NO NEW PRODUCT

…but something completely different.  What is  Latex? Basically it is defined by reflections of light. Unlike metal, which looks like metal because it reflects  the environment, latex only reflects the lights. I think we have quite a good texture for this – at least you, our customers, think so. But other people think so too… So, our clothes consist of two components….the reflections and the designs/colours we apply them to. You can extract the reflections – and that is what this is all about…

Yesterday I filed a DMCA against linda Brown of Luscious Latex. Several months  ago she already used our reflections for designs of her own. Now she did it again. As she muted me and I want to spare me her insults it was the right way to do so. If you want, hop to her store, take a look at some stuff there…the Mo Money pieces, or the Sassy, Suptex and Suptex-Rip pieces. If you look at them you see our reflections. It is especially funny as some of the pieces are for guys…and the reflections are all wrong. Why should a man have a reflection of the lights of one breast on the other one? The male chest is flat…
Anyway, I am 100% sure she ripped our stuff…

And now, what a funny coincidence: this morning an avatar was at our store handing out for free full perm catsuits with our ripped texture…and this avatar was born when i had my first issue with linda….and ran by the wonderful name of  “fukmiee Sideways”. I don´t want to imply anything here, but…uhmmm…a connection forces itself upon my mind…

I know linda will hear about this and start complaining. The last time she said she remade the textures from screenshots she took:

[11:34] Kai Heideman: the texture you use as a base for theses outfits – where did you get it?
[11:36]  linda Brown: well Sir    I seen some in sl with then and i took a few pictures and I made them sir

(Cited from our conversation in february…when she still was polite 😉

Well, i went and compared the textures and they match pixel for pixel – there are some hidden markers to the texture you wouldn´t copy, and even they showed up.

I am absolutely willing to prove this even in front of a comitee or anything in world. It can be done very easily, believe me…

Anyway…I just had to vent my anger a bit.

Kai…

Some thoughts about texture-theft

From time to time this washes up: One designer claims another one used his textures or other creations. As the original designer has put a lot of work into it, he is understandabely angry, while the accused designer while deny it. Who wants to be caught cheating at a game?

First of all, this is not a game. Everything you sell in Second Life has a real-world value, no matter how small. And in RL cheating with money is a crime.

The next thing is: How do you prove it? It is easy shouting “Hey, he stole my work” because it looks similar. You need proof. With textures this is easy. Sadly it seems, most designers even don´t know how to do this. If you do a little research on the net you stumble upon some tools to rip textures. These tools are not illegal in any way. Using the ripped textures is illegal. So, we just go ahead and dump the OpenGL-texture memory. After browsing thru a load of files you will find the textures for your upper and lower body, in full 512×512 detail. If you were of a criminal inclination – there you go.

If you were working at CSI you now start your work, too. Let us take an example – someone tipped me about clothes being sold that looked very much like our own. So, I go ahead and buy them, wear them. Yes – this looks familiar. Different cut, some straps and rings added – but very familiar.

Next step – dump the textures and take a close look at them, compare them with my own. Here are a few steps how to do this:

1. Reduce saturation. We only want it in B/W.

2. Take your own texture, also make it B/W.

3. Make a new picture. Use the picture from 1 for the R and G channels, the one from 2 for the B channel. Everything that is WHITE in your picture now is identical in both textures, all BLUE are unique to the texture from step 2, all YELLOW ones are unique to the texture from step 1.

You can´t fool this method easily and it is a great help. Some thieves get a bit creative: You might need to mirror the front and the back part of the texture. With the case I was looking at they deleted parts of the reflections, too – as the thief doesn´t know why the latex looked good the way it does, she didn´t want to add any reflections. Anywhere there you have your new texture.

So, what to do? I am a nice guy, I try to talk to people. We had this from two designers now and I talked to them. Both took down their stuff, but now pieces are on sale again. You only get insults in the end. If you talk to other people, most don´t understand what you are talking about. In my opinion the only way is to get people to be aware of what is happening. That is why I made up this post. maybe some designers try to contact me – because I am at a miss how to prevent this stuff. A DMCA might work, but how to find every place the have put up their stuff for sale. You have to sue these people, but legally we are talking peanuts here.

Kai Heideman

PS – I was thinking about putting the names of the designers here and their stores. But on the other hand – that would only boost their traffic and maybe sales.