I’ve got an important question to ask you. I don’t want to rush you in answering, either:
Do you think this body is a rip?
It’s nice, right? It looks so good on me. I honestly don’t want to take it off. I looked all over for a mesh body suitable enough for my male avatar that wouldn’t be overly buff or cost five thousand lindens just to be able to use a simple (and necessary) alpha HUD. I just wanted something I could wear, look good, and if I go walking around in nothing but some skimpy shorts, I wouldn’t look like a joke. So, I bought this body from Jomo on Marketplace.
I tried to do what New World Notes recommended in looking over the creator’s store to judge their character. I’m not the most versed in video games and their properties, but I did look for obvious copyright infringements where I could. I thought I was safe, so I bought the mesh body. But then, I saw this thread on the Second Life Universe forums… no one can seem to come to a conclusion about Jomo or their mesh avatars, although there’s some possible resemblance to some pants the store has created. Some items look like either altered rips from the online game Tera, or are VERY close inspirations of it.
Speaking of, that’s the problem with “inspired” items. Some designers in SL believe items that are created with heavy influence isn’t crossing a line and can’t hurt your reputation. But sometimes, there’s an ugly backlash and the truth can’t easily be sorted out. Customers might want to do the right thing and buy only honestly-created items, especially when they’re shelling out a pretty penny for it. But what’s the end result when the item is DMCA’d and they’re left with nothing? They can’t exactly get a refund after that.
In the end, I have no conclusion I’ve reached about this body. I’m sorry I didn’t look into it more, but then again–how much research can I do on a mesh body to ensure it’s safe to buy and wear?
Men, I’d love to hear your recommendations on affordable, legitimate mesh bodies available for consumption. I’d also like to hear everyone’s opinion about my situation. I thought this was okay when I bought it, but now I have no idea of the body’s origins since I saw the thread on Second Life Universe. What should I do? Trash the body? Ask for a refund? Something else?
Let me know!
What I’m Wearing:
Hair: Exile – Tidal (Moonlight)
Notice: if you create products geared towards men and want me to review it, please send an NC/pack/etc to Aemeth Resident. I can’t make a promise that I’ll review everything, but I understand the struggle of finding men’s products out there so it’s worth helping out!
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the skin is nice, but suspicious…i read all the information you provided, and seems juno is walking a tihn line. He is ripping pieces from designs and using them to make one thing, Is that copybotting? i would not buy this. the skin is nice, but it is not his design, it is made up of others work, that he put together to make his.
since seeing your blog i will not spend money with juno.
I think that you did your due diligence prior to purchasing the product. I understand your dismay in learning after the fact that the product may have been created from stolen content. But you don’t have any factual evidence that this is true. I don’t think you have to trash your purchase or ask for a refund. If it turns out that you did accidentally buy something that contains stolen content, LL will remove it from your inventory for you. Until or unless that occurs, I think you have done all you need to.
You do have to decide though if you want to promote JOMO in your blog by listing them in your credits when you use your male alt. I can tell that you don’t endorse content theft and I don’t imagine you will want to associate yourself or your blog with them now that their rep is in question.
Hi! Yeah it was hard to decide whether I wanted to blog this or not, but I decided it was worth it to talk about this, as well as maybe get the word out even more that no one should trust them.
I wouldn’t go that far, I read as many comments in that thread that defended JOMO’s work as those that repeated the accusations. And I saw no definitive proof one way or the other.
When I don’t feel that a brand is entirely trustworthy, for whatever reasons, I just stop buying or mentioning their brand going forward. I don’t think you should ask for a refund, nor would you even get one, cos most sales in sl are “FINAL”.
You need to look at ReiTuki’s work on ripped video game content in SL: https://www.flickr.com/photos/reituki/13908358089/in/dateposted/ http://reinoel.tumblr.com/post/94220945918/i-started-to-make-post-in-flickr-about-ripped
My suggestion is to wait for Slink Physique Male. It is coming soon!!! http://www.plurk.com/p/l5hyvk
Sorry that this happened to you. I know right now there is only the TheMeshProject body out there, but it will not stay that way for much longer. Kauna also released a male mesh body about the same time, but he took it back into development. Slink Male’s release is imminent, it’s in beta test right now. Niramyth has awesome muscle body out right now, and a normal sized male is coming soon. I have also heard Bellezza is work on a male. And few other stores are planning to move forward on a male body. There is also a project to create an Open Source mesh body. But for now, watch for Slink. That release will most likely be soon.
I am always looking forward to hear more the opinions on the “inspired” matter in SL. Your post makes me quite glad as a lot of people believe it is taboo or plainly say “it is wrong in whatever way you say it”.
Jomo has been in SL for quite some time although they never have been credited with much publicity (they might now!) but I found their skins a but off but their clothing and jewelry were very inspiring. INSPIRING. Now A LOT… and I mean A LOT of content in SL resembles RL products. However this phenomenon is not recent and I don’t see much action taken by LL, given some people had heavy complaints about some specific stores selling Skyrim clothing in SL (most of the clothing made by fans for the GAME not for sale!) I really wonder what are the realistic boundaries.
I think if I were to start cleaning SL from lack of originality I would say a good 70% stuff would be gone, maybe that is a concern of LL that prevents them from really taking action. Less stores… less people buying.
My recommendation is to stay far away from JOMO; they’ve ripped enough clothing items from videogames that anything they create is by default untrustworthy, and today someone shared a pic showing they ripped a LAQ skin, trying to find that again. It doesn’t matter anymore to me if this body specifically is ripped or not, the guy is ripper scum regardless if he made one original item or not.
Old picture actually, it’s just that I only saw it today ….
http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/members/marianne+little-albums-marianne's+pictures-picture6205-laq-vs-jomo.jpg
Jomo’s body is the best LOOKING male body out there.