Someone is selling many pirated children's books in Second Life

[BirdieGallo]

Someone is selling many pirated children's books in Second Life, as an author I am a sad someone would do it... especially since I see some of the works belonging to people I know personally. I emailed my contact at scholastic and I have also sent some messages to the people who I know personally.

But please if you come across them, do not buy them and delete them from your inventory. They are pirated and someone is collecting money for other peoples work. 

Thanks.

[Zack Massiel]

2 minutes ago, BirdieGallo said:

Someone is selling many pirated children's books in Second Life, as an author I am a sad someone would do it... especially since I see some of the works belonging to people I know personally. I emailed my contact at scholastic and I have also sent some messages to the people who I know personally.

But please if you come across them, do not buy them and delete them from your inventory. They are pirated and someone is collecting money for other peoples work. 

Thanks.

Without names it's extremely difficult to know what you're talking about. Have them file DMCA's that'll nip it in the butt pretty quickly.

[BirdieGallo]

You can find the album here of the situation., https://imgur.com/a/rUOCaTU

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

Best thing is to lodge a support ticket at the help desk and explain the issue in the ticket. The link to the help desk is to the right of the mboard's welcome page or go here: https://support.secondlife.com/create-case/

[Lillith Hapmouche]

That looks like a lot of effort put into it... pretty unusual for your typical rip 'n make L$$$.

Is that person not aware of copyright issues?

[Maitimo]

13 hours ago, BirdieGallo said:

Someone is selling many pirated children's books in Second Life, as an author I am a sad someone would do it... especially since I see some of the works belonging to people I know personally. I emailed my contact at scholastic and I have also sent some messages to the people who I know personally.

But please if you come across them, do not buy them and delete them from your inventory. They are pirated and someone is collecting money for other peoples work. 

Thanks.

The best way to deal with this is contact the RL author, via their publisher, to inform them of the details. Only the owner of the RL copyright can issue a DMCA.

[Jordyn McGregor]

Omg I used to have "Monster at the end of this book"!  It's a classic!!!

[Kia Kiyori]

18 hours ago, BirdieGallo said:

They are pirated and someone is collecting money for other peoples work. 

 

Not to mention the tidy 10% LL takes per sale. I wonder if they'll give those back?

[Syo Emerald]

1 hour ago, Kia Kiyori said:

Not to mention the tidy 10% LL takes per sale. I wonder if they'll give those back?

Isn't that just on the marketplace? The screenshot posted above looks like it has been taken inworld. Also this might be a question for a lawyer. My gut feeling tells me, that in such a case LL would not be asked to give back the 10% cut. Those 10% are subtracted from the revenue the seller makes, the moment the sale is completed. Its a fee for using their service. Its not put on top of the items price, its subtracted from the sellers revenue. No matter how rightfully that revenue has been earned, the fee will always be rightfully charged, because the service has been used. In a case, where the seller is obligated to give back any money he/she made with selling the books, the seller will need to give back the full 100%. The 10%, that LL took do not matter. They are something the seller paid after the purchase of a book has happened. 

Nothing is lost for the rightful owner. LL got their cut and the seller had to pay both.

 

Edited July 13, 2020 by Syo Emerald

[Nick0678]

Well we all know SL is full of ripped stuff from other games etc (only a small minority of creators actually are well skilled professionals who can create their own stuff) so unless the Copyright holder DMCA's it , don't expect much.

[Kia Kiyori]

1 minute ago, Syo Emerald said:

Isn't that just on the marketplace? The screenshot posted above looks like it has been taken inworld. Also this might be a question for a lawyer. My gut feeling tells me, that in such a case LL would not be asked to give back the 10% cut. Those 10% are subtracted from the revenue the seller makes, the moment the sale is completed. Its a fee for using their service. Its not put on top of the items price, its subtracted from the sellers revenue. No matter how rightfully that revenue has been earned, the fee will always be rightfully charged, because the service has been used. In a case, where the seller is obligated to give back any money he/she made with selling the books, the seller will need to give back the full 100%. The 10%, that LL took do not matter. They are something the seller paid after the purchase of a book has happened.

 

Ahh ok - no, I didnt get a chance to see the pic - keep having rl interruptions. 

[Love Zhaoying]

So..it's not just the book covers, but contents also?

[FairreLilette]

20 hours ago, BirdieGallo said:

They are pirated and someone is collecting money for other peoples work. 

The real worry of pirating is when fake books REAL LIFE BOOKS are printed oversea's illegally and the book sellers receive nothing for the fake copies of their books.  

You really think it's a big deal if someone has a facsimile of a real life children's book?  I think it's cute and a nice tribute.  Or does it just matter because there is a price?

I have two book facsimiles for sale right now but they are of antique book covers and thus are public domain.  I was a real life antiques dealer...so I lean towards the beauty of antiques, plus most are public domain.  

But, still, I don't see the big deal about this as it's not hundreds of thousands of dollars a writer could lose in real life because of fake reproductions made in China or elsewhere.   You can't even read these books.

Edited July 13, 2020 by FairreLilette

[Cougar Sangria]

2 hours ago, Jordan Whitt said:

Omg I used to have "Monster at the end of this book"!  It's a classic!!!

I have this book as well.  It is well worn from the many readings to my grand kids.  I was just at Barnes & Noble the other day and picked up The Monster at the end of this book 2.  I can't wait for the next sleepover to surprise my little rug rats.

[Lindal Kidd]

1 hour ago, Nick0678 said:

Well we all know SL is full of ripped stuff from other games etc (only a small minority of creators actually are well skilled professionals who can create their own stuff) so unless the Copyright holder DMCA's it , don't expect much.

Partially Fake News.  Yes, there is ripped content in SL.  It is NOT true that a "only a small minority of creators...can create their own stuff", though.  SL is actually relatively free of pirated content, compared to a lot of the rest of the internet.  Then your final statement is correct...only the creator can submit a DMCA takedown notice.

[Lindal Kidd]

20 hours ago, BirdieGallo said:

You can find the album here of the situation., https://imgur.com/a/rUOCaTU

Please clarify:  Are only the book COVERS being copied?  Or are these "vendors" that are selling the actual text of the books?  While both are a violation of copyright law, I would be a lot less concerned about the former.  Perhaps the maker of these only wanted to create a simulation of a children's book store in SL.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Please clarify:  Are only the book COVERS being copied?  Or are these "vendors" that are selling the actual text of the books?  While both are a violation of copyright law, I would be a lot less concerned about the former.  Perhaps the maker of these only wanted to create a simulation of a children's book store in SL.

 

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

So..it's not just the book covers, but contents also?

Me three!

[Skell Dagger]

1 hour ago, FairreLilette said:

I don't see the big deal about this as it's not hundreds of thousands of dollars a writer could lose in real life because of fake reproductions made in China or elsewhere.   You can't even read these books.

What are your thoughts regarding the copyright of the cover artists (if the books are self-published by the authors) or the publishers (if the books are trad. published)?

[FairreLilette]

20 minutes ago, Skell Dagger said:

What are your thoughts regarding the copyright of the cover artists (if the books are self-published by the authors) or the publishers (if the books are trad. published)?

Sometimes these things could be looked at as free publicity and can benefit a book or a record for example.

I don't see the big deal as working as an antiques and collectibles dealer for over 20 years I've had to deal with real life reproductions of what are supposed to be precious antiques.  There are loads and loads of counterfeit items that have come out of China and elsewhere including fake music, clothing, antiques, books.  This is a real concern.

As far as should the maker of a 3D book ask the publisher, I guess so, but still in having to deal with very serious real life counterfeiting, I don't see the big deal here.  It's not like it's a Maitreya body or something that could be making hundreds of thousands of dollars in SL.  It's just a few books, it could make people remember their childhood and go out and buy the real book again and hopefully not a counterfeit real life one sadly.  

Edited July 13, 2020 by FairreLilette

[Zzevir]

welcome on the internet 

[Skell Dagger]

6 minutes ago, FairreLilette said:

Sometimes these things could be looked at as free publicity

So the artists are not entitled to expect to be paid for doing their job?

https://twitter.com/forexposure_txt

https://digitalsynopsis.com/design/free-work-for-exposure-clients-from-hell/

https://www.boredpanda.com/working-for-exposure-tweets/

[FairreLilette]

6 minutes ago, Skell Dagger said:

So the artists are not entitled to expect to be paid for doing their job?

https://twitter.com/forexposure_txt

https://digitalsynopsis.com/design/free-work-for-exposure-clients-from-hell/

https://www.boredpanda.com/working-for-exposure-tweets/

I never said that.  But, how many linden do they want?  Twenty lindens per book or what?  She can't be making that much off of these books.  lol  I'm like whatever.  You all be the ethics committee here and do as you see fit. 

And, another thing Skell, you work for Catwa or said you did.  Now, that's a big item.  Most of the littlest sellers never even cash out into real money in SL.  So, most likely she does not even have any real money to pay them.  

Edited July 13, 2020 by FairreLilette

[AyelaNewLife]

Imagine trying to justify profiting off copyright theft

[Skell Dagger]

12 minutes ago, FairreLilette said:

It's just a few books

Tell that to an author. I know quite a few of them. I'm one myself.

"Hey, you know that book you spent months sweating over? The one that went through multiple rewrites, two content edits and three line edits? Yeah, that one. What on earth made you think all that work was worth anything?"

Did you even look at that Imgur album? It's not "just a few books". There are approximately 330 or so books shown.

[Skell Dagger]

4 minutes ago, FairreLilette said:

I never said that.  But, how many linden do they want?  Twenty lindens per book or what? 

Every single one of those covers is a copyright violation. They shouldn't even exist on the Second Life grid.