The Ugly Truth About Counterfeiting

I would like to make something very clear.

COUNTERFEITING is the less lazy version of COPYBOTTING.

What keeps people like this in business is the fact that they are allowed the pedestal to publicize their work. How so? The fact that major blogs syndicate their personal blogs, which allows their businesses air to breathe, and the people who purchase from these thieves. Unfortunately, most people who see these ads don't stop and think, "Oh hey...this asshole is ripping off so and so's work!". More often than not, its "Hey! That looks like so and so's product, and it's CHEAPER!"

I go out of my way to make sure that the things I create for the tiny business I have are not accidental copies of another person's work. I want to stress the word accidental.
I do the absolute best I can to search blogs and sites such as Xstreet in the hopes that what I have in mind to create and sell has not already been done. I'm sure there will be a time that I will mess up and do something that has been done, or something too similar. But believe me, I will be incredibly embarrassed as I take it out of my store and send an apology to whomever I need to. Being that Second Life often incorporates ideas from RL for our homes, bodies, and attire, I can't say that anything is truly an origional idea. But that doesn't give people the right to rip off the hard work of others.

That being said, I come to the point that I'd like to make. Of course, I am not the first person on the planet to think of an idea such as the concept of a necklace, or earrings, or piercings. I don't have the aspirations to be one of the big SL names who's items you all probably own in your inventory. I make things because it gives me satisfaction knowing that I can challenge myself to learn and that I can accomplish what I set out to do. I do not make things for a profit.
I make my products for my pleasure, and to see other people take pleasure out of wearing them.

I am tired of seeing my ads and my work ripped off for the perverse pleasure of people who lack talent and originality. The individuals who do these sorts of things do it out of the malicious intent of destroying the good name of others who work hard at building that up and keeping it. And yes, more often than it, it is simply because these individuals possess no creativity or originality of their own. Let me assure you though....I am not someone who will be bullied. It may be impossible for me as a single individual to stop counterfeiting in SL in it's entirety, but I will not continue to stay quiet and allow myself or my friends to continue to be ripped off for the hard work that they do.



To be continued....