Saturday 14 November 2009

Copybot Complex and Control Fatigue..

Telephone Sales Person: “Hi, I wanted to draw your attention to the fact that you have no insurance cover on your cable equipment.”
soror: “Thank you. Do you think I was unaware of that?”
TSP: “Well, what would you do if your cable equipment broke down and you couldn’t afford to get it fixed?”
soror: “I would throw it away.”
TSP: *stunned silence*.......

Most insurance (apart from car insurance which is mandatory) gets sold because we like to feel we are in control of the future. We aren’t.

We have more or less no control over anything........ a fact that is hard for people to really believe, relax about, and live with. So we buy insurance.

The same Control Complex, I believe, is behind this whole IPR and copybot hysteria. I am so weary of the whole debate that this is the last time I am ever going to post a word about copying.

Copying happens everywhere, in every business, in Nature, thoughts, history, etc. etc. Copying makes the world go round, all worlds. Let’s take a rational look at this, (well, my opinionated rationality,that is...) with regards to SL.

We hear from the Boys that 1000 people in SL earn more than 1000US$ per month, so...as a rough guess.... 300 people earn a RL living in SL, out of 1.3 million people that log in (or whatever figure you want to use....75k regulars...whatever...). Of these 300 people, half maybe earn their living from property rentals, and half of the remainder (let’s say) from services.... that would mean, from my naive estimating that maybe 75 people are at risk of losing their standard of living because of copybots.

My second point is.... where are these stolen products going to be sold? Well, for anyone to make money from this they would need as large a group of potential buyers as SL has....so that rules out Opensims as avatars are rattling around in empty wildernesses like a handful of marbles in a cargo ship. It would have to be the chinese grids, consumers that don’t come into SL anyway, and who would not pay our prices if they did.

My third point revolves around the question... how original are the originals?? Most product is built around years, or hundreds of years of design development. Someone selling jeans on SL cannot claim IPR, I would say, jeans are a rip-off of Levi and others.
Who invented hair?
....and, if you are soooo deluded as to think that someone is going to copy one of your paintings and sell them in their thousands to chinese people, then you need help.

Art is a process of inner development. The piece is a bi-product of that development. The bi-product is nowhere near as valuable as the growth of your psyche towards a more complete being.

Noone can copy your talent, if you have any...

Copying? get over yourself....


:))

4 comments:

  1. Yay! I agree totally soror. Thanks for posting this. I get so sick of people whining about intellectual property theft. I have been to some big and well-respected creators' shops in SL to see huge signs about "respecting IP rights" then looked around the shop to see chairs in 5 different colours by Jacobsen, Eames, Mies Van Der Rohe and a host of others.

    Rather than attacking these talented 3D modelers for (at last) bringing classic design into SL, I just want to know why they are so worried about protecting "their" IP rights.... could it be because after they have ripped off some classic furniture, they know that's where the gravy train stops?

    We all have a choice to make stuff or not. Do it for the fun or not at all is my advice! The only thing thats certain is that you will benefit from the process of making stuff... if you want a guaranteed paycheck, go stack shelves in a supermarket.

    *rant ends*

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  2. Yay, Rob...... a like minded soul....... always good to hear some feedback. That's a great example, with the furniture..

    :))

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  3. Yay!! Voice of reason - I get regularly jumped on for saying - get over it... in relation to copy bots and people who rip stuff.

    Question I'd like an answer to (not sure anyone can answer though): Are any of the copy botters actually making a living from their illegal (questionable term as it all depends in your jurisdiction) activities?

    All my stuff online is released under a CC license - which I hope people abide by (but if they don't that is their karmic problem not any skin off my nose) - mostly cos I'd like attribution - but hey... I got my ideas from somewhere in the first place - often from looking at (and then subconsciously digesting) other creative ideas.

    Only time I've seen someone use one of my textures in world was on an artwork and I IM'd them and thanked them for the compliment;) (no reply was had...)

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  4. Great, Quad, yes, all the time people mistake the bi-product (the piece) for the real thing (the process) they will be in this angst situation. No-one can copybot my talent, my growth and my love of the process art takes me though.

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