Now that we have all agreed that creating replicas of RL items in SL is perfectly acceptable and common, let's look at what would be illegal and unacceptable. There seem to be some differences in what people think are acceptable in terms of RL "inspiration" in the creation of SecondLife inventory items.

Let's say that I wanted to be a shoe designer in SL. I have no ability with Maya or Blender--or at least not enough as of yet to compete with established shoemakers--so I will probably not be able to make my own shoes from scratch all by myself. Let's say I wanted to make Doc Martens. I could make something that is a replica of the actual design of the shoe, and I could give them a name that is similar, but not identical, to "Dr. Martens." I would not be able to use any of their logos or graphics, though. I could probably get away with it for a while, but sooner or later someone would probably threaten me into not using any of their registered trademarks.


Let's say that I really loved the pirate boots from Vivienne Westwood--even though I think they are just for women--so I decided to do an inworld search to see if Vivienne was an avatar or a brand in SecondLife. According to this search of "Vivienne Westwood" on the "all" tab, she is neither avatar nor brand. So far, so good.



Let's say that I finally found some great boots--which, BTW, don't really look identical to any of the RL Westwood boots once you put them on your avatar--and they are from Muism. I know that some of you who have to have "pay to vote model search contests" probably can't afford quality designer labels such as this, so you just complain that they are "overpriced" (um...I think they are less than US$10, so if US$10 is a lot of money to you, get a paper route or something). I'll be more than happy to model them for you anytime you want to inspect the products.


Let's say that I love the Muism products so much that I want to open my own store. Knowing that "Muism" refers to the Voom's Eastern spirituality, I decide to do a "loose imitation", and call my own store, "Jewism", paying homage to my own spiritual background. While this will probably be seen by most people as being a "copycat", or just plain tacky, it is acceptable, as it is a unique name, and isn't stolen from someone else who is already using it, either in RL or SL, as a name for a store or line of clothes.



Let's say that, since I lack the technical skill to produce such a boot myself, I decide to run my boots, that I purchased from Muism, through a copybot, and then stick my own label on them, and sell them as my own product. This is NOT acceptable, and is a classic case of "content theft."

All this debating about what is content theft and what isn't is really getting away from the original issue, and that was the false accusation of Icemocolo Voom as being a content thief, for creating his inworld "pirate boots." Are they a replica of a RL product by a specific designer? Maybe, maybe not. Did that designer create those boots inworld herself, and then Mr. Voom made an illegal copy of them, and sold them under his own brand at his own store? No.

The fact is Ammon Pera was friends with Icemocolo and Migi Voom, they had a falling out, and now Pera is resorting to whatever tactics he can find as a way to retaliate against them. If this was going on in RL, Pera would probably have broken into the Voom house by now, and left their family bunny rabbit boiling in a large pot on their stove. Hopefully, the way Pera has been treating the Vooms and Muism will show the rest of his advertisers on inVogue Hommes just what kind of lunatic they are associating with.

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