Today I wandered into a shopping area that will remain nameless to use their Virwox terminal. I saw something pretty and of course went over to look at it. I had to answer the call of nature and do a couple of other things and as usual, I left myself at the area so that I could check it out when I got back.
I returned to our store in a little while, promptly crashed, stayed logged out for about 15 minutes to play Tetris. When I logged in I had this message waiting for me.
<Person's name deleted> (Saved Wed Jan 19 10:01:14 2011)Ahh, so that's why you were at <Store Name Deleted> Jewlery store....your partner makes flower jewelry too. Be careful, though as those are RL designs from her RL business....so she can go leagl very easily
I blew up! As against copybotting and violations of IP rights as I am, Some random person, not even the owner of this store, jumps my crap for no good reason.
This isn't the first time I have heard of it, but it is the first time that it has happened to me. I know that Coco has been yelled at for "standing around" in a skin store and for being at another at all! (She wore the skin she purchased at #2 for quite a while anyway. Forgiving soul, that Coco).
I know that people are paranoid, they have every right to be. Linden Labs doesn't have a great track record when it comes to fixing the stolen content problem. But nobody has a right to suggest I would steal from them. I go shopping all the time, at much finer stores than this one. None of the owners ever run me down and accuse me of being a potential thief!
So anyway, I explained that I had been using the terminal and that I had just decided to take a look at this jewelry store and that I didn't appreciate being treated like a potential thief. (I also sent a notecard to the owner of the store. I figured she didn't want her normal customer flow to be accused of this just because they ran a store.)
Mind you, every item on the wall in this place was displayed with some of the very first ripped skins to ever go around SL, Dresses from resell packs that were actually early thefts from designers and old skool ripped hair. Total blast from the past! I was further insulted by being accused of trying to steal products marketed in such a way.
This girl... or whatever it was, contacted me again. "<Other person's name> Says there is no record of the Virwox terminal being used all day!" As far as I know only the owner of the terminal gets this data. So I asked "you talked to euroslex?" she replies, "No but <Person's name> said that there were no transactions with it. I know at this point I should have reported her, not explained myself, but I got the very recent transaction history of my deposit into Virwox and pasted it to her. I threatened to report her and she finally understood and apologized.
Most people can get by with a simple mute. I'm sure others will disagree, but if you run a store, you want to know what's going on in a situation like this. People have a way of spreading chaos reaaaal fast, even little prejudiced buttholes.
I guess I overreacted to all of this a bit, but it was enough to make me feel terrible for a lot of the day and assure that even if the woman's ads stop looking like badly made up drag queens, that I will NOT purchase the stuff.
I guess I wrote this here in case any of you ever get this treatment. You are not alone. Even Yoko gets accused of content theft now and then!
THE END
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