Thursday 10 September 2009

To Catch a Thief

A lot of blogs have covered this dress, Foreign Affair, that Digit Darkes currently has set out for free right at the front of the shop but few noted that it is free because someone stole it and tried to sell it. Two that did are Elliandra at SL24hr and Kyra at Kyra in World.  Props!  I am a self-confessed frugalista but I believe content theft is a most insincere form of flattery and wouldn't be caught dead in stolen content.   Digit's Affair dresses are hand's down some of the sexiest dresses on the grid and I have several of them.  They regularly cost 400 L, which is the equivalent of $1.55 US, not a big deal when you consider the late fee for the DVD rental you forgot to return last night costs more than that.  A small Slurpy at 7-11 costs more than that...geesh.  Go get this dress and wear it proudly so that the thief doesn't make a penny more. 
Free*Style would never show you anything that was knowingly stolen so we don't often get a chance to talk about content theft but it is a HUGE problem for designers of all kinds.  A lot of people try and make a living working their tails off creating content for us.  There are people in SL that could give a rip [sic]about that and think it's some big score to get something for free.  Content creators have been begging forever for permissions on items to be more stringent and I support that effort.  We all suffer in the end and the first thing us frugalistas can do is to not support it, don't wear it, and don't pass stolen good to your friends.  If some stranger IM's you or drops you a notecard offering cheap goods it's highly likely the person is paid to send traffic to stolen outlets.  If that happens notify the store owner where it happened and fill out an Abuse Report on the individual.  If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. The other thing we can do is read up on it.  Google "SL Content Theft".  Be an informed consumer! Some quickie resources on content theft to get you started are: Spork, who did a nice post that lists a few content thieves and Shopping Cart Disco frequently outs thieves and where comments are often made by designers who have been affected by it.  
Credits:
Dress: Digit Darkes: Forgeign Affair Black Zebra / Red : Free
Shoes: Digit Darkes: Paris Boots: Not Free
Gloves: Digit Darkes: Driving Gloves: Not Free
Necklace: Miamia Stones: Never Necklace: Free opening gift - male and female versions
Garter: LouLou&Co: Pistolero Garter: Not Free
Hair: Digit Darkes: Cyberfashionista: From SL6B but there is a set in store not free
Skin: Tuli: Hope Goth: Group Gift: 250 L to join
Classy Moustachios: Clawtooth by Clawtooth: 40 L for a fat pack of these handsome devils

PS.. Excuse the font; Blogger is being mean to me. 

7 comments:

Sileny said...

Wonderful Post Eden! I hope people can be more informed and work together to stop content theft in SL.

Also, I love your mustache.

Unknown said...

The fatpack of stashes costs 16 cents US. Go get a set. ;)

Jane Primrose said...

Thanks for that! I agree that it's important to support the *original* creators of cool content, and would be very disappointed to learn that any of the many many freebies I've collected in SL were ripoffs.

Winter Jefferson said...

You rock, Eden. One of the best posts ever seen here.

dimm said...

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Tenshi said...

Thanks for the plug! <3

Unknown said...

I have a lot of respect for the SCD writers' guts. Go get 'em, girl!