Mallory Cohen of Laqroki filed a DMCA claim against Hart Larsson back in July, claiming stolen skins, (more info here) and it’s just now coming around that Hart is indeed in the clear.
Problem is, when the Lindens returned Hart’s inventory, it is all – ALL – missing full perms. Hart’s inventory is greatly no-transfer. Hart will have to wait longer to get his inventory back in its original state, because re-uploading everything will cost him well over $97,000L.
Poor Pxl. This brings about the question… will those who cried wolf apologize to Hart?
I have to admit that when I saw Mallory’s original posts, it looked to me like she had a pretty convincing case. But apparently, her case was not that strong after all, and she herself seems to have deleted all of the original accusation posts and Flickr photos.
So I do apologise to Hart for doubting his integrity, and I hope he can get his content straightened out before too long.
I think this whole affair will make me think twice about rushing to judgement about theft accusations in the future. It shows how flawed and unfair the whole DMCA process is. I really think we need some kind of better system to adjudicate these sorts of issues, instead of the slash and burn DMCA takedown process.
What exactly does “in the clear” mean? Are you taking the return of the inventory by LL to be “in the clear”? Why would you think Hart Larsson is cleared of anything?
DMCA’s function very simply:
1) Someone sends a DMCA to an ISP (LL in this case) alleging copyright infringment.
2) ISP is legally required to notify the other party that they are taking down their material due to a DMCA claim.
3) Other party has the option to make a counter-claim alleging that they have a good faith belief that the material belongs to them and is not under someone else’s copyright.
4) ISP is legally required to return the materials after reciving a counter-notification.
5) Initial party is now put in the position of determining whether to go forward with further legal proceedings, e.g. a lawsuit, and the ISP no longer plays a role.
At no point does LL spend time determining the truth or falsehood behind the initial notification or the counter-notification — it’s not their legally mandated role in DMCA disputes.
Did Laqroki withdraw their DMCA? If not, it sounds like Hart Larsson has counter-notified and claimed that the materials are in no way infringing their copyrights, which is his right to do — but it doesn’t actually mean that it’s true.
The ball is now in Laqroki’s court to begin legal proceedings, unless they withdrew the initial DMCA.
Laqroki had 10 days after the reception of counter notification to initiate legal procedures according to DMCA procedures. If in that time slot the ISP does not receive notice that action is being taken, ISP considers case closed and returns the material.
Now if only they would do so in the condition/perms etc in which they took it in the first place…..
The failure to launch a suit within that time frame does not preclude doing so afterwards. There’s a number of reasons why a content creator may be unable to initiate legal proceedings within that short time frame, even if they wish to do so.
I believe under (American) copyright law you have at least three years to initiate a lawsuit following your initial awareness of the most recent infringement. I don’t know how it is in the rest of the world, of course.
Has Laqroki indicated that they do not intend to pursue a legal remedy? If not, the ball still is in their court.
I was too fast. Not even did Laqroki have to intiate legal procedures within 10 days, they would just have to notify the ISP that they will initiate and ISP would restrict the content pending procedures. Apparently they did not notify ISP. So yeah, case closed.
Considering the items didn’t get returned until October and this began in July, something must have happened in way of perusing this case.
I’m curious about DMCA in general. Bearing in mind that I don’t know either party personally or anything about their RL but how does DMCA apply if for example the claimant is in the US and the respondent is in Japan. Does DMCA apply in countries outside of the US?
Yes because the infringing content is on American servers.
admin,
I just sort of assumed the length of time was yet another example of LL taking forever to process DMCA claims and counter-claims, because we’ve a million of these so far. Just from reading what Hart wrote, it doesn’t really _sound_ like there was a court case, in any case, but I could be wrong.
I suppose there may have been an out of court settlement or something such, although one would expect some sort of statement about this, even if it’s of the, “There was a settlement, the terms of which cannot be divulged pursuant to the terms of said settlement.” Or, if Hart won some sort of court case, an official statement to that effect.
Elizabeth,
LL has to respond to DMCA claims, being mostly U.S.-based. That said, and this is strictly off of memory, if the person accused of infringment counter-notified, the usual terms of the DMCA suggest that the accuser would then pursue a legal case in the home jurisdiction of the accused.
So if a Japanese resident is alleged to have infringed but then counter-notifies, the next legal remedy is technically supposed to be filing a suit in a Japanese court of law. I have no idea whether an American could sue a citizen of another country, resident in that country, over copyright infringment.
PXL skins are way better than Laqroki and they look nothing alike. Seems Mallory was jealous to me.
I wore some demos of laqroki after all this came about and I laughed because and they were nowhere near what PXL looks like on me in any way. I am glad that PXL will be back in business. Maybe Mallory should fork over the $ to Hart so he can re upload his work, seeing as how she falsely accused him of copying.
I’m assuming its all over mainly based on the fact that Mallory removed her accusing posts from her blog as well as the evidence photos from her Flickr.
Now that could also be a hasty conclusion. Maybe Mallory removed the posts in preparation for a real court case. I don’t really know, but at this point, I guess its over as far as the SL public is concerned, and I should give Hart the benefit of the doubt. Maybe more will come out of this and we’ll we’ll have to reconsider the whole thing again, but for now I’m considering the issue dropped.
FWIW I never doubted Hart. laroki’s skins suck and Pxl’s don’t look anything like them. They are much better quality!
I agree that the DMCA system is seriously flawed, but that’s neither Mallory’s fault nor Hart’s. To say that Laqroki skins “suck” doesn’t help the DMCA process and it definitely doesn’t help Hart to get his permissions back.
Based on Mallory’s blog post and former flickr pictures, it’s pretty obvious that she truly believed wrongdoing had occured, especially based on the amount of “evidence” she presented. I don’t believe that malice or jealousy applies here. She did what she had to do and Hart likewise responded with what he needed to do. They are both protecting what is very plausibly their livelihood in this case and in the same situation I would have done the same thing. Unforunately, the DMCA seems to work on a guilty until self-proclaimed innocent basis, so do i think Hart got unjustly burned? Totally. It’s a shitty situation.
However,when it comes to the real thieves, assuming they never get their ripped items back (with effed up perms), they still get to walk away with whatever $$ they’ve managed to accumulate, so to say woe be the accused – well not always. The problem is there is no judge, no jury, no discerning eye to decide who is wrong or right at the initial stages.
I wear Laqroki, so obviously I prefer them, but who has the better skin is kind of irrelevant at this point isn’t it? If anything, direct your anger at the DMCA or Linden Labs.
Best of luck to all involved parties.
Ok, for those of you who are a bit slow to the game:
admin=Tenshi.
My two cents: Legalese aside, LL didn’t return Hart’s inventory in the way that it was taken from him. It’s costly in time and $$$ (97k L = almost 400 USD), so the best thing we can do is support PXL creations with purchases, and getting the word out. Currently, PXL has a Profile Picks gift, and the store also has a subscribo.
I have skins in my inv from both PXL and Laqroki. Psh, I have skins from everywhere. Something that looks fabulous on one avie can look like total trash on another. It all depends on our sliders.
That said, the business that gets my hard earned dollars is the business that treats their customers right. IRL, I deal with customer service all day. I expect to be treated as I treat others: like GOLD. The experiences I and my friends have had with both of these creators really is the deciding factor in who we give our repeat business to.
Laqroki’s website has been closed ever since this fiasco started. I have a feeling that Hart’s not the one who stole, but the other way around, and Mallory was just trying to beat him to the punch. Afterall, she was rumoured to steal designs from Sims. Whether that’s true or not, makes this at least look differently.
I co-sign what Tree said.
But yeah, happy for PXL’s vindication and stuff….
My best friend loves her PXL skins….
I wish someone would have contacted me before making this blog post.
I sent my DMCA against Hart Larsson on september 5th and it was removed by LL on september 12th. He did not file a counter notification, which he had 10 days to do. That was -four- months ago.
If a DMCA has been filed against Hart recently then please leave me out of it. It has nothing to do with the blog posts back in september.
Our blog was not put offline because I wanted to withdraw my statements, but because we wanted to deal with all of this privately. The pics were never posted on flickr until today.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26014378@N04/3147108519/sizes/l/
His skins has been created by modifying my skin textures. I will leave it at that.
Thanks for the info Ran. I suspected that there would be more to it if the respondent did not reside in the US.
I have never tried PXL skins so I don’t have an opinion at all but I have been wearing Laqroki/RAC for over a year now. It seems to do well with my shape.
Mallory, I’m honestly disgusted and dismayed that you chose to remove my comment from your flickr page.
I made no accusations against either party but simply stated that Ellettra should get all the facts before judging either party on who has done what.
Yes I did post a link to Hart’s PXL blog, however if you had an issue with this, you could have contacted me directly & request to remove it, which you didn’t do.
I also notice that you’ve chosen to mute me from your flickr stream as well – just so you know, I’m honestly not bothered because yesterday was the first time I had ever visited your flickrstream and its no loss to me now that I can’t view it any longer.
RaC were my first set of high quality skins. My partner at the time bought them for me, & I absolutely adored them. Additionally I purchased your skins for a good friend of mine as well. And when your smokey eye skins were released, I purchased a set of thse those as well.
Additionally, I have also purchased clothing and hair from you in the past – as far as inworld store owners are concerned, I’m a dream customer – I will always pay for quality and support a designer when I feel they offer good quality well made merchandise.
When I first saw Hart’s PXL ‘Crys’ skins I felt that they were original and unique to anything else I had seen at the time and they then became my favourite skins. To this day, I still wear them a lot, along with my other PXL skins that are now part of my wardrobe.
Yes, I freely admit that of the 1000+ skins I have, I wear PXL skins at least 75% (if not more) of my time inworld.
As a long term SL resident, I’ve become familar with the history between you and Hart, and I believe that Hart has genuinely been open with what happened in the days when he first started selling skins – he has acknowledged what he did was wrong and as soon as his wrong doing was brought to his attention he dealt with the situation quite promptly.
However, it seems that you hold a grudge that goes beyond even Hell freezing over.
Now that Hart is slowly (because of LL stuffing up – which is what he has commented on his blog about, there are no comments referring to you or Laqroki) building his store & presence inworld back up, you choose to make the same accusations that you did back in August/September.
Many skin makers out there use the same bases that you use, thats pretty common knowledge – in fact there are a few skin makers out there who’s faces strike extremely similar features to your own, however you have never made an attempt towards them to address the copy infringements you have repeatedly accused Hart of which is predominantly based on the hands and feet of your skins.
You state that you raised a DCMA against Hart back in September, using the evidence that you are now posting in your flickr stream. If the case was ‘dropped’ by Linden Labs, then you are within your entitlements to seek other forms of legal action.
You state that you have in the past wanted to deal with this privately which is a crock because those of us who saw your blog posts have seen your recent flickr image was on your blog post back in August/September.
If it was truly the case that you wanted to deal with this privately then you would be liasing with Hart directly, not invovling the rest of the Secondlife community suggesting over and over again that Hart is continually ripping off your skins.
If you truly feel you have a case and truly want to take action against Hart, then do so, don’t go dragging his name through the mud based on suggestion and accusation alone.
It is tiresome and extremely unprofessional to continue these allegations in public.
I for one, have now decided to boycott all of your creations inworld as I find your behaviour to be anti competitive and unprofessional.
Where I have noticed designers items have been ripped, I will always contact the designer who’s work has been copied and advise them of the situation. You don’t see me notifying the rest of the world about it – its for the direct parties involved to deal with the situation & if they can’t resolve it, then address with with Linden Labs by way of a DCMA and then if you still feel the case hasn’t been resolved take further legal action.
Remove the image or make a case – back up your statements by dealing with this privately or move on, because right now you’re not doing yourself any favours.
I appears she removed my comment on Flickr too. Seems to me if she can’t take the heat don’t post the picks. Sh*t or get off the pot…so to speak. She really is making herself out to be a drama llama and a bitter woman. Pathetic really!
For one thing LL is NOTORIOUSLY slow in resolving any issue, as I have seen another friend deal with LL in regards to having her account suspended for reasons not worth discussing at present time. But needless to say, they have suspended her account 3 months ago, and even with calling everyday to support they have YET to restore her account to her, even when the real life law is on her side. So the fact that Hart is only NOW getting his skins back is no surprise to me whatsoever.
Also the DMCA is seriously flawed with all cards held in the accuser’s hands. What right does the accussee have in getting real life information without the accused having the right to defend themselves as well….but we have been over that point over and over again so it’s like beating a dead horse.
This whole thing is tiring really, as LL has deemed the case resolved.
IF you truly think you are being wronged then why on earth not retain a RL lawyer? I would think if you were trying to protect your livelyhood you’d do whatever it takes to protect your work, unless for some ODD reason there’s something to hide. Hart has been open and transparent and has admitted that when he FIRST started out he made a mistake, are you telling me you have never taken a source that isn’t for sale to anyone or have made a mistake yourself? I highly doubt that. Hart has done everything he can to protect what he knows to be rightfully his, while you continue to act childish while protesting that you wanted to handle this privately. If it were me and I felt that someone was stealing something from me, I’d do whatever was in my power to stop them, even taking legal action.
*sighs* I just don’t understand some people, truly.
she has had to repost because this blog decided to drag it all up again – then brought her into it again.
what is she to do , sit on her ass and not say a word or do anything – if she did you would all say shes at fault.
so she defends herself and look- you all say it her fault anyway.
if your pissed this is all dragged up again then blame SCD for that
SCD never asked Mallory to respond to this post.
As she stated herself, the DCMA was raised back in September, and the case was closed by Linden Labs back in September – why is she NOW rehashing the same evidence that she gave to LL back then?
I know that the suggestion is that she may be presenting new evidence but you can see the right hand side of the image posted on Flickr, you can clearly see that the image was taken on the 10th of August – this is the SAME information she used as her case for the DCMA that was subsquently closed by Linden Labs back in September.
The irony is that Mallory has done the complete opposite to what she has claimed “because we wanted to deal with all of this privately”. Thats a load of BS – the question is who DIDN’T hear about Mallory’s accusations towards Hart when this cropped up back in August?
And why is she again posting about the same information again now?
Mallory, what exactly is your aim in all of this?
If you feel you have a case & evidence against Hart, then you should address it through the proper channels and not involve the rest of the SL community and deal with it privately, as you’ve stated you’ve wanted to do.
If all you are going to do is make suggestions and allegations (which I personally believe that, irrespective of ‘real’ or ‘second’ life – this is a business matter and should be dealt with accordingly), you are defaming PXL, which is unfair and unprofessional.
Since the DCMA has been closed, Hart has posted about the issues he’s had dealing with Linden Labs in an effort to get his items back in the same order in which they were taken, no reference was made towards Laqroki.
I do agree wholeheartedly that the DCMA rulings regarding the personal information of claimants and defendants is very unjust and one sided and do understand why Hart felt uncomfortable with his personal information being supplied to an unknown person who’s made a claim against him without it being fully reviewed and not only that, the review is being conducted by a private organisation, not a legal authority.
when her name was put in this post it brought her into it – this blog knows its the only time they get anywere with any post – , the fact they blogged the bag contents shows they hade nothing better to do she then what – o yes lets drag up the past and start crap all over again
I dont know who is right and who is wrong as must as you dont – i dont shop more at one place than the other – i am not friends with either of them.
i just see this drag up of histort is nothing to do with this blog and they did this to cause trouble
I think that Mallory is well within her right to respond to this, HOWEVER, she has handled this poorly and everyone has lost alot of respect for her. I think that instead of this sniping back and forth, she and Hart need to come to some sort of compromise and agree to just stfu about all of this because this hurts both of their sales. Since all of this went down, I have avoided both Laqroki & PXL to shop for skins.
The old saying “all press is good press” couldn’t be further from the truth because if there is so much as a hint of impropriety, me and my lindens go elsewhere.
Congratulations to Hart for getting in the clear.