Comments on: FashCon Content Theft Policy

By: Laqroki Blog » Blog Archive » PXL creations infringing on my work

Laqroki Blog » Blog Archive » PXL creations infringing on my work — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:01:38 +0000

[...] Fashion Consolidated for removing PXL as a fashcon vendor according to their Content theft policy http://fashcon.com/2008/05/27/content-theft-policy/ . (PS, English is my second language so I hope there will be no [...]

By: Honey Fairweather

Honey Fairweather — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:50:39 +0000

Katlaya, I’m so sorry I missed approving your comment earlier. In belated response – this would only apply to you if the blanks you use are stolen, so that you are reselling stolen goods. In RL, ignorance of this would be no defence, on the practical grounds that anyone could claim it without proof. The same applies on SL, so the burden has to be on the seller to ensure that everything they sell they have full permission to sell – if you don’t know for sure, don’t do it. FashCon isn’t proposing doing anything other than LL would do in the situation that someone is found selling stolen goods.

Jonathan, I hope Sioxie’s well-phrased response helped. The policy is constantly being reviewed (right now, actually) as I expected a settling down period, and I’m a little surprised at how few copies of DMCAs we’ve received – I won’t mention the numbers.. err number. It may be a reflection of the bother to go through the DMCA procedure, but in some ways this is a healthy break to ensure those that claim piracy go to the bother to follow Linden procedure.

Probation may seem tempting, but my staff’s admin effort is at max, and the purpose of this process is to remove the subjective part, which we palpably can’t and shouldn’t be doing. Someone DMCA’d can formally counter-file with Linden, and of course if that is successful, we take the appropriate action and they are re-added.

By: Katlaya Greggan

Katlaya Greggan — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:02:02 +0000

What about the blank sculpties that we use and embelish for our designs? Those have another creator on them. They are full perm and are designed to be used as such. I try to make everything I own my own, but how can you get around that? I do use a few sculpty accents for my pieces. Now we may get dinged on those? I make all of my own fashions… but I do also like to use sculpty blanks and I do not do those.

Thank you,
Katlaya Greggan

By: Sioxie Legend

Sioxie Legend — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:42:29 +0000

I appreciate this more than you know. I was recently a victim of content theft but noticed that it was limited to one person thus far. But other designers are victims on a daily basis and it just keeps growing. Nicky Ree, Nyte Caligari are two that seem to have had their items constantly ripped off and the perpetrators of the offense seem to multiply instead of going away. I hope that what you are doing helps stem the flow of fashion thieves. I do think that the system that you have come up with is a good idea and definitely has its merits.

In response to Johnathan Bailey – you do have to provide proof. You can’t just file a DMCA and have it go through without proof (i.e. “her outfits look like mine, she’s copying me” won’t stand up to their scrutiny, they have to be a texture or prim duplication and you HAVE to provide pictures). Also if you file a false DMCA you are opening yourself up to lawsuits because your personal information is listed, which is why very few people want to file false claims. I’m not sure but I think that filing a false claim can harm you as far as being able to file claims later on or get you banned.. Anyway here’s a link to LL DMCA policy:

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

By: Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:27:27 +0000

Though I am very pleased to see such a strong stand against content theft taking place, I have to worry some that the “one strike” policy could create a very uncooperative climate for this matter.

The issue is that DMCA notice are, on rare occasions, abused to either silence free speech, get back at a competitor or otherwise interfere with someone’s life. This adds another incentive for someone to file a false DMCA notice.

With the DMCA, there is no need to provide proof of any actual infringement, just claim it, and with how slow Linden moves on such matters it could be a very long period of time before they are restated.

Perhaps a probation period would work better for this, giving the subject of the notice time to contest it and receive a response before being removed. Perhaps, in the event of multiple claims, more immediate action could be taken.

It is just something to consider. Over all, I really like what you are doing.