About a year or so ago, a loving husband purchased the Mer Betta Pasithea for his wife without checking whether it was transferable. So, the product went to his inventory. His wife contacted me and wanted me to send a copy to her for free, since her husband, being a big and burly guy, could not wear it.
I explained that, firstly, my store policy said that if it's copyable, it's non-refundable. Secondly, big and burly men *have* worn my tails, including the Pasithea. Instead, I offered to send her the Pasithea at a deeply discounted price. Even after what I thought was a very generous offer, she still complained that my tails are very expensive.
I was too tired to be witty at the time, but I wish I had told her that it was none of my business if a husband loved his wife so much that he would buy the most exquisite product available in the market for her, regardless of the price. He could have chosen to buy her a cheap tail elsewhere; it wasn't my fault that he chose to come to my store.
Pricing is very difficult. My marketing professor in business school even said so. Pricing is a compromise between merchant and customer. If the customer doesn't see value in what they paid money for, they will stop buying. If the merchant doesn't see a return on their time/money investment, they will stop selling. Mer Betta tails are priced in the same range as -- or even lower than -- ballgowns with similar quality of workmanship. And since Mer Betta tails are still selling well at the current price range, then I think it's safe for me to assume that people are getting their money's worth. Hopefully, more than their money's worth.
A few people who need a mermaid tail just for costume parties have complained about paying this price for something they would wear only once. But people who are mermaids most of the time don't complain about paying the same price for a ballgown they would wear only once for an OOC party. How often a user wears a product is not necessarily a factor in deciding the price of that product; just take a look at the price of wedding gowns both in real life and in Second Life.
I could make cheap tails with lower quality, but I refuse to do so for the same reason I refuse to do freebie tails: It dilutes the Mer Betta brand. Would you expect Porsche to create a cheap family sedan that competes with Kia or Honda? No, their brand is associated with luxury and high quality.
I want the Mer Betta brand to be the Porsche of mermaid tails. I want my customers to be *envied* when they wear their Mer Betta tails. Therefore, every tail I release under the Mer Betta brand will be the best I can make at my skill level at that point.
Mer Betta is not for everyone, just as Porsche is not for everyone. Mer Betta is for people with discerning taste and style and sophistication. Yes, it comes at a higher price. But you'd be willing to pay more for a Porsche, wouldn't you?
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
What I really said
(I apologize to customers who watch this blog and don't expect anything beyond product announcements here. However, I need a place to post this rebuttal as this issue affects my reputation and is related to Mer Betta.)
I had once attended a talk on IP protection, given by a lawyer from a top law firm in Seattle. He had talked about a case where an infringer imitated the composition and the "look" of a photograph belonging to his client. The people in it looked similar, they were dressed similarly, they were posed similarly, and the angle that the photo was taken was similar. The photos are not exactly the same, of course, but they had the same "feel". If I remember correctly, this lawyer and his client won that case.
Yesterday, a friend called my attention to a set of tails that another designer had just released. Someone else had previously notified me of this particular designer regarding another tail that looked too much like the Mer Betta Atargatis. After receiving that first report, I bought the offending tail and compared it with mine. It looked very similar on the photo, because she used the same fish photo as source, but I confirmed that she did not use my textures or a photo of my textures.
After yesterday's report, I sent an IM to this designer. I (gently, I thought) suggested that she find her own niche, instead of copying styles, because people are reporting her tails as infringing on mine. That would have been the end of it, except she went into the group chat of a popular mer group to complain that I accused her of stealing my textures, which I did not do.
Since that group chat conversation did not pop up for me (a copy of the chat log was only forwarded to me by someone who witnessed it), I did not have a chance to respond; therefore, this blog entry.
I think that the chat log of the original conversation would speak for itself. Even though posting the chat log in a website is "beyond the scope of the Second Life Terms of Service" according to the SL wiki, I will respect the TOS here and publish only my part of the conversation so that people can judge the situation for themselves. Since this designer claims I said something, then my part of the conversation should be sufficient to show that what she claims is not true.
Granted, she could say that the following are not what I said in our private conversation. But I have been in SL for a long time, and I can come up with a long list of respected members of the SL community who know me well and can vouch for my integrity.
The masked chatlog follows, with a couple of lines (within square brackets) to explain what I was responding to:
Friends are describing the group chat conversation as slanderous and suggested that I report it to LL. Granted, she may have misunderstood our conversation, in which case, I would accept a public apology for the slander. But if an apology is not forthcoming and she forces my hand further, then I will consider filing an abuse report and perhaps taking legal action.
Back to the story of the IP lawyer: If they could win a case based on the look and feel of a photograph, could the same be true for the look and feel of a virtual mermaid tail?
I had once attended a talk on IP protection, given by a lawyer from a top law firm in Seattle. He had talked about a case where an infringer imitated the composition and the "look" of a photograph belonging to his client. The people in it looked similar, they were dressed similarly, they were posed similarly, and the angle that the photo was taken was similar. The photos are not exactly the same, of course, but they had the same "feel". If I remember correctly, this lawyer and his client won that case.
Yesterday, a friend called my attention to a set of tails that another designer had just released. Someone else had previously notified me of this particular designer regarding another tail that looked too much like the Mer Betta Atargatis. After receiving that first report, I bought the offending tail and compared it with mine. It looked very similar on the photo, because she used the same fish photo as source, but I confirmed that she did not use my textures or a photo of my textures.
After yesterday's report, I sent an IM to this designer. I (gently, I thought) suggested that she find her own niche, instead of copying styles, because people are reporting her tails as infringing on mine. That would have been the end of it, except she went into the group chat of a popular mer group to complain that I accused her of stealing my textures, which I did not do.
Since that group chat conversation did not pop up for me (a copy of the chat log was only forwarded to me by someone who witnessed it), I did not have a chance to respond; therefore, this blog entry.
I think that the chat log of the original conversation would speak for itself. Even though posting the chat log in a website is "beyond the scope of the Second Life Terms of Service" according to the SL wiki, I will respect the TOS here and publish only my part of the conversation so that people can judge the situation for themselves. Since this designer claims I said something, then my part of the conversation should be sufficient to show that what she claims is not true.
Granted, she could say that the following are not what I said in our private conversation. But I have been in SL for a long time, and I can come up with a long list of respected members of the SL community who know me well and can vouch for my integrity.
The masked chatlog follows, with a couple of lines (within square brackets) to explain what I was responding to:
[2010/02/19 22:28] Opal Lei: Hello, <designer name>.
[2010/02/19 22:29] ...
[2010/02/19 22:29] Opal Lei: Would you have time to chat.
[2010/02/19 22:29] Opal Lei: ?
[2010/02/19 22:29] ...
[2010/02/19 22:29] Opal Lei: I've had at least two people now calling my attention to your tails because they look too much like my tails.
[2010/02/19 22:30] ...
[2010/02/19 22:30] Opal Lei: Mer Betta
[2010/02/19 22:30] ...
[2010/02/19 22:30] Opal Lei: Among other places.
[2010/02/19 22:31] ...
[2010/02/19 22:31] Opal Lei: My tails are very popular, so I'm sure you've seen them arond.
[2010/02/19 22:31] Opal Lei: around*
[2010/02/19 22:32] Opal Lei: Mer Betta has been in existence since August 2007.
[2010/02/19 22:32] Opal Lei: And I have been the first one to bring betta tails into SL.
[2010/02/19 22:32] ...
[2010/02/19 22:32] Opal Lei nods.
[2010/02/19 22:32] Opal Lei: You might want to find your own niche.
[2010/02/19 22:33] ...
[2010/02/19 22:35] Opal Lei: <another brand> also copied my style.
[2010/02/19 22:35] Opal Lei sighs.
[2010/02/19 22:35] ...
[2010/02/19 22:36] Opal Lei: I think you have seen it before.
[2010/02/19 22:36] ...
[2010/02/19 22:36] Opal Lei: Because different designers solve problems differently.
[2010/02/19 22:36] Opal Lei: For example, how we hide the feet.
[2010/02/19 22:37] ...
[2010/02/19 22:37] Opal Lei: And she got it from me.
[2010/02/19 22:37] Opal Lei: I started using those shaped sculpties in April 2008.
[2010/02/19 22:38] ...
[2010/02/19 22:38] Opal Lei: Then people will continue to think of you as a copycat.
[2010/02/19 22:38] ... [ She said that she didn't think her tails look like mine. ]
[2010/02/19 22:38] Opal Lei: And people will continue to report you to me as a potential copyright infringer.
[2010/02/19 22:38] Opal Lei: If they don't, why are people reporting you to me?
[2010/02/19 22:39] ...
[2010/02/19 22:39] Opal Lei: Think about it,<designer name>.
[2010/02/19 22:39] Opal Lei: I cannot tell you what you can do or not do.
[2010/02/19 22:39] ...
[2010/02/19 22:39] Opal Lei: I can only control what *I* do.
[2010/02/19 22:40] Opal Lei: I gave you my suggestion... that you should find your own niche.
[2010/02/19 22:40] Opal Lei: That is all I can say.
[2010/02/19 22:40] Opal Lei: What you do is up to you.
[2010/02/19 22:40] ... [ She said that she had tried everything in SL and this is what she's good at. ]
[2010/02/19 22:40] Opal Lei: I think you're not giving yourself enough credit.
[2010/02/19 22:41] Opal Lei: I can't believe that people have no imagination whatsoever to come up with something original.
[2010/02/19 22:41] ...
[2010/02/19 22:42] Opal Lei shrugs. Like I said, what you do is your decision.
[2010/02/19 22:42] Opal Lei: Thank you for taking the time to chat with me.
Friends are describing the group chat conversation as slanderous and suggested that I report it to LL. Granted, she may have misunderstood our conversation, in which case, I would accept a public apology for the slander. But if an apology is not forthcoming and she forces my hand further, then I will consider filing an abuse report and perhaps taking legal action.
Back to the story of the IP lawyer: If they could win a case based on the look and feel of a photograph, could the same be true for the look and feel of a virtual mermaid tail?
Monday, February 1, 2010
Magic and Romance Hunt - going on now
Mer Betta is part of the Magic and Romance Hunt that started today.
To join the hunt, go to the main Mer Betta store in Dunbeath and click the sign for the hunt to get the landmark for the first store. Or you can just start at Mer Betta, since you're already there, and work your way to the end then back to the start of the chain.
Here's the clue for Mer Betta:
The huntress holds the hunted in her hand.
In other news, Series 1 tails are already gone. Series 2 tails will be available for two more weeks.
Happy hunting!
To join the hunt, go to the main Mer Betta store in Dunbeath and click the sign for the hunt to get the landmark for the first store. Or you can just start at Mer Betta, since you're already there, and work your way to the end then back to the start of the chain.
Here's the clue for Mer Betta:
The huntress holds the hunted in her hand.
In other news, Series 1 tails are already gone. Series 2 tails will be available for two more weeks.
Happy hunting!
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