Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Introducing the NEW Gran Villa di Galli

The NEW upgraded Gran Villa di Galli includes a wider floorplan and richer textures.




Friday, September 2, 2011

NEW LA GALLERIA LIVING ROOM SETS


Now you can relax in comfort and style with one of our 18 classic, versatile living room sets. Now available on SL Marketplace.




























Sunday, August 14, 2011

Rod, creators want you on our side!

If you would like to see Rod Humble, CEO of LL, speak at the SL Convention:

         

Video streaming by Ustream

I like Rod. He is a charming man and seems to get what makes SL the amazing shared creativity tool/platform that it is.  Yay!

And he seems to understand that piracy is a big problem that eats up a huge amount of time and effort and causes enormous amounts of anguish. Well, at least I like to think he does. He says in his speech that the lab has plans for more aggressively dealing with griefers and IP infringers at some point in the future, though doesn't say how. That's good to hear, because dealings with them up to now have been pathetically anemic and deeply discouraging to hard working creators. Some have grown so disgusted with LL's failure to take the steps available to them that they have thrown in the towel and closed up shop.

I have written several blog posts about the 20 page DMCA I spent four days preparing, only to have the IP team essentially sneer at me. I did not post the final post because I was warned by a reliable merchant that a well-known large merchant had had her account disabled temporarily for angering the IP team.  I don't know to what degree this is true, but since the IP team attempted to "teach me a lesson" and refuse to do a takedown (but then reversed themselves when another Linden requested that they respond to my emails), I would not be at all surprised at retaliation. That's the position of power that the IP team holds over merchants -- they are simply accountable to no one, and seem to enjoy making that clear to merchants.

In any case, the person (and her alt) who copied most of my store continues to list things for sale using my sculpt maps and textures, the same ones that have been removed repeatedly. This is because the IP team will take these things down when inworld or on the marketplace, all right, BUT they will not remove them from inventory.  I have supplied UUID numbers for all of the content I have identified.  I have taken pictures of her use of these, as well as my originals. But the IP team simply can't seem to find them in her inventory. And they simply cannot seem to respond to my polite request for information about how exactly they would like me to go about identifying them so that they will take them down.

One thing the IP team has made abundantly clear is that it is LL policy not to disable the accounts of proven IP infringers -- unless, LL says, the thieves "repeatedly" infringe.  I don't know how many times that is, but apparently quite a lot.

At present there is NO consequence for theft.  The person who ripped one of my kitchens and put it up for sale full perm never had his account disabled. I still have the ripped kitchen sitting rezzed in my workshop as irrefutable proof of his piracy, should the governance team ever decide to respond to my ARs.   The person who ripped half my store has her things taken down, and simply uses the same stolen content to create new items. Why should she not?  There are no consequences, none whatsoever.

And I hear the same stories from other creators/merchants over and over.

No, at present, it is only the merchants who suffer any consequences. So until that changes, Rod, I am glad you are talking the talk -- but until we see some serious walking the walk, you can expect merchants to remain skeptical that things will change. If you ask me whose side LL has been on up to now, I would have to say: the thieves. Please -- give merchant/creators a reason to think you are on ours now.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Featured designer Grant Latour

Grant Latour resides in this beautifully furnished Malibu Beach House. (All pictures are very large -- click to open, then click again to enlarge further.)



"I was prim conscious when i rented this place 3 months ago."
The Malibu Beach House has a base of only 150 prims, which allowed him freedom to decorate as he wanted.






The nautical themed décor is perfect for this seaside location. "This is mainland in the proximity of the Blake Sea. SL aviation and sailing prime real estate. Behind me next sim over is Honah lee Airport."





Grant loves the view of the sunset from the panoramic windows. "I set to sunset if at all possible. It really shows off the wall to wall view you gave us."







“My friends and I all love the media room”, says Grant of the spacious room that even includes a bar.


Sunday, July 17, 2011

New Devonshire Cottage




I have had this pretty little English cottage in mind for a long time. It's probably my favorite style -- but only recently did I get a clear enough idea of what I wanted it to look like that I could go ahead and make it.


The Devonshire Cottage is 191 prims without the pool area in back, has a soaring two story ceiling, an optional loft, upstairs master suite, downstairs bedroom/study/game room, dining and kitchen area, and many extra accessories (though no furniture is included).  It fits nicely on a 4096.













Friday, July 8, 2011

Featured Designer and Modifier: Michael Curry

Michael Curry gives us a tour of his beautifully modified and decorated La Villita as well as some hints on how he's created some elegant changes, partly by stealing bits from a previous home, the Briargate Cottage. Michael and his family members are now in the process of decorating the Gran Villa di Galli, giving it the detailed tweaking you will see in the pics below.



 "The different doors are from the Briargate Cottage.  Basically, I used 2 copies of the sculptie and sandwiched the glass (scripted root prim) in between.  The outer one was tinted to match the shutters, the inner was tinted slightly away from the pure white that it was on Briargate.  The trim around the doors is a couple of copies of a window prim, hollowed and cut."



"The living room area was left intact except for the doorway you can see on the left the door that goes out back. "



"The dining area is pretty much intact as well, except for the alteration of the doorway into the bedroom.  It was changed using a window prim and also the height was set to match the front door since they are so close together.  The door is a standard Briargate door, nothing tricky on that one.  An extra prim was added above the doorway, because the proportions didn't cooperate with using a hollowed prim."



"A bit of a closer shot on the front and bedroom doorways."



  "In the bedroom area if you look at the mirrors you will see that a reflection of the room has been used as the mirror surface texture.  For some reason it doesn't update when you walk in front of it though.  Maybe I should file a bug report with LL on that one?  ;-)



 "The fireplace area in the bedroom took on a significantly different look with a very simple mod.  I copied a wall prim and stuck it in the corner at a 45* angle and put the fireplace up to that."



 A pretty much straight on shot of the bathroom doorway. 



"The bathroom mirrors are modded to simulate a reflection as in the bedroom."





The doors from the bathroom out to back deck. 



Michael, thanks for taking us on a tour through your lovely home!





Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Featured Designer and Modder: Felina Fermi

Felina Feri's recreation of the Monterey House is a wonderful mix of old world style and ultra modern convenience with a splash of pure creativity.  Felina has retextured some walls and floors and made other modifications such as the bathroom doors to give the home a very dramatic look and feel.