What the heck is up with Pokemon, Star Wars and other stuff?

[animats]

So do something original. Most of the Disney properties, from Star Wars to the Marvel Overexpanded Universe, have been done to death.

[Theresa Tennyson]

On 9/4/2023 at 12:14 PM, Selvyn Kohime said:

I've noticed lately that all Pokemon and Star Wars content has disappeared from the MP. When will Star Trek be purged too? I don't know what Linden Labs are hoping to achieve by simply purging away all the ***** people are into,

I think they're hoping to achieve "remaining in business."

[bigmoe Whitfield]

6 hours ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

I think they're hoping to achieve "remaining in business."

yep if the lab does not act on the dcma take downs, the lab is liable and loses their safe habour status.

[PheebyKatz]

I made Wonder Woman Underoos, but I only wear them when nobody is looking. I have Supergirl and Batgirl on a back burner, too. They came out when I was a little kid, and my parents refused to get them for me. I even made them just like they did in the 70's, white on the back and everything (those cheapskates). I consider what I made to be art, inspired by my own RL. Fan art, I guess.

Seeing how much very recognizably pirated stuff is being sold openly on the MP on any given day, I actually considered making my Underoos available to others. I decided not to, just because it would be my luck that Wonder Woman whould show up and have me arrested, and not even use the Lasso of Truth on me or anything, so she'd know that my motives were pure. That and it just felt wrong.

I think as long as a person is only making homage items for personal use and personal nostalgia, there really shouldn't be anything wrong with it. Wanting the same things you once had IRL, or were never able to have because your parents were too uptight or stingy, and not being able to find them anywhere inworld sucks.

I had considered calling them something else, even, like Wonder Lady Underwarez, but it just didn't feel right.

My main concern, of course, isn't even with a comic book company. If Fruit of the Loom is holding out on doing Underoos on the MP, and I put my underwear up for sale, they'll send those guys in the fruit costumes to rough me up, and really, that apple guy scares me to death. So yeah, I'll make them and wear them, but I'd feel weird trying to sell anything like that.

This whole issue does make it hard for RP groups too, because when you love a show, or a movie, or anything really, and love it so much you want to make it a part of your imaginative life and express that love with others, it can really put a damper on it when someone comes along and tells you that you can't even wear the dern logo on your shirt.

If anything, maybe companies should have a policy that allows people to make and sell fan art, provided they register as doing so, and kick the company a little something if they make money off of it. It's not like there's mountains of paperwork that will result from it; computer-driven beaurocracies are the way of the future anyway.They could totally do it. And it wouldn't break the model, either. The more people see of a brand/concept, the more popular it gets, so yeah.

Edited October 4, 2023 by PheebyKatz

[Randy Pole]

Many of the cosplay groups have one thing on their side - they do not make money or any money that they do make goes to charity.

As soon as someone starts creating branded merchandise to make money (no matter how little or big that money may be) then they have a target on their back from the big corps and their lawyers.

Many corps get confused with things sold in SL also and read L$ as plain old US $ so they see something being listed for L$500 and their eyes light up sensing a big fat payment of fees from the merchant being owed.

[MissSweetViolet]

One thing to note too, many of these take downs are probably done by the shop, not SL. I've bought these types of items before, I don't think I've seen anything thing removed from my inventory (Still have my Eevee pet), if it were a DMCA, it would be wiped from your inventory. So it's probably shops who have ether moved on to other things, and/or shops who have realized how dangerous it is to sell these items and don't want to get a DMCA.

[PheebyKatz]

13 hours ago, North Pole said:

Many of the cosplay groups have one thing on their side - they do not make money or any money that they do make goes to charity.

As soon as someone starts creating branded merchandise to make money (no matter how little or big that money may be) then they have a target on their back from the big corps and their lawyers.

Many corps get confused with things sold in SL also and read L$ as plain old US $ so they see something being listed for L$500 and their eyes light up sensing a big fat payment of fees from the merchant being owed.

An astute observation. People do see the L$ and have no concept of the reality behind the numbers.

When I was new and poor as dirt even, 100L$ looked and felt like a lot of money. When I had 80k, 3,000L$ didn't seem like a big deal at all. Now, I look at the L$ balance and see the actual value.

"Woah, I tipped that guy 12 bucks, no wonder he was surprised. All he did was play some music."

Anyone unfamiliar with all of this would see a 500L$ item and think woah, five HUNDRED! I see it and I'm like hmm, two bucks. Do I want this or not?