clearly, i don’t think so now that i have enerhax.com as a freebie site
i understand the argument that freebies can dilute the marketplace but to say that freebies are bad is like saying free food samples are bad at the grocery store. besides, in the free marketplace that the entire internet can be, we all have the freedom to give anything away for free that we want to
i was reading Linda’s perspective about licensing on her definitive freebie site and came across the same challenge she did about copyright. basically, it’s really hard to totally give something away and make it public domain. not by her, or me, but by international law. when you create or write something, it automatically has copyright protection. if i write the lyrics to a song on a napkin at lunch and then later those lyrics become a hit single, they are my copyright as of the time i wrote them down. now i would have to prove i wrote them first (take that Lady Gaga, Mizz Haxalot is here!) =p
it used to be common practice for country song writers to write out their songs and fold the paper up and mail it to themselves – the US postmark was proof of when the song was written
you don’t have to make any formal declaration of copyright. in fact, this blog post is copyrighted right now! but if you look at this blog’s footer, you’ll see it all has a Creative Commons license, you can even adapt it for commercial use but . . . here is the issue that Linda has with her freebies that i also have – we don’t care about attribution (at least i don’t think she does). BUT . . . there is no Creative Commons license without an attribution clause and that’s because, despite what i want, copyright laws protect me against myself
so if something i gave away freely ever made it huge, i could sue and say some of that money is mine, even if i waved my copyright. the laws of most countries simply won’t let you totally give a creation away. there is something called Public Domain and the CC folks even have it as an option but they even warn against using it because most countries won’t recognise it
nothing truly is a freebie and maybe those that think they are bad will feel a bit better now
in my opinion, freebies can help the market. look at OpenSim – it’s free! OpenSim has created many new marketplaces – from InWorldz which is built from OpenSim to stores in OSGrid to even places like our Enclave Harbour – these are all new marketplaces because of something free (our host, SimHost, makes money because of OpenSim)
Linda’s freebies, and maybe some of mine, might help with OpenSim user retention by providing a richer experience. heck, sim-on-a-stick is a freebie and if you have a problem with that i’d suggest you see about having that stick removed from your butt! =D
i fully understand the idea of the marketplace, probably as well and maybe better than the naysayers of freebies (food samples lead to sales, freebies lead to dedicated users). i definitely gave Second Life a good try and we are coming up on the two year anniversary of Enclave Harbour which is 100% commercial in its nature
freebies – if you don’t like them, i don’t need to know why. like Einstein said: “I don’t know, I don’t care, and it doesn’t make any difference!”
Freebies are the only way to enrich -the each day less empty of contents- Opensim. Naturally, the meanness and selfism of some traders is the reason of read some blogs publishing the great harm that freebies could cause.
If your freebies are part of a shop could be motive to be worry. Is very hard give your work for free only to see alien profits. I hope that things like HG 2.0 will fix some problems with perms. Naturally only the minority of advanced users can change the perms, but can be respected generally. In this case, CC can play a important role to avoid a misuse.
I’m thinking about prepare a freebies marketplace too, really, a kit to promote RP’s like mine.
In brief: Opensim needs quality freebies and merchants must work to compete against it, working and no…Talking.
Kind regards.
Montnegre
27 Jun 12 at 8:39 am
Freebies are good.
If it weren’t for freebies, I doubt I would have stayed very long in SL, which means I would never have gotten fed up with how they do business and gone searching for an alternative, OpenSim.
Freebies are a good way of showing people how things are made since they can be taken apart.
Freebies are a good way to give people a sample of and to promote one’s builds.
My personal impression is that those who are against freebies tend to be lower quality makers. They see better items being given away and so they blame them for their own lack of sales, when it is their own lack of attention to detail that is the true cause.
Sarge Misfit
27 Jun 12 at 9:08 am
I’m a strong advocate of Freebie Culture in the OpenSim and everywhere for that matter. It’s one of the reasons I prefer OpenSim to Second Life now. I think free culture levels the playing field. If someone wants to participate in virtual worlds but has little or no expendable recreation budget free culture removes money as an obstacle to exploration, creativity and learning.
By the same token, if someone makes nice things and wants to sell them through a website or OMC/virox I’ll likely buy a few odds and ends and support them if I can and if they are things I’d use. It’s the creator’s prerogative. However I do think it’s petty of people who sell their creations to get irritated by those who give them freely.
I’m going to add to what Sarge mentions about the quality. I think that’s sometimes the case and sometimes not. In my opinion, the reason commerce creators get irked by freebie creators is that we live in an overly consumer culture. I think Second Life reinforced that in how the market was set up. Originally there were more high quality things shared freely until the seed of “I can make money on this?” was planted. SL obviously still has lots of freebies but many of the people who used to host freebie shops there are no longer since they couldn’t afford the land tier (not to mention upload fees) they had to pay to offer free content. I feel like OpenSim transcends that and is ironically closer to the mark of the original intent of SL.
Ener, I completely agree about the retention piece. Since Linda Kellie’s website went up and word got out about places like OpenSim Creations more people have explored OpenSim the numbers of OpenSim users has increased exponentially.
Jamie Wright
27 Jun 12 at 10:59 am
Ener –
I totally agree with you. Although I’m fully in favor of commercializing the heck out of OpenSim — the word “business” is right there in the title — like you pointed out, the two are not mutually exclusive.
For a merchant to complain that their stuff isn’t selling because of freebies is like Sacs Fifth Avenue complaining that their stuff isn’t selling because of the Goodwill down the street.
People are going to spend what they’re going to spend. If the economy goes down, they might shift to lower-cost options. If they get a raise, they reward themselves with pricier stuff — fancier meals, designer clothing, latest trends.
Right now, the big problem with OpenSim isn’t too many freebies — it’s not enough expensive stuff.
I’ve been complaining about this for a while. I want to buy nice jackets, nice hair, and nice shoes for my official company avatar. I’m a good customer — I love shopping, but hate spending “real” money. Virtual goods give me a lot of the same satisfaction as “real” clothes, at a fraction of the price. With this economy, I’ll wear my jeans a little longer, and indulge my shopping appetite in virtual stores, instead… except, there aren’t any.
I’m not going to go into InWorldz or Avination to buy clothes there because I don’t spend any time there. I spend my time on the hypergrid. My stuff has to be able to travel. I’m willing to pay for stuff that travels. Right now, my only option is Total Avatar Shop. (And I’m planning to get some more hair there, in fact, but the selection is limited.)
Basically, what I’m saying, is if you’re a merchant your sales mainly depend on two things — how much money your customers have to spend for virtual goods, and whether they’ll spend it with you or your competitors. After they run out of money, they’ll get the rest of the stuff they need at freebie stores. (Just like I buy nice things at classy, fashionable stores and then buy the rest — the underwear, the socks, kids’ casual clothes — at Walmart.)
Meanwhile, there’s a flip side to this as well, that merchants need to be aware of, which should affect their product selection. Over time, prices tend to fall towards the cost of producing one more item. So, for digital media, that means that, over time, prices fall to close to zero. Again — over time. So a movie will cost money when it first comes out, but after a few years, you can watch it on broadcast TV for free. A designer gown can cost thousands, but soon knock-offs will be available that are priced at barely more than the cost of the materials.
The solution isn’t to try to block the freebies and knock offs — it won’t work. The solution is to keep innovating. Release hot new products by hot new designers in limited run quantities so your customers feel like they’re paying for exclusivity, status, and the latest fashion.
The production costs are irrelevant here. It doesn’t matter how much a movie or book cost to produce — after a certain point, they’ll all end up in the $1 remainder bin.
Finally, if your customers can’t distinguish your products from the freebies, there’s something wrong with your products.
Fortunately, there’s plenty of stuff you can do, that the real-world fashion industry has been doing for years:
* Change colors every season. Your customers will be able to see at a glance who’s wearing old stuff, and who’s wearing new and fashionable clothes. You don’t have to invent new colors if you’re not the creative type — visit your local malls or check online clothes catalogs for inspiration.
* Improve the details. The freebies that are out there should be the lowest level of quality — your stuff should be better. Fancier. Classier.
* Improve usability. This is an area that I think needs the most work. Freebies are currently more usable than many commercial products. If I get Linda Kellie’s freebies, I can save backups to my computer. I can take them to my private grid, or wear them on hypergrid trips. I can modify them to fit me better. I can change their colors if I want. I can’t do that with many commercially available products. By spending money, I’m actually getting an inferior product.
* Get rid of DRM. It doesn’t protect anybody against hackers. All it does is make life difficult for legitimate customers. This is why iTunes and Amazon dropped the DRM on their music downloads – the hackers can break DRM anyway. All the copy protection schemes were doing was making it harder for people to buy and enjoy their music legally. Instead of DRM, offer clear license terms, instead. Your honest customers will comply, and the thieves weren’t going to pay for your stuff in the first place, anyway.
* Go after the distributors. You may think that theft is rampant, but most folks don’t know that the freebie they picked up was actually stolen. File DMCA notices against the biggest freebie stores on the OpenSim grids, and the grid owners will become much more careful about policing the content. Every notice helps — not just to protect your stuff, but to protect all content creators as well. There are plenty of legal freebies out there now — it’s no big deal for grid owners to shut down the hackers, ban them from their grids, and put up Linda Kellie and OpenSim Creations stores, instead.
* Eventually, the thieves will be driven to the darkest corners of the hypergrid, hosting their grid servers in Outer Mongolia to evade DMCA notices. (Though even Mongolia is stepping up its copyright protection efforts.) These rogue grids will be hard to get to, slow and laggy, won’t be able to advertise or promote themselves anywhere, and will be a haven for griefers, spammers, viruses, and other bad stuff — just like the illegal download sites on the Internet are. Normal people — the people who spend money on stuff, your target customers — will learn how to spot them and how to avoid them.
Maria Korolov
27 Jun 12 at 12:11 pm
Freebie are not bad. They are very good for newcommers, well but everything shouldn’t be free. What are bad for virtual world market are those people who give for give free, content creation that aren’t free. Always I said this to new residents in SL that everything in virtual worlds arent free, if there’s something that you liked and it is not free then paid for it. Some virtualworlds like Avination have some restrictive licenses about freebies and I can understand why. The grown of the economy in virtual worlds depend on how new residents can understand than “Everything” is not free. I totally agree that Osgrid is a different Virtual World and everything in there should be free but it is not the same in other virtual worlds like Inworldz, SL and Avination and people should understand that.
xpontaneus
27 Jun 12 at 4:20 pm
I walked out of SL the first day I played there. I think, if it were not for freebies, I would have walked out of OpenSim too. Knowing full well that I didn’t have the talent and/or learning time to make any cool worlds. I get better at it, but its a slow process. Its just not where my main talents lie.
Oh and I downloaded your loader. It will be fun to play with :)
Araxie Longoar
27 Jun 12 at 4:27 pm
I think freebies are needed to get people to accept OpenSim, especially if they are coming from SL. If they are not builders, then having a sofa made out of 4 pink wood cubes is going to be a turn-off.
Trouble with getting people to buy is the lack of currency traveling with you. Selling downloads basically makes your items free to the rest of the world if the buyer gives them out. Might as well make them free and not stress about copy protection.
I loved having stores in SL. And I still get a few sales from my little S3 box sitting on my 512 plot of free land. Money is nice, but making stuff for free feels nicer inside.
On another note – Hypergrid hates me and refuses to let me travel anywhere. And when I finally do make it out…it finds a way to stop me the next time.
Azzura
28 Jun 12 at 1:03 pm
All i create, be on OSGrid or now again in Sl, if i can make it full perms Ill give it away on a non mod non transfer base!
Dont give a fu***** about anything but that the original creator, if i used any script that was not mine or some prim, is stated there.
I despize deeply the mentality of real life that all needs to be business and all needs to be paid and copyright claims are becoming as insane as Rl itself!
So ill give away all i do, as long as original creator is stated and it was full, perms from beggining, on a non mod no transfer basis, on Sl.
On OSgrid i make sure the original creator is stated and ai made all full perms!
ZZ Bottom
29 Jun 12 at 5:29 am
And to make sure all i use i can give away, i even spoke with Hugslot Valquierie, and she give me full authorization to destribute the open sim version of her penis, that i made with the add of a talented scripter that optimized its code! So now at least there is officialy a penis that has particules effects and can be found on the adult region of Saphyre castle!
ZZ Bottom
29 Jun 12 at 5:35 am
@Maria I’ve adressed your comment here in my latest video rant: http://tgib.co.uk/2012/06/30/midnight-rant-08-freebies-quality-and-the-dmca/ (starting at 18:00 minutes). tl;dr: Please don’t encourage the use of DMCA, it will probably lead to more abuse than good.
Vanish
30 Jun 12 at 11:07 am
Vanish –
I routinely file DMCA takedown requests when I find websites that illegally repost columns, and pass along URLs to my client publications when I find that *their* content was illegally copied. In my experience, the webhosting companies typically take down the offending sites within a day. (I’ve been really impressed with how fast they act!)
Does this mean that I go after every single person who makes a copy of an article I write? Of course not. And I also don’t mind people printing copies, saving copies to disk drives, emailing copies to friends, etc… etc… But when someone puts up a site with nothing but ads and stolen content, I take them down.
I make 100% of my income from creating content. Filing DMCA requests is just part of the job — you don’t have to spend all your time doing it, but you do have to keep an eye for potential violators (in my case, through Google Alerts) and be consistent about following up.
I understand that there are abuses on both sides. Bad guys who are forced to take down an infringing site who immediately put up another one, for example. But I know that the quicker I file the DMCA, the less time they have to get traffic any make any money. And that other content creators are also filing their DMCA, and Google and other search engines are getting better at screening them out.
I also understand that some industries are going overboard. I would not go after anyone who makes personal backups of my content, and I do not support the music industry’s lawsuits against teenage kids.
I do believe that the system needs to be improved. But, given how many creative folks are making a living right now (probably more than at any other time in history) and how much content we all have access to (quite a bit, at all price points) I figure the system we have now isn’t the worst possible alternative. It’s a compromise, cludged together, with too much power in the hands of big industries, but there’s a large middle ground (which is where I am) where it seems to be working.
Now when it comes to software patents — don’t get me started on that!
Maria Korolov
1 Jul 12 at 11:03 pm