Xavier Pomegranate

I would prefer to be warned that I have received stolen items so that I do not pass them on to future customers, and I also would not care if I ended up on a list where other Merchants were keeping an eye on me, because I want to do everything in my power to stay legitimate. Extra eyes can assist in that, and these merchant protection groups do a lot more good than they ever do harm. Stay legitimate and you have nothing to worry about. And, how many times do I have to say that I found her avatar name on a watch list, I did not put it there.

I did not besmirch her name. I found her name on a list regarding the thief shortly after I discovered the theft. You make it out like I found her and added her to a list of known criminals. Not true. I found her and contacted her to let her know what was happening. Thats all. Nobody is saying she is a thief. Other merchants just want to make sure she is not reselling stolen stuff, knowingly or unknowingly. She got on a list based on the fact that she was in the thief's store VIP group. Again, don't blame me, blame the thief. His actions landed her avatar name on a list of possible unauthorized content users. Emphasis on "possible". Blame the thief for that.

Oh, and before i forget to satisfy your curiosity, some of the animations that were stolen from me I had NEVER set to be sold with full permissions. So, I am obviously losing more than one sale. Get it now?

I dont suspect that my items have been stolen. I know they have. I have copies of the thief's engine. You all can sit and speculate all you want about whether I am speaking the truth or not. I have offered o prove it but nobody here has taken me up on it. All talk and no action. This system is rigged for the thieves.

Which of the animations, that the OP has, that came from the thief, which were originally mine, would depend on how many products she purchased from the thief. If she bought the couch or the shower engine from the thief then she likely has about a hundred of mine...so I am not going to waste my time listing them all. But, what I can say for certain is that there are other products out there, that have the thief listed as the creator, that Linden Labs has not gotten around to removing yet. I would love to list the thiefs name right here for you all to see, however that would likely be a TOS violation...even if its true.

I could make you a list, but it is easier to say that EVERY animation that has the thief listed as the creator was stolen, either from myself, Silva, or other animators. It is safer to just avoid anything that came out of the thiefs store. Its really not rocket science.

I didnt lose just one sale,... I think you may be to ignorant to realize it. But, I dont really care what you think, or what the original poster thinks. If I catch anybody in possession of my stolen items or reselling my stolen items you can be damn sure that I will notify them about it and notify EVERYONE that would find this information pertinent. If the original poster is reselling any of my stolen property, rest assured she will have a DCMA filed against her. That is not a threat, thats a promise. And if she is selling anybody elses stolen property I will inform them as well. Go ahead and test me. When you have a Second Life business that brings in large sums of real money maybe you will be as protective and assertive as I am. Until then, I will continue to try and protect my intellectual property, and the intellectual property of others, from theives and unauthorized uses. You just seem to want to elevate this to a whole new level of stupidity.

Please explain to me how notifying someone that they have purchased stolen goods from a thief and as a result of being associated with that thief the person has come under some degree of scrutiny, by the people who the thief had originally stolen from, to ensure that they are not selling/reselling or trading in any other stolen items constitutes a threat. Unless, of course they actually plan on reselling those stolen items. Like it or not, the original poster has stolen intellectual property in her posession. She needs to be informed of that fact so she can decide how she should proceed. Its not my fault the original poster's name is on a list containing names of people who MAY, knowingly or unknowingly, be trafficing in stolen intellectual property. Blame the thief. Maybe I could have chosen my words better, but keep in mind...i had just learned that I was robbed. And it was not a small theft, it was major.

Are you really that Naive? I have offered to prove it to you, but all you do is sit there an try to cast doubt on my claims. Find me when you log in and I will happily shove all of the evidence in your face. And, when I am done, if you still don't believe me then you can feel free to continue to cast doubt on my claims in this venue. But, until you decide to do some REAL investigating regarding my claims you are doing nothing more than stirring the pot and defending the thief in the process. Two houses right next to each other get robbed. One family comes home a few hours later and call the police. The other family does not get home for a few days and then calls the police. Tell me, do the police have any reason to believe that the second house did not get robbed at all just because the second family called later? Maybe the police should accuse the second family of lying because maybe they could claim losses on their home insurance. I got robbed. I found out after Silva did. I am telling you the thief has my animations in his products. WHAT ABOUT MY CLAIM IS NOT BELIEVABLE?

I am going to send you the notecard with Linden Labs response to the DCMA filed by Silva against this specific thief. You will see the products of the thief's that have been blacklisted and removed. Those products contain the initials of the thief's store at the beginnings of each black-listed item. (But, something still makes me believe that your next move will be to have accused me of typing the notecard myself because you have no way to directly prove that I didn't.) And, had you been reading my posts carefully, you would have read that Silva Petrov, a fellow animator, has already proven this person to be a thief and therefore it is only a matter of time before the stolen property of mine gets dealt with by Linden Labs in a similar fassion. This does not mean that I am not suffering damages in the meantime while I wait.

See, its exactly that kind of attitude that makes it so difficult. The original poster already admitted to buying items from the thief's store. If you really want me to show you I am fully capable if you really want to come in world and spend a half hour with me. Otherwise, you are forced to take me at my word. And, if you also purchased from this thief and do not take me at my word and continue to sell stolen intellectual property you can rest assured that you will also eventually have DCMA's filed against you. You really want to me to prove it to you, come look me up and I will show you his animations next to my animations as well as the notecard with Linden Labs response to Silva Petrov's DCMA filing against this specific thief. (Forget about the fact that my avatar is over 5 years old while the thief is less than one year, or the fact that my store is 2 sims big and the thief's store is GONE.) What will it take to get you to believe me, a written confession from the thief? And since when have you known Linden Labs to do anything in a hurry? Now I know what it feels like to be a rape victim that nobody believes.

As I have stated earlier, several times in fact , the original poster has nothing to worry about, provied she does not resell anything that she obtained through the thief. Call me a jerk all you want. The original poster admits to having purchased from the specific thief. This thief was selling MY animations with full permissions. The original poster HAS NO RIGHT to use MY animations in ANY of her products, and she has been notified of that. Silva can verify that this perpetrator is indeed a thief. The original poster has been duly notified by me that she is in possession of my stolen intellectual property and what she does with that information from here is up to her. I can only hope that she is honorable about the situation. I can present her with all of the evidence to get her to believe me, but while I wait for Linden Labs to remove all of my stolen property from the grid, I am losing sales while the thief continues to profit. Why would I put her under scrutiny? For all I know she could have purchased the stolen material knowing that it was stolen in a deleberate effort to avoid paying the full price. For all I know she could make a habbit of it. The original poster purchased animations from a known thief that had stolen products from several different animators. All of those animators have the right to know that the original poster may have ended up with their stolen animations so that they can check her products to ensure that no DCMA violation has occured. Don't like it? Too bad. If it was your product that was stolen you may be singing a different tune. The original poster has nothing to worry about if she is not reselling anything she got from the thief's store, and she has been notified of that fact.

OMG. Yes, her name is Sylva Petrov. I do not have any direct contact with her, but I do have a notecard containing the response that she received from Linden Labs regarding her DCMA filing against the particular thief that started this whole mess. I only know of Sylva through the owner of Xclusives Animations. I am a member of the Merchant Protection Alliance group, the Pro Builder Group, and a few other Merchant Groups that keep me informed of copybotters and thieves. As it turns out I think Silva is also in the Pro Builder Group. Is there anything else you might be curious about? Would you like to add me as a friend on Skype so I can tell you all about the situation? Or do you want to just sit there and continue to doubt me. I have all the evidence I need against this particular thief. The problem is that Linden Labs does nothing proactively, they must be poked and prodded to take action. I have no tolerance for theives and I will continue to share information with "watch-dog" groups to ensure that theives are dealt with accordingly. I would think that most SL merchants would be grateful that there are people out there trying to protect the things they make to sell. It boils down to this. If I catch somebody selling or reselling animations that I have spend hours and hours to make then I will do everything in my power to inform everyone of the violation. I would do the same for you too if I discovered your items had been stolen and were being resold. But, I guess that makes me the bad guy, huh?

Well, I can tell you for sure that, with the items this thief is selling, the thief is showing up as the creator of animations that I made and uploaded years ago. They are exact duplicates. So, it is obvious to me that these thieves can indeed make themselves the creator of products that they stole. I can take you over to my store and drop out an item from this thief and then play my animations for you right next to his and you will see that they are the same. The only difference being that the thief is listed as the creator for "his" and my upload dates are way earlier than his. (Because mine are the originals.) This thief is even over in Inworlds doing the same exact thing with my animation products and the products of other animators. If you would like to discuss the particular DCMA that already got some items black-listed then head over to Silva's Animations. (I don't know her entire SL name.) All I can tell you for sure is that somehow this thief was listed as the creator of my animations...and I am pretty sure you will discover the same was true for Silva. As for the "taking the law into my own hands" remark, I simply notified original poster that she had been dealing with a thief and now other SL merchants would be making sure she was not selling any stolen products, knowingly or unknowingly. Don't blame me, blame the thief.

When a thief steals a virtual item via "copybot" program, the thief becomes the creator of the copied item. The copy is an illegal duplication regardless of who it says created it. It is usually difficult to know exactly when an item has been copybotted/stolen. But, in the case of animations it is pretty easy to tell when you play the original animation next to the copy. The timing and degrees of movement for the body parts will be exactly the same for the duration of the animation. It is almost statistically impossible for two animations made by two different people to be exactly the same. I know the animations that the thief was selling were mine. His upload dates were later than mine, and the knucklehead didn't even bother to change the names. If you are worried that you may be about to purchase stolen items then consider the following: The Second Life age of the avatar that you are buying from. The size of the store you are buying from. The price of the item. (If its too good to be true then it is probably stolen material.) EVERY ANIMATION SHE PURCHASED FROM THE THIEF WAS STOLEN. He created none of them. NONE. He used a copybot program to steal them and in doing so his name appears as the creator, but they are ALL stolen intellectual property from other animators.