On Avatar Outfitting
We all want our avatars to look cool, interesting and awesomesauce. For that, many of us invest a lot of RL money in outfitting our avatars. However, the downside is, that some of us will likely fall for stores that abuse our lack of knowledge and sell items, which are not exactly legal. None of us wishes our players to fall for these stores and pay them money for items that aren't even legal. We think it is incredibly annoying that these stores get your money for items they aren't even allowed to sell.
Here you will find a constantly updated list of shops in Secondlife that are offering IP infringing content, either complete, ripped outfits, or partially stolen content. This list is not complete yet. We politely ask you to NOT shop here for your character for Ribbon's Crossing because we do not wish these items to be worn in our sim. Read below for further explanations!
LostGem Mesh (Aejay Jestyr/Legend Darkrose)
Erebos (ErebosShop Resident)
Jomo (Xiaoduo Resident)
Manticore (see above)
Medieval Fantasy (MedievalFantasy Resident)
Harshlands/Meiyo (Kadaj Yoshikawa)
<CE> Mesh Precious (Catwoman Ember)
Doraleous Armory (Doraleous Resident)
Mesh Effect (PrimRPG Resident)
Shop Avatars (Madazass Resident)
So why would we do this?!
There are several reasons for us to not want items from these stores on our sim:
1. Selling stolen content from other games/venues is both against the Secondlife TOS and illegal in many countries.
2. While we are in no way an official project by CD Projekt Red, we DO have their permission to use their artwork etc. for our place if we do not use them for monetary gain. With this comes a greater responsibility to make sure that within our sim, no IP infringing content used to earn money is found.
3. Simple ethical reasons. Supporting thieves is not something we wish to support in any way.
4. IF a store gets closed by LindenLab due to IP infringing content, the item is yanked from your inventory which means you paid for nothing.
There are many, many stores and events by now that offer you great opportunities to outfit your avatar without resorting to IP infringing content. If you ever are UNSURE if a store is selling legal items, or if you ever would like pointers where to shop instead, feel free to ask us for advice, we will gladly help you! This also doesn't mean that we will wave with the banhammer whenever we see someone in such an outfit, however, we do give heads ups and we very much hope you will change. We know how this feels, you are very likely not the only one falling for these kinds of stores. Believe it or not, even we have bought the odd item here and there that turned out to be illegal.
Here is a list of telltale signs that a store's content is likely not entirely legal. If several ones of these can be checked for the store you are looking at, we recommend to be suspicious.
- full, complicated looking outfits at cheap prices (i.e. 300 Lindens for a fullblown armor is DAMN cheap!)
- no demos provided
- the quality and style of items are very variable
- bad rigging (i.e. parts are rigged that shouldn't be fully rigged, very bad fitting, no sizes etc.)
- washed out textures ingame
- bad, unprofessional vendor pictures for the items
- the "too good to be true"-feeling in your stomach
- the feeling that some of the items in their store look strangely familiar (a lot of places steal from various games such as Assassin's Creed, The Witcher, Skyrim, The Sims and other popular games)
- the account sellling these items is an anonymous, relatively young account
Of course, there might be the odd store here and there that is perfectly legal, the account is new, the vendor pictures aren't the best and the storeowner has no idea about the priceranges in SL. In such cases, often an IM to them helps and we will gladly take a look at them too.
We very much hope that you will support our perspective on this and don't hesitate to approach us with questions!
Here you will find a constantly updated list of shops in Secondlife that are offering IP infringing content, either complete, ripped outfits, or partially stolen content. This list is not complete yet. We politely ask you to NOT shop here for your character for Ribbon's Crossing because we do not wish these items to be worn in our sim. Read below for further explanations!
LostGem Mesh (Aejay Jestyr/Legend Darkrose)
Erebos (ErebosShop Resident)
Jomo (Xiaoduo Resident)
Manticore (see above)
Medieval Fantasy (MedievalFantasy Resident)
Harshlands/Meiyo (Kadaj Yoshikawa)
<CE> Mesh Precious (Catwoman Ember)
Doraleous Armory (Doraleous Resident)
Mesh Effect (PrimRPG Resident)
Shop Avatars (Madazass Resident)
So why would we do this?!
There are several reasons for us to not want items from these stores on our sim:
1. Selling stolen content from other games/venues is both against the Secondlife TOS and illegal in many countries.
2. While we are in no way an official project by CD Projekt Red, we DO have their permission to use their artwork etc. for our place if we do not use them for monetary gain. With this comes a greater responsibility to make sure that within our sim, no IP infringing content used to earn money is found.
3. Simple ethical reasons. Supporting thieves is not something we wish to support in any way.
4. IF a store gets closed by LindenLab due to IP infringing content, the item is yanked from your inventory which means you paid for nothing.
There are many, many stores and events by now that offer you great opportunities to outfit your avatar without resorting to IP infringing content. If you ever are UNSURE if a store is selling legal items, or if you ever would like pointers where to shop instead, feel free to ask us for advice, we will gladly help you! This also doesn't mean that we will wave with the banhammer whenever we see someone in such an outfit, however, we do give heads ups and we very much hope you will change. We know how this feels, you are very likely not the only one falling for these kinds of stores. Believe it or not, even we have bought the odd item here and there that turned out to be illegal.
Here is a list of telltale signs that a store's content is likely not entirely legal. If several ones of these can be checked for the store you are looking at, we recommend to be suspicious.
- full, complicated looking outfits at cheap prices (i.e. 300 Lindens for a fullblown armor is DAMN cheap!)
- no demos provided
- the quality and style of items are very variable
- bad rigging (i.e. parts are rigged that shouldn't be fully rigged, very bad fitting, no sizes etc.)
- washed out textures ingame
- bad, unprofessional vendor pictures for the items
- the "too good to be true"-feeling in your stomach
- the feeling that some of the items in their store look strangely familiar (a lot of places steal from various games such as Assassin's Creed, The Witcher, Skyrim, The Sims and other popular games)
- the account sellling these items is an anonymous, relatively young account
Of course, there might be the odd store here and there that is perfectly legal, the account is new, the vendor pictures aren't the best and the storeowner has no idea about the priceranges in SL. In such cases, often an IM to them helps and we will gladly take a look at them too.
We very much hope that you will support our perspective on this and don't hesitate to approach us with questions!