Not-For-Real Vryl at It Again

Vryl Valkyrie is such a *loon* on top of being a nasty, threatening, drama-laden Second Life diva.

She IM'd me to ask if she could hire me as a consultant. Huh? I said, um, no thanks.

Chat log from this public figure attempting to bully and silence legitimate press coverage of her antics:

[2009/07/08 8:54]  Vryl Valkyrie: (Saved Wed Jul 08 06:43:41 2009) I would like to contract you for consulting.  Is this possible or not?  Thank you.
[2009/07/08 9:16]  Prokofy Neva: Not interested. Go away.
[2009/07/08 9:16]  Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
-- Instant message logging enabled --
[11:14]  Vryl Valkyrie: I'll tell you why I want to contract you, to get the facts straight with you because personally I am sick of your lies.
[11:15]  Vryl Valkyrie: I am tired of your libel.
[11:15]  Vryl Valkyrie: Yes it is libel.
[11:16]  Vryl Valkyrie: You have nothing better to do in life other than to spew hate.
[11:17]  Vryl Valkyrie: I guess due to your need for attention, not sure.
[11:17]  Vryl Valkyrie: By the way, nothing that I am saying is abuse.
[11:17]  Prokofy Neva: That's ridiculous. You don't "hire people" to try to "shut up the press". I'm not for sale. I do not engage in libel. Get a life.
[11:17]  Vryl Valkyrie: As you have publicly blogged lies on me.
[11:17]  Vryl Valkyrie: One example of a lie.
[11:18]  Vryl Valkyrie: You blogged that you could not use screenshot of builds with Marlin textuers.
[11:18]  Vryl Valkyrie: No where in the license does it say that.
[11:18]  Prokofy Neva: Vryl, you are going on mute. If you feel you have a "libel case" lol than call your lawyer. Or use your own blog to portray your version of reality. Bye!
[11:18]  Vryl Valkyrie: That's jussone small example.
[11:18]  Vryl Valkyrie: I do plan to have my lawyer contact you actually if the libel continues.
[11:18]  Vryl Valkyrie is typing...

Perhaps Surarin Piek, that person in the comments on the FIC letter harassing me is one of Vryl's alts or merely a fangirl or opportunistic griefer -- no way to know. She claims that somehow using Vryl's "Vent" texture in a product and copying and reselling it is "unlawful". Perhaps the person that incongruously and um fortuitously just bought my tacky "art work" inworld for $10 is one of her alts too trying to make the case.

And yet, the whole reason I used this texture and resell it for $1 as a "vent" or $10 as "an artwork" is because it is free, copyable, and authorized for use in a license in the library -- duh.

As for the issue of the screenshots, I have no idea what Vryl is venting about here, but it's been the case traditionally in SL that people have tried to suppress press coverage and screenshots by invoking "content copyright" and using a DMCA takedown notice in lieu of a libel suit (Anshe Chung tried this when screenshots of the infamous plying phallus press converence where she was attacked were used by publications like the Sydney Morning Herald and others -- she tried the gambit of saying it was a picture of a scene her company had designed and bult. BTW, Australia is getting a bit of karma on this sort of thing now with some government attempts to restrain the Internet.)

I am probably the only person in all of Second Life that has used these textures in anything. I'll bet there aren't any people even using it in a build. How could they, when they aren't to scale for this virtual world, when they are too photorealistic, or they are of things that people don't really need, like...vents lol?

It also occurred to me that a dysfunctional loon like Vryl might try to set up these licenses in some fashion to try to trip up or harass people later with them -- but I fear not.

You cannot silence the free press in this fashion.

Vryl is banned from this blog because she continued to accuse me falsely of libel. I simply don't see that she has any case whatsoever. I plead the truth defense and I plead the lack of malice aforethought defense. I am publishing my reporting of her activities in a virtual world; it is either my linking to other stories (the Herald) or my own opinion; or other's discussion of this public virtual figure. Please call me when the First Amendment doesn't apply to my blog opinion and reporting, or to a public figure who has not even given a real name lol, and who has not suffered any business loss. Even if Vryl venue- shops and tries to harass me via some foreign court, she will be wasting her time. People who pursue frivolous, vindictive harassment suits of that nature often find they themselves wind up as the losers in a real-life court.

I'm putting Vryl on mute because I don't feel I need to be harassed in world by people screeching accusations of crime at me.

I'm wondering if the partner that Vryl sports now is her, i.e. a male alt, or who that is, but that fellow has also tried bullying me by asking me "why I was on his land" -- which is publicly-open land in what is supposed to be the commercial sim of Zindra. I was there to report on the very sudden appearance of Vryl within a land-owning group very soon after the tickets went in for land claims in this sought-after adult continent. Since Vryl isn't associated with the adult business at all, and is a texture resaler of textures that appear to be all PG or M at best, it didn't make sense. Except, turns out her sim hubby sells sex animations. Who knew?!

It was then that I began to ask the question that every transgendered f2m controversial blogger and infamous inworld antagonist must ask himself: could Vryl be a mangina? I don't *think* so for all kinds of reasons, but I've found it to be a handy rule of thumb that whenever someone exerts extra special attention to harassing me, they often have "issues".

During the time I've had the "vents" for sale and my "art work," I think I've sold...two copies of the vents and one or two copies of the art work. Likely to her alts lol.

I went to look at the Library Textures folder to see what the license says and was surprised to see...all the textures are simply gone.

While my inventory stock varies by the thousands from log on to log on, Linden library items are never missing.

What's up?

In a blog post to the Blob, Michael Linden said that these textures were free, courtesy of the LPDW. Textures in the Linden Library are put on copyable/transfer. As a matter of policy, pretty much everything the Lindens put in the Library is on all permissions -- copyable/modifiable/transfer. That means they can -- and are encouraged to be -- used in creating things and reselling them. To be sure, lately a few of the Moles' products are put on copy but not transfer. That's annoying, because you can't de-prim their too-fat Nautilus homes and then give them or sell them. And yes, you should be able to modify and resell library stuff. That has always been the case, and the Lindens have never, ever in their history of six years of maintaining the Library ever, ever sought to ask anyone to cease or desist their use of a Library texture or object, or to stop its resale "as is" or in modified form as as a part of other products (imagine if Ryan Linden suddenly came calling for his door and door script).

Here's a copy of her license:

The textures in this folder are provided under license from Marlin Studios. You may use the textures solely in connection with Second Life. You may include them in objects, builds, and other graphical content you create, sell, and give away in Second Life. However, you may not sell or charge for the textures as image files, either alone or as part of a library of files. You may not use them with any content for environments outside of Second Life.

If you enjoy these textures, visit 3D Concepts

[Landmark]
 
by SL Resident Vryl Valkyrie, the exclusive inworld reseller of Marlin Studios textures. For more information about Marlin Studios, go to http://www.marlinstudios.com/.

In my blog about all this, here's what I said:

You can only use them in objects you create (as I did with the vent and My Tiny Life, Ventilated).

I had to re-read this post several times to get the story, but it seems that Michael Linden is expanding the Library (good) with more free copyable textures (good, given that they want their themed builds to stay in theme, and good for newbies) and now some NOT resellable textures -- under certain terms -- that come under license from Marlin studios from Vryl Valkerie, the exclusive licensor of those Marlin textures in SL. Marlin makes things for 3-D worlds. (Say, what a racket. Somebody should go lock up the "exclusive inworld redistributor license" of Marlin for Metaplace before V2 gets it.)

True. You cannot resell her textures as textures, as bundles of textures, in a texture store or web store.

I continue:

Oh, I'm a BIG believer in copyright. Look below to see how I'm waging the struggle against the mass copyleftist liberation camp on the JIRA. But I'm NOT a big believer in windfalls. I I'm also a believer in public domain/copyable items in its place. And I think this move helps in fact to blur the distinction between the massively freebie stuff in the Library that originates from the Lindens Free Culture shtick back in 2003, and copyrighted stuff that they are now HUGELY SELECTIVE about. Here, in a world where the Lindens take weeks and weeks to answer -- if at all! -- a DMCA takedown notice on a texture theft, and by God, when they WANT to, they can fete licensed uncopyable textures -- and put them in the library for everyone to see in order to give that resident advertising, and even allow them, under the terms of the license, to be used in resold objects, but caution that they *are* licensed and cannot be resold as texture packs or used outside of SL. That means you can't illustrate an SL blog with them or put them in Metaplace, etc.

Again:

"but  caution that they *are* licensed and cannot be resold as texture packs or used outside of SL. That means you can't illustrate an SL blog with them or put them in Metaplace, etc."

You cannot take the texture as is and use it as a blog illustration or use it in another world like Metaplace.

Indeed it DOES mean that you can't illustrate an SL blog with them -- because that is PRECISELY the sort of overreaching, vindictive nit-picking that some diva might very well take into her head to use to try to harass someone with. Like she's doing *now*.

SL blogs are generally non-profit operations, but some of them sell ads or content or rentals (like this one).

How can I be sure, if I published a full-tilt copy of a texture, without any background as a scene inworld, and called it "Ventilating?" that I won't face a DMCA takedown from this litigious, vindictive creature?

I can't.

In her inworld conversation, Vryl makes references as follows to her licenses:

"You blogged that you could not use screenshot of builds with Marlin textuers.
[11:18]  Vryl Valkyrie: No where in the license does it say that."

Um, Your Honour, my blog reference is to using the textures as illustrations as is, not to screenshots of builds using these textures -- a possibly minor but important distinction. But...who is to know? When a license says you cannot use a texture outside of Second Life, you cannot know *how much* of that texture that means. The entire texture without any background, just that texture? A poor copy of that texture, not very visible even, inside a screenshot? A good copy but inside an object of something you make but use a screenshot of?

Your Honour, I can't wait for you to pronounce on this, because when you do, it will be a landmark, ground-breaking -- er, simulated-server-breaking -- decision that could affect the future of copyright for hundreds of years -- so...think about it carefully.

LOL.

If I'm not authorized to resell or distribute a texture outside of Second Life, that means...I'm not authorized to resell or distribute a texture outside of SL.

So I just LOOOOOVE this harassment and gotcha technique. Here's Vryl's recipe:

Put a license in the library. Then wait to see if anybody trips up on understanding it and interpreting it.

Watch a blogger who is critical of you like a hawk to see if they say anything that "misinterprets" or is "incorrect" about this license or that even reasonable minds could disagree about -- and then pounce and declare it "libel".

I stand by my blog. And I will not be changing a thing in my blog then or now.

It's my opinion, it's my report, and it's my interpretation of the facts. It's a very knowledgeable opinion and report given the hugely litigious nature of SL divas and their tendency to claim copyright theft even where it doesn't exist, or misuse DMCA takedown to control critical reporting and commentary, or invoke "libel" speciously to harass and bully bloggers who are critical of their public actions (as Vryl is doing now).

I'm told if this "libel" continues her "lawyers will contact me". If they do, I'll be inquiring wth state bars about their law licenses, among other response : )

In order to qualify as "libel," something has to be a) not true b) deliberately told as a lie and maliciously, i.e. knowingly said to be untrue and c) harm the material interests of the plaintiff

None of those situations pertain here to this avatar who sells boatloads of textures and who has an advertising windfall in the Linden Library -- but who likely only one person (me) who has used this texture to resell for...$1 or $10 as an art work ROFL.

Normal people don't contact artists like myself, originator of the lovely happening conceptual art piece called My Tiny Life, Ventilated see and buy here in my store!) and threaten them with "libel" because...um...they've tried to parse their overreaching copyright license inside the context of the Linden Library and decided that what this license must mean is that people cannot publish screenshots made out of those textures -- textures as is, textures as part of builds, whatever.

If they were normal, RL-tethered, corporate good citizens with some grasp of real life, and not merely virtual vindictive anti-life, they'd say "Oh, you can use screenshots of anything you make out of my textures. What that licensing legalese means is XYZ." I can't imagine what the XYZ would then *be* because if something says "you can't use these textures outside of Second Life" then...that pretty much by the very nature of screenshots *has* to mean them, too. Or *could* mean them. And people drawing up licenses shouldn't be hobbling and overreaching in that fashion if they want customers to proceed in good faith with their stuff.

It's certainly a reasonable, logical and normal assumption.

So, sorry, I won't be bullied either on false claims of copyright infraction (which is false, given the nature of the notecarded license in the library which anyone can see) nor can I be bullied into reacting to false claims of "libel" for publishing my report and opinion.

Surarin Piek made the false claim, "We notice copied textures on donuts and vents also" -- there is no infringement involved in copying Linden Library sand textures or Linden Library Marlin textures of vents that have a license allowing copy and resale.

BTW Surarin Piek is guilty of impersonation by falsely using the name "Peter Ludlow" to post here.

It's annoying and tiresome to be spending even 15 minutes putting out the latest Vryl fire, but it's for the community good. She uses these threatening techniques against other reporters and bloggers and inworld critics and it cannot stand.

Comments

[Crap Mariner]

This is the same Vryl that has me, you, and Jane banned at her Zindra store, right?

Good. Maybe its next move will be to get their own OSGrid simulation and poof completely.

Blech.

-ls/cm

[Prokofy Neva]

yes, that store, with the anims, I guess.

I have no idea why you or Jane are banned. Maybe they just figure anyone blogging or commenting who comes to their store will be making some sort of criticism.

[Tammy Nowotny]

Her store was one of the first places to go up on Zindra even though it had nothing for sale and was not even open to public access. It was also an exact replica of the old American Apparel store as well and it was sited with 3 blank walls facing a body of water. (I am not accusing anyone of copyright infringement: Vyrl may have gotten the rights to the AA store; she may have even built and/or owned it for all I know; and in any case the design was quite generic.)

I have no idea what the heck she is up to.

I also no idea that the Lindens were putting anything other than full-perm items in the Library (except perhaps by mistake.)

[Cube Republic]

Couple of points:

Zindra land is not rare or sought after, there’s tonnes of it, anyone who really got sucked into ‘da rarest of rare zindra land’, got well, sucked in. There will be loads of sims at auction soon I should think. Are we going to see ‘Procky lovey love land rentals’?

Secondly:

Linden textures are not fully permissive; I couldn’t for example, download the terrain textures to my machine and use them in a 3D package (using the normal ‘save texture as’ function available on any other full perm texture even V’s), bake them onto a rock or tree and then upload the aforementioned altered textures to SL to use with my sculpty builds.

[Prokofy Neva]

Cube,

You are really splitting hairs and fisking here.

You can take the Linden terrain textures and slap them on a prim without any of that jazz you are describing. Any texture or photo in SL that you have permissions to -- and you have them on the library -- can be saved outside of SL.

I don't know what you're talking about. And even if it happens to be true that you can't use "save as" to save a Linden texture into a photoshop program, so what? You can use it in world freely.

There is no license attached to it, and no TOS remonstrance saying you cannot use it outside of SL.

There isn't going to be "tons" of Zindra land because it will be rather expensive and only land flippers will buy it at first.

As I've said 100 times already, I put in for a 4096 m2 to move an adult hotel there. I'm not intersted in moving my rentals there. They say it is only for commercial adult activity -- PUBLCI adult activity.

[Tammy Nowotny]

I can't get on the newest sims, but I think everyone is excluded from the "LPDW Estate" which the sims currently still belong to: I don't think I have been banned :-)

One funny thing is all the Zindra sims (original and newest) seem to be officially rated "Mature" and not "Adult."

[Prokofy Neva]

I just tested it.

You can save your own phot "save as" targa file.

You cannot save the Linden terrain textures or any Linden textures, the "save as" is grayed out.

Good!

That's the sort of thing I like to see in a world.

[Cube Republic]

Sure Prokofy I feel for your loss of 4096, but look how many sims there are on the land mass known as Zindra (new ones tonight). If land flippers get them, don’t buy them, simple as, the market is supply and demand. The fact that people take this all so serious is why I don’t. I’ve quit all financial connections with SL. You are both as bad as one another and incidentally probably as bored as I am right now! I think you should un-ban Vryl from your blog so 125 comments can ensue and I can have some lolz through my present sickness. You are both evidently as bad as one another for drama, is this some clandestine love affair going down lol?

[Darien Caldwell]

Actually, you can save Linden terrain textures, etc, you just have to copy them out of the library into your own inventory first.

[Desmond Shang]

Prok, there might be a tekki wikki issue regarding library textures.

One *can* (or at least could, in the past) copy Library stuff to your own inventory freely and easily, then save it to hard drive with ease.

This might have been recently messed up if the library stuff is no longer full mod due to the groups issue bug 'fix'... but I don't know. Traditionally though, all lib stuff was full mod, full save... one just had to copy it to your own inventory 'area' first from your personal library 'area'.

Erudite policy convolution or techie glitch? I have no idea.