misery loves company, and company loves more

There's a fellow out there playing Minecraft in a really, really harsh way. He dies; he exits to the main menu and deletes that world, to give himself a death penalty. Damn.

People are still having problems with sit targeting and bounding box issues. Worse, the Labs (as usual?) don't seem to care. Vote for it if you want to show support, but I doubt it's going to be fixed any time soon.

I admit, the whole accusations of theft thing between Evie's Closet and Caverna Obscura got me pondering, but it took me a bit to come up with the coin to get involved. Still, it was something I felt I had to do. So up first: Evie's Closet.



This is Discordia, in her Willo-the-Wisp line; I like the others but most of them are very pastel, very pale. This one had a bit of vibrancy behind it, and the texturing was lovely.



The wings are flexi, all the little ragged silk bits are flexi. The textures are satin-smooth, and there's just a hint of cobweb around some of the skirt panels (repeated in all of them, but most obvious in the darker Discordia). Very little has been adjusted; apart from moving down the shoulder piece, this is straight out of the box.

Now, the Tattered Webs Outfit in black (I thought it would contrast better) by Caverna Obscura:



I'm wearing it with the long skirt variant, though it comes with a shorter skirt option.



It doesn't come with wings, so I'm wearing the Splash wings in Ink from Seven's Selections, still my favorite, favorite wing maker on the grid.

I'm trying to be objective about this, because to me, they don't even resemble the same genre of clothes. Evangeline Miles made an outfit, with wings; Elvira Ewing made...lingerie.

Don't get me wrong. I can see this being the perfect outfit for a captured fae in a cage, or tugging resentfully on a chain, in a dark fantasy sim. I can see this--in white, with a good Drow skin--being the lounging attire for a high priestess dripping with gems and contempt. In white, in fact--barring the torn stockings--it could easily be interpreted as wearing the 'divine favor' of Lloth.

And I like the way this one hangs--I like patchwork, I like torn and tatters, and frequently I'm seen in both or either, so I can see this becoming part of my wardrobe on my more risqué days (whereas the Will-o-the-Wisp outfit got shunted directly to the Fae folder for everyday fae wear). I like the way the tattered silk panels seem to hang from the waist on the thinnest of thin strands of spider-silk. I like the suggestion of a spider-silk belly-chain on the top.

So, the actual complaints were that Miles directly stole the design from Ewing, blatantly and boldly. I think that's an accusation made in error, because there's not even a similarity of template here. Do both have right-shoulder silk attachments? Yes. Do both of them have a right-shoulder strap? Yes. But--as Ewing mistakenly noted in Miles' blog--the Tattered Webs outfit also has a left shoulder strap.

Let me bring up one other thing.



This is Adam & Eve's Unseelie Sidhe outfit in black. Why is this relevant to the discussion about potential theft issues?



Because miss sachi Vixen designed this in 2006. So if anyone has a right to bitch about people 'stealing' the right-shoulder inspiration, it's her.

But she's not complaining about it. Why? Because this is not theft. Nor is it copyright infringement. It's not even intellectual property theft! Why? Because people are inspired by the world around them; by thoughts, ideas, fiction, nonfiction, fashion, architecture, poetry, music. Michaelangelo once said, famously, "Where I steal an idea, I leave my knife". Billy Joel once said that every single one of his big hits were plagiarized, in one sense or another, because he listens to a lot of music and that filters down to his work.

We are, all of us, influenced and influencing the world, every world, just by living and breathing within it. In this case, I don't think anyone stole anything from anyone else--they're three separate and discrete outfits that may share a common theme--and that theme is "fae attire", not "right-shoulder constructed demi-tunic".

The controversy is ridiculous. They're not the same outfit, at all.

All shots were taken in Oubliette. The AO is from Creative Insanity. And they were taken under the Windlight setting "FSOriginal".

Now, it's not that I often go political on this blog, but this also deals with emergent technology: upset over the TSA tactics and the full-body scans? Tell them. That site features underwear (upper and lower), as well as socks, in most sizes, printed in metallic ink that will show up on the scan. (I especially like one detail on the brassiere, which has nipple shields.)

Also, keep in mind that you have the right, when traveling, to request to opt out of the full-body scan. This will default you to the rather invasive search, but you do have the legal right to have that conducted in private, and by an operative of the same gender. And you have the legal right to have a traveling companion witness this search, both for moral support and for external verification that things are not getting out of hand.

Be firm; be polite; do not raise your voice; never threaten any TSA official. But insist on your rights, because they are your rights.

And I don't agree with any of her points, but there's an interesting perspective on virtual ownership over on the iliveSL blog.

Damien Fate is selling Loco Pocos. Yes, really.

Lastly, does anyone know if Prokovy Neva actually has a point buried in all the paranoic raving? Is Skills Hak involved in Project Skylight? If so, why? If not, how did this rumor get started?