#Dmca on imvu meaning how to

You can politely ask for folks to go above and beyond what IMVU has said but other creators are under no obligation to do so in regards to selling their child product on IMVU. IMVU’s TOS is what we all agreed to to do business here and it supersedes any personal wishes you may have for your product’s use if it has been made derivable. Unfortunately as long as ignorance and apathy are the norm, ZCD will be here to stay.ĭon’t want people chain deriving your products? Get over it, IMVU allows it.ĭon’t like it? Then don’t leave your product derivable, period. IMVU has made this so convoluted by not having easy links in the shop, but heck I think if folks knew if a few extra clicks could save them a few hundred credits ZCD creators would soon find it was simply not cost effective to continue doing business as is and might, *gasp*, actually have to create something new!

#Dmca on imvu meaning how to

EDUCATION! We all need to do our part in helping to educate the consumer and new creator about how deriving chains work and how to find the original, and oftentimes MUCH CHEAPER version of the product they are looking at. Yep, even I do this too, some products like poses are ZCD magnates, all one can do is shrug. It’s like having an army of overpriced cookie cutter mall shops selling your wears for you.

Some expressly make products to be zero change derived to let other folks market their products for them. Option B, don’t try and beat them, join them. This has the added benefit of allowing you to use very small placeholder textures and keep the KB way down on your derivable meshes, a win win in my book! You will still get mesher posers zero change deriving from you but it’s a lot less than you would if your item was textured. If you want to avoid zero change derives you can do what many meshers including myself have done, create derivables with ugly placeholder images that no one in their right mind would want to derive as-is. It might be ‘cheating’ ‘lazy’ ‘unethical’ 'uncreative' or any other derogatory adjective you would like to put on it but it is not theft. Deriving a product and not adding or altering a thing is also NOT theft. Derivability grants use of any and/or all of the assets used in a parent product. Granting deriving permission grants the deriver EXACTLY THIS PERMISSION. Now before all you ZCD (zero change derive) haters get excited about that opening definition let me state this as simply and clearly as I can. without the express permission of the person or organization that owns the rights to said assets. Theft is the use or sale of a product or part of a product, images, sounds, animations, etc.

Parent Product: A product that is derivable and has been derived from.Ĭhild Product: A Product that has be derived from another.ĭMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act): The United States law that protects the copyrights of all digital property.įirst and foremost, what is theft in the world of IMVU. ZCD (Zero Change Derive): A child product that is an exact copy of the parent with no changes made. Words that we need to clearly define before we begin.ĭeriving Chain: The family tree of a product. If that kind of in your face talk offends, best stop reading now. Warning: I’m going to be using plain (non sugar coated) language here.

Per request I am penning this guide to help clear up the haze that is continually perpetuated around this topic. But let’s be clear, what theft is and what many choose to call ‘theft’ are not always one and the same.Ĭrying wolf when no actual theft has occurred does nothing but to desensitize the community to the very real theft that is going on daily in the IMVU catalog. Theft on IMVU is indeed rampant, making many an honest dev who works hard to create their own assets question why they even bother. Such allegations are often made with little to no understanding of what the rules of IMVU, Copyright, and Trademark infringement are. Often times the words ‘Theft’ and ‘Thief’ are tossed around willy-nilly.

Theft has become the ever increasing buzzword on IMVU, whether it’s the Forums, Facebook or IMVU groups. Let’s Talk Frankly About Theft, Derivability and File Sales