Op/Ed: Hypocrisy and content thieves
First of, I’m still on hiatus. And to be honest, if I return actually, I still won’t pick up my daily freebie posts again. The passion is just gone. You know how it goes. I’m sure all used that line now and then in breaking up with a former lover.
So, why do I post if I’m inactive? I logged in SL shortly today to chat with some friends. You know. Even if I don’t really like SL anymore, I still like those friends, so screw SL, I’m coming in anyway just to talk.
But then I got a notecard from a group. Doesn’t matter what group, I’m not in a habit to call out people. But something about it surprised me.
First of all, I can say the group was a fashion group. As you probably know, just about every fashion designer in SL lately has had their say about content theft, and how Intellectual property should be protected and how the thieves should be punished, etcetera ad infinitum.
Now, this notecard contained a list of all the songs they played during their fashion shows. The titles didn’t sound like homemade music to me. Madonna, Goldfrapp, and many others. So I’m wondering, did this fashion show agency pay broadcasting rights to run an online radio station? After all, if they didn’t do so – they’re content thieves.
Even more. You were even given a link to download that music. Out of the goodness of their heart. While the former was still an if (after all, it’s possible they did pay the broadcasting rights) – this sounds even fishier. Even iTunes can’t just give out that many songs away for free. And they got connections with the labels.
Content thieves, Shame on you. – To paraphrase Hitlery Clinton.
I’m tired of all the whining from these “content creators”. Do people really come into Second Life with their primary objective as being making money? Or is it that they explore SL, find out they like it and stay? Somewhere in the process greed and avarice takes hold and people start thinking about how to “monetize” their skills and make money. Knowing that SL isn’t exactly a entirely safe venue to conduct business, they still do so anyway. It’s like setting up shop at night in a dark alley in some bad area of town and when you get something ripped off, well, you have no responsibility at all for the situation. I pay tier and also for the vaunted privilege of being able to own mainland property. I have a house and some land to host some friends. Why should I care if someone “can’t make a living in SL anymore”? Why is that my problem?