vickiadams Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 A friend of mine sells downloadable files on her website relating to her profession (pdf files of some kind). I like making clothes in GIMP for upload but I have never had any interest in being a merchant.My friend has offered me the chance to sell files through her site. I would sell tga files for others to upload into SL.Is this permissible? I know that Lindon Lab gets a cut of sales from merchants. But if people bought tga files from me and uploaded, they would pay the upload fee.Thanks,Vicki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Scorpio Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 You can do what you wish to do with your own website, it is beyond LL's control. However make sure you don't use any LL trademarks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peggy Paperdoll Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Copyright infringement laws still apply no matter where you might sell digital content. As long as you do not violate any law you are free to sell what you want on the Internet. Linden Lab does not care how the the content is produced or distributed as long as it's not violating any US or LL law. To be honest, LL cannot know that you are not the creator of content once it's uploaded.........a TGA file is a TGA file no matter who or where it was originally made. I could send you a TGA file of one of the skins I've made for myself and you could turn around and upload that same, un-altered, file and LL can not tell who the original creator is.....me or you. Just obey the laws and don't plagerize content. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Scorpio Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Peggy Paperdoll wrote: Copyright infringement laws still apply no matter where you might sell digital content. As long as you do not violate any law you are free to sell what you want on the Internet. Linden Lab does not care how the the content is produced or distributed as long as it's not violating any US or LL law. To be honest, LL cannot know that you are not the creator of content once it's uploaded.........a TGA file is a TGA file no matter who or where it was originally made. I could send you a TGA file of one of the skins I've made for myself and you could turn around and upload that same, un-altered, file and LL can not tell who the original creator is.....me or you. Just obey the laws and don't plagerize content. Yes, this too. As long as it is your own content you can sell it through a third party website. My question is though why would you? I mean, people would have a hard time trusting any website that is not LL's. Marketplace allows you to sell your content in a safe way for you and your customers, so why not take advantage of that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peggy Paperdoll Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 There are probably as many reasons why one would choose to go that route as there are reasons for not going that route. I'm not endorsing the use of third party wedsites but, then again, I won't condemn the use of them either. The likelihood of using illegally obtained content on Marketplace is just about as great as any other place on the Internet. The only difference is that LL has control and assuming LL is a trusted company that would be a plus. But it's alway, ultimately, up to the user to make sure the content is legal. That's the crux of digital content.......it's very hard, if not impossible, to know for sure who the legal owner of the content is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Falworth Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Copyright is certainly a gray area when applied to digital images, especially so in TGA format. Now, getting to the meat of your question.... Assuming there are no trademarked images passing into SL database, that much is legal. Selling clothing designs is quite different from digital wallpaper. In order to create an avatar skin or image, you first need a template. Creating skins or clothing outside of SL "specifically suited for SL Avatar use" just for the fun of it, then dumping the designs seems a little bit suspicious to me. I could be way off base but I would suspect these images are altered and would not pay the 10 Linden to upload each one let alone buy them. But that is me and just my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peggy Paperdoll Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 "... Creating skins or clothing outside of SL "specifically suited for SL Avatar use" just for the fun of it, then dumping the designs seems a little bit suspicious to me. ..." ------------------------------------------ Why is that suspicious? I learned to make skins by using (actually tearing apart) the templates I obtained legally from Eloh Elloit a few years ago. I made skins just for the fun of it. Somewhere in the inventories of this account and my alt account I have about 30 or 40 skins ranging from the very bad (read ugly) to pretty darned good (the skin I wear 99% of the time right now is one of the "for fun" skins I made a couple years ago). I've given some of my skins away to friends (even strangers who expressed an interest). Though I have not given them as "freebies" I have consided it in the past for newbies. Everything about the skins I created is on the up and up..........entirely legal and the later "models" are 100% mine. I used the templates just like I use the avatar templates for clothing (as guides and those templates are not part of the uploaded skins). If I want to "dump" my skins, then that's well within my rights as creator and well within the ToS. I made them, I own them, and I can give them to whoever I want. I can put restrictions on them if I choose or I can give them without limitations (afterall that's exactly what Eloh did years ago with her skins templates.......she gave them away to us for free). Do you suspect her? I don't..........I'm enternally grateful for her generousity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidnella Riler Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Not to burst the bubble but if a skin is really good, would have made it to the bloggers/ flicker/ and everyone would know about it, and if it is really good, why not take the opportunity of promoting it, in the usual places that people would see and buy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vickiadams Posted February 17, 2013 Author Share Posted February 17, 2013 Thanks for all your replies. I don't know if I am going to do this or not. I am really not interested in being a merchant, and don't really have the time. The reason I am thinking about this is that a friend has an existing site and is selling such things as manuals on very specialized writing for scientists, stuff for chemists (her husband is a chemist), and other files for highly specialized professional use. She has offered to sell clothing tga files that I have created. It would require no work on my part other than e-mailing the files to her. I really doubt that I would have any significant sales, All of the files would be things I have created from scratch for fun. Since I don't expect any significant income, there would be no reason for me to try to sell anything I did not create. The only trademark/copyright problem that I see would that my page would have words such as "clothing for Second Life", and perhaps some information about uploading which would use the words "Second Life". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Boyle Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Doc Falworth wrote: ... especially so in TGA format.... Why would the format matter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Boyle Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 vickiadams wrote: The only trademark/copyright problem that I see would that my page would have words such as "clothing for Second Life", and perhaps some information about uploading which would use the words "Second Life". That's not a problem. It's fair use to use a trademarked name to refer to the product or service to which it applies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madeliefste Oh Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 vickiadams wrote: I don't know if I am going to do this or not. I am really not interested in being a merchant, and don't really have the time. The reason I am thinking about this is that a friend has an existing site and is selling such things as manuals on very specialized writing for scientists, stuff for chemists (her husband is a chemist), and other files for highly specialized professional use. She has offered to sell clothing tga files that I have created. It would require no work on my part other than e-mailing the files to her. I really doubt that I would have any significant sales, All of the files would be things I have created from scratch for fun. Since I don't expect any significant income, there would be no reason for me to try to sell anything I did not create. How well do you know this friend? Is it a rl friend that you know for years or a sl friends that you know for some weeks? To me it seems a very strange combination, professional manuals and writings for chemists and SL clothing templates. Why would someone with a professional website be interested in hosting SL templates? I would be a bit on my guard with such an offer. How sure are you that this friend really means well with you and your creations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vickiadams Posted February 17, 2013 Author Share Posted February 17, 2013 "How well do you know this friend? Is it a rl friend that you know for years or a sl friends that you know for some weeks?" My husband and I have known her and her husband (in RL) for a couple of decades. She is a science writer and editor with a degree in physics; he is a chemist. Her website is, she says, is more of a hobby but pays for itself as well as for their own internet service and a small extra profit. It is divided in such a way that most people wouldn't know that the part where she sells "how to stuff" for scientific writing and where he sells chemistry information are related. They appear to be separate, but the underlying credit card processing and file handling parts are the same. There is also a forum for chemists to discuss whatever chemists talk about. She also has a section that sells music recorded by a musician friend (with full attention to copyright matters). That section also appears to be a separate site, but uses the same underlying processing software. She has had the site for over 10 years, and is very knowledgeable on internet commerce issues. I haven't decided whether or not to do it. I could not find anything in the Linden Lab terms of service. I know that I would make very little money. Some of the sales would go to credit card processing and to my friend to help pay the cost of the site, but most would come to me. Of course, most of very little is very little. But it might be fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madeliefste Oh Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 That seems safe enough. Article 7 in TOS is important in your situation. 7.1 You retain any and all Intellectual Property Rights in Content you submit to the Service. You retain any and all Intellectual Property Rights you already hold under applicable law in Content you upload, publish, and submit to or through the Servers, Websites, and other areas of the Service, subject to the rights, licenses, and other terms of this Agreement, including any underlying rights of other users or Linden Lab in Content that you may use or modify. In connection with Content you upload, publish, or submit to any part of the Service, you affirm, represent, and warrant that you own or have all necessary Intellectual Property Rights, licenses, consents, and permissions to use and authorize Linden Lab and users of Second Life to use the Content in the manner contemplated by the Service and these Terms of Service. You are the IP right owner of your tga files. You can decide what people can an cannot do with your creations. LL has nothing to say about that, it is not their IP right. Your buyers however can only upload to SL with your permission. And they are best of when they can show that permission in case it would be needed. The most simple solution is to a make a user license that states the rights and limitations that come with your tga files, and make this license visible on the site where people can read it before they buy the items. It would be even better when they must push a 'I agree' button before they can actually download the file. Put the file in a zip together with the user license so people have a copy of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vickiadams Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 "7.1 You retain any and all Intellectual Property Rights in Content you submit to the Service....." Thanks. That implies that Linden does not have a problem with people selling tga files for the customer to upload. Vicki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
YouTube
Flickr
Recommended Posts
Please take a moment to consider if this thread is worth bumping.
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now