we're one breath away from our judgment day

Back we go to the Ikaru Aichi ban.

As previously covered (here and here if you haven't read the previous ponderings), now she is saying that it wasn't her ex-boyfriend (who was not, as was reported in a hearsay fashion, responsible for going in under her account and doing anything), but the avatar--who may no longer even exist on the grid--who also lifted items from Hybrid Ansar (as well as other people, most recently mentioned, Roslin Petion, whose hand-painted and hand-detailed corset was ganked), the unfortunately-named poo Blackheart (btw, on that link? Half an hour ago there were items there. Now? They're all gone. That's very interesting, don't you think?).

Recover from that run-on sentence for a bit, it's okay. My head is not in the most grammatically correct space today. I'll wait.

Hybrid Ansar, btw? Has also been banned. What in the hell is going on?

[18:20] Aura Falta: what we have seen her do is as soon as she is contacted by iki or another creator, she seems to close shop immediiately and deletes that SL account
[18:20] Aura Falta: but then she pops up a few days to weeks later with a new name, avatar and store, and start putting the same shit out
[18:22] Aura Falta: the lesson we have all learned from this is to never ever contact the copybotter directly, as it gives them time to close up shop
[18:22] Aura Falta: and time to get your ass banned

Honestly? Everyone who reads this, listen to this one passage, if nothing else.

1. DO NOT contact the person in violation directly.
2. Contact Linden Labs, giving them full information in the AR on exactly where each prim containing the copyright infringing goods are found, in world, or exactly where the listings are on XStreet or SL Marketplace.
3. Two things are ESSENTIAL: Be POLITE, and be SPECIFIC. Attach examples if allowed. If contacted later, be POLITE, and be SPECIFIC. Send examples to the Linden who contacts you, if allowed, and you can still find them in world, or on XStreet.

I'm going to give Aichi some leeway on on this one, for the story-changing. For a) being forced to communicate through other people, which distorts things; b) being in an emotional and overwrought headspace, which distorts everything; and c) learning things day by day and announcing them too soon. Does that mean this is the end of the tale? Not likely, not until at least Ikaru herself knows who helped to ban her...and she may never find that out.

(Though I will add, that in light of how easy it seems to be to ban someone from the game, for petty personal reasons...the fact that Aichi banned Serenity Semple for doing nothing other than being a good hunter from her sims seems morbidly relevant. I'm so not saying Serenity had anything to do with this--she didn't. But there is that spark of kinship, here--Linden Labs doesn't seem to care, either, if they ban paying customers...)

Along those same lines, Azriel Demain has been banned from Second Life--by Linden Labs--for the next week. Why? Well, it's apparently due to the Julius suit--and not the one sold in-world, but the one sold on XStreet (as I recall, there was a black or silver version which seems to have been removed from listing; the original red, and the white, remain).

Why? Because of this line in the listing:

A stunning suit with a gothic flare. This was inspired by the 'grey suit' Gary Oldman wears in the 1992 movie Dracula.

Apparently "someone"--again, he doesn't know who, because one of the many peculiarities of DMCA filing is that anyone can just tell the Labs they're in violation; it is then up to the accused to prove their case (which includes putting down your real name and accurate contact information), not the other way around.

Here's what's getting me about all these cases. In a nutshell:

* Ikaru Aichi owns a sim.

* Hybrid Ansar owns a sim.

* Azriel Demain owns FOUR sims.

Lindens? Are you listening? If that doesn't make it plain, let me state it outright: at what point is the dividing line between "investigation of allegation" and "corporate profit"? Because it doesn't seem like you investigated any of these bans like you should have, and, beyond that, you already have a situation where your userbase is shocky and unsteady from their perception (perhaps in error, but emotions are not known for being rational) that Second Life as a whole is starting to fall apart.

And, just to hammer this point into the ground:

Why isn't Lunk Portal banned for copyright infringement? What about Butkins Sugarplum? How about Santana Zeplin? Or Webby Merlin? Or Magicka Moonites? Or brunhild Uriza? And then there's Guinevere Dagostino and Scooty Gearbox and SugarFree Delicioso and Dely Breen; why aren't they banned too?

I'm not even TRYING HARD, here. What about:

Amdir Exonar's "Return of the Jedi" outfit? Or Sorelli Productions' Sith armor? Or Lunk Portal's Stormtrooper voice HUD? Or Rogue Harsley's complete Ahsoka Tano avatar?

You can't be that stupid and run a company this long. But Lindens, you just might be that blind. What all of these people should work on finding out is, exactly who in Linden-land is responsible (currently, because the position likely, and recently, shifted hands) for bans and DMCA filings. My thinking is, either they don't know the limits of their job, or they don't have the manpower to do their job effectively.

So which is it, LL? Because something needs to be done.

[14:08] bigbossmoney Artful: you cant just keep my money
[14:08] bigbossmoney Artful: have you not read the sl

It's a point. You know, I try to keep up with the new periodicals, but some of them, they just slip my notice....My gods, that might need to be a new catchphrase.

Have you read the sl? You may want to! It could tell you things!