Learn about sculpts inworld with M&M

1st Tutorial
A basic tutorial will explain how to use sculpt maps and build the sculpted prims in-world. No extra skills than the basics you need to build in-world are nessecary.

Ideal for newbies and Beginner Designers/Builders
Friday January 22nd  at Book-Island 12 PM SLT
Sunday January 24th at Moolto-Island 12 PM SLT

2nd Tutorial
January the 29th; One step ahead. For this tutorial you need a Graphic Program, like Photoshop, and basic skills using Photoshop and building
in-world!!

We teach you how to merge a shade-texture with a
basic-texture in Photoshop to give your in-world builds and creations
more depth and a more realistic appearance.
Friday January 29th at Book-Island 12 PM SLT
Sunday January 31st at Moolto-Island 12 PM SLT

3rd Tutorial
February the 5th; This tutorial is a big step forward and still easy
to follow for all who would like to create advanced textures with
shade for the more complex sculpted prims in-world. It is based on
Fashion-Sculpties, but the knowledge can be used for all sculpted
prims and even for regular prims.  Much more tools of the Grapic
Program are used and to use your textures in-world you need some
building skills and experience!!
Friday February 5th at Book-Island 12 PM SLT
Sunday February 7th at Moolto-Island 12 PM SLT

***You don't need to subscribe in advance for the Tutorial-series, but
please appear 10 minutes in advance, so we can start right on time.
To avoid lag we ask you all to TAKE OFF  &  DETACH  lag-causing
adjustments and attachements on your avatar!
(EXAMPLES; AO-huds, scripted attachements, face-light, huge amounts of
flexible prim-dresses, huge amounts of sculpted attachements)***

Contact 10 Gossoon for more information

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M and M Creations Texture Garden

M and M Creations is a good place to buy quality textures and prims. But it’s also a good place to explore with lots to see. One corner of the sim that’s a nice place to visit is the Texture Garden. One can head to the main M and M store and grab a TP port to there, or just go to the map and type DoubleMM (40, 240, 31).

Arriving at the place, the first thing I noticed was a buzzing noise. Looking around, it turned out to be a sculpture of two bugs grasping each other, having moving mechanical parts and electrical sparks, “Whirlygigs versus Whirlygogs.” Looking around were numerous vendors for textures. I continued to find them as I walked around the place. Objects can also be clicked on to buy a copy. To the east was the garden. Walking there, I was approached by a purple hummingbird. It hovered around me, darting from one position to another, following me as I walked. Around me was a hammering sound, which made me think of woodpeckers, and sure enough I soon saw one on one of the nearby trees, near a couple hedgehogs scurrying about on a lakeshore, which was next to a walkway lined with trees and lamps with plant-shaped lights on both sides.

Several other detailed areas are nearby. To the south down a path is the swamp and it’s exotic plants and animals. To the southeast up a rocky trail are the K-10 mountain and Highlands. To the east are the Fairyland and the Beach.

The place has a variety of goods for sale, textures, sculpties and more. There are photos, drawings and paintings, trees, exotic plants, flower lamps, fences, walls, birds, small mammals, fires, graveyards, trunks, flowerstairs, and many other objects to help decorate a place for either a science-fiction themed region, a fantasy land, a nature preserve, or just about any setting.

For quicker access to cash, there is a DX ATM in the area not far to the east from the Texture Garden entry point. Textures and sculpties come either modify and copy, or with full permissions.

The Texture Garden, like all of the M and M area, is owned by Marcthur Gooson and 10 Gooson.

Bixyl Shuftan

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CopyBot rears its ugly head at Styles of Edo

This morning I awoke to an email from Edo Tone of Styles of Edo he was very upset and showed me photographs, taken by Maggie Mahoney of Runway magazine. The pictures showed copies of his 'famous' tailcoat worn by M(ark) Linden at his first public appearance at the SL5B opening on sale at OMG! Inc.
When I arrived at Sununu, next to our head office, home of OMG! Inc and saw the suits on offer, I could see for myself it was his tailcoat, it is unique. But I was also disturbed by the similarities of others on the wall and buying the white tux shown found it too was from Edo. Edo came and confirmed it but more disturbing he also pointed out designs that were from another designer Simone Stern.
I brought Simone in and, although blurred and photoshopped a good deal, she confirmed some were her textures, pointing out highlights and shading that were unique to her designs.
Next I tried to contact Kaddan Yue CEO of OMG! Inc. but it was the middle of the night for her so I asked Intlibber Brautigan to remove them from the sim which he did as soon as I appraised him of the situation. I admit I was impressed with the speed he grasped the facts and dealt with them.
When Kaddan came online she immediately confirmed that she had bought the textures some time previously and they had been sent to her by email. She was totally unaware they were copied/stolen and shocked when shown the pictures. She took immediate action and removed all designs made from textures sent by kraus Folland. I know Kaddan and the work they are trying to do with OMG! is commendable, these designs were bought at the beginning of the project. Kaddan told me that now they are using only inworld designers and no longer buying textures because of the copybots.
I have rarely seen anyone so upset and I can't blame her. It was a horrible position to have innocently bought stolen textures and used them.
I arranged a meeting with Kaddan and Edo where Kaddan apologised personally to him for the mistake which Edo accepted with an offer of friendship to Kaddan.
Later Kaddan released this statement;
"OMG Inc is a co-operative company meaning we collect designs to sell from many designers as well as creating our own.
We have bought designs from many places like XStreet and designers inworld.
When I was informed that some of the designs we were selling were copies I took immediate action and removed them from all of our stores.
I will also delete all copies of the textures I bought from kraus Folland.
These textures were delivered to me by Email and I have destroyed the originals stored on my PC.
I wish to apologise publicly to those that have had their textures copied.
I would never deliberately resell someone Else's work without their express permission in writing and had I known that these were copies I would never have bought them.
Texture theft is a big concern in Secondlife and because of it we are now working only with designers inworld in the hopes of preventing this from happening again.
All I can do is apologise to Edo Tone of 'Styles of Edo' and also we think Simone Stern of 'Simone' and accept full responsibility for reselling their designs."

My question now is WHY IS COPYBOT ALLOWED IN SL?
This situation was awful for all involved, Edo and Simone had their textures ripped and altered, Kaddan and the OMG! team were, in all innocence, selling stolen goods (which in real life is no defence) but here we can see the ones to blame are those that continue to use the CopyBot and decide to profit from other peoples hard work!
I guess some will always try to profit from others hard work - just make sure you know the source of any textures you buy! So we can minimise the profit these people can make from copying.

Dana Vanmoer

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BREAKING NEWS: Copybot is Back!

Back in November 2006, Second Life was in uproar for a whole week. And I mean complete mass panic. Businesses were leaving SL, protests were there, it made Real Life news, it was announced that it would be the end of Second Life. Fact was that Libsecondlife created a tool, a piece of software outside the standard viewer, that was designed for backup purposes with all good intentions. It duplicated any object in SL and made it full permissions.

Of course it was only a matter of time before people started using this to their own advantage. When that happened and was discovered, all hell broke loose. The CopyBot, as it was called, was dealt with in a swift and secure manner by Linden Lab, and the civil unrest came to an end.

Nowadays, people tend to think that if they create content in SL, that it is safe from copyright infringement. But rumours and accusations have been starting to fly around again, about expensive skins (up to L$ 5000 a piece) being copied and resold for a lot less by thieves. We reported on this just over a month ago.

Yesterday, I received a freebie skin saying "I'd rather go naked than wear stolen skin", created by Laynie Link. Ms. Link is a clothing shop owner and I bet she has a passion for protecting her content. But not only that, she must have a good reason for it. Ms. Link was unavailable for comments, but this made me research the issue again.

I talked to a scripter, and he claimed that he was able to do it within 10 minutes. And you know what? I'm not a scripter, but after I fllowed a false lead and ended up on a dead-end street, I followed another lead and managed to do it myself within 10 minutes !!!

So, for me it is confirmed, it is true. CopyBot II is here !!!

Now, what can this thing do? It can copy any texture in Second Life. When I tested it, I had access to any texture that my virtual eyes could see, starting with the moon and ban line pictures in Second Life, but also including complete skins, eyes, clothing, the sand that I was standing on ... EVERYTHING!

The fact is that it's not too hard to build things in SL. The true art lies in texturizing it properly. And with the arrival of Scuplties in May 2007, this has been taken to a whole different level. Well, this thing can also copy complete sculpties.

Imagine that you have created a true work of art. You're a sculptie artist and have created something that you have been working on for many many hours. Imagine that you're Light Waves (or Starax, as he's commonly known), and that you have created the best art there is in SL and that you're selling it for up to L$ 25,000. And then imagine that someone just copied your blood, sweat and tears and is selling it inworld for only a fraction of that price.

Would you leave SL over it? Well, I bet you would, if you know that just about anyone can do this, and that Linden Lab is unable or unwilling to do anything about it. And I bet that you would feel the same if you were a skin creator like Naughty Designs, X2 or RaC, or if you were a successful clothing designer like Blaze Columbia or Nicky Ree. This thing could put you out of business. Or imagine that you are a RL photographer and are selling your art in a gallery, and that anyone would be able to grab your photos without having to pay for them. What would be the point of having a gallery anymore.

Linden Lab has been made aware of this in several ways, amongst others on the JIRA, the SL bug reporting system for residents. The number of votes on this particular issue has sky-rocketed and will continue to do so, up to the moment where Linden Lab will take action.

LL has dealt with the original CopyBot in a quick and decisive manner. They haven't done so with this one. Knowing what I know about this issue, it is now not as simple as with the CopyBot. Just for the record, if you are wondering if this is actually a legal way to copy textures ... it's not. There is a very specific USA law that applies to these cases, and LL has claimed that it is in compliance with those laws. Well, it seems that they are not.

Now, I have solid proof that it works, that Linden Lab has been aware of this security breach from early 2006 and that they have not taken any action against it. And they probably will not, unless this issue causes widespread panic and anger amongst residents, as it did with the original CopyBot. And it seems that now the time has come for that panic.

The protest skin is available for free from SL Exchange, so please all wear it, and go to the JIRA article to vote for the topic. Not only is it the right thing to do morally, taking action now will also protect your content.

For the record, I have deleted any stolen content that I retrieved in this way. I will also not provide proof here, because it might lead to revealing this security breach. Just know that anyone with a few basic computer skills has access to this.

SL Newspaper will continue to follow this story. Please look forward to more news about this as the story develops.

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