FabFree does not support content theft.
What is content theft?
Content theft is when a product of the original creator is being sold or distributed, without the original creator’s consent, by someone else.
Who is the creator?
There are certain ways to find out who the creator is. I’ll describe certain situation and explain how to find out who the creator is.
A. checking an item in your inventory
1. Open inventory from bottom menu
2. Right click on the item in your inventory you want to check
3. Click ‘Properties’. A new window will open called ‘Inventory Item Properties’.
4. Check the name of the creator. U can also check their profile to see if they have the shopname listed.
B. checking an item rezzed in world
1. Right click the item you want to check.
2. Click “More” >> “More” >> “Inspect”
3. A new window will appear called “Inspect Objects” (shown below)
*this example is chuculet leana heels*
4. Check under “Creator Name”, if only the original creator is listed. Be sure to scroll down all the way to check the whole list.
C. checking items from a vendor spot
1. Rightclick the vendor sign
2. Click ‘Edit’. You might have to repeat this step twice.
3. A new window will open with the ‘Content’ tab showing.
4. All items inside the vendor sign are showing (shown below)
*example is TeaLane Vendorspot at FabFree HQ*
5. Right click each item and click ‘Properties ‘. A new window wil open called ‘Inventory Item Properties’. (shown below)
6. Check the name of the creator. U can also check their profile to see if they have the shopname listed.
7. Be sure to check all items inside!
D. Checking an item someone is wearing (usually hair and shoes)
1. Rightclick on the item the person is wearing
2. Click “More”
3. Click “Inspect”. A new window will appear called “Inspect Objects” (shown above under B3).
4. Check under “Creator Name”, if only the original creator is listed. Be sure to scroll down all the way to check the whole list.
Note
It is possible that designers work with alts or bussiness partners. Also prims/items can belong to reputable sculptie/prim designers. We advise you to check all profiles, cause usualy these persons have their shop/store/skills listed in their profile. Also please read the comments that are made on this posts, cause there is much to learn from.
FabFree does not support content theft. Start checking creators. We do it all the time, and we know we are being ‘inspected’ all the time. Let’s support an honest healhty fashion world in SL.
❤ your FabFree writers.
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November 5, 2009 at 7:32 am
What about legit collaborations between multiple contributors where multiple people work on the same object, cases when a store alt is managing a common brand and multiple people create for it, megaprims – or other, very common cases where creator name does NOT match the name of the seller, and isn’t supposed to, which are nevertheless not content theft?
Please. Don’t we have enough witch hunts without misinforming people?
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November 5, 2009 at 7:58 am
A very good and helpful article. I had no idea how to check in a vendor (not a big buyer here and hate vendors so that might be part of it :D).
Just wanted to mention (and I’m sure you know this) that oftentimes “unknown” or a blank field will show up when checking properties. This is a relatively new feature (maybe a year) to show that there is more than one creator. Typically this is when someone has used a public domain script or a purchased sculpty, so it shouldn’t be construed as necessarily a problem.
There HAVE been times in the past however that items made COMPLETELY by one creator (scripts and all prims) have reverted after making to show as “unknown”. Errors like this happen in the data base from time to time along with permissions getting changed “by magic” and other issues. Most designers have had to deal with this from time to time.
It would be wonderful if we could get all the info we need including prim count from within the viewer as most folks — especially those without prim rich land — don’t want to go over to the sandbox to pull out something and inspect it. And by then, in theory, they have already purchased the item anyway.
So there IS something The Labs can do to help us with content theft. They can make it easier to find out the properties and all the designers that contributed to a project.
Also, though, if I understand it correctly, using a copybot (or even the backup programs) strips the original content creator name from the object and puts in the new owner’s name. In that case the above methods wouldn’t do much good. I suspect someone can shed more light on that issue.
Thanks for all the work. Good post!
Cheers.
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November 5, 2009 at 8:00 am
It’s important to teach people how to inspect. The root prim is what shows the creator in the properties window and sometimes the root prim is not the creator. Sometimes people collaborate and share prims. Sometimes people unknowingly (or knowingly) use a prim created by someone else and make that the root prim even though the ‘creator’ isn’t really the creator.
Sometimes I am on my alt and I work on stuff and toss it to my main. Working under my alt can be very peaceful.
I guess the trick is if it’s without permission it’s infringing on someone’s copyright.
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November 5, 2009 at 8:18 am
This isn’t always an accurate way to tell.
Designers sometimes use shapes from full perm sculpty sellers, say for a shoe base or pullover collar (legitimate sellers not stolen ones). Those items will list different creator names.
There is also another case of using scripts that have been bought from sellers, once again the item will list this person’s name in an inspection.
You also get cases of alts creating items then passing on the objects to the main avatar for sale (I do this myself so that I can build in solitude away from customer queries).
I’ve known friends also help me with objects, and I’ve also helped them texture some items, which also will have different names as creators in an inspection.
Just because an item has more than one creator listed, or some other avatar listed, doesn’t necessarily mean that it is stolen.
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November 5, 2009 at 9:06 am
“Content theft is when a product of the original creator is being sold or distributed by someone else.”
This isn’t correct. Many designers rely on full perm items sold by other designers to create their products, like bows for their shoes, or little bits of jewelry on a charm bracelet, etc…
There are many totally honest and legal reasons why an object would show many creators.
A house or building might contain “mega-prims” that cannot be created by the average SL user, and thus would show that someone besides the seller had created these parts of the object.
Content theft is when someone, without the original creator’s consent, takes original designs (usually through some sort of copy-bot or cache duplicating mechanism) and then tries to sell these items as their own. Often these sorts of content theft are undetectable by inspecting to see who created the object. In the case of a copy-bot, the entire object would show every prim in the object as being created by the thief.
There are many reseller programs out there as well. The creator uses vendors and a server to distribute their items through resellers who take a small percentage of the profits. Many high-end designers use this method to get their products “out there” and a being a reseller doesn’t mean it’s a bunch of low quality items from a L$1 wholesale business-in-a-box. Reseller vendors will have one person as a creator (usually the original designer) and another person as the seller.
Also, remember that many of your favorite designers use alts for business purposes. Perhaps all of their store vendors are owned by an alt, so they can keep store purchases separate from their personal spending in their transaction histories.
Lets say you love Stiletto Moody boots and you happen to be in some shady-looking dive that is selling some boots that look identical to your favorite Stiletto Moody’s. I’d say that this is a reason to be concerned. The best thing to do in this situation is contact Stiletto Moody herself. She can investigate the potential content theft herself and would also have proof that she was the original creator. The boots may not have actually been stolen, and might just be cheap knock-offs. At that point it would be up to Miss Moody to decide if she would file a DMCA with the person in RL, for theft of design, and not theft of the actual item.
I hope this helps people be more informed.
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November 5, 2009 at 9:38 am
Brilliant post.
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November 5, 2009 at 9:40 am
Just like we tell our group members, check the profiles. Legitimate sculpti makers will name the sculpti/prim store in the profile. Just as, artist who are business partners will typically state that in their profile. Most designers are proud of their work and they show off their store with the use of their profiles.
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November 5, 2009 at 9:44 am
You are correct Chic, if an item is ripped it will say the botters name. This is only one way to check. We will be showing others. Also, the biggest thing is to check the profiles. Many botters will have blank profiles and no mention what-so-ever of the store in question.
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November 5, 2009 at 9:47 am
Thank you all for the additional information. Hopefully it will all be helpful to our readers!
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November 5, 2009 at 10:32 am
There is an old saying that if it is too good to be true, then it probably isn’t. This helps to sort out what might have been stolen. If the quality is extremely good, you might be surprised why it is free or so cheap. So investigate those items.
Sometimes this is very hard because the quality of freebies has increased enormously over the years I have been in SL. But still, I sometimes run across “bargains” that are suspicious.
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November 5, 2009 at 11:36 am
I can just underline what was said before: Only because you have multiple creators doesn’t make it a stolen item. I use a lot of sculpties I bought. They aren’t always sold with the sculpty texure. Some people only sell the prim. Using this prim doesn’t make me a content thief, although my item shows different creators.
High quality stuff doesn’t always have to be expensive, just look at Bare Rose.
Also, some stores are selling old fashion or skin lines for a lot of RL money. Using these and selling them the way they are doesn’t make them a content thief either.
I’d say, if you think you discovered something stolen, contact the person you think they have stolen from and give them the LM to said store. They are the ones whose property was stolen, they have the chance to file an AR to LL. Just be careful with calling someone a thief. You can ruin their business if it’s not true…
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November 5, 2009 at 11:43 am
Yes, that is why we stress checking the profiles of the creator. It will typically be mentioned in the profile if it came from a reputable full perm scuplti/prim shop.
Also, we do not blog resells nor do we support them in our group. We do support original creators.
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November 5, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Thank you everyone for all the extra info. It’s great! So much information! Thank you!
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November 5, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Thank you for the tutorial!
I’m going to take the time to check all of my 13k items in my inventory.
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November 5, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Oh wait, I have a question.
What happens if the creator of an item had a store in the past, but no longer has a store anymore?
Should I just delete the item or do I have the right to keep it?
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November 5, 2009 at 1:24 pm
And what about the people who have massive amounts of inventory and want to have let’s say a yard sale make some money back on what they have spent…..
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November 5, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Well… they wouldn’t be “designers”. This would be a form of resell. Something we do not support and do not allow to be advertised in fabfree. I do suggest checking the creators of each item even if its at a yardsale. The items should be from the original shop. And like stated many times before, checking the profiles can raise red flags. If the creator has a blank profile, this typically means that they either left SL by their choice or the Linden’s banned them.
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November 5, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Also, 99% of hair and skins are no transfer. So if hair is being sold at a yardsale or is someone passes you a box of stuff this should be a major alert!
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November 5, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Thank you for all the info girls, I’m going over my inventory right now!!!!
You’re the best!
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November 5, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Great article! Very educative!!! Awesome!
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November 5, 2009 at 10:07 pm
I’m surprised there was absolutely no mention of creation *time* for the Inspect window. All prims in an object being created at the exact same time or within seconds of each other, especially for something complex like hair or detailed shoes, can be a huge tipoff to the item being copybotted.
And yes, a creator may work on an object with an alt, but I have never seen this happen where either some of the object wasn’t created by the main account, to provide a link back to the store through profiles, or the alt didn’t have something in their profile linking back to the store. Creators want traffic in their shops; they won’t knowingly forfeit such an easy way to get it.
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November 5, 2009 at 10:17 pm
great article. i will just add that most major content creators know each other, and are aware of each others’ products, and stand up for each other. when stolen content is found, do contact the designer(s) involved or their representative (i’m the one for Stiletto Moody).
also, if you find something “name brand” being resold, don’t be afraid to contact that designer’s rep and ask them if they allow this–in most cases, they do not, and you’ve just found someone selling things that are not theirs. shoes are also on the list of no trans items. someone “passing” inventory free to you is also not a good thing. hair, skin, shoes, are most often no trans.
the more informed people are, the better for everyone. when LL starts acting on DMCAs by taking content off the grid, content theft will affect more than just the designers/creators; it will affect the buyers of the ill gotten content as well. that’s when that blank profile will come back to haunt many as they try to get recourse from a seller who has “disappeared.”
buy original, support content creators, and keep your eyes open! fantastic article!
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November 9, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Just out of curiousity, how much of the content of something that is put up for sale can be purchased from other designers (sculpts, textures, etc.) before the person selling the final product is no longer selling an “original?”
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November 16, 2009 at 9:18 am
Hi all,
please, so when the item shows “unknown creator”, we don
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November 16, 2009 at 9:22 am
Please, so when the item shows “unknown creator”, we don’t need delete.
It doesn’t means that is an stollen item? Because i deleted almost 400 hairs that i discovered was from bad guys, that are in the black list, found from brazilians groups in orkut. And there, they say that items with “unknown creator” could be a stollen product too. But I have some outfits, with unknown creator too, and they are so good, i wouldn’t like to delete.
Thanks.
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November 28, 2009 at 6:46 pm
This is a peeve, and probably doesn’t belong on this particular blog, but while we’re on the subject of stealing from SL creators, what about those creators who swipe and sell copyrighted images off of the internet with wild abandon? I see it everywhere, from movie/book graphics, to images swiped from DeviantArt/Renderosity and Google. Some of these designers should also be careful they are not taking things to sell without first verifying that the resource is in the public domain, or buying a license from the copyright holder.
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January 2, 2010 at 7:18 pm
This is a really late reply but oh-well. To the poster “D,” who thinks people who source images and content from Renderosity and DeviantArt have “swiped” it:
To get something from Renderosity you have to pay for it before you can download it. Many items in the Renderosity marketplace are for content creation, and all have a Read Me link on the info page with the terms of license.
On Deviant Art, there are tons of patterns, textures, and brushes which are free for use. The artists usually say when someone can or can’t use their work for commercial creation. In fact, many would like it if you did, even if you don’t credit them.
Just because someone has sourced something from Renderosity or DeviantArt does not mean they “swiped” it. They in fact probably have license to it because ti would be very difficult to source something from an already doctored image.
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May 28, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Another thing that makes it even harder to tell is the fact that when something is imported from another grid, or from offline building tools like prim blender the object is recreated almost instantly so all the time stamps on the parts are within seconds of each other.
With Linden Labs making it harder to export things to other grids, more ‘grid hoppers’ build on the other grids now and import to sl (if they even bother with sending it to sl at all) which is still the same difficulty to import as it has always been. It is also often easier to do collaborative builds on other grids since they often have a ‘public domain’ style permission, and of course the zero cost for uploads helps too (if i have something that may take a lot of texture uploads to align i often do it on osgrid or 3rd rock or occasionally my offline standalone sim) and import the finished product for example).
Often those objects made on other grids end up as freebies or cheapies in sl since the grid it was made on usually has no economy and so they are free there and it would not make a lot of sense to sell it in sl for much more than compensating for upload fees.
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