After selling stuff peacefully in world and online to a niche market for 6 years, I just discovered today that two of my products have been stolen via copybotting. The avatar named "Rchel Cadell", probably a disposable account, is selling copybotted items from different creators, including the two beds I'm selling (see my product ads).
Now I probably would never understand, how someone can steal an object and sell it for 20L full perm. I mean c'mon! Money is definitely not the motivation here, since how many do you need to sell to make it profitable? Just calculate and it's a joke. I have a feeling that this is a "hate" motivated action.
Could it be an alt of a competitor?
I bought both beds but only received the "Glam Punk" item. I checked it and the scripts for the animation, and the bedsheet, also the animations aren't included. So it's basically a textureless copy.
It kinda makes me sad that these copybotters just don't respect the hard work we put in our creations. If I think of how many weeks I spent creating the bed, especially the textures; installing the scripts and animation and the testing over and over again, until I was fully satisfied. Would any sane person really think an item like that would be for sale for 20Linden Dollars --> Full Perm?!
The more upsetting part here is also how Linden Lab deals with these cases. No person with little SL time and busy RL would take the effort of going through the DMCA process or to court for an item worth 3 USD. But anyone could easily recognize which is the copybotted or original item. Anyone really.
If you regularly monitor the new products section at SL Marketplace and set the filter to full perm, you will see that the marketplace is flooded everyday with copybotted items. I guess the creators just got tired of reporting the items, since they show up all over again.
Why can't Linden Lab set-up certain restrictions for merchants, like Payment Info on File or a certain identification. I mean people who take their business seriously and plan to cash out someday, already have legit accounts registered; otherwise it won't be possible to cash out right?!
I know it's meant to be that, everyone should have a fair chance to sell their creations inworld and online. But requiring identification or certain skills imho, would definitely clean up the marketplace a lot.
So buyer beware! Remember: If it sounds or looks too good to be true, then it is. NO ONE in their right mind would sell a very well crafted item for a very cheap price and full perm. Try it and find out.
Just try to do the following: Learn the tools; learn how to build things; work on your items for weeks or months; do the photo shoots and create the ads; set the permissions and check them over and over again; box up the items; upload them to SLM, then sell them for 20L full perm. Do you get it now? NO ONE in their right mind would do this. Not even a totally lonely, desperate, suicidal or unemployed person with a lot of time in their hands.
Also don't forget, that once you purchase stolen items, you are supporting this copybot behavior. One day those items will disappear from your inventory, once Linden Lab finally deletes them.
Let's just hope that those copybotters, who are obviously using copybot viewers, get their malware and viruses from those forbidden viewers. Karma can be a bitch I tell you.
Here are some hints for you on how to recognize copybotted items:
- They are mostly sold for a very cheap price, if you consider how complex and well crafted the item is.
- They are mostly sold with full permissions or sometimes copy/transfer/no mod.
- The avatar is mostly a new account with a random not-to-be-taken-seriously name.
- If the avatar is a bit older (either stolen or bought account), the profile is mostly blank or have only very little information, which says it's not an active avatar. Be prepared for lack of support in case any issues come up.
- The Marketplace store is not well taken care of (see logos, description etc.)
- The item images are just quick snapshots inworld with no care. Sometimes they even steal the original ad pictures and use them. If the ad is self made, it's mostly of poor quality or it just plain sucks. Now if anyone is so creative to build a very high quality item, that person mostly also knows how to work Gimp or Photoshop.
- There is almost no item description on the product page.
- If you check the other items in the person's listing, you will recognize at least one familiar item. Now if you find one copybotted item from the listing, expect all other items to be also copybotted versions.
- Most items sold do not have textures. Sometimes only textured with plywood.
There are of course criminals who steal and build up their business in a very well planned and well thought manner. Those cases mostly end up in court. Just google examples of many skin creator dramas and battles. Now those people who plan well and put a lot of effort in altering the stuff they steal, are the very dangerous ones. Because one day, they are all of a sudden recognized and accepted as a legit "designer" in the SL community, until someone starts to sue them.
Just hope that it never happens to you. Don't be fooled and do your research or one day, all our favorite designers will just disappear from SL and all what's left will be ugly stuff and copies and knock-offs.
