not nice to take for yourself that which belongs to another.

[crssafox.livejournal.com]

As long as you're not selling it, I say go for it.

This is where "artist beware" comes in.

The girl might not get into trouble for owning an avatar that looks like someone's characters.

She might not even get into trouble for building her own.

But tell me, who in their right mind would spend the time working on an avatar for someone else, without taking some L$ for it? I doubt ANYone would build an avatar for free.

So while she may not get into trouble for using the images, the artist/builder that creates the character FOR her might get into trouble for using someone else's designs - further, for using someone else's designs and knowing that they belonged to someone else or that she does not have permission to use them.

The OP was right to ask for the permission directly from the artists to create an avatar. I remember a similar situation when I had someone win a commission from me and wanted me to draw a very popular character, copyrighted to someone else. I e-mailed the character's owner, who knew the person doing the commissioning since they'd done so numerous times before, and okayed it. If the person truly has the original artist's permission to use characters, then the artist THEMSELF won't hesitate to write back and say, "Yeah, it's okay."