liability question for builders

[rhonin Nissondorf]

lets say i make  a full perm  freebie and give it away on marketplace. then someone else mods it to do something malicious and distrubutes it. Since im the orginal creator am i liable in any way. And  can a investigation  prove  i didnt  distrubute a malcicious item if this were to happen?

[Rolig Loon]

That's a really good question.  I know that Ceera and some of the others who made a lot of our megaprims get occasional IMs from people who are ticked because one of those prims is the root of a linkset that's bothering them.  If a builder chooses a megaprim as the root of a new structure, the creation misleadingly shows them as the creator. One of the reasons that scripters are cautious about distributing mod perm versions of their scripts is that they worry about that same thing.  If someone modifies a script that shows me as the creator and uses it as a griefing tool, it would be hard for me to prove that I didn't do it. 

The thing that saves builders and scripters is that LL and most experienced residents know this is a problem, so they aren't quick to assume the worst.  You might get nasty IMs, I suppose, but it's unlikely that you'll get hammered by LL.  I could be wrong and living on borrowed time, but I'm not losing sleep over this.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

I always thought the owner of the item was the one on the block for things like this. I can see the creator being somewhat at risk but only slightly. I don't know how it would work. I do know that there are quite a few of my earlier "creations" floating around SL that were given at full perms..........I've seen them in texture bundles and freebie boxes. I've never been accused of anything unpleasant (but most of my stuff is clothing and textures.....no well suited for griefing).

[Rolig Loon]

I agree, Peggy. Creators are one step removed from Ground Zero. Still, a creator's name IS on the general page in Edit and some people may jump to the conclusion that the creator shares some of the blame for misdeeds. In the heat of the moment during a replicator attack, for example, how many sim owners wouldn't grab one of the offending prims and say something nasty about the creator? I think this is a legitimate thing to think about, but as I said earlier, not one I'm going to waste much energy worrying over.

[Knowl Paine]

You might get re-active liability but an investigation would clear you of any unintended use by Residents who are acting on their own accord.

In the Profiles of many Creators is written "I didn't sell you abc product contact the Seller you purchased from" or any variation of that will work. Clear public notice and you should be good to go.

 

[Peewee Musytari]

LL are able to see your item in its original form all over the grid & even though it would not be proof that you did not release a subsequent version, it would add support to your arguement that the object had been modded by someone else.

I agree with the previous posters that you may well get blamed by other residents, but LL have ways of checking what really happened in such cases.