Seeds of Fire in Dream

Had some interesting things happen to me lately.

It’s well known about me that I have a much wider range of size acceptance in the females I find attractive than many people - if you want to know more, I’ll talk your ear off, but that’s not the point of this post: suffice it to say that I have a fondness for curvy women that not many other people share in this skinny-focused society. I find pinups such as the ones done by Les Toil very attractive, for example. ¹

 I was surfing SL this weekend and I happened upon this place called “BBW Paradise” (not the real name) Although I’m not wild about the tag “BBW,” which reduces a person to a three-letter-acronym, I decided to check it out. And it was kind of neat. It’s basically a little bar by the beach and it clearly welcomes people who have big avatars - presumably, people who do will also be big people iRL, but I guess not always. It’s nice to have a place where people who need size acceptance can get it.  Then I turn the corner and notice something strange. They’re selling pinups on the wall. Pinups which are done by Les Toil. There’s no sign that says, “We are selling these pinups by permission from Les.”

I’ve been to his site before - it’s hard not to be a size acceptance person and not know about him - I wanted to check to see if he knew about this place. So I wrote to him and asked him about it, and he let me know that he hadn’t given anyone on Second Life permission to sell his stuff, and would I speak to them about it before he has to turn to legal recourse? I said that I would, and I did.

These are extremely paraphrased communications, mind you, but here’s the gist of them:

 I sent just a simple, “Hey, could you please take this stuff down, it’s copyrighted material, and selling it isn’t cool.”

 What I got for my troubles was, first, a quote from his website that talks about permission he gives to people who have amateur websites and who want to display his work on a PlayStation Portable. Carefully deleted from the response was that he specifically states that you’re not to *sell* his work.

 Anyway, denial switched to anger, “Great! I’m just trying to be a good guy and give the size acceptance community a place to be! You’re being mean to me! You’re not being supportive of The Community!”

Which I interpreted as “Hey, you should look the other way and let me steal from this artist because I am a good guy and I’m doing nice things for The Community.”

 Finally he said, “FINE, I’m going to take them down, LEAVE ME ALONE.”

“OK,” I said, and I’ve left him alone. In fact, I’m not even naming him in this post - although if you want to do some detective work you can figure out who I’m talking about.

So I teleport over there after I get home from work just to check things out, and I find that I am banned from the property. Yes, banned because I dared to mention that he shouldn’t be selling copyrighted works that he didn’t have permission to sell. Friends of mine who have visited there have told me that he’s stopped selling Les’ work, but he’s left all the sales prims up where they were. He is still using all of Les’ images to promote his place, and he is leaning heavily on donations and collecting money from the people who come there. ²

I’m not worried about being banned - this is not the sort of place I need in my every day Second Life! But I really think it was a pretty childish thing to do.

Now, I realize he has rights under the DMCA, and he may yet to pursue them. I was only too happy to help because I am a big fan or Mr. Toil’s work, but I think, in the end, in order to be safe, he’s going to have to pursue DMCA takedown.

 I don’t have a problem with Mr. Paradise actually providing a real service and getting money in exchange. If he had contacted Mr. Toil, he might have been able to work out something with him - for real money. Mr. Toil’s a working artist and needs to be paid. I respect that. I wouldn’t want anyone else to sell a work I had copyrighted.

I hate getting involved in drama, but I felt this was a good cause. Still, it is amazing to me that people in Second Life have this capacity for self-deception. They think that just because it’s very easy to upload any texture they please, that they automatically own the textures, even when it’s someone else’s intellectual property.

Ah, well. Maybe someday when Mr. Paradise is older, he’ll create something - let’s say clothing or a new avatar or some kind of nifty something…. and he’ll have it taken and sold without his knowledge or permission. I wonder, then, how he will feel? I hope that doesn’t happen to him, but karma has a way of teaching you the lessons you need to know.

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