By now anyone who reads this blog or knows me in-world knows this story already, but I’ve received several IMs from people who say that when they went to look, Ugur was not selling a copybot copy of the Wave Katana like I claimed.
When I told Ugur Tunwarm that I had reported him to Linden Lab, within an hour he had removed his profile from search, had uploaded a new version of his infringing product without the sword, and had replaced all of his in-world and XStreetSL vendors. My best guess is that he did all of this in an effort to appear innocent.
Fortunately for me, I had purchased a copy of this stolen content prior to informing him that he had been caught, so I’ve got plenty of concrete evidence of his theft.
Interestingly enough, he had actually purchased a Wave Katana from me some months prior to me discovering his theft, and according to the C:SI combat database, he’s even used it in duels several times. In light of this, it would be hard to argue that he was unaware of selling stolen content, since as an owner of the Wave Katana he was quite clearly aware of and familiar with the original product.
Below is a picture of the "product", along with the katana from that product. The XStreetSL product listing at that point described the swords as "Demo Katana", probably because CopyBot cannot steal scripts, so he had to sell an unscripted version. (Click to enlarge):
Here’s a close-up of the sword itself, notice the distinctive same texture and the menuki (Click to enlarge):
Compare that to this picture of the Wave Katana:
And another picture of the Wave Katana from a slightly different angle:
Ugur Tunwarm has made a few of the textures solid black, but there can be absolutely no question that it’s the same weapon.
Apparently Ugur Tunwarm used an alt as his copybot to copy my sword. If the above pictures weren’t damning enough evidence, inspecting the object shows that every prim in the sword contains the same name as the prims in the Wave Katana :
Even the object’s Description property is unchanged. The number 1 in the object’s description comes from the fact that the Wave Katana scripts will use the Description property to pass state data between scripts:
I could go on, but I’m not sure I see the point. I can obviously prove quite conclusively that Ugur Tunwarm is a thief, and I still own the infringing product if anyone ever needs concrete proof that they can see with their own eyes.
Hopefully this will explain why people who go to see the stolen content after the fact will see something that might appear to be innocent now, but was at one fact selling stolen content.
Welcome to Google, Ugur Tunwarm. Linden Lab may not want to protect it’s upstanding content creators, but I can still demonstrate to the world what a thieving slimebag you are.
17 Comments
Greetings, You showed a clear proof.
People who aren’t the players of C:SI(people who don’t know RobbyRacoon & Daikon Forge) will also support you.
Psh! He probably stole the outfit itself too! D:
“Linden Labs doesn’t care about virtual people.”
There’s abundant evidence that Linden Lab doesn’t care about real people either.
Where is their support of the following statements and how is banning you, who filed the abuse report, in compliance with it?
On Friday, April 11, 2008 laurap linden stated the following:
CopyBot Infringement – A Terms of Service Violation
Finally, to reiterate our policy on CopyBot: Any use of it to make infringing copies of our customers’ e-houses violates the Terms of Service and may result in suspension or banning of Second Life accounts. If you believe that a Resident has used CopyBot (or a similar application) to make infringing copies of your content, please file an abuse report and provide as much information as you can to support your claim. Although technology can’t prevent the copying of data drawn on your screen, we don’t tolerate Residents who seek to profit from infringing use of CopyBot.
We’re sometimes asked why Residents are allowed to have or sell copying devices. The answer is that there are legitimate uses of a copying mechanism. It’s the infringement that we don’t allow and won’t tolerate
Couldn’t tell ya. They have not responded to me AT ALL, so I have no idea where their head is. Well, I do have an idea, and it’s not flattering
Wow… I just realized that he’s brazenly wearing his copied Wave Katana in his profile pic, too.
This guy really has no class at all, does he?
Are you still trying to pester SL to give you an answer or are you patiently waiting now? It’s been, what, a little over a week now? And you still don’t know what the reason is or if there will be a resolution.
Must be in the low priority queue…
Neither, actually. I have given up. I no longer have any faith in Linden Lab, and this incident has completely destroyed any remaining goodwill I had toward them. As far as I’m concerned, the Lindens can go to hell.
I will continue to support my customers and the C:SI community, and will use my other account to do what I can to help C:SI grow, but other than that I’m done with Second Life.
That’s too bad but I understand your position in this, though. Hopefully we’ll see you around some and it won’t be too difficult to get your vendors up and running again (assuming you want to get your vendors back up).
What do you do about the money they had tied up in your other account? Can you get it back if they don’t reinstate it?
I don’t much see the point, honestly. I will continue to support existing customers, providing product upgrades and enhancements, etc. But I will be applying my new content-creation efforts to other platforms for the foreseeable future.
I believe Linden Lab will keep the money. I don’t believe I have any recourse. It’s only $65USD, not a huge loss, but I am very angry about it just the same.
That’s too bad. I was hoping to buy a copy of the Tak at some point. Oh well, that’s small beans compared to your issue.
Good Luck in your new endeavors!!!
(I’ve had and interest in making C:SI weapons for several months now. I might like to pick your brain sometime, if you don’t mind)
If I’m ever at the point where I can do so, I’ll make sure you get a copy. I don’t have transferable versions in any of my other accounts, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay Linden Lab more money for upload fees while I’m still so angry, but if I can get you one I will.
No problem. Let’s see if they ever respond to your ticket. I just wish there was something more the rest of us in the C:SI community could do.
I do appreciate the thought, and I appreciate all of the support I’ve received, but Linden Lab seems to have made it all but impossible to appeal their decisions. Even their most asinine, undeserved decisions.
I would like to thank Ciaran Laval for relaying my story to a larger audience than I can reach with my low-readership blog. It is very much appreciated.
Wow, there’s an excellent write-up at Massively on this story.
Thank you to Tateru Nino for the excellent tie-ins and analysis, and for extending the reach of the story!