Miss Ophelia's Metaverse Manners: The SL Etiquette of Copycats, Copyright, and Crying Wolf
Iris Ophelia's ongoing take on etiquette & ethics in virtual spaces
It should be no mystery what this week's Metaverse Manners theme is, so let's cut right to the chase...
Is there a right/wrong way to call out an SL copybotter/thief?
- The Fashion Police
Well, it really does depend on the context. If it's a shop selling stolen content, the best thing to do is to file a DMCA. While I know it can be a frustrating and unfulfilling process, I am in no way a fan of waging a public smear campaign or comment war against another designer, because you put yourself in a position where you may receive serious blowback. There's nothing stopping them from flaming your blog or Marketplace reviews either, not to mention the trouble that can come from retaliatory DMCAs. What you can do while you wait for your DMCA to be acted on is to warn your customers, as well as alerting any bloggers who have blogged the copied products (we REALLY appreciate this information!)
If it's a random avatar you see walking around with stolen content, you should tread just as lightly. When I was talking to fellow blogger Sasy Scarborough about this just yesterday, she pointed out that a lot of new players just have piles of things dropped on them, and they haven't learned how to differentiate stolen content from everything else. Even more experienced players may have no clue. A polite and friendly IM to tell them what items are stolen and from where is the best course of action here. Be helpful and informative, not hostile and accusatory. Someone sporting ripped gear head-to-toe should raise a red flag, however, and even I have a hard time maintaining my politeness around someone like that. All I can really say is that if you're in a store, send their name to the designer so they can be banned. Period.
Keep reading for two more content theft quandaries.
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