Today we are blessed with more names to add to the list of people who steal the work of other people. Two of the names come to us courtesy of Pompeja Rossini, Damiani designer, and another was discovered when inspecting the prim attachments of a Brazilian who was shopping at Argrace. Talya Barzane has also contributed to today's article, having been clued in that someone had copybotted an item she offers AS A FREE GIFT at her store.

Damiani Skins Stolen By Brazen (And Pretty Stupid) Skin Rippers
Along with great success in SL comes the seemingly inevitable possibilty that someone is going to take your work illegally, make it so they show as the creator, and then do whatever they want to with it--usually sell it for a big discount at a flea market, or out of their inventory when they approach customers at the store of the original creator ("Hey, I can sell you that same skin at a fraction of the price...."). One of these SLuccess stories is that of Damiani. The Damiani skins are known for being some of the most flattering in SL, and the Damiani sim is known for being one of the most under siege by content thieves.

Apollyon Sciavo had a conversation with both Dimitri Shinn, Damiani manager, and Pompeja Rossini, and explained to that he had saved the skin to his computer, made some alterations to it in photoshop, and then reloaded it back up to SL. He claims to have paid for the skin originally, but just the fact that he was able to download the skin texture indicated that he is knowledgeable of, and utilizes the techniques of, stealing textures. Regardless of whether he did anything with the skin after he uploaded it back to SL, showing him as the creator, that would hurt the business of Damiani, he has demonstrated that he is in the position to take things illegally and then distribute them in SL with full permissions allowed to himself.

Pompeja Rossini had also received information that merlinux74 Mapholisto has been distributing a ripped-off Damiani skin in SL, with himself showing as the creator. When confronted about the issue, merlinux74 seemed unable to comprehend the gravity of his deed.

On the left is the genuine Damiani skin, and on the right is the illegal copy by merlinux74 Mapholisto. It is important to understand that all the contour shading and detail from head to toe, such as the eyes, mouth, definition in the torso, arms, legs, and feet are all created by the designer, so it is just about impossible for two skins that are created by different people to have exactly the same detailing.

On the left is the real Damiani skin, and on the right is the fake one. Although merlinux74 claims that he has no intention of distributing his skin at any level, there is no way to know if he is telling the truth.

I forgot which one did this, but after Pompeja confronted the skin thieves about their doings, and they assured her that they were not going to do anything malicious to hurt her business, one of them was nice enough to post the skin on a website that allows anyone to download the textures for free.

On a recent shopping trip to Argrace, I decided to check out the prim attachments on a Brazilian Chippendale's dancer looking person. Once again, another content thief hasn't even bothered to change the name or description of the item, so I guess that makes it easier for anyone who buys the counterfeit version to find the store of the original creator.

I forget who the actual Argrace designer is, but I know it isn't Mayra McGowan.

Talya Barzane, who creates all kinds of different things under her "13th Floor Creations" brand name, was recently informed that someone had copybotted one of her items. The person explained that he had recently purchased a parcel of land, and there were several objects left on the property. He examined the items and discovered that there was a 13th Floor Creations beach towel, but the creator of the towel was not the 13th Floor designer. He then contacted Talya, and she went to see for herself.

Talya offers this beach towel as a free gift to anyone who visits her store, and if you inpsect it you can see that she created it 2 years ago.

Alisa Grayman created her 13th Floor Creations beach towel within this past month. Like so many other thieves, she apparently doesn't feel it's worth the effort to change the name of the item or the description.

Talya and I laughed over how stupid it is to copybot something that is offered as a free gift, and she did ask me if I thought it was even worth it to fill out the DMCA for it. I told her it was, and regardless of what the value is of the item, the fact is that Alisa Grayman is in a position to copybot the creation of anyone and do whatever she likes with it.