Is a mesh body maker, who creates a layer on the hud that allows the user to change colour legal?

[Tazzie Tuque]

A well known mesh body maker has created an extra layer on the body hud, which allows the user to change the colour of any system layer clothing applied by an appliier, is this legal?  

In my view it is not.  I am a creator of system layer clothing that I make appliers for so that mesh body users can wear my creations.  When I create an article of clothing my permissions are NO MOD, NO TRANSFER.

Which means I do not wish for my creations to be altered in any way!  Those who use classic avatars are not able to modify or change even the colour of the item.  However, those using this particular mesh body are now able to overide my permissions, by using the colour over layer on the hud.  This totally over rides my original permissions of NO MODIFY!!  

This should NOT be legal to do!  I am unable to find anything in the knowledge base or Wiki that would clarify this.  Yet it IS a violation of my rights to have NO MODIFY respected.  I have heard the arguement that it is not changing the texture just the colour so it's ok.. NO it is NOT ok..  the colour IS a part of the original texture.  It is my creation,  I do not want it distorted and messed up by someone applying an ugly colour over it to spoil it.  I should have the right to protect my creations fully should I not?

 

[Alwin Alcott]

i can't think about any way it would be illegal, there is really nothing that is changed to your creation.

It is just a addition to the look of the person wearing it by adding a layer ... as is possible with system clothes too... you could use underwear, shirts, and jackets...all of them adding something to the look, nothing illegal or altering your design.

So to your last line, no you don't have that in the way it's used here.

 

[Rolig Loon]

If you are really lucky and patient, you might be able to find threads from the OLD forums where we argued about that question for what seems like an eternity.  One side of the argument was well represented by exactly the points you are making.  The other side said, "When you sell the clothing, you are only selling  that instance, so why should you care if the buyer wants to ruin her own clothes?"  It's exactly what we'd all say if someone bought a dress in a RL store and then took it home and dyed it pink.  It's the buyer's stupid choice. (And maybe she wouldn't have bought the dress from you in the first place if she hadn't been able to dye it, so you'd be out a sale.)

I don't recall any resolution at all, but I remember a lot of shouting on both sides. Frankly, I don't know which way I lean any more.  I doubt that you'll find anything definitive in the TOS or IP policy about it, though.

[Rhonda Huntress]

With questions of legality it is always best to consult a lawyer.

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

Hi Tazzie,

Some parallel examples...

Should skin designers have the right to prohibit buyers from wearing tattoos?

Should I be prevented from wearing a gold lame blouse with bib overalls because Oskosh B'Gosh thinks lame is lame?

It's also legal to modify items purchased in RL to satirize or co-opt branding that's displayed on them. This allows someone in my town to drive around in a pickup truck that says "yo" on the tailgate... and make me smile.

If you are actually trying to prevent people from tinting your clothing to avoid purchasing other colors, you'll run afoul of Rolig's example, which is perfectly legal. Unlike dying RL clothing, tinting SL textures usually doesn't produce pleasing results. Everything gets tinted (equivalent to "Multiply" in Photoshop), including baked in specular reflections, which are often white.

[Pixieplumb Flanagan]

You do have the option to NOT make appliers for that particular body, and to explain why you have chosen to take that decision.  But in general I doubt many people would want to do more than add a very slight grey/colour tint, as anything more would cause increasing loss of detail.  A few might go for the white option and colour away, and I agree, that would be very 2008  Most people won't want to bother at all.  

But aside from refusing to make appliers for that body, I don't think there's anything you can do.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Your creations are not being altered.  What is being altered is the mesh layer, which you don't own the rights to.

It would be the same if I had a piece of no mod furniture and decided to put my own prim around it and make it mostly transparent and then tint it.  I am tinting the prim which I created and own the IP rights to, not the furniture.

It is also the same as viewing clothing through rose colored glasses that tint everything rose colored.  There is nothing illegal about it.

[ChinRey]

If you want to discuss this, I suggest you repost it here. The answers section isn't really suitable for prolonged discussions.

It is a very interesting topic and there is certainly more than one side to it.

But do not expect anything to happen. A mesh body is essentially just an object like most other objects in Second Life and the faces can be tinted any color you like. You don't even need a HUD to for it. As long as the body is modifiable, anybody with a little bit of building skills and a bit of patience can do it manually. You'd have to rewrite the software handling mesh in SL from scratch to completely prevent it.

Edit: The answer to the question in the title is yes, it is legal. An applier is a retexturing HUD for certain faces of a mesh. Even if you supply textures for that you have no legal rights whatsoever to dictate how the user modifies other aspects of the mesh or what modifcation options the creator gives the user.