Madeliefste Oh

Legend Hye wrote: I can not DMCA as I gave it away full perms. When you did not put any restrictions to the use when you gave it away, you can indeed not dmca. When you did ad a line like: "you are allowed to give away the item for free, but not to resell, repack, use in biab package", you still can dmca.

I got a reply from LL (by ticket) about my question regarding the 30 days limit. They told me an EIN is optional, not required. When my EIN arrives I can update the W-8BEN form, by sending in a new one that includes the EIN number. I'm done for now. Form W-8BEN is sent.

The only thing SL has send me is the ticket. I replied that and asked what happens when I don't reply within 30 days, because I forsee I'm not going to make it. No answer so far, neither by ticket or mail. I'm member of a discussion board for innovatie entrepeneurs in my country. Some of them have to do with both tax systems as well, like people who sell at ebay or at google play. They told me they had to send in this application for a US tax indentification number first (form SS-4), and wait for that number to arrive before they could complete the W-8BEN form. A professional tax advisor told me it is not possible to choose for yourself under which tax system you will be taxed. Basicly you are taxed in the country you operate from. But then he asked further about my specific situation and I explained that I'm active in a platform where is paid with virtual money, and there is new regulation in US for virtual money traders. Thus the business that hosts the platform had to register as a financial institute, because of the virtual money. And now we have to do with all this regulation and paperwork from the IRS. And then he didn't know anymore. (This happens often when I speak to an advisor, as soon as I go into detail about my situation in SL, those skilled men who seem to have an answer on any question that comes up, suddenly fall quiet and scratch their head.) In this situation it might still be possible that the IRS claims tax... It's just a matter of sending in the form and wait for a decision.

Gooden Uggla wrote: On the w-9 form where they want the TIN number, just write "applied for TIN" and when you get it from the IRS, send the Lab a ticket requesting your TIN niumber be added to your w-9 form. You'll be able to cash out for 60 days without a TIN. That might be so for US citizens, but foreigners must use the W-8BEN form.

The tax party I had in mind in over already. Because I'm located here the only option I have is to pay tax in my own country. So it looks like nothing will change for foreign people who already pay tax in their own countries. Only thing is you need to do some paperwork to satisfy the IRS.

I don't know if I'm free to choose where to pay tax, in USA or in my own country. At first glance it looks like I should have to pay 15% tax over my SL income according to tax rates 2013 in USA, while in my own country I have to pay minimum 37%. It will lower my tax costs more then half when I can pay in USA. (Plus I can pay directly in US$ and won't loose money with the expensive exchange rates from Paypal). On the other hand I might miss some advantages in my countries tax system with doing so. Or maybe its not even legal, and is it only possible to pay in my own country. I'm going to find an accountant from my own country with experience in both tax systems to advice me in this. I simply lack too much knowlegde to make a clever decision about this matter

Knowl Paine wrote: It basically says that if you don't want to jump through the systems fictitious contractual hoops, there's a flat fee of 28% on amounts above stated limit. (If you're making that much, you might get rich, so we need to tax you) That is not what Linden Lab has let me know, they wrote: "Your paperwork must be submitted within 30 days, and any pending process credit requests will be held until receipt of your form." I won't be able to manage it in 30 days anyway, because before I can complete that form I must apply for a US tax payer identification number. It will take 6 to 8 weeks before I get one. So it looks like I won't be able to withdraw any of my money till half or end of January.

I didn't receive an email. I don't make more then 20.000 US$ a year, and I have only 12 cash outs a year. So I did not except to hear anything about it anymore. But today I got a ticket. I have to submit one of these forms as well, because I have more then 200 transactions on the Lindex. And that is very well possible, since I sell my L$ almost daily, so I don't have to wait for buyers at the end of the month. Question about non US citizens I pay in my own country two sort of taxes, income tax and VAT. My SL income is subject to tax in my own country. So I already pay my income tax. With VAT it is different, I have to pay VAT for services and sales in my own country, not for sales made in USA. How is this paperwork with the IRS going to work out? How do non US citizens avoid to pay taxes double, in both countries? (My country has tax treaty with USA). Anyone with any knowledge about this around?

When you sell 10.000 L$ at market sell you will get 37.66 us$ for it. When you sell the same amount at limit sell, and give 247 for a dollar, you will get 39.03 us$. It will take 4 or 5 days before your lindens are bought at this rate. So when you are not in a hurry, 247 is the best rate to sell at. When you are in a hurry you can sell at 248, it will fill in a few hours, and give you 38.87 us$, still a much better deal then selling at market sell. The same principle works at the buyer site. When a buyer buys at limit sell, they pay less for their L$ then when they buy at market sell.

I think it's the consequence of what is going on for a while now. The IRS was after Bitcoin (and comparable virtual currencies) because they see an increasing use of virtual currency for tax evasion and laundring money. Because of that Linden Lab had to register with the FinCen as a money service business, and share similar regulatory as other financial institutions. That is also the reason third parties are no longer allowed to buy Linden dollars from residents. All cashing out must go via Linden Lab, so all information about cash outs is available at one compagny. I'm not sure what the regulations are exactly, I'm not from USA, but I guess IRS can just ask for the records. LL is probably obligated to point out it's residents about the USA tax regulations.

It's long ago you I have used Blender, but I think you should experiment with the auto smooth option in the proporties. Set the angle to different degrees here. Then upload and see how the distortion changes. I had the best result with ca 80 degrees, but I worked with another 3D program. And my model was different as well. I guess its just a matter of trying, and see what comes out best. Please show your results if you manage to get them better.

Ever used the button 'Quick fill'? As long as you want to use an older item to 'quick fill' a listing, the speed is acceptable. But when you upload a listing, and you want a second one, that is very simular, and 'quick fill' it with your first listing, the first listing just doesn't appear in search function. It always takes ages before you can use your fresh listed item to quick fill a second item. I suggest to rename this button into 'Slow fill'.

When the item has doubles, its more a kind of flickering effect I see in my viewer. I'm sure there were no doubles, neither are there surfaces from the inside peaking through the outside. So far I had only heard about the term 'phong shading', but in the meanwhile I learned that phong can have to do with shading or with reflection. In my 3d program (Cinema 4D), it is an object property that it simply called 'phong'. (I guess the smooth function in Blender is the same thing). With what I observed in SL, I see that phong in SL is not so much about shading but has to do with reflection. Phong defines how the reflection (specular) is shown on the object. It is specially usefull in round or cylindrical objects. But when you have a round or cylindrical object, there are a lot of angles from which the light can reflect. And the default settings of the phong reflection in your 3D program, do not always match with the way the advanced lighting model SL show the phong refection. This causes that on certain points in the model SL doesn't bend the light correct, and that shows breaks at the edges of your planes. At least that is my theory, until someone who understands this material better and can explain more clear, comes around the corner. But most important is of course the solution. Set the phong angle to a different degree, and find out by trial and error which degree works best for a specific model.

View in content to, to see what items are in your listings: You cannot remove the items from the folder on the website. You have to make a folder in your inventory that contains only the items that belong to the product. Send the folder to the website through the Merchant Outbox. Then it will show up in your inventory as unassociated item. Go to the listing of the item you want to change. Go to edit. Now choose 'Edit associated object' Select the new uploaded folder, and save your listing

I often spend more time on making proper UV maps, then on making my models. When I just started doing meshes, I first built the model, and then started unwrapping.First the shape, then the texture. But in the meanwhile I learned that this is not always handy. I'm developping more and more a method where I think about how I want the texture to appear on the object, while I start modelling. Depending on the outcome, it can happen that I start unwrapping in a very early stage. Because for some models it's just easier to adjust the initial unwrap to the later stage of the model. For other models (that have an easy projection) it doesn't matter, In those cases I complete the shape first and unwrap when the shape is finished. In my opinion is making good UV maps an important piece of the art. Models stand or fall with their textures. When you can create optimal conditions for you textures, it will show off in the final texturing result.

They could be succesful because there was no SL marketplace yet. They were the only alternatives to in world shopping. They were able to build up knowlegde, experience and a large userbase before LL came to buy them. Since LL has it's own online warehouse now, there would be no reason to buy any third party. A large problem for a new online warehouse is to attrack customers. LL is the only party who can promote their marketplace to the whole userbase. Why would someone go shop at a marketplace with only of split of the products that are available on SL Marketplace?

Indeed, I had the advance lightning enabled. But then I experimented a bit further with the phong shading. You can set that to different degrees. First I set a higher degree, but that made the distortion even worse. Then I set it lower, still distortion but with a different pattern. Then I deleted the phong shading completely, that deleted the smoothness and gave hard corners in the glass. Then by trial and error I changed the degrees of the phong bit by bit and came to the next result. It seems this is the best I can get out of it, In the foot it is completely gone now, there just one little tiny spot at the top of the leg, but you can only see it when you look at the glass form this specific angle. So far I discovered that you can influence how advanced lighting is received by the object, by finetuning the phong angle. But in my 3D program I cannot see the effect of it, because the distortion does not appear there. Only when I upload a model with a different angle to SL, I can see the difference. But is someone with more knowlegde can explain what 'phong' actually is, I would be grateful. Tips and tricks are also welcome.

I'm working on a cognac glass. At first glance all looks okay when I upload. But when I add the texture (with alpha channel) you see a checkerboard pattern distortion in the glass (1). My first idea was that is was caused by the triangulation, I had let that done during the upload procedure. When I do the triangulation and then upload the mesh, the problem seems to have gone (2). However when I rotate the model, I still have this destortion in the foot of the glass. To me it seems is has to do something with the phong shading. Or am I wrong, should I search the cause of this error somewhere else? How can it be prevented?

You need to have payment info on file to be able to upload mesh. You are able to open a Paypal account withou work in RL.

Perrie Juran wrote: Also there is the TV producer's attitude, 'we will be giving you exposure so we should have it for free.' Yep. And he is in the position to stands up against it. But this attitude is wide spread, not only among TV producers. And this will continue as long as there also artists who see more profit in the exposure then in the payment for their work.

I know a guy who was in a 'contest club' in the past. He told me they were with a group of 10 friends, and all they did was travel along contests. They agreed on the winner among them for each contest. They won each contest. When not everybody was online and it seemed they did not get enought votes, they tp-ed a few newbies and paid them 5 or 10 L$ for a vote.

I think this is a complete different situation then between LL and SL content creators.This is about a deal between an IP right holder (the music producer) and a customer (the television producer). It happens a lot that people try to get a free ride on the back of an artist. A point here is that many artists show to be willing to give away their productions for free, since they see this as a marketing tool. See alone all hunts going on in SL, most hunt organisers ask for a freebie specially created for the hunt. People invest time in creating a free product, in the hope to get sales from other products. Or the displacement of full perms items to grids outside SL. Though people bought a license for the use of (for example) a sculptie in SL, some people feel the product belongs to them when they move to another grid. From people who do ask permission to transport full items to other grids, I hear that quiet a bunch of creators do give permission to use the items in other grids without any additional fee for the use.

In my case it turned out to be a problem of communication between SL and my graphic card. I just had installed a new graphic card, and something in my settings (I don't remember what exactly, it's some time ago) was not finetuned yet for the use in SL. Since I did adjust the settings for better 3D performance, the problem never occured again

Medhue Simoni wrote: On the other hand, I do believe in copyright, because this is only an agreement between 2 people. It can be an agreement between all kind of parties, between two businesses, between a performing artist and this audience, between a writer and/or publisher and all librabries in a country, between a band and a television station, between a university and a photo studio, and so on... *edit: Actually it is not an agreement at all. As an owner of copyrights of certain works you have possiblity to make agreements about the use of your rights with all possible kind of parties, or to sell (parts of your rights) to persons or other legals. .