Copy-Cats Suck!

On Wednesday, I logged on to an offline IM from Noam, saying someone was ripping off some of my Miau Haus ideas. He left me a landmark as well, so i TP'd there to check it out... sure enough this person (who's name I won't mention) had copied several items from my store: my Asian-style tea set, my kitty head cuddle cubbie, my mod cat chairs, and my leopard-print stools and table... hell, he even made an attempt at copying the cat head facade of my store!

The guy had added cat face textures and flexi tails to several of the items, but the concepts and shapes were obviously "lifted" from mine. I dunno, I didn't really want to cause any drama... I've experienced my fill of that during the past month or so, so I just sent him a simple IM, saying I was in his store, noticed that he had copied some Miau Haus items, and that he was now banned from my store,

So many things have been running through my head during the past couple of days... the obvious being the CopyBot fiasco, that I'm sure has been on every designer's mind as well, and how someone will copy you if they're so inclined, regardless if they have a fancy contraption to do it with. And I was thinking about the CopyBot meeting we had at The Block, and how that guy was saying that CopyBot wouldn't really threaten our profits, and not to confuse it with threatening our "pride". Well dammit, it DOES threaten my pride..it threatens my pride in my work! And isn't that what it is to be an artist and designer in this world? Sometimes pride is all that an artist has... pride in one's work is what gives us satisfaction and defines us as individuals. Just look at all those "starving artists" out there... they would choose another line of business if profits were always the ultimate goal, but they're not. As artists we are driven by our abilities to create, and our hunger to do so... profits are just like "icing on the cake." I don't mean to minimize the need to make money and to be able to maintain a comfortable lifestyle for you and your family, but I guess that my point is that money isn't everything for us, it's much much more.

I had an awful, sinking feeling as I browsed through that guy's store the other day, seeing my creations replicated there... in a way, I felt a little violated. I'm sure many designers in SL have felt the same at some point. I wasn't thinking about him taking my profits... I was thinking about him taking my ideas. (In fact, since my IM, he removed all of the copied items from his store and gave me the profits he made from them... nice gesture I guess, but it doesn't excuse what he did, and it confirmed that he knew full well what he was doing.)

Well, I'm adding this to my blog just to vent I guess. I don't think there's a real solution to preventing someone from copying your hard work and original ideas. Maybe we can all look out for each other, like Noam did for me *hugs her Noamy tight*... and let each other know when someone is copying them. Maybe one by one, we can try to shame those people into doing the right thing.