To Export or not to Export

[Amiryu Hosoi]

Hey all,

I am a little bit confused here. I know the market has build in Export control. I have set my products to Copy, Mod, Export and No Transfer. When a user buys my product he or she can Copy, Modify and include the product in an OAR file for Export.

Please tell me if I am right when I tell myself the following; Anyone can buy the product, Copy, Modify and Export the product to any other OS grid but the person will not be able to transfer the item to anyone else. So, the customer will be able to Export and Import in other OS worlds only when using the same avatar name.

In case the customer can Export and Import the product using any other avatar name I don't see the benefits and in fact I am giving away my products for almost free. Because after Export anyone can make a copy of my product and give it away for free...

Please give us some feedback on this.

Kind regards,

Ami

[Constance Peregrine]

I am not one to really get into this too much, and others are more invested in it...however, it has been transparently stated in these forums several times already....sooo

You should carefully consider allowing export of anything you feel of a certain value. Once exported the person can do anything they wish with it.

However, there IS a market potential in this, imo, that should also be strongly considered.

My few items, of insignificant importance to me, are all for export and I am fully aware of the implications.

This is only a very short and sweet answer to a much larger issue that I am sure others will have more to say on.

[Dot Matrix]

I hope that you, and other merchants, will continue to offer Export for your Market items.

Having experienced the loss of well-regarded built-up regions in SL, the ability to fully back up builds in Kitely is very important to me -- a view I suspect you may have some sympathy with.

==========
Edit: I was about to buy the Main tower of the castle. It was in my shopping cart. However, a note arrived that a new version had been uploaded. I checked... it was no longer export enabled. Because of that, I decided not to buy it because it would mean that a key element in a planned build would not be able to be backed up in an OAR.

I am saddened that this action was taken.

[Ilan Tochner]

Hi Amiryu,

If you sold items with no-transfer then you haven't given people a license to give anyone else a copy of those items. They can use them with their own avatar on other grids but they're not allowed to give other people those items. If the item was sold with no-copy then you gave the person a license to use one copy of the item on one grid (Kitely or another but not both). In other words, the license you give people works like how you would expect it to behave if the item was no export.

Here, however, is where what can be technically done with your sold items and what can be legally done with them split ways.

Items with Export perms can be taken out of Kitely via Hypergrid and via OAR (OpenSim archive) files. Once items leave Kitely, people can import them into grids where they have admin/god privileges, meaning that they can technically (but not legally) make copies of them and hand them out to other people. This isn't different from people buying something in Second Life and using a copybot to create and hand out copies to other people.

The main question you need to answer is where will people get copies of your items for use outside of Kitely: from copyboters who give away / sell illegal copies or from Kitely Market where people can buy copies that they are legally allowed to use. People who don't care about copyrights aren't likely to buy from you in either case. But by giving people the option of buying items with Export you can get money from users of other grids who will not buy from you otherwise.

[Zuza Ritt]

Export permission means anybody can export it, import on any other grid with any avatar name, change all the permissions, so No Transfer for these objects is useless. Any person can make himself or herself of "author" of this object and give it free or sell to other persons in any grid.

That is how I can understand the Export permission, it is based on this post:
http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2013/0 ... ermission/
so I guess it is same for Kitely Market products too.

EDIT: I did not see Ilan's post before posting mine, sorry for redundancy.

[Dot Matrix]

So... all potential customers will be viewed as potential criminals. That is what this boils down to.

No one can trust anyone anymore? Not even in the little village market of Kitely, where sales have a transaction trail?

That saddens me.

[Isis Ophelia]

Hi Dot,

My point is that potential customers are the ones who are not the criminals, the people who steal content aren't likely to buy it in the first place. That said, merchants need to be aware of what can and can't be technically (but not legally) done with the items they sell with Export permission.

[Dot Matrix]

I know, Ilan. We're saying the same, albeit from different viewpoints.

I'm a potential customer and the merchants are tarring me with the same brush as a copybotter, by not trusting me to use the Export feature. I'm not happy about it.

I am stating this strongly, because this has the potential to kill the benefits of Kitely Market for people like myself, who are willing to buy good stuff for good money, but do want to be sure that their region builds here in Kitely remain intact and that they are able to back them up completely via OARs. For that to work, items bought need to have Export enabled.

[Constance Peregrine]

Well, my viewpoint, for whatever that is worth...lol [this with a wooden nickel will buy you nothing]

Is that most people are in fact honest and would stick with the spirit of the offering. I know I do this in opensim myself even with god powers. I never set out items on my regions with full perms forced if I know the item is not intended to be so. Some of the content I have set out has limited perms due to this.

And frankly, it is not necessary, to my thinking, to steal, there is tons of content.

OTOH, some folx put their content into some of the closed commercial grids and somehow think it is all safe and secure and they have no clue what that grid owner and any designates who are given various levels of god-powers are doing with it. [ex. SL]

The beauty of the Kitely concept is what Ilan keeps saying [I paraphrase, of course], if selling your content is something you wish to do, then by all means sell to the widest market you can.

I know I would, in fact, I do-)) [see my sig]

[Amiryu Hosoi]

Hi all, good replies, I am puzzled a bit, should I go the export road or not. Export permissions can spread my brand and new customers will be reached and lured in;-), while at the same time it feels like giving it all away fro free. I have been content provider for a while and used to pay a 6 sim tier from my sales each month. Content providing is a lot of work, like for instance updating all my items on SL and moving them all into Kitely will take countless hours. I feel those hours should, next to the fun part also pay off a bit.

Like Ilan said, the people that want to steal will steal anyways, but, when my items spread accross the hypergrid the chance of people stealing my items will grow exponentially. Thats where I start thinking, should I or shouldn't I. As far as I am concerned, I am not sure what to choose.

Maybe it would help if we could make it so that all avatars have the very same name for every virtual world in the hypergrid, call it your global identity. Then check permissions on export and import with that identity. That would make me feel a bit more safe, except from the people that steal anyway via damin/god privileges. For instance I am called Amiryu Hosoi in Kitely, in SL, in Avination, in Blue Mars, Cloud Party, etc. Also, virtual identities should be copyrighted. Emagine having a well known brand and name and someone registeres with "your name" on some other grid...But thats another issue;-)

Regards,

Ami