It’s really depressing when you have your skins ripped. What’s more depressing is when you know the person doing it. For going on a year now, Francois Ghost (aka Krez McAllister and several other alternate accounts) has had rumors cycling about him – mostly surrounding content theft. The first time I’d ever heard of it was when he was having a tiff with a Second Life hair maker, and passed her a ripped copy of her hair, gloating about it. The creator contacted me for help. Here’s what he originally said:
[2009/07/17 17:22]Â *** parent estate: 1, mainland
[2009/07/17 17:22] Francois Ghost: (name withheld) did you like your copybotted hair thats being passed around?
[2009/07/17 17:22]Â Francois Ghost:
[2009/07/17 17:22]Â Francois Ghost: im having fun
[2009/07/17 17:22]Â (name withheld): thanks for the lovely im that i am submitting to linden labs
[2009/07/17 17:22]Â (name withheld):
[2009/07/17 17:22]Â Francois Ghost: yeah the copybotted hair not by me
[2009/07/17 17:22]Â Francois Ghost: did i say i did
[2009/07/17 17:22]Â Francois Ghost: lol
[2009/07/17 17:23]Â Francois Ghost: you have the voice of a 14 yr old black chick
[2009/07/17 17:23]Â Francois Ghost: did you ylike the (sim name)?
[2009/07/17 17:23]Â Francois Ghost: are you gonna miss it?
[2009/07/17 17:23]Â Francois Ghost: :/
I spoke with Francois about it at the time, and he denied ever being involved with the actual ripping of the hair. I didn’t know much about him, and had no reason not to trust him. That being the first instance I had spoke with him about content theft – and lacking proper proof of anything – I tried to work it out between the two of them privately. I assumed that one or the other party may well have been making things up and chose not to pick either side. I did not go after Francois, nor did I chastise the hair creator for confronting Francois. Without proper chat logs or screen shots, my hands were tied.
More recently, however, things have been coming out of the woodwork about skin theft. Friends of Francois were telling me that they had received ripped skins from him in the past along with some nastier items.
What’s worse than stolen skins? Check out this screenshot of a notecard Francois provided to one of his friends… instructions on how to use a particular program in conjunction with the viewer to steal content:
Not long after receiving this screenshot, I found out that another friend of Francois’ had her skins ripped – rumored to have been ripped by Francois himself. I was provided with copies of these skins.
Chat log provided by one of the folks who received the skins seems to pin this directly on Francois, who provided a copy of a new Redgrave skin. Redgrave skins are sold no-transfer.
[2009/01/17 2:12]Â Francois Ghost: have the ugliest skin ever
[2009/01/17 2:12]Â Francois Ghost gave you R.G. Venus.
[2009/01/17 2:13]Â Francois Ghost: sup lindsay lohan
[2009/01/17 2:13]Â (name removed): who made this?
[2009/01/17 2:13]Â Francois Ghost: redgrave
[2009/01/17 2:13]Â (name removed): ew
[2009/01/17 2:13]Â Francois Ghost: =]
[2009/01/17 2:13]Â Francois Ghost: ill put ont he boy skin
[2009/01/17 2:13]Â Francois Ghost gave you RedGrave-Jan.
[2009/01/17 2:13]Â Francois Ghost: orange together
[2009/02/07 8:08]Â Francois Ghost is Online
[2009/02/07 8:08]Â Francois Ghost gave you Male Skins. (The “Male Skins” folder mentioned here contain all the Abyss skins shown above in the inventory screenshot.)
The *KM* skins shown in the inventory are, of course, from Karamia. The creator was obviously shocked when she found out she had been ripped, and probably by someone that was on her buddy list. A rather gigantic stab in the back, if you will. Another skin shown there, by Nylon Pinkney, is a custom skin that was never sold. In fact, it’s pretty amazing that whomever ripped the skin even KNEW it was a custom, and who it belonged to. The intimacy of the title of the skin indicates to me that whomever took it knew Noam, and also knew that it was a custom from possible previous conversations.
Francois, unfortunately, runs on several alternate accounts and has also been accused of being underage. Each person that I’ve spoke to, who claims to be friends with him, confirms that he is about seventeen years of age and has been in Second Life for three to four years and has several alternate accounts because he has been previously permabanned for being underage.
Content Theft stops at home, folks – if you know of someone passing around stolen content or who might be ripping content, it’s in your best interest to Abuse Report them immediately with any information you might have. Someone who steals is not your friend – they’re a virus affecting the art world.
Want to get involved in the movement against content theft? Join “Step Up!” Second Life, a group promoting both creators and consumers to take action against content theft, which is rapidly consuming Second Life. We will also discuss it tomorrow night on Fabulous Fashion.
Geeeze, admin, you just kicked a teenie boy who knows how to copybot and already is pressed into the corner openly into his nuts. I guess we will soon see another gridwide revenge copy/distribution act. And i start to wonder how deep his close and quite famous friends were in it too.
This whole article smells too personal for me, i don't like it.
I really think this kid should be banned. I'm shocked that linden labs continues to open their doors for him. He's been banned numerous times, hardware, perma-bann and AR'd. Why does he still exsist. He is one the top 3 people I know in SL that rips skins, terrorizes people and manipulates others into sending him money, feeling sorry for him and is a pathological liar. I really can't stand his nonesense anymore. I'm happy that it's all out in the open now. He can't lie anymore, he's not the victim, he is a true villian in the world of secondlife.
I just wonder how long the writer of said article knew this was going on. I'm sure something went down and this is payback of some kind…lol.,,tis very much how things work in SL.
Knowing and what's done with the info is two different things. Some things can be handled quietly (some creators like it that way)but if it continues then it comes to this. I send note cards to creators fairly often but I've never sent one to a blogger. As far as people keeping quiet. I've often wondered how far these things go down the rabbit whole. Sometimes it's who you least expect.
rabbit hole*
Linden Lab needs to deal with this problem like this: http://www.internetlibrary.com/statuteitem.cfm?Nu…
Nobody cares if Krez steals. Hes "allowed" to. Thats why he has been doing it for so long without any sort of punishment.
Maybe in a few days the comments left here will prove me wrong, but up til now it seems its just something he does that no one has ever been bothered by.
I believe the reason why this kid gets to get away with his actions is through his various manipulation tactic. When you first meet him he will tell you all sorts of miserable stories about himself, his mental problems, family issues and everything under the sun in attempt to gain your trust. He has fooled and conned many people in second life through this, he is always asking people for money, and if you notice the kind of girls he partners it is always someone who a. owns land, b. owns a business c. all of the above he is using all these people for his own benefit. I made the mistake of trusting him and what he did to me is too embarasing on my part to mention but he does it to everyone.
This has nothing to do with personal "vengeance" as he likes to call it. It has to do with the fact that he has ripped, copybotted, stolen peoples creations and it has gone too far. I heard he did stuff like that but for his own personal use. Now that we all know and it's out in the open; that he doesn’t just rip skins for his own use, he rips them and spreads them worldwide. I think that's totally wrong. Anyone who has been damaged by content theft has a right to stand up and speak about the issues, even if the thief is the person who has been the headline of drama this month. He's a horrible child and should be banned. I don’t want him in my grid? Does anyone else?
As for everyone else who things this is a "personal" attack on him. I really hope you get your head of out your ass and really see BOTH sides of the story. Tenshi wrote this article because it was brought to her attention. Many people have wrote to her stating that Krez/Fran was copybotting hair, skins etc, for a while now. Perhaps you all should wonder what he could do to you once you've finally had enough of his begging for clothes, money and sexual favours.
If this was a nobody that no one new, or that didn’t cry about his sexual lifestyle or lie about his mental issues; than all of you would feel differently. You would see a thief stealing goods from great creators. It’s sad that many of you have been blinded by his lies and manipulation. Or tainted by the facts from him.
so copy botting for your own personal use if you weren't going to spread it around is ok? O_o… mm'k
also i think its funny that people seem to be saying continually 'people knew he was doing it but only just felt like mentioning it', is a bit shit.. when people tar and feather some innocent people who have been caught up in copy bot theft stories without having the chance to defend themselves before having their name dragged through the mud. but because this guy seems to be a 'somebody' in the pathetic 'sl celeb' groups… he's allowed to do it. nice…
and the people mentioned in a post somewhere above this about the store owners etc he was linked/partnered with… whats that saying about them?, if they knew their 'hubby' was copy botting stuff… or were they the only ones oblivious to his actions.. everyone else seemed to know. so i think its funny for them to be with someone copybotting yet at the same time preaching about 'protect creators creations.'
jus' sayin'.
This has been going on forever with him..He gave a friend a full perm fantastically made car (8-10 months ago), in which she gave me a copy and I deleted it when I saw deducted it was stolen. Question is..why was it allowed to go on for so long and just now being brought out? It does sound like he was "allowed" to copybot and spread stolen items and now either he is being bought out as a sacrificial lamb or someone has an axe to grind with him…oh well…so is the SL drama scene. :-/
It's not a personal vendetta at all. The fact is that if people had known he was doing this for the entire time, they let it slide because friendship got in the way. Is this an excuse for not coming forward? No. If you were friends with someone, would you throw them under the proverbial bus? No, you wouldn't.
Now that everyone is coming out with their horror stories, and realizing they're not alone in how they feel about him, they're more apt to talk about everything that happened. Ripped skins, begging for lindens, and manipulation they've suffered. People like to know they're not alone in things like this.
Besides just ripping/sending out stolen content, he has acted like a complete jerk, and has been rude and disrespectful to anyone who doesn't immediately become friends with him, or give him things. People are sick of him because of everything he has done, and lied about.
He says people hate him because of his "real life, lifestyle"? No. People dislike him because all he does is lie about "who he is". Maybe he could be telling the truth about something, but will people believe him? No. Why? Because all anyone knows of him are lies he tells. Where does the lying stop, and truth begin?
He "got away" with it for so long because he was a ‘Second Life celebrity’? What does he do? Is he a content creator? No. Does he do anything productive, creative on SL? No. The only reason you think he is a ‘SL celeb’ is because he was friends with people who do creative, productive things. Its just a scapegoat you use because you have nothing else to say- "he's a ‘SL celeb’ , that’s why he can get away with it". Um, obviously he's not getting away with it and that's why this is happening now.
Anyway. As a former friend of the accused, I'm not sorry that all of this is happening to him. I've known him for a long time, and as I was his friend, I wanted to protect him, and believe him, and stand up for him. But now? Now I'm over it. This sucks, but it's something he all brought upon himself.
When it rains, it pours.
I'm an optimist and highly doubt his creative friends used him to take down the competition. But come on! Friendship is an excuse that many wouldn't be allowed to use, so why should his content creating friends use it? Stroker files rl lawsuits because he takes this stuff so serious, and in-world we all proclaim to feel just as strongly as Stroker. But even Tenshi's explanation was soft. (had no reason not to trust him, no proper proof) If it were an unknown person, she would have brought out the claws that we all know and love. And FYI, Paris Hilton never really did anything creative, but I think we agree she's a celeb. Wouldn't being a Jewnas Bro/blogger be equivalent to rl reality tv fame? Anyway… Just my thoughts. I think he should be lynched just like all those unknowns who have come before him, that's all.
Would you prefer I fly off the handle without any evidence? No. If I had, then I'd be getting cries of how I wrongly accused Francois with no real info to back it up, wouldn't I?
I think Francois/Krez should go out and play with at the park with other kids his age.
Some people do think they are a world unto their own, because they are someone or think they are someone or their pathetic friends are perceived someone’s, they can do as they please. I have no idea who this kid is, never heard of him, but then I’d be lucky if I could name one so called SL celeb.
No I wouldn’t throw a friend under the bus, but I doubt I’d have friends that were known content thieves either.
Content creators are not celebrities for gods sake, stop putting them on pedestals they don’t deserve it, this is why they get away with treating people like dirt, bullying them and yes they do do stuff like this to take out the competition (I am not suggesting this is the case here).
I’d much rather remain humble, enjoy SL for what it is, create stuff for my own personal use because I enjoy it and not have to get all obsessed with petty theft of pixels.
Content creators are artists.
Debatable
Not debatable.
Fashion designers in real life: Artists. Clothes (most of them) are art you wear.
Fashion designers in SL: Artists. You wear their clothes. Without their clothes, you'd look disgusting. The skins? Art. Makes you pretty.
I agree, SL is made up of artists. Who else created the world we all enjoy spending time in? Your av's clothes, hair, skin, shoes, the sim in which you're standing in when you log on, all created by an artistic individual/s. If that's not art, I don't how else to define it.
Agree. It's like a combo of graphic art and fashion design and in some cases contains RL drawings and paintings. Do I think it makes them a "celeb"? Nope. Do I think artists deserve recognition for their awesome skills? Yep.
(1/3) Ok, I wanted to say a few things on this whole "SL Celebrity" stuff. Not only because that titling bothers me, but because I think many of you are overlooking some stuff due to being wrapped so tightly in this group of people.
Did you know, there are normally about 50k avatars in world at any given time? Most of them have *no idea* who you are (You referring to the group of people we are talking about, the whole Krez clique). Sure, there may be popular people amongst the group, but titlting them (Or anyone) "SLebrities" cracks me up.
Its more akin to a group of popular kids in a small town highschool. thats all it is, and thats all everyone acts like with the constant drama. The "popular kids" need to realize there is a whole nation that has no idea they exist, not only an entire nation, but an entire world..
(continued)
I don't really know him personally, but I've been hearing rumors about him botting for ages now (on top of all the other ones.) I always dismissed them as just talk and gossip, but this has changed my view a bit. Disappointing.
My comments keep getting eaten and this website crashes like crazy on IE. So i registered and am using Firefox now. Im blahblahblahwhatever but that name was too long for me to register with, so this is my new name. Testing to see if this goes through before I waste time re-writing my entire post…… Testing 1, 2, 3……
Ok, trying to remember what I said….
I started off by saying that the "SL celebrity" term is funny to me and when I start seeing the term mentioned I immediately realize that the people talking have a flawed sense of reality in that they fail to realize that there are about 50K users in world at any given time, majority of them having no idea you exist. This "group" krez was part of is a VERY VERY small portion of SL that only "exists" amongst another very small portion of SL. This isnt "Slebrity" and I wish that term didnt exist. This is akin to a popular group of kids-clique in a small town highschool rural area somewhere. They act like it too. Those highschool kids may be popular in their school, but surprise! Guess what? There are hundreds of other schools in that state that have no idea they exist, there is an entire country, an entire world!!! realize this.
With that said, yes, I think the whole Krez-clique thing and audience ha ve accepted him and all he did because he was their "Friend". So yes, this was "allowed". Everyone shrugged their shoulder to it because they cared for him as a friend. Its understandable. He has probably lost those "friends" now so now suddenly people are speaking out against his theft.
Im not sure how I feel about the whole thing. Ive known he was botting for awhile now for "personal use". Did that make it ok? Of course not, but his "friends" who constantly mentioned it around me didnt care. Thats the sad part. It was just a "Yea krez bots, lol, so what, silly krez" mentality.
Infact, my friend said to me yesterday, "Its just Krez, hes not scary". Oh, but youre welcoming into your SLife with open arms as he steals from YOUR friends?! Nice one.
I dont know how I feel about this all. There is just a very very passive atmosphere surrounding Krez. People might be upset at the stealing now, but its mainly due to them realizing they were BSd by this person for so long, and now suddenly the thievery is "wrong". But hes not going to go away, and hes not going to get any reprimandation(Did I just make up a word?) nearly as severe as if this were a person none of us knew. Just browse back through other SCD articles where thievery is brought up being done by an "unknown" (to us), person. You guys rip them a new asshole. Its just not going to happen with our beloved Krez. It just isnt. This is why after everything that has happened, Krez continues to play on Krez, because you all love him and are forgiving of anything he does….. even stealing right under your nose.
No, I'm afraid that's not what's going on here. If anyone wanted to forgive and forget because he's "Awwww, my friend!" then this blog post wouldn't have been made. You know that.
The thievery was always wrong, and I myself don't understand why he wasn't AR'd for having stolen items. Had I known, I would have AR'd him dozens of times myself.
As many things go, as soon as Francois fell out of favor with the group he was buddies with, people began coming forward with the inventory, the screenshots, the items – and only then was I able to dig harder, enough to get this story.
True. But up UNTIL now is what I was speaking of. It seems people were screwed by Krez so now they dont care about outing him. IT was kept under cover due to the "Hes my friend…" mentality. Im glad you wrote something to alert people but there is still a passive atmosphere regarding this. Not as much as before, but its still there.
Something is just weird about the whole thing. If people knew for years/months he was botter, why did they just kick back and let him do it? why was he allowed on the "jewnas brothers" when people knew he was a thief? Or did they not know? Someone must have known. It seems a hell of a lot of people knew but no one wanted to come forward with the evidence until now. And now is the time when everyone is realizing they were fooled by him. Coincidence? No. People have just had it, "You screwed me over with your lies Krez, now im going to get you back!"
I totally understand not wanting to "bust" your friend. I guess thats why it was under cover for so long, at least its coming out now. But unfortunately many still hold onto the "So what, its just krez" mentality.
Its one thing when the brazilians (Sorry I hate to categorize) do it, but its sad to see someone this close to home running around taunting and trying to ruin people.
Krez, if youre going to have beef with people, have it. But dont rip and spread around their items. Especially when youre a minor.
I personally didn't know he was passing them. I did know he did rip skins for his personal use. I heard the same rumor tenshi did about him copybotting hair. When he did that I asked him as a friend and he denied it. As far as it goes, blahblah. We were all conned. Some say they know he did it, but others may have not… so you shouldn't group certain people nor make this a matter of sl status because it has nothing to do with that. Also did you ever put into consideration that no one had enough proof. It's all coming out in the open now because you're right about one thing. No one cares to hurt him anymore or taint his name. Krez/Fran is a horrible person and this isn't right. Now that more voices are speaking up about the issuse we can gather more evidence to our speculation/rumor/actualscamming.
I do agree with you about one thing. Krez is a minor. I'm amazed he's here. I've banned him from all my locations because he hit close to home one time and I really dont need his childish acts against me.
Am I seeing here what I think I'm seeing? The suggestion that this person and his "talents" have been used by certain "name" designers to harass their competition? I don't know; I'm not in any loops, but if that is what's been happening, it is even worse than the theft itself. Which is horrible enough.
The same people who have come here time and time again to rip some random designer to shreds based on hearsay and the likes are the same people who let this cat run in their circles, KNOWING he was a thief.
This.is.Classic.
Anyone who remained friends with this person while knowing about his stealing is just as guilty as he is for doing it even tho they technically did not commit the offense. He should have been turned in the minute someone had proof. And anyone ripping anything, even for their own personal use, is a thief plain and simple. Condoning that is like saying it's ok for everyone in SL to take a copy of something because they aren't redistributing it…. What about the person putting food on their tables who made the items? As I said before, keep it up and you all will have nothing left but Linden crap and newbie clothes. Most people undercharge for the items sold in SL because we are counting on volume of sales over price of goods. Give us a break. Don't Steal!
As said above, his friends didn’t care and by in large, most people don’t care either.
Fact, most of the SL population, do not know about botting, do not know it’s even possible and do not care.
Go walk up to some random average, non content creating AV and as them what copy bot is. Ask them about content theft, they do not care.
But the more blogs like this and forums go on and on about it, in some cases posting the name of the tool to use for ripping and how easy it is. The more awareness there will be that it’s out there and the more people are going to start doing it.
I love how this child gets busted and his friend quick needs to write a blog covering their own ass. All of you are a little clique and you all knew this kid was doing this…..it is common knowledge he was doing this. You people let him live in your houses, walk all over you…you even knew he was an underage person. You all talked poorly about him behind his back…yet were scared to confront a 14-17yr old boy straight on. Half of you people who are his friends are basically middle aged women! But quick!!! Cover your hides!!! Many of you can be implicated and you can be sure if francois is going down he will take as many of you as he can with him.
At first I almost commended Tenshi for this. But I gotta agree…this stinks of "omg it's about to hit the fan let me cover my own ass"…
Tenshi you have taken down others on less evidence
It was common knowledge? Did you have screenshots and chat logs? If you did, why didn't you come to me with it and save him from doing it for another six months?
It was common knowledge? Did you have screenshots and chat logs? If you did, why didn't you come to me with it and save him from doing it for another six months?
Like I said in my own comment here, who is really willing to throw their friend under the bus? No one.
I came out. I attached my name to this. Tenshi's name is attached to this. Most of the commenters? No. Almost no one is attaching their full second life name to any of it. You want to say things, but you're too afraid to say it as who you are in world?
Did I say ignoring the issue here was right? No, I did not. Did I say it was okay that he did this? No, I didn't. Who wants to intentionally hurt their friends?
As to 14-17 year old, he lies from the get go about his age. Coincidentally it gets lower and lower each time age is mentioned. As for a little clique? Why is this even relevant? You and your friends are a clique and I know you'd have done the same exact thing if one of your friends was accused of this. You believe what you want to believe, and when you're friends with someone, you tend to believe their side. It's called loyalty.
When a friendship is over, people talk about their horror stories with the other party. It just so happens that his horror stories happen to be theft, and lies.
My hide? It's out there. I've attached my name to everything I've said about him because I have absolutely nothing to hide.
Um did any of you guys tell him to stop what he was doing though in terms of his thievery? The very few few rare times a "friend" of mine may have been botting things I gave them a piece of my mind on it, and i wasnt nice.
Did you guys ever even tell Krez to knock it the fuck off?
These arent questions I expect you to answer outloud, or even answer at all, its out of the bag now. Its just things that go through my mind upon reading the post. (Not questions to you personally
)
Krez admitted to being underage, and since he is his parents responsibility I believe he needs to knock off the shit he keeps pulling.
I have nothing personal against Krez, but if (s)he REALLY wants to live as a man in RL he needs someone to set him straight and he needs to man up. Pulling catty crybaby moves like ripping peoples stuff then taunting them and spreading it around is ridiculous and shows a severe lack of integrity.
Anonymous here or not, whenever he is brought up around me in world I say what I need to say, I take no sides. I take content theft VERY seriously.
Even if i did have chatlogs it's against tos to share them
. I do hope yall did have fun either having sex or watching sex acts with someone whom you knew was underrage or at least heard "rumors" he was underrage. At least you all got some giggles though from it though huh? "Who wants to intentionally hurt their friends?" As adult women you shouldn't call young boys your friends, especially ones you know are up to no good. This shows you have no common sense…disagree? Emleigh has said multiple things in in this post about how bad he is…who considers someone a friend who they don't like anything about and knows this person is garbage? Who calls someone a friend that you let walk all over you? BRAINS LADIES BRAINS!! You are grown women, not teens. So, congratulations on being stomped on by a little boy pretending to be gay. I have nothing against any of you, but I find it sickening that you ONLY end this "friendship" after he gets called out for something that effects you all. Hopefully this was a wakeup call to you women to remember your age and resume your maturity level.
First of all. I'm not a middle aged woman. I happen to be only a few years older than the accused.
And I'm the one who called him out to begin with on an entirely different issue and it's skyrocketed from there.
As for my "maturity level", at least I'm mature enough to own up to my wrongs, and own my opinion and thoughts on this. Something you don't seem to be able to do publicly.
Emleigh Westland is right, when it’s someone you consider a friend, *most* decent people are loyal to their friends, I’d believe someone I consider a friend over some blog tard (not refering to this blog btw) or other SL tard, any day. What’s more, I don’t actually judge my friends no matter what they do. My RL best friend could murder 10 people, It’d freak me out, but I’d still love him.
Do you also talk about how much you hate your friend behind his back? Would you stand behind your friend or talk shit on him publicly once he murdered 10 people? Here now is where you see the difference between how you think of friendship and what these people consider friendship.
personally I don’t believe in SL friendships, not really. I have known my best friend for yrs in RL. I don’t believe you can truly know someone you have never actually met
We're not friends. I, like the majority of his former friends, are sick of his lies. I've stood up for him for far too long. I've defended him. I've fought his battles for him. I'm done defending a liar, and a manipulator.
Like I said, friendship ends, horror stories come out.
I've never heard of this guy. FFS are people really turning a blind eye to underagers and thieves because of an online 'friendship'?
Baily are you serious? Of course we judge people, everybody judges people (including their friends) – on their behaviour, on their reputation, their morality, their empathy, their kindness,on their integrity and even their appearance. That's why we choose some people as friends and reject others. Without judgement, there are no values. If you have no judgement you may well end up with friends who go out and murder 10 people!
I accept my friends for who they are, I respect them, I am loyal to them and I do not judge them, end off
so lemme get this right..
theres this kid who is 17, passes around ripped and stolen items to his friends in SL, most of whom are middle-aged old women, and now the proverbial cat is out of the bag, all his friends are denying any connection they had with him?
That’s pretty much it, yup. Oh and that he’s apparently a celebrity, so before the cat got out to the general public it was cool to be his friend. But now that everyone knows, it’s not cool anymore.
What a cheap way of attempting to cover the ass of someone who has stolen content and bragged about it. You can try to overt attention from the meat of the matter all you like with this catty gossip, but it really accomplishes nothing, save making you look like a bitch.
@ Baily: You have a bit of growing up to do, I think. Your friends need your judgment, because you would able to see their actions being destructive to themselves and others. And since you're their friend, you'll be the only one able to try and help them with love and their best interest at heart. I'm glad I am not your RL friend, because I rely on MINE to set me straight when I am being an ass and can't see it.
And I am sorry, if I knew one of my friends committed murder, I'd be turning them in. Imagine your sister/lover/mother got killed and the killer went free because their "friends" kept silent out of misguided loyalty. Bet you'd see it differently then.
@ Baily: You have a bit of growing up to do, I think. Your friends need your judgment, because you would able to see their actions being destructive to themselves and others. And since you're their friend, you'll be the only one able to try and help them with love and their best interest at heart. I'm glad I am not your RL friend, because I rely on MINE to set me straight when I am being an ass and can't see it.
And I am sorry, if I knew one of my friends committed murder, I'd be turning them in. Imagine your sister/lover/mother got killed and the killer went free because their "friends" kept silent out of misguided loyalty. Bet you'd see it differently then.
I am there for my friends, if they need advice I’ll give it to them, if they need to pull their head in I’ll tell them. If they murdered someone, I’d wanna know what pushed them over the edge…..I would not hand them in! I’m sorry if you judge your friends or if you’d dob them in, I wouldn’t and that’s just me.
Wow youre scary Baily.
Well said, Heidi.
Baily you reek of being immature.
Is anyone REALLY surprised about this? I've always figured that Francois was either underage, supremely retarded, or just an average jackass. His double-faced involvement in copybot is less-than-shocking.
He's such a jew. Oh wait… :]
~V.
Oh – And I'll be happy to give him a smack on behalf of everyone he's played when he hits the TG. LOL.
~V.
Lolol.
Thank you so much Tenshi for finally blowing this kid out. I've been battling him for years and have lost creative friends because of him. They pushed me away because of his manipulative actions and because of the things he has spread about me, I was never able to have a potential non bias relationship with other designers associated with him. I've been striving to educate others on Fran/ Krez; how he is an underage child who fed off the sympathy of others. However, I was actually shunned by the most "posh" in the fashion community and basically almost lost my reputation as a designer because of this kid. I'm just so happy that he can no longer hide behind a name, statues, and his "powerful" celebrity friends.
Thanks again!
The Nameless Hair Designer (yes, the one metioned)
You do realize the "powerful celebrity friends" youre referring to are a group of people who have exalted themselves up amongst their little group of friends and fed their self-made "popularity" to anybody (you) who would listen and believe it? Like I said before, works the same was as a group of "cool" high school students in a small town. Word of advice, they do not matter and they are only known to very little people, the rest of the world doesnt care. Be friends with who will be friends with you, not people who listen to watered down comments regarding you. I feel sorry for you though, I totally feel you on "I was never able to have a potential non bias relationship with other designers associated with him". For me, NOT having content creator friends is the best thing ive ever done for myself. Too many people putting on fake faces trying to "be somebody". One of the neatest people I am friends with in SL is an individual who looks completely noob, has no idea any of this (whats going on here) exists, and wouldnt be interested to know.
But you know, what boggles my mind is all of the people who still pardon what fran is doing. I am not someone who wants to see people kicked to a corner and disregarded, people can love fran but at least freakin speak out against what hes doing and tell him go away until he has changed (And until he turns 18, whenever that really is). Kind of like that story of the prodigal son.
Oh and I just wanted to add something in general regarding purchased skins intended to remain on the SL client: Ripping a skin onto ones hard drive, loading it into photoshop, adding "eyeshadow", loading it back into SL and wearing it… Is a no no. Just sayin.
In reading this blog and its replies, it's pretty sad to know that he had friends that knew what he was doing and didn't do anything about it to stop him. They just went on their merry little ways, basically letting him know he could get away with what he wanted to do. His game was gaining peoples trust enough and vying for sympathy so that he could be a thief without anyone turning on him. He won his game and will probably move on to the next. He held the cards and his friends got played.
I sure hope a lesson was learned here. It makes me cringe knowing that to his friends, it was a-ok to steal from others as long as it wasn't from them. Remember, Karma is a bitch and what goes around comes around. They may not be so lucky the next time. Yet how are they so sure they didn't get stolen from as well? Maybe it will keep them all up at night wondering, and I hope it does so that the next time they run across someone like this, they do the right thing.
For along time, i have said it time and again, Francois has never been my friend and he deserves what he got. He lied and continuously lied about who he was. This doesnt surprise me, and i feel sorry that it had to come down to this. I am surprised so many people didn't see this sooner. Ever since i met him, he's lied, and literally ruined my friendships with other people and my personal reputation. I think linden labs should of taken care of him for 1. lying about his age. But more importantly for content theft. This is sad, kid needs a good kick in the ass and needs to get out of second life.
I was (and still am) blown away to hear all this….. I knew him from someone else, who paid me to do a commision of him, for him. (He apparently couldn’t pay for himself..? :/) He was even on my friends list.
From how my aquaintance treated him I figured he was great guy. And even when they had a falling out I wasn’t told about his detestable habits or attitude. Why? I have no clue. Because honestly to me he isn’t worth keeping one’s mouth shut about theft,no one is. No matter if they have so called “famous” driping off them like water. I still think it should be treated the same as if some unknown noob with nothing but an Xstreet store was ripping things.
Thankfully I never got to get to know him well at all. And other than haveing a picture of him in my Flikr I figure I got off fairly unscathed by any of his seemingly radiateing bad aura.
Now this is weird! When I do a commision I name it with it’s own individual name, rather than “Person’s Commision.” And the Francois Ghost one was called. “Sinners-Flesh” I should mention this was done without any knowledge about any rumours. (I’m horrible at keeping in any loop about anything personally.)
Fitting image. >.<
http://www.flickr.com/photos/turquoiseunicorn/3820913121/in/set-72157619674524127/
Not only that, but HE is really a SHE.
Everything he does is a fake, lie, and a scam.
I got a copy of the ripped hair and was involved in this during the begging,
people didnt believe he would actually do something like this because he was so well known with developers.
“Not only that, but HE is really a SHE.
Everything he does is a fake, lie, and a scam.”
This is horribly sexist and offensive-
and didn’t need to be said.
Many people play SL opposite to their gender, and this doesn’t make them liars or scammers.
Sometimes people don’t feel comfortable with telling others about their real lives.
There may have been things he’s done that I don’t agree with… but HE is a HE, if that is what he feels that he is inside.
You can talk about what he’s done wrong that’s fine, but being transgendered is not wrong.
Wow, really? MOST of the rumors about content theft?
I mean I know thats all you guys ever talk about here, but when I heard rumors they weren’t about content theft.
This is sort of surprising, but I’m releived that I’ve read this and didn’t see a picture of some horrible alt-shop.