So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish"
-Douglas Adams, 1984

Darlings, it is time for one of those good news/bad news blogs. I have been job hunting to return back across the pond for some time now. I am pleased to announce that I have achieved this goal. The offer came in this morning and I will be heading back to the UK after 11 years of colonial living. Not the location we had hoped for but the money was too good to say no and this will bring us closer to family.

As I learned from Bianca maintaining a blog and working full time are two things that clash horribly. We talked it over and decided to retire the blog. So almost 2 years and 5 months we say goodbye to blogging Second Life. (Rumour Has It will be independent and sometimes updated. To contribute, see the bottom of this blog.)We will maintain our Second Lives as we did before blogging. Second Life has been part of us since 2005 and has helped us keep in touch with people throughout the world.

We could have gone the whole fake death, fake illness, fake surgery, fake financial problems, fake family problems route but we felt it has been overdone in the last few months. We feel this change is for the positive and will not belittle it by fake tragedy.


Then - 2005/2006
Favourite Skin :: Celestial Studios, Nevermore, Tete-a-Pied
Favourite Hair :: Lashed, FKNY Cake, Panache
Favourite Shape :: None
Favourite Eyes: Raspberry and Cow
Favourite Clothes :: PixelDolls, Celestial Studios, Deadly Nightshade
Favourite Shoes :: Shiny Things, PixelDolls
Favourite Accessories :: Shiny Things, FKNY Cake

Now - July 2009
Favourite Skin :: Celestial Studios, Fishy Strawberry
Favourite Hair :: B Spot, Here Comes Trouble, Tousled
Favourite Eyes :: Laqroki, Philotic Energy
Favourite Clothes :: AOHARU, PixelDolls, silentsparrow
Favourite Shoes :: Tesla, Kumamoto Japan
Favourite Shapes :: SinSkins
Favourite Accessories :: Twisted & Spoiled, Alienbear



(Xevv Boram July 2006- Deadly Nightshade Clothes :: Panache Hair :: TaP Skin; unsure of the specific details)

(ElleM Magic June 2009 - SinSkin :: Seren Shape, Laqroki :: Reflect True Silver Eyes, Celestial Studios :: Vogue Skin - Bronzed - Vamp - Seduce and Deviant Lashes Size 2, Here Comes Trouble :: KatLin - Brown, Kumoto Japan :: Brown Shoes, Silentsparrow :: Fall is Not Easy - Berry :: :: AnimaH AO Poses :: LF Chai Windlight Settings w/ clouds turned off)

Blogs/Forums you may enjoy ::
Alphaville Herald (SL Herald)
Living on a Prim
Love/Hate
Posh Totty
Second Thoughts
Shopping Cart Disco
SL Universe
The Virtual Adventures of Lizzie (Our new friend)
What the FUG?

Proxy servers to view SL-related news from your place of employment ::
Anonymouse
Browser 9
Hide My Ass
K Proxy
Online Anonymous Proxy
Proxify
You Hide

If you are interested in writing Rumour Has It, please familiarise yourself with the format and send ElleM Magic a notecard. (Do not send anything to Xevv Boram.)

Puzzlement at the Hair Fair

Darlings, Bianca and I have finally gotten ourselves over to the Hair Fair this year. We have discovered things that made us delight and things that made us cry.

1. Build: The Hair Fair build itself was beautifully sweet with most of the designers keeping with the look of the build. There were a few exceptions:




2. Hair: Most of the hair was wonderful, beautiful, or wild. There was one glaring exception to this as with most things. Darlings, one designer in particular stood out as the maker of the worst hair at the fair and quite possibly in all of Second Life. Most of this designer's hair is only 1 prim and it shows.


3. Demos: There is a growing trend in demos that are utterly useless. Several of the designers have demos that detract from viewing their hair that it becomes impossible to judge the hair properly. On an added note, there is a black demo epidemic. Black demos hide the flaws in the texturing and should never be used to sell your product.



4. One Linden Logo Gift: Sweeties, do not charge us to wear items that advertise your store. We understand store in first life have logo shirts as well but at a fair they give these items out for free.

5. Missing Designers: Darlings, we are not talking about the old has-been designers who did not sign up for this year's event but rather those that signed up, made the commitment to their charity, and then did not bother to show up. We have passed empty booths for several designers. We understand that Foam had no choice but to pull out after it was discovered they were teenagers and were banned from the adult grid. We will let Nushru off the hook as the designer has been ill. (Source: Vain Inc. Group)

6. Dual Avatar Hair Designers: Darlings, why would a designer need 2 avatars to make hair stores? We should ask Truth Hawks and Novo Zimerman or Nylon Pinkney and Bubbles Clawtooth. (Source: Plurk)

7. Organizers: Most of the organizers we encountered while at the fair were polite and professional. Out of the 4 organizers we observed stood out as being a bit of a cold fish. She typed out curt answers and was often trite. I wont name names but I will say she is from the place that is trying to ban Second Life.

8. The Lag Debate: There is a debate between the different ways to reduce lag. One camp says remove attachments(low script, low arc) and the other camp wags their fingers and says that is wrong. We conducted an experiment on 4 different computers and found that by combining the ideas from both camps we had the least amount of lag. We are here to declare that both camps are wrong. They should learn to get along and perhaps the next major event will be less laggy. I hear the Skin Fair is just around the corner if the Divas can stop throwing tantrums.


Bonus round:
Elle's favorite gifts.


Exile :: Rayne, Sari's :: Short n Sweet Dreads, Rosy Mood :: Flow


Philotic Energy :: Jessica, Ingenue :: Torch Song Updo, Discord Designs :: Niobe


B Spot :: Anne, Onigiri :: Mint, Tea Lane :: Evangeline


Goldie Locks :: Muriel, Here Comes Trouble :: KatLin, Black Maria :: Freehair


Some pictures by Bianca Frump.

Hair Fair gifts:
Philotic Energy :: PE Eyes-Cornflower M
Twisted & Spoiled :: Red Dress
Twisted & Spoiled :: Cherry Necklace
Twisted & Spoiled :: Heels Espadrille Shoes
Mela's :: Ghettoblaster 02 (rh)pose

Other items:
Celestial Studios :: (DN) Vogue Bronzed(Last Call - G String)
Celestial Studios :: (CS) Lashes - Deviant - Size 2

Prom Drama Queen

Sweeties, I am glad I did not have to live through the teenage angst of the American prom. We simply had nothing equivalent. Our proms consisted of musical concerts of the classic variety. There is a drama brewing in the fashion world over this American right of passage in virtual form. I think it is safe to say that a majority of the secondary schools in the United States and Canada have these formal dances at the end of their final year. I see no reason why there cannot be many proms in Second Life.

The heart of the drama is simple: a co-team captain of a Relay for Life team tried to guilt a fellow blogger about their own blog prom. We were going to stand aside on this one but apparently Miss Vielle got accused of being yours truly and we cannot have that even if we agree with her on this one. This all goes back to the earlier blogs we had about hairstyles, glowing clothes, and paper clothes. These are all things that pre-exist outside of Second Life and to point fingers at someone for doing these things is just plain silly.

Who is this Miss Aquitaine to stamp her feet and pout because Shopping Cart Disco is having a prom? According to my inside source, she is neither an owner or an officer of this designer group she is taking Miss Vielle to task over. I feel sorry for these designers that are viewed by Miss Aquitaine as being too dense to know the difference between a notecard about Shopping Cart Disco and a notecard about Relay for Life. The members of this group should be insulted to have so little thought of their intelligence. These group members should be thanking Miss Vielle for exposing what Miss Aquitaine really thinks about them.

Miss Vielle was not asking for money for her event. She was asking the designers in a group she is part of if they were interested in donating items to be gifts at her event. It is my understanding that this is a common occurrence with this group and is not outside the norm. Why would she think that this was not allowed this for her own event when others have benefited from similar announcements in the past?

Reading through their commentary we discover that the designers group is completely different from the RFL team of the same name. We send a team to visit several stores from the designers in the main group and found many were on other RFL teams.

Teams found:
Designers In Seclusion
New Babbage
Passionate Redheads
Relay Wizards for Spunky
Relay's Raiders
Team Oakie Doakie
United Forces Against Cancer

As we can clearly see from the above, the group members are part of many teams so Miss Aquitaine made a bold assumption is believing that everyone was part of her elitist group. We did not visit all 200 plus stores but it gives you a general idea that she does not speak for the masses.

Darling, or if you prefer, Hon, you need to learn to step back from your computer and look at things from the perspective of others. Your actions were judgmental and rude to both Miss Vielle and your fellow designer group members. The damage your actions may have caused a charity event may be irreparable. Perhaps you should stick to writing.

Gaga Gag Me

Sweeties, there is a new trend in Second Life making its rounds throughout the fashion community. Alarmingly there is a fair number of designers taking their inspiration from Lady Gaga's unique flare. From her trademark sunglasses to her creative use of the hair bow the grid has become polluted with knock offs and coattail riders. Even more surprising, Darlings, is one store has the gall of name themselves after this dear fashion queen.

It is clear that designers are quick to jump on the current now celebrities so let us start seeing some Susan Boyle couture items at your latest fashion house. Is the industry ready for you to bring on the frumpy house dress, wild mess of thinning curls and thick caterpillar eyebrows? If so, it will rock the fashion world on its ear.

Better Way for Businesss

While designers lament their sales, darlings, which are on par for any post holiday season. There are several designer who are making money hand over fist without blinking an eye and without finding shopping groups to blame for their lack of sales.

One designer has items that fly off his shelves. His store is always crawling with people and his business is clearly prospering as we have watched him grow in the past year. It is possible to make money on SL during this trying economic times but you have to work for it. Sales are not just going to fall into your lap. The work does not have to sacrifice integrity as was shown in the last blog.

Here are tips to doing business from observing someone who is successful:

1. Offer incentives that make business sense. A gift certificate that covers part of the cost of an item will get you more sale than giving the items away.

2. Invest in a few tools that bring the traffic regularly to your store.

a. There are over 300 Lucky Chair groups in Second Life making this a vital investment. The original Lucky Chair can be purchased from Shep Korvin for L$399 or L$1250 depending on the options you want.

b. Midnight Mania is the latest craze. You can purchase your own Midnight Mania board from Shep Korvin for L$399 or L$799 depending on the options you want.

c. While you are at Shep Korvin, look at his other tools he has for business. The Lucky Chair and Midnight Madness may be the most popular many of his other options are fun as well.

d. Camping Chairs/Systems keep the customer at your store. A standard camping system can cost L$250 at Nico Designs. A store range camping system at Grab & Go.

e. Invest in a gift card system. The most popular are Grab & Go System which runs between L$3000 to L$6500 and the card system from Escort DeFarge for L$15000.

f. Invest in a Freebie Ring which can be purchased for L$500 at Biz Bits.

g. Invest in group prize chairs that are sold at Biz Bits. These chairs costs L$499L and can restrict use based on profile picks and/or group membership.

h. Invest in a Roulette Board which can be purchased for L$900 at Plod.

3. Instead of organizing your own private hunt, get involved with the hunts that are grid wide. These hunts have the potential to bring you customers who may not have been aware of your brand. Recent examples of this were the Vain Inc Kissed Hunt and the Greatest Love Hunt.

4. Be sure you have a solid, consistent update group. You can create a standard Linden group for the cost of L$100 or invest in a group system. The two popular group systems are Subscribe-o-matic which has a monthly maintenance cost that can run you up to L$5990 and Night Sky Subscriber Kiosk which cost a one time pay out of L$750 to L$2350 depending on the options you want.

5. Join a general fashion announcement group. I would avoid the slowly dying Fashion Consolidated and go for Fashion-R-Us. A designer application costs L$400 which is a L$600 discount over Fashion Consolidated. The benefit of Fashion-R-Us is that they filter out resellers and scams before they are given designer status and not after.

6. Get involved in fairs and expos. The 2009 RFL Clothing Fair is set to beging in a few weeks. If you are a clothing designer and did not get signed up for this event, you are truly missing out on great advertising. There are fairs and expos for almost everything: clothing, shoes, jewelry, hair. Regrettably the skin fair keep getting canceled. Some Divas need to take it down a notch.

7. Send out review packs to bloggers of your new releases or specials. Do not become spammy with review packs. SL Fashion Notices has a list of Press Venues to get your started. Most bloggers prefer folder for the items you are sending. Remember the maximum number of items per folder is 48. If you need to use more than one folder label them according. Along with the items it is generally a good idea to include a notecard with all the information about the review items: location, price, colours, number of pieces, related items, blog location of the store and/or the items, and anything else that is important for the blogger to know about your release.

Sweeties, I am sure there are more tips for finding your success but we will leave you with these ideas to ponder. Never forget, customers hate spam as much as you do so keep your notices relevant and in moderation.

Bribery or Business?

Darlings, who can forget the exclusive that SCD revealed back on November about a blogger asking for payment for blogging. How can we forget the backlash that came from insanity that still continues to this day?

I am here to ask you about related situation. Lately, there has been a certain design house that is dominating the blogosphere. Items from this designer appear on the more popular blogs and fashion feeds at a high rate of up to 3 times daily. Sweeties, I know what you are thinking. This must be a high-quality designer with a flare for the now. There is nothing strange or untoward going on in this situation. Or is there?

How does this designer end up with so much press? Do you want the keys to secrets of her success?

Here are the simple steps used to get yourself blogged just as much as her.

1. Send review packs of items to bloggers on seemingly daily basis so that they get so sick of receiving items they blog you just to stop the onslaught.

2. After confirming that they have in fact published a blog about your creations, send them a "thank you" in for the form of monetary compensation or gift certificates for an all out buying spree at your store. The latter is prefer because then they just might blog more of your items.

3. Never falter in #2. Always reward the bloggers who blog you because they will be more inclined to blog you again and again and again.

This could be where that one blogger who will remain nameless got the idea that she should be paid for blogging. I no longer look at the items from this designer with interest because I feel she has resorted to bribery just to get her face on the feeds.

There is more to her marketing genius.

1. Make sure you have more hunts than the British Association for Shooting and Conservation.

2. Offer a new freebie(but charge L$1) on a daily basis.

3. Make sure that the minute a customer arrives at your store they are spammed with notecards and announcements. Customers love this.

4. Send out at least 1 notice a day but 2 is preferred to your update group with flashy titles that contain an abundance of symbols because it is ever so eye catching. For an added bonus have both the standard SL update group and a group vendor like subscribe-o-matic.

5. Give out daily gifts for anyone who uses your items in their flickr.

6. Retire a design every day and price it at L$1 so all the freebie hunters will come running to your store.

Darlings, I used to enjoy this designer's work. We have even defended her in the past but this paying off bloggers situation has left her tarnished in our eyes.

This blog will be followed shortly by the better way to drive up your traffic without sacrificing your integrity.

Comely Toon: How to Ruin Your Good Name

Darlings, something has to be said. I cannot just leave it there or it will fester like a wound. A well-rounded, well-known store has just announced that they are branching out into the hair industry. Loving most of their releases in the past year, I wept tears of joy to complete my collection for this brand. Even better, as part of their preparations they have offered us, their consumers, a taste of what is to come. I rushed myself over there wondering if I would find them more like Armidi, Muism, or Naughty Designs.

By all that is holy! What in the bloody hell is this supposed to be?

It appears that this store I once respected has decided to step backwards in quality and creativity. Not only did they break a couple of hair design rules with this style they also showed no originality that I have come to love about them. A bow made from hair. Lovely, only it has been done by many designers before them. To make this more sickening is the lovefest that other blogs have delivered upon this style.

Sweeties, I can you you all thinking - there are hair design rules? There are very basic hair design ideas that most designers realize their consumers appreciate and brings back their repeat customers.

1. Do not add light to the prims. - Every single prim in this hair gives off light. While this may look fantastic in the designer's own lighting they failed to remember that not everyone uses the latest client release or even the clients offered by Linden Labs. This alienates a huge portion of your consumer base making for bad business.

2. Make sure your texture and prim alignments are clean. - This hair has a prominent gap between the prims at the top that are static and the prims at the bottom that are flexi. This stands out like a newbie at Seven Ultra Lounge.

It pains me to feel disappointed with their new venture but it will make me think twice about shopping there again. There Comely Toon reputation has suddenly turned Homely Toon.

Photos taken at Free Photography Studios.

Hairy Situations

Sweeties, I took some time to work on some of these hunts when a hunter was scandalized by prim pubic hair. Yes, my dears, the latest in the fashion craze is the hairier the better. There is a shop for all your prim body hair needs. The appropriately named Body Hair Shop sells everything from arm hair to pubes. So drag your men, or if it is your style, yourself over to the shop and get your hair on. Most of the hair pieces are textures with an eye for detail. If you love hirsute then this store will entice you.



Pictures taken on location and censored for the faint of heart.

An Ad Can Kill You

The ads for your products can make or break your business. Yesterday a store of notorious fame released several new hairstyles. From the ads on display, I thought that Bianca and I would have so much fun with them. The models in the ad had harsh, angry faces with icy glares that would freeze even our dear Beelzebub. We discussed how the model looked pissed off to being wearing the hair more than anything else. The designer touted the hair as being "to impress and look amazing" but the ads made me thing the exact opposite. We headed over there to grab some demos and see this horror for ourselves. Shocked, darlings, is the only word I can use to describe our reaction to wearing the demos. The hair was much better than the ads had portrayed them and, in fact, some where quite nice. (This is not sucking up to this store because I personally hate this store.)

Ads are your connections to the buying public. If your ads convey negative feelings then the customers are not going to give the product a chance. In this case they were lucky because demos are available for the consumer to see that the true quality of the hair is not as bad as advertised. While I would not wear the bottom 2 styles for all the euros in the EU, the top 2 style work well and the middle style has its place in the right setting. These styles are not the horror stories that their ads convey. Straying from a shape that looks so angry that you are worried she had a run in with your dear mother-in-law might be the best idea for the next round of ads.

Curse of the Wererabbit

On a crisp Autumn day, Second Life was invaded by Wererabbits. Are Fashionistas everywhere flocking to be part of the incisor crowd? A particular designer who is well respected came out a skin line that reminded me of poor Wallace when he and a rabbit had their brains scrambled together. Sweeties, I am taking about the new revolutionary rabbit skins. No, I do not mean the skins that are supposed to look like rabbit skins but rather skins that should not.



I am reminded of a childhood friend who upon getting her braces would pulled her lips back off her teeth because the wires were scraping the inside of her lip. Is there a need for such a skin? I hear there is big money to be had in the dental role playing industry. Other than that, this skin's pseudo-sultry pout would do much better without the teeth. Luckily the skins do come with a "closed" mouth version. As you will see for yourself, the skin is beautiful when you remove the teeth. So get your pliers ready so you are all set to reenact The Marathon Man.



Side note to those I was referring to a few blogs back: This is the proper way to mock things we find amusing in Second Life. Notice the use of my own pictures.

Tousled Calla: A Business Divided

Darlings, we have alluded to this in the past rumor blogs but now comes the time to tell the story. A great empire divided earlier this month in a quite hush-hush way that raised a few eyebrows. The hair dynasty of Calla split down the middle by the 2 designers, Tigerlily Koi(now Calla) and Haedon Quine(now Tousled).

Their story is like many others before them. They met on Sims Online and came to Second Life together. They loved hair and began playing around with the prims to make the styles they wanted. A business was born: Calla. This store, who names their hair for flowers and other plants, held a beautiful anniversary celebration last year with many designers participating. Everything seemed beautiful but behind the smiles there was anger and bitterness brewing.

There are many businesses in SL with 2 owners(e.g. Here Comes Trouble) but the big difference here is that the these 2 women split the profits 50-50 rather than each taking their own financial share. This was their agreement from the start and therefore should not be held against either of them if this agreement still remained. There were times they could have renegotiated these terms. When the moved to their first major location on one of the Plush sims or when they set up Callatropia would have been good times to renegotiate their agreement. (Update: I learned there is a contract physically signed by both parties binding them to this agreement. This contract has not expired yet.)

Sweeties, for the past few weeks I have been observing. I sat at Calla's new location and sat at Tousled's location listening to the way the wind was blowing. It is really not as nasty as other blogs have made out. After reading Ms. Koi's own statement on the issue one major things remains clear, she has no legally binding contract with Ms. Quine so she doesn't have a prim to stand on when it comes to the legalities. The contract she is going on about should have been certified/return receipt so she had proof that this contract was in fact received by Ms. Quine. In the court of law, if you do not have a physically signed contract to show the agreement you cannot hold the other party to that contract. As for the chat logs, we all know that I can fake a conversation with anyone inside of SL so this does not count as a legally binding contract or written agreement.

Should Ms. Quine have had a 50% off sale during Ms. Koi's opening? No, but we have all done impulsive things that we cannot take back and Ms. Quine did express regret for this. Could Ms. Quine have foreseen that the Lindens would not abide their wishes and make Callatropia landmarks go to Calla Lily? No, she has no control over what the Linden's do after a request has been made. To assume she was lying shows that you never truly trusted the situation in the first place. I am trying to be unbiased here but this smear campaign is so one-sided it hardly seems fair to Ms. Quine.

The magical deadline of July 1st has not come yet so why shouldn't Ms. Quine continue to sell her items from her Calla brand. According to the chat logs(unreliable), she agreed to stop selling her Calla branded hair after July 1st. Why even blog about it before that date? Tigerlily Koi, you are making yourself look petty and afraid of your former-friend as a competitor. She should have every right to tell people she was part of Calla because she was. Many designers recently attended an IP Rights meeting and it was discussed that former business owners can tag their stores as formerly of and clearly that is what Ms. Quine has done and has the right to do. She is within her legal right to call her store Tousled by Haedon Quine(formerly of Calla).

This all comes down to contracts. If you are going to go into business with another person and share in the profits, you should always make a signed REAL WORLD contract before you begin. Otherwise you do not have any recourse if things do not work out the way you planned. Ms. Koi can shout and file until she is blue in the fingers but she does not have a legally binding contract stating that Ms. Quine cannot use the word Calla.

I have approached both Ms. Koi and Ms. Quine(as an alt). I found that Ms. Quine holds sadness for the break up and wishes Ms. Koi the best. I found that Ms. Koi was quick to point out that Ms. Quine was out to ruin her. I think the whole situation stinks. These girls need to have a SLbrity Death Match and let the prims fall where they may. We need to take this all into perspective. This is a new hair business that will be in direct competition with Ms. Koi so her statements are not necessarily going to show Ms. Quine in the best light.

Related blogs: Calla Comes to Light, Some Things I Need to Say, Wow! Drama at Calla, h(a)edonistic calla lily, Southern Charm

False Accusations Flying

Something foul is afoot in Second Life, my darlings. It is called false theft accusations. Two cases occurred over the last week that will leave you dizzy.


First is the case of poor Laynie Link. One of LaynieWear's new releases for the Fashion Expo was a dress called Andromeda which brings to mind the glow sticks we all used as children. A dress made from light that she began creating May 7th and completed on May 12(Date evidence from her website: here,here, here, here, & here). The Fashion Expo began on June 5th so this meant Ms. Link had to wait almost a month to release her product. On June 24, 2008, Laynie Link was sent an accusatory message from someone claiming she stole their work for her project. The accuser proudly boasted that he sent notecards to everyone he knew that she was a thief and filed a DMCA. The accuser has one very BIG problem. According to the creation dates of the two projects, Laynie Link made her creation over 2 weeks prior to the accuser. The accuser's designs were created between May 21 to May 24(Date evidence from LaynieWear: here & here). Now unless Ms. Link is a psychic, there is no possible way for her to copy something that was completed until 12 days after she finished her work. Clearly this designer must be taking a page from the accusers in our earlier blog. I do not seem him going after Spiral Walcher who also has some clothing items made from light. To Ms. Link's accuser: The DMCA provides that you may be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys fees) if you falsely claim that an in-world item is infringing your copyrights. I hope you have deep pockets because if I were Ms. Link I would follow up on this.


The next case is not as clear cut but clearly as ridiculous. It is the story of Delora Starbrook. On June 23, 2007, Ms. Starbrook released her first four hairstyles. A designer, who has been called the Queen of Prims by her friends, has been the person the Goreans go to their fine silks because of the detailed primwork. She has also been a staunch supporter of content creator's rights. Another hair designer named Tekelili Tantalus came out to accuse Ms. Starbrook of stealing her work. Her story changed to stealing her artistic ideas. Rather than approach Ms. Starbrook first, the accuser ran off notecards to groups and everyone he knew. Do the hairstyles look similar? Yes. Are they the same? Not by a long shot. It became clear on the boards and other blogs that the accuser's view was not supported by the public. Despite her ugly smear campaign, the accuser keeps stating that she will not file a DMCA. At least she is slightly smarter than Ms. Link's accuser because he realized he doesn't have a prim to stand on. Some people might be confused by the reference to Ms. Tantalus by the male-like appearance in SL but people should really pay attention to who is in the room when they confess to being a woman. I have to hand it to Ms. Tantalus for being one of the only designers to go the other way.

I hope that they accusers realize that their false claims against these 2 designers are going to hurt their own businesses. No one likes to do business with someone quick to make false statements about their competitors. It makes you look like you are afraid. Darlings, it all comes down to this one thing: concepts that existed long before Second Life existed is NOT your intellectual property. Hair with ornamentation like seen in Ms. Starbrook's works date back to Cleopatra so unless you are willing to accuse the Ancient Egyptians of stealing your intellectual property you owe her an apology. Glowing clothing dates back to the 70s with the era of laser light shows and neon clothing so unless you are will to file a DMCA against the clothing designers of the 1970s then you owe Ms. Link an apology.

Other designers with light/glow based products: Gwen Carillon, Liderc Dagger, Nedalin Malle, Chill Flanagan, Spiral Walcher, and more.

Other hair designers with fantasy styles in similar styles: Sinnocent Mirabeau, Sabine Gully, Rose Columbia, Helena Stringer, Venovara Ivory, Hern Worsley, Helyanwe Vindaloo, Sunnivah Jiutai, and more.

3 July, 2008: There are some new blogs to add to the discussion involving Ms. Starbrook & Ms. Tantalus - PrimTwister War, You make widgets. Someone makes a better widget. ZOMFG! I.P. THEFT!!!, & Blah Blah, Fashionista Hair Dramaz.

Fashion Consolidated RIP

Darlings, there was a time when Fashion Consolidated was THE group to belong to for the best updates on the grid but over past year this has change drastically. Now it seems that Fashion Consolidated is THE group to belong to if you want to find ripped and stolen items cheaper than the originals. It is disgusting.

Once, to get a designer label, the designers would have to message the group owner and she would come and look at the store. Vouching for its credibility, she would grant them a designer's tag so that they could send out notices to the group. As the group and SL grew this became a harder task but rather than putting together a team to help validate the new designers the Linden became the driving force of Fashion Consolidated. Sure, there is a team to approve new designers but not the way it used to. Now for only $1000L, you to can be a "designer" in Fashion Consolidated and send out notices for your "creations".

I find it rather ironic that this group has a posted theft policy when there have been so many stolen and ripped items being sent out in their notices. We have a close friend who successfully filed a DMCA, sent the information to the group owner, and that designer is still a designer in Fashion Consolidated. Clearly, the theft policy does not work anymore. I just read on the feeds yesterday about a notice sent out that was stealing works from another store. This happens almost once a day if not more.

When did Fashion Consolidated stop being about the creators and start being about money? Reading their official blog, I learn that to be a designer, all I have to do is buy a $1000L kiosk from OnRez or SLX, rez it in my store, fill out the right things, and then I am listed as a designer. With the current return of the copybot, there is no stopping a thief from creating a store, getting listed with Fashion Consolidated, and looking like a legitimate business because they have the Fashion Consolidated Seal of Approval. In the end, these $1000L payments are going to the owner's pocket. There are currently 1295 people listed as designers. I know not all paid that $1000L but if they all did that is $1,295,000L with the exchange of $274L per $1 USD this means that this group has earned the owner $4726.28 USD. This does not include the designers who paid and were kicked out for various reasons. This is a nice income for just running a group.

RIP Fashion Consolidate, you have "jumped the shark".

Copyright: The Worst Offender

Darlings, our limited time in SL® brought us to go on one of these famous, Ohana Isle Treasure Hunts. The link was sent out to one of my groups to go the hunt. To what do my wondering eyes should appear but a giant house of trademark infringement. There is one business that is entirely based on the Disney® empire. This store not only sells items that infringe on Disney's registered trademarks but they are even named after a copyrighted television show, House of Mouse. Given the recent trademark issues that LL® has imposed on its residents, I am shocked to see a store such as this not only in SL but on the sim as established as Ohana Isle. After some discussion, I believe one of the hunters was going to report the store to see what would happen.You would think the sim owner would recognized the severity of this infringement and disallow this shop on their land.

Let's see what Disney owned properties are being used here: Pirates of the Caribbean, Finding Nemo, Alice in Wonderland, Nightmare Before Christmas, House of Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Mickey Mouse Club, Lilo and Stitch, Fantasia, Disneyland Theme Park chacters, Disney World Theme Park characters.

Pictorial evidence:




©Disney/Pixar.
"The Legend of Tarzan" Owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. And Used by Permission.
©Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. and Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
TM and ©BVS Entertainment, Inc. and BVS International N.V. All rights reserved.
©ABC Family Properties, Inc. and BVS International N.V.
Underlying Property TM and ©TOEI Animation Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
©Aoki Takao.BB2 Project.TV Tokyo. Licensed by d-rights inc.
SPIDER-MAN and all related characters and the distinctive likenesses thereof
are trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc and are used with permission.
TM and ©Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.
TM and ©Disney

More on Disney copyrights and trademarks are located at http://home.disney/com.