One Voice Fundraiser for Gala Phoenix

Hey peeps,

so, after Gala's official statement, things have been moving forward rapidly.

“Standing together to support the rights of legitimate content creators.”  is the group charter for One Voice, a group organized by Vivienne Graves and Sophia Harlow who are hosting a fundraising event to help support Gala Phoenix.

Following the call by Vivienne Graves and Sophia Harlow, the designers of Truth District have agreed upon helping with the fundraiser for Gala to help covering her legal fees to battle Hush Darkrose's false claims. Gala Phoenix is indeed involved in a legal battle over all this now, which is pretty damn upsetting imho.  After so many designers have agreed to participate, the event will NOT be held at Truth District, but rather at a new location: One Voice Fundraiser



The event will be going from 9th of July to 16th of July and the following creators of Secondlife are definitely participating:

League, GoS, Belleza, Glam Affair, Adam and Eve, SLink, One Bad Pixel, Exile, HoD, Laqroki, Aura, Bare Rose and many others will be there and offering items at either 50% of 100% donation.

So watch out for when it opens and make sure to visit and spend your Lindens there. It really is for a good cause in my opinion, because what happened to Gala, could as well happen to any other designer out there.

Arica. <3

PS. I am working on new outfits, too, so don't worry! I won't be just raging on Curio vs. Hush. :P

Hey peeps,

there has been an update on the status of the problem regarding the Curio vs. Hush case, so read this and consider helping to raise funds:

Curio Statement by Gala Phoenix

To my loyal customers, friends, and supporters,

I wrote to you last month to thank you so much for all of your support during this very frustrating time. It means so much to me, and has sustained me more than I can say. However, as time has gone on with little explanation from me, you’ve had more questions, and that is understandable. I’d like to tell you what I’ve been going through, and ask you again for your support.

In March, I realized that Hush Darkrose was selling skins that looked very similar to mine. I often have to deal with skins that look a little too similar to mine; it’s part of protecting my copyright. I filed a DMCA takedown notice, but when Hush filed a counter-­notice, I didn’t do anything.

In April, Hush registered copyright of her skins in Canada. In May, she filed a copyright infringement complaint in a Canadian court against me, and then filed a DMCA takedown notice with Linden Labs. She also sent LL the notice of court action (the complaint).

Most of us only know a little bit about the DMCA. We know how the takedown and counter-­notice procedures work. What I didn’t know was that if the person who filed a takedown notice sends Linden Labs a notice of court action, you can’t continue to sell your content, even if you send a counter-­notice. This is why I got temporarily banned at the beginning of June: I left my skins up for sale after the counter-­notice, not realizing there was a problem.

In May, right after she sent the takedown notice, Hush put up a blog post. In it, she accused me of copyright infringement and claimed that a court had “reviewed the evidence” and determined her claim was valid. She even included some language she took from the complaint, rewrote it, and made it sound like the court had granted her an injunction.

There is no injunction. No court has reviewed any evidence. Her blog post was complete fiction.

I’ll say that again, because I want to be clear: there is no injunction against me. No court has reviewed any evidence. There has been no court decision against me. I am not guilty of copyright infringement. Hush’s blog post was not true. My skins are only offline because of the way the DMCA works.

Because there is already a case in court, I will probably have to go to court to clear my name and get my business back. Copyright litigation is very expensive, though. Just a small copyright case like this costs around $20,000 to see through, and most of that is court fees, which can’t be waived even if I found an attorney in Canada who’d take the case pro bono (I have an attorney here in America).

Curio is my primary source of income, and without it, I’m barely able to get by, much less afford $20,000 for a court case in another country. However, Curio is also a labor of love, and I will not just sit back and let a competitor’s lies and malice rob me of it.

From July 9 – July 16, 2012, a number of extremely generous content creators will be holding a fundraiser in-­world at Truth District on my behalf. I cannot express the depth of my gratitude for them, and for any SLers who come out and donate to my fight. I will also be putting up an IndieGoGo campaign to raise some money.

I know I’m asking a lot. $20,000 is a massive amount of money. But even a little bit helps, and maybe we can stand up against someone who is abusing a system that is supposed to protect us all.

Gala

Curio versus Hush...

I rarely use this blog to voice my opinion on matters, I think, so far it happened three times. In this case, I want to. I am talking about something that has recently been discussed all over several blogs, plurks, forums and what not. Oh yes, I am on plurk now...you finally made me! :O And now I am gonna jump head ahead into a pool full of sharks and I won't give a damn. This is my opinion on the matter, I do not speak for anyone else. Also, forgive the typos, it is late where I live. ;)

PLEASE NOTE: I do NOT want a link to this post linked in the Skin Addiction group ingame. They don't want to talk about it, so tone it down some and leave them be.

A tiny summary first!

A while back, Papaverfield already had pointed out how similar Hush looked to Curio on their Flickr, implying they were ripping them off. This was in MarchPretty much everyone who saw it agreed it was blatantly obvious: A smudgy, blurred version of Curio's body. Already back then, Hush claimed that in facther skins were all based on a skin -she- had created way back in 2008 and tried to prove her theory on Flickr. Unfortunately, it was soon revealed that her skins were released -after- Curio's 3rd Gen Skin (2008), I think it was a couple of months later. When others and I (even with pictures of skins from 2008) pointed this out, Hush deleted those pictures.

We didn't hear anything from them for a long time.

Curio disappears

Roughly two months later, Curio disappeared. Her skins were gone from both stores (mainstore and Truth District) and from the Marketplace, parts of her store's building was gone, too, and Gala was banned.

Harper Beresford a moderator of one of the most influential groups about skins: Skin Addiction. The very day Curio's skins were gone she states in said group that Curio was pulled off the grid by legal actions due to a DMCA filed by the creator of Hush Skins.  The log of that groupchat can be found here: SL Universe Thread (scroll down some).

Everyone was startled, baffled...and believed her. She claimed to have seen the proves of those legal actions. Even I was inclined to believe her for a moment, because Harper is a wellknown, comparably influential avatar within SL. And with her, as a representant of Skin addiction, picking sides so publically, the matter seemed clear: Curio had ripped Hush. Anyone who dared to doubt those claims were quickly pointed to a blogpost on Hush's blog, where she pointed out the legal actions against Gala Phoenix of Curio. A screenshot can be found here: Hush Blogpost. Why a screen of a screen? Well, I'll explain in a bit!

At the same time, the Skin Addiction Skin Showcase Event started. And...surprise...surprise...Hush Skins had the absolute top position RIGHT at the landing point. People were slightly irritated, especially those who still didn't believe all the rumors. Hush likely made good money during these times, while Gala was banned and her sim was closed by her CSRs.

First people began to speak up. Glam Affair pulled out of the Skin Showcase event to show her support for Curio. Tricky Boucher of Belleza skins posted a supportive post on his blog: Here. Other bloggers began to speak up for Gala as well: Sylvia Olivier,  Salome Says, The Voice and others, and it was all over Plurk and the SLU forums (see linked thread above).

Oddly enough, no one could find any hints of such a case about DMCA stuff on the internet (the court was named) and more and more people pointed out that the wording was just completely off and had even typos in it. A few days later, the post had magically vanished from Hush's Blog. And that's why I only have a screen of a screenshot, from someone who was witty enough to make one.

People begin to investigate on their own

Finally, people began to investigate a little. Gala was able to log back in into SL about a week ago and I had the pleasure to talk to one of her CSRs personally. There was NO RL legal action, so they said. They also revealed that Gala had DMCAed Hush FIRST, which was countered by Hush. So now, Gala has to counter Hush. Oddly enough, LL never reacted to Gala's DMCA, but Removals4 Linden came in to take down Gala's stuff after Hush's DMCA. So of course, there were still doubts left: Why would LL ignore Gala but run in for Hush? But at least, now we got to hear the other side of the story, too. That's something!

What a clusterfuck! Of course, all these statements were only hearsay as well, and no proves, but the doubts about Hush's version of the story began to spread, supported by more and more pictures posted in Papaverfield's stream. Meanwhile, Hush remained at the event and discussions about the matter in the  Skin Addiction group were officially unwelcome.

Gala herself never said a word. Hush Darkrose was still in the Skin Addiction group and likely enjoyed a big amount of incoming Lindens at this time. She released several new skins in the meantime and likely was highly amused. Gala however, stayed quiet. Meanwhile, some of Hush's older vendors disappear.

More pictures showed up: Curio- Hush. Now more and more people began to doubt Hush's claims and that link went all over plurk, SLU, Facebook and what not. Papaverfield continued to point out the obvious. Meanwhile, people were still politely reminded to not bring up the topic in the Skin Addiction Group.

And...finally...

Some skincreators were apparently fed up as well, not just the fangirls of Curio. Nena Janus of League noticed a few oddities about Hush's skins: They are terribly similar to hers! And she files a DMCA, encouraged by others. Then this was revealed: Excinerator. Yes, I know you cannot get to see such watermarks without ripping the skins.

Hush countered and despite being supposed to, did not take down her stuff at the Skin Showcase Event, where said skin was advertised. Instead, it is said that the owners of the event had to take it down. Hush Darkrose was FINALLY booted from the Skin addiction group that day as well.

The next day, her sim was not available anymore and she is banned. Rumors say she countered the DMCA of League with the words 'sue me'. How...tasteful, if that is true.

So right now the vast majority of evidences, imho, speaks for Curio...and not so much for Hush. But please, make up your own mind. I can certainly say this: Should it ever be revealed, that indeed Hush was the victim, I'll apologize.

Gala Phoenix by now has posted a message to her group on he rblog and in her group: You can find it HERE!

So, what have we now? Use some common sense, please?

I'll make this short: See here: SL Universe. This is why I think we should also not forget to use our common sense. Please scroll down to see the post.

How does the group Skin Addiction react?

So far, there has been no word from Harper Beresford on that matter. Instead, they claim to be neutral, when Harper was so blatantly eager to condemn Curio and support Hush in the beginning. Talking about the matter is still not allowed and people get muted when insisting to do so. I can see why they want to keep a low profile now, it is probably the best thing to do. However, they sort of caused the fuss themselves by picking sides without really caring to wait for a statement from Gala or anything else.

I think this matter - if neutrality really was their goal- could have been handled MUCH better: No picking sides from any official, influential person associated to the group, no blogging for either side..and NO participation for any of the contrahents, neither for Hush, nor for Curio, until matters are solved. Maybe next time handle it a bit better and wait for how things evolve. :)

HOWEVER: I am grateful nonetheless for the great effort Voshie and her team generally put into their work. The event, besides the thing about Hush, is pretty awesome and gives a great overview. Follow this TAXI to go there!

And here is a gallery with a vast collection of pics regarding Curio versus Hush and League versus Hush, mostly gyazoed from Papaverfield's Flickr and Excinerator's Blog.

[gallery]

PS: Please NOTE that neither Nena Janus of League nor Gala Phoenix of Curio asked me to write this. They don't know I have posted it. They have nothing to do with it. I did it because right now I had some freetime and felt like doing it after watching for so long.

It is not what you say, but how you say it - Bloggers and Item-Review

Ever since I started blogging, I have been frequently asked why I never add any personal comments or similar things to my blog. Here is the answer:

Since quite some time it has become very 'cool' and 'fashionable' to  post your opinion on items and the louder and harsher the wording is, the more views your blog gets, preferably when it comes to 'critique' on other peoples' creations. People love to read 'the truth' and 'honest opinions', they love to add to the drama, to comment on it etc. pp. I am guilty of that, too. I sometimes read such blogs for the mere amusement and head-shaking it causes.

And I agree with some of it. If an item is not worth its money, you have the right to point it out and support your statements with facts. I find that incredibly helpful at times. I often browse some blogs just to see the close ups on skins/clothing and other things that otherwise I might have failed to notice.

Yet, more often than not I lately get the feeling that people go way, way overboard. There is a very thin yet visible line between constructive criticism and destructive criticism. The first one aims at pointing out flaws and encourage the creator to become better or put more effort into their work. The latter however in 99% of the cases causes nothing but drama, hard feelings and usually a very defensive attitude on the side of the creator. The first is something I always support, the latter is something that I consider nothing but intentionally causing drama.

Or is anyone really suprised that a creator gets defensive when a blogger states: "Wow, this shit makes me wanna puke and punch them in the face?" Statements like these, sometimes less harsh, sometimes worse, seem to be really 'en vogue' lately. In Germany, we have a saying: "Der Ton macht die Musik." - which can loosely be translated as: "It is not what you say, but how you say it." You reap what you sow. If I behave like an ass, I don't expect maturity and kindness in return.

So, my personal approach so far is: I only blog things that I truly like. I do not see the point in spending money or wasting time by blogging something that I do not support or like anyway. The things on my blog are things I love and that I pay or always would pay the necessary Lindens for.  I do not blog to have as many people as possible post their opinion or comments, I simply blog to show what sort of outfit I currently love in SL and to possibly inspire other role-players.

I am not saying that I will never start reviewing items as well (never is such a strong word...), but as of now, I don't see the need for it and simply try the positive-only-approach by only blogging items that I can honestly support. Same goes for links, other blogs in my blogroll etc.

My two cents, I hope that answers that question. :)

PS: English is not my native tongue, so please forgive the possible typos, grammar-fails etc.