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Eloh

For the tl;dr crowd–rest assured, I'm not having second thoughts about giving away my skin PSDs, especially now that Sezmra's also doing it. I'm just on a too-much-coffee rant



For everyone else who's still reading...
Annyka Bekkers's comment Sezmra's blog has totally been echoing in my head the past few weeks:
So I've been going out of my mind on how to fix this "Instant Skin Busness-Just Add Water" problem without hampering everyone else who doesn't want to just make some quick L$ off my PSDs.

One possible solution is some sorta economic "scorched earth"–where I'd stagger the release of my skins (for free) in-world before the release of my PSDs online by a period of several weeks to months. Ideally, this would make future sales (over L$0) of any identical or minimally-modded skins in-world economically infeasible.

Alternatively, I've been thinking about switching over to only distributing my skins in AI format via GitHub. This introduces two barriers to entry: git and Adobe Illustrator–both of which require some technical know-how and effort before you can get something that's usable as an in-world skin.

The problem is I really don't like either of them, because ultimately they both still hurt everyone else who isn't looking for a quick business opportunity. Additionally both solutions only add more "ingredients" to the "Just-Add-Water" aspect (time in the former, technical details in the latter).

So I'm just wondering if anyone's got any advice, insight, or ideas?

(P.S. I've already considered the alternative dismissive arguments as well: (1) I've already opened Pandora's box with my earlier/existing PSDs and there's nothing I can do now... (2) can't please all of the people all of the time)

Beebo Brink

Short of registering the PSDs to people and monitoring their usage, I'm not sure how you'd manage to gain control. Unfortunately, this places an onerous enforcement burden on you, at best, and at worst makes legitimate users jump through hoops, while the BIAB contingent probably still slips beyond enforcement effort.

It's an issue that concerns me on several levels, not just philosophically, because the open source files you provided are now an integral part of my creative projects. Without them, I would have shut down or passively retired my business because I had hit a brick wall of my own graphic limitations.

To some degree the consumer market would (I hope) regulate this market because the content pushers (as opposed to creators) aren't offering anything new above the free skins that you have made available inworld. So the scorched earth tactic, as you described it, seems to me to be a feasible solution.

Perhaps (and my own self-interest may be influencing my thoughts on this) stagger the release to also allow "trusted" content modders -- who have followed the spirit of your releases to your satistaction -- download access after your release and before final release to the public.

I don't think the git/ai distribution does much to address this issue. All it takes is one BIAB to get ahold of the files and you're back where you started.

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Macphisto Angelus

I know I would not have found a love for this stuff without your past releases. So, it was a great thing that you did there.

Going forward one thing you might consider (someone can poke holes in this after I post it) is a club. Only people who have used your PSDs and did the share alike system you asked can be in it. People must be able to show where they released at least one for distribution that was modified beyond turning the lulz section off.

All the old stuff will still very much be around for people to play with, but the new stuff will be a reward for those who honored your request. That way you can make the free skin in world and still offer your PSDs to the people who will use them.

There is really nothing you can do that will please everyone lol. You have left a trail of many great skin PSDs for the casual learners to experiment and mod and even resell. Going forward the new stuff will be a reward for the people that "get" what you are doing.

It won't be fool proof but will likely slow down the BIB process.

Anyway, just a suggestion. I wish you luck with what is not going to be a easy decision.

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sezmra

Thank you for raising this discussion, Eloh. I'm in the boat with you, holding the other oar - waiting to find out which way we should be steering.

YAY METAPHORS!

But seriously, yes, this is something I'm worried about as well. I just see no way around it yet.

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Aodhan McDunnough

IMO no way around it.

Open sourcing will unavoidably lead to BIAB exploitation. Actually if even one copy gets out to one BIAB maker, that's it.

The alternative is to choose who you give it to. Problem there is if one of them decided to BIAB it.

One possibility would be to tag the ones you give out so if a BIAB gets hold of it you know who isn't trustworthy. But even then the damage is there.

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Beebo Brink

Of course, even if you DON'T release files, you're still a target for BIABs that rip skin textures. So at its root, I'm not sure that BIABs are any more or less of a problem to open source files than they are to all content creations.

I like the idea of some kind of a club for modders. It encourages and rewards creative endeavors.

Io Zeno

I don't know how to deal with it either, without making yourself a second job just hunting down anyone doing it.

I guess it's what is more important to you, releasing them and letting what happens, happen or deciding that the instant resale is too frustrating to live with.

You have already given out a good deal of PSD's Eloh, I don't think most of us expect you to continue no matter what.

Daman

Well, I really don't like option 2. Anything that limits the usage of your files to one specific program - I support the hell no option.

I don't even know Adobe Illustrator, is it anything like Adobe Photoshop?

I am not a graphical designer for a living, so I refuse to pay for this expensive kind of software. Which means I do all my work in the Gimp - a program I've grown quite accustomed to over the years, and honestly, when I tried Photoshop CS3 on a friend's PC all it did was made me dislike the program since I couldn't find a way to scale layers independantly from each other (and he says there isn't such an option). That is however one of the things I do nearly with every picture I edit in Gimp.

Option 1 I have no quarrel with though. It won't stop anything though. They can still GLIntercept the skin before you release the PSDs.

Overall, I think trying to stop the BIAB people is a great ideal. But it's an ideal. It's not going to happen in reality no matter what you do. If what they did was actually against your license, I'd recommend simply ARing + DMCAing them all, but since they do nothing wrong according to the license there's no legal reason to do so now.

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Beebo Brink

I always assumed that the release you made was a single event, or at most a single project.

Io Zeno

I mean if creating and releasing them for people to use and enjoy is what you like about this then I think you should follow your heart and let it go. People like myself use them for ourselves and appreciate it very much.

If you wanted to cripple any future skins a bit, like making them ai files, who has the right to complain? You are giving them away.

Eloh

You guys are awesome thanks for all the feedback!


You should know... I'm a really lousy swimmer.

But seriously–yeah, I don't want people getting hurt, but at the same time I don't want people feeling like they're being left out or marginalized, so it's a tough balancing act.

I'm really glad you're that you feel so strongly about Gimp and the PSD format (I tend to get out of touch with a lot of stuff when I'm in the thick of making something–i.e. I need a lot of reality/sanity checks), because I was really kinda getting the notion that everyone would be totally down with dumping Photoshop for Illustrator–like me. I have a love/hate thing with Photoshop. It's complicated.

I'll try and use only Gimp for the final stages of this next skin!

I really really really want to like (and implement) this idea–I can totally imagine the setup: invite-only basis, all group members are equal (i.e. can invite, kick, or even disband the group), members would share and participate in any improvements to the "group" skin.

But... I'm sorta afraid of the possibility that such an exclusive club has potential to breed jealousy amongst those who aren't invited and divisiveness in the SL community as a whole.

But... I'm still turning this idea over and over in my mind–I basically have the setup to totally do this... and in some ways the GitHub repo is totally about this–with its forks and pull requests, but that's another rant for another time...

See, the thing is I totally always assumed it was going to be an on-going & ever-changing kinda thing–I mean sorta like how things just go out of style, so I'd hafta keep on updating my skins.

It's really neat that you guys think the opposite–because it's something I've never realized until now. I think it's kinda mind-blowing, but I gotta first sleep off the coffee and the booze before I have an aneurysm



I'll definitely keep thinking all this through (and hopefully coming up with something in late September? don't hold me to that... )!

Macphisto Angelus

Well, it *could* breed jealousy, but if someone were to release a mod then that would be access to the group. So, really it is their own fault if they do not get in. Maybe make the PSDs available to the group and the .ai files with hoops to jump for everyone else. Again, you have left a nice trail of skins to learn on.. this would be something for those that honor what you do and offer. So, not really a close society as much as a attainable group membership. I hope that makes sense. I really should be in bed.

Anya Ristow

OT, but since it came up...

Select the layer you want to re-size
CTRL-T (transform)
Either drag handles or type in percentages or pixels in the tool bar
Double-click the image to commit

Charlemagne Allen

I would release it with a some kind of license-- you can mod it, use it, but cannot sell it unless changes have been made (define that term, as you see fit and perhaps run it by a lawyer). That would allow you to continue your help of the community, with certain intents established.

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Ingrid

I don't anything about skins but can't you just make them mod and no trans like primy stuffs? (please excuse my ignorance on the matter)

by the way "freetard" is hilarious

Beebo Brink

We're not discussing an inworld object. These are RL photoshop files that are used to create the textures for inworld skins. SL permissions do not apply.

Kristian

There is one free alternative to Illustrator, Inkscape but I've never gotten Binary to use it long enough to know if it's comparable to Illustrator, but it has some support for AI files.

Ingrid

Oh of course. duh. oops.

If they're modifiable they can be brought into photoshop and at that point anything goes.

Beebo Brink