Ripped content....makes me angry.

This time no fancy picture, just this:



So, recently I have seen more and more and more people promoting and wearing armors and follower pets created by Manticore/Erebos. I admit, a bit ago I fell for the ruse myself and bought a cute little dog there, being rather unaware of the fact that the pets displayed are all ripped from games such as Final Fantasy as well...since I never played those.

And this is just ONE example out of all their stuff. I fear not a single item in that store is NOT stolen.

I myself became suspicious the moment the store began to release a ton of excellent mesharmors...that all seemed oddly familiar to me. :( I could bite my ass for wasting 450 Lindens on the small dog.

I made the experience that ever since mesh was introduced to SL, any random store that pops up with a TON of excellent stuff at once should be regarded with suspicion.

I for once am a huge supporters of original creators and I personally-hate- blowing money of peoples' ass when they sell stolen stuff. I am really sad to see just how few people seem to care about this and don't even feel a bit bad about buying stolen stuff. I guess a lot of people who aren't regular gamers aren't even aware of it, just like me when I bought the dog. FF is one of the few games I never touched.

I do not really think one can expect people to recognize every little piece of stolen stuff from other games, but I do think that a bit of common sense sometimes helps: Large amounts of excellent seeming stuff for low prices from a largely unknown store? = Likely ripped. Not always, but there's a good chance for it.

I personally do not even -mind- if people get stuff for themselves, but as soon as you profit from it, imho you are not only ripping off the creator, but also those who buy from you, letting them believe you buy legal stuff until one day they look into their inventory to find out it's been replaced with an ID from LindenLabs and an odd message in their IMs.

Food for thought.

Arica. :)

PS: I find some reactions, even from bigger bloggers, rather disappointing. Basically they go: It is LindenLabs responsibility to take them down.

Oh sure, it is. But do you really think that takes away -your- responsibility to not support thieves by throwing money at them or displaying their stuff knowling on blogs? I hardly will blame anyone who doesn't know it, but I will blame anyone who is being made aware and still says "Oh, that is LL's responsibility, not mine." Especially since the TOS clearly state that you, as the user of content, have a share of responsibility as well.

Modern Elfy Times!!! :)

Hello peeps,

so, I guess I owe an explanation (or not?) as to why I am have been sooo slow with everything lately. I keep telling myself that I'll have the time to blog more...but then I figure: NOpe, again no time. I am currently in a trainee programm for teachers and it basically eats up my time. I got my final exams in less than three weeks and well...I better not procrastinate. So until the 4th of March, I will probably not be blogging again after this post.

Today, I wanted to show you gyus an outfit I made for a casual OOC elf a s well as some of my favourite hairs that more or less recently have been released.

Here is my outfit. Forgive the not so cool picture, I tried to figure out how to get shadows to work properly. Oh well...skillfull me isn't all that skilled yet. :)


Hair: Exile (Kavar Cleanslate Mesh!!)
Shape: selfmade
Eyes: Mayfly (Arkesh baral, Mesh!!)
Ears: Illusions (Siyu Suen, Mesh!!)
Blouse: Tee*fy (Azure Electricteeth, Mesh!! Collabor 88!!)
Skirt: Götzsche (Goetzsche Resident, Mesh!!
Pumps: Elikatira (Elikapeda Tiramisu, not for sale anymore. :( )
Clutch: Milk Motion (Marie Lauridsen)
Belt: Tokidoki (Maya Levane)
Necklace: League (Nena Janus)

Here come my six current favourite hairstyles, in no particular order:


Both Magika hairs are just flawless. I love, love their system where you can buy the whole scale of natural colours (brunette, red, black, blondes) for only 250 Lindens. The textures and meshwork is awesome, and each hair comes in three sizes. Magika has improved so, so much over the years. Imho, Sabiny Gully is currently one of the best hairmakers out there. These hairs fall in a natural manner and are really long as they reach down to the lower back. I am in love with these. Also I think her haircolours look very nice and natural, even if I picked a not so natural red right now.

The LeLutka hair is very nice as well, the soft waves giving it a very innocent look. I love the fact that you can turn the hair accessory on or off. I have to unfortunately turn it off because it clips into my elven ears. :( But even without it, this hair looks really nice. Her haircolours and textures are very, very good as well. I really can rarely complain, unless she is making one of her strange hairstyles again for which you'd need a bottle of hairspray to have them stay that way. But oh well, this one is awesome! It also fits me quite perfectly, even without the alpha layer.



And here comes Eaters Coma. Kumii Yoshikawa always already amazed us with her really pretty styles that she made for SIXTYNINE. The style 'ME' was one of the favs I'd say, and I saw so, so many chicks with it. Guess what? Now she has redone it in mesh, and while I like Burley's remake of it as well, this one just made me SO happy. I am wearing it on the right. I do not think it is  a 100% exact replica of her old ME-style, and I wish teh bangs would be a bit lower on this one, but this is a thick, very wellmade and hot braid that goes over your boob. Truth has made a similar style, I believe it is called Froukje, but the way the braid just seems cut off at the bottom always bothered me. I love this. Eaters Coma in general makes very good mesh styles, even if not all of them are fitting my personal tastes. The style on the left is one of my current most worn styles as well. I think her textures are awesome, however I do wish she would add more colour-variety to her packages. Also, making hair, even meshhair, no mod is a bit sad. One should be abllowed to tint it a bit!

In the middle there is Exile, and I really, really do like it. Often enough, the shape of Exile's hairs doesn't go well with my headshape at all. In this case, I was SO hapy. Not only does it come with a bunch of cute, rigged meshflowers which you can obviously detach. :) The textures are nice and I really do like how it flows down over your boobs. I tinted the hair in this case. I bought the Naturals Package Exile offers and the tone 'Sunset' doesn't exactly strike me as a red tone, so I tinted it a bit,  e voilà, now I am happy. :)

I think that is something  creators of hairs should really keep in mind: Please, please add packages with one example of each natural colour! I know Exile, Eliaktira, LeLutka and Magika do this, but I really wish others would follow as well. Make it a little more expensive than  the usual packs, that justs eems fair. But nothing is worse than having to buy tons and tons of hairs in a new colour, just because youc hanged your colour after years. :D I know what I am talking about.

 

So, that's it for now and the next post will be more than liekly after the 4th of March. Unless I start procrastinating... :P

Arica

 

Ecstasy of Gold

Hey peeps,

I know, I know. I have been slow lately. Several reasons there, and those aren't excuses: I haven't felt terribly inspired lately, since a few of my favourite designers have been very inactive the past month. Also, I am currently studying a lot since on march 4th I'll have the second part of my master's degree and hopefully become a full teacher finally, after 1,5 years of an extremely stressfull internship. So bear with me please, I really do feel stupid that I feel so lazy lately.

SO, I am glad Curio is finally back, even if I daresay that the compromise they amde stinks. Pity, but at least they are back. So right now I am waiting for new skins from Curio and The Body Co.

Talk about the Body Co: I abandoned my Orchid skin. Why? For several reasons:

1. For once, Body Co stated they will not create Tango appliers for their skins. Their decision, but a big let down for me.
2. I got tired of their prices. I am sorry, but 500 Lindens for a watermarked (!) Make UP, that you can only use with that ONE specific skin and not even any of their other skins, is just ridiculous. Doesn't matter how many layers it comes with, since I don't want a make up in a billion of skintones but rather one I can use for mixing and matching.
3. During their Sale, the Orchid skin was 750L while all others were 500L, due to the package being slightly different (three types of brows). The other skins come with one type of brow, which imho, isn't exactly a nice deal for a single skin. Time moves on, skins nowadays come with several brow layers, hairbaes, freckles, sometimes different make up layers or even nose-addons and so many other things. I think they do not offer a whole lot for the money you pay, at least not outside of the Sale.

I still love their skins, but that still put me off.

So now, I wear a new combination of skin + skinlayers. I really do like it a lot. :-) Thoughts on it? And...there are even Tango-appliers for this one. :D

As for the new outfit: I tried to put together a layered outfit with pretty much mesh-only items. :)



Hair: Magika (Sabiny Gully, Mesh!!)
Shape: selfmade (not for sale)
Ears: Illusions (Siyu Suen, Mesh!!)
Eyes: Mayfly (Arkesh Baral, Mesh!!)
Make Up: LAQ (Mallowry Cowen)
Lipstick: Rozena (Lindsay Rozen)
Cloak: Zenith (Miffyhoi Rosca, Mesh!!)
Pullover: Cold Logic (Coldlogic Resident, Mesh!!)
Undershirt: Kyoot (Saeya Nyanda, part of Knit Mini Dress, SALE!!)
Shorts: Beetlebones (suetabulous Yootz, Mesh!!)
Underpants: Kyoot (Saeya Nyanda, SALE!!)
Socks: Apricot Paws (Zii Minotaur, Mesh!!)
Boots: So Many Styles (Irie Campese, Mesh!! New!!)
Gloves: Caverna Obscura (Elvina Ewing, part of Ascalon Ranger)
Scarf: DRIFT (Kallisto Destiny, Mesh!!)
Necklace: League (Nena Janus, Mesh!!)
Ring: Yummy (Polyester Partridge)
Slingbelt: DECO (Veluu Faulds, Mesh!!)
Belt: Mandala (Kikunosuke Eel)
Bracers: Rochambeau (Leviathan Flux, part of  Valmeyjar Outfit)
Bow: Centipede Weapons (Kendra Zaurak, Mesh!!)
Sword on hip: EZ Weaponry (Romper barbosa, Mesh!!)
Dagger on Thigh: LR Weapons (Larion Rhode)

Location: Alirium (Non-Role-PLay), Alirium

Hold your breath and count to ten... (Happy New Year!)

Hair: Elikatira (Elikapeda Tiramisu, Mesh!!)
Eyes: Mayfly (Arkesh Baral)
Lashes: LeLutka (Thora Charron)
Facepaint: Handverk (Daphne Klossovsky)
Ears: Schadenfreude (Allegory Malaprop)
Hood: Remy (TheRegular Resident, Mesh!!)
Cloak: Zenith (Miffyhoi Rosca, Mesh!!)
Vest: C'est la vie (Larcoco Mathy, Mesh!! New!!)
Leatherdress: League (Nena Janus)
Corset: DCNS (Devin Klaber)
Undershirt: Kyoot (Saeya Nyanda)
Pants: Zenith (Miffyhoi Rosca)
Socks: Fashionably Dead (Toast Bard, Mesh!!)
Legwarmers: tram (Moca Loup)
Boots: Naughty (Lost Thereian, not available anymore)
Gloves: Severed Garden (Berta Avro, part of Berit Outfit)
Sleeves (black): Tulip (Minami Susanova, part of Black Bear)
Belt (Waist): Ingenue (Betty Doyle, Mesh!!)
Ruffles on Belt: Tee*fy (Azure Electricteeth, Mesh! Collabor 88!!)
Belt (hip): League (Nena Janus)
Armwarmers: Boom (Aranel Ah, Mesh!!)
Scarf: Drift (Kallisto Destiny, Mesh!!)
Necklace/Ring: Yummy (Polyester Patridge, Collabor 88!!)
Legarmor: Caverna Obscura (Elvina Ewing, part of Ascalon Ranger Outfit)
Armarmor: The Forge (Kain Flores)
Quiver on leg: GSpot (Jalilah Jewell, part of Shark Outfit)
Sword: LR Weapons (Larion Rhode)
Dagger on thigh: LR Weapons (Larion Rhode)

Location: Goatswood (Victorian/Gothic Role-Play), NeverlandX

Who do you think you are... ?

Hair: Clawtooth (Bubbles Clawtooth, Mesh!! Available at Collabor 88!!)
Shape: selfmade
Skin Detoner: Medley (Arriah Fiertze, deletes the orangey undertone of skins)
Make Up: Kosh (Lynaja Bade)
Eyes: Mayfly (Arkesh Baral)
Ears: Illusory (Crushed Clarity, currently not for sale)
Blouse: ISON (Harry Hyx, Mesh!!)
Vest: So Many Styles (Irie Campese)
Undershirt: Fishy Strawberry (Fae Eriksen)
Pants: Rochambeau (Leviathan Flux, Mesh!!)
Legwarmers: tram (Mocha Loup)
Boots: Naughty (Lost Thereian)
Gloves: Caverna Obscura (Elvina Ewing, part of Ascalon Ranger)
Armwarmers: Ibizarre (Anyusha Lilienthal)
Scarf: Tee*fy (Azure Electricteeth, Mesh!!)
Necklace and Ring: Yummy (Polyester Partridge, available at Collabor 88!!)
Belt: Mandala (kikunosuke Eel)

Location: Darkmoon Isle (Medieval Fantasy Role-Play), Darkmoon Isle

I survive by the memory...of you.

Hello peeps!

So, where was I? Mostly, in bed. The past weeks were odd for me and finally I got my bum up and went ot the doc, turns out I have a dysfunctional thyroid which caused me to be tired and feel sick all the time. I could sleep 18 hours in a  row at times and still felt as if it were possibly 2-3 hours at most. Well, with the new pills this should hopefully stop now and I'll be able to spend some more time blogging again. :) My apologies if blogging is going slow, but an extremely busy rl + this stupid stuff really kept me distracted.

Please forgive that in my following post I won't post every single (make up/skin-) layer I use. I have gotten a bit tired of meeting almost exact copies of my avatar ingame. While I can see how people might just want the same look, I never considered this blog being a guide about "How to copy every single bit of an avatar" but it is more meant to be inspirational. Especially now, that I finally got my absolutely perfect skin for my elf (I really do love the new Laqroki skin, but it just looked TOO innocent for my elf), I'd like that look to stay unique for a while, though I don't doubt some of you people will figure out what I did anyways. :P

By the way, not fan of this new wordpress layout. Hmph. Never change a running system, damnit!



Hair: Truth (Truth Hawks, Mesh!!)
Shape: selfmade (not for sale)
Lashes: LeLutka (THora Charron)
Eyes: Mayfly (Arkesh Baral)
Ears: Illusory (Crushed Clarity)
Hood: REMY (TheRegular Resident, Mesh!!)
Vest: Milk Motion (Marie Lauridsen)
Corset: LeLutka (Thora Charron)
Dress: League (Nena Janus)
Undershirt: Kyoot (Saeya Nyanda, Simple Cozy Sweater)
Corsetwrap: Ever After (PersiaSky Lorefield, not for Sale anymore :( )
Pants: Zenith (miffyhoi Rosca)
Socks: Enchanty (Nuts Andel)
Shoes: COCO (cocoro Lemon, Mesh!! FREE!!)
Gloves: Caverna Obscura (Elvina Ewing, part of Asclaon Ranger)
Armwarmers: BOOM (Aranel Ah, Mesh!!)
Belt: Tea Time (Eloindir Davi)
Scarf: Molichino (Aurelia Chauveau)
Ring: Handverk (Daphne Klossovsky, Mesh!!)
Necklace: League (Nena Janus)
Quiver: GSpot (Jalilah Jewell, part of Shark)
Dagger: LR Weapons (Larion Rhode)
Bow: Centipede Weapons (Kendra Zaurak)
Armor: The Forge (Kain Flores)

Location: Happy Mood Store (Non-Role-Play), HappyMood

Botters going Nuts - What can we do?

Hey there,

well, after the whole giant mess around Curio, we already know how damn hard it is for creators in SL to protect their own creations from less creative people who want to leech money...also known as copybotters, texture-rippers and so on. And now it looks as if things are picking up once again.

Since quite some time, there are viewers available which will allow anyone to copy any avatar, including their skin, clothes, textures, hair, eyes and probably everything else, within a few seconds. You say this cannot happen? Well, it happened RIGHT in front of my eyes. I was role-playing with a friend (well, actually we were about to) and I have a bad habit of camming around... a LOT. I was wondering why there was a noobie looking avatar not too far away, clearly they did not belong into that sim, but shrugged it off, turned around to talk to my bf, looked back at my screen, and suddenly my friend stood there, when I was pretty sure I had not moved my cam. ;) At first I was confused, but when I saw my buddy was still standing next to me, and still I had his avi on my camera, when it was about 80 yards away....well, go figure. That happened within maybe 10 seconds. Confronting the person they freely admitted that they thought it was completely okay using that viewer, not against TOS, avatars are for everyone, bla bla bla. I reported them to every simowner I knew and Mister Rulen resident is now on a lot of banlists.

Now, yesterday I looked at my Flickr and saw this:



Read the whole story here:

Sanya Bilavio's (Vive9) Flickr

It appears, that once again Marie2 Cisse and her gang of girls (likely her own alts or some other equally stupid people) managed to draw lots and lots of attention to herself and her...'store'. In this case, she copybotted Inna's complete shape, skin, custom make up and everything else, informed her about it and since then is bragging about how well it sells, of course after trying to 'bribe' her into giving her Lindens in order to prevent her from reselling a shape/make up etc. she never created herself.

A few comments from dear Marie2 Cisse  and 'friends' towards the creator of the items:

[2012/11/02 12:23] Second Life: Alexandriala has given you this body part:
Inna Bilavio shape
Do you want to keep it? "Mute" will block all future offers or messages from Alexandriala.
[2012/11/02 12:23] Alexandriala: Your shape has been copybotted.
[2012/11/02 12:23] Alexandriala: And will be sold.

----------------------

They try and bribe designers after they bot them as well ::

[2012/10/15 14:08] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): you lose your mind
[2012/10/15 14:08] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): creating skin
[2012/10/15 14:09] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): you think those skins will be on sale
[2012/10/15 14:09] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): for 1k or more
[2012/10/15 14:09] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): I can do it for 300L
[2012/10/15 14:09] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): Full fat pack
[2012/10/15 14:09] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): :)
[2012/10/15 14:09] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): Maliah skin will sell more with me than you
[14:10] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): 20k i am offering
[14:10] Gerusa Bastos (marie2.cisse): for don't distruing this skin

----------------------

[17:26] issela2: Poor gurl. Never more will be at Eila?
[17:26] issela2: HAHAHA
[17:26] issela2: Take care
[17:34] issela2: I've all your mesh stuff
[17:34] issela2: And I'm going to giving away this

Here she goes on bragging and already posting advertisements for 'her newest creations':

Marie2 Cisse's Flickr


and

Marie2 Cisse Flickr

Now, with Linden Labs forcing creators to go through lengthy and COSTLY legal processes, I wonder what we can do against such people? Not everyone can fork out the money to pay for such processes or even think about going to court, and not everyone will be able to fund money as Gala Phoenix and her team did with the ONE VOICE event. The process to actually get someone banned fro such things is absurd in Second Life, as sad as it is. Obviosu proof is not enough, you gotta file DMCAs, which can simply be countered...and so on. We all saw it happen with Gala.

So, what CAN we do? That is really the key-question. In my humble opinion, spreading the word about people like these, trying to convince people not to shop there, and that is why I am posting this.

However, quite frankly, the creators of Vive9 would likely do well with telling certain people, such as the dearest Lady Gericault, to shut the hell up, since people like her are NOT helping them by behaving like complete crazies in public. Argue with style, not like some raging rhino using capslock all over the place. O.o

Not too long ago, racist comments caused people to convince Linka Demina, founder of The Dressing Room, to not allow TIGirls to participate in the event due to obvious racist comments. View this here:
Linka Demina's Flickr

They somehow managed to worm they way out of that, though even if the comments were a joke, they were incredibly stupid. But people forgive. But personally, I am out of forgiveness. I am simply asking everyone I know, to ignore these people, to NOT buy their stolen stuff, to spread the word.

I would appreciate if people would actually do this.

The following people are involved with Marie2 Cisse or are her alts:

Marie2 Cisse, Alexandriala, Alemanha (sallygirlpaty aho), Miss Fedorova
and more than likely all the names in this picture, in which she accuses Götzsche Resident to be herself:

Other alts

Arica.