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?
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