On July 10, 2019, Entice made an official statement about accusations that we had downloaded files from Renderosity and used them illegally in Second Life. At that time, we stated that we had not downloaded anything and, in fact, took our items to the original creator for her to look at so that she could verify that the items were not stolen. In my heart, we believed that they were originals made from scratch by our mesher since that is what we hired him to do. Even though the original Renderosity creator said that the UVs were not hers, we were still being accused of using her work and changing it in a way that made the UVs slightly different. So, because we wanted to be certain, we bought the actual files. We had them looked at by a third party to be certain that our mesher did his own work. We are happy to say that the work on this outfit was done by our mesher. Our mesh, is quite different than the one that can be purchased on Renderosity. We have given all of the proof of this to the Renderosity designer so that she is aware of everything.
As you can see, our mesh has a lot more detail to it including both the design and edging that is meshed in as well as quite a few structural differences in both the top (check the shape and gathering of both tops) and panties (where the back of ours is straight and theirs is bunched up) as well as the finished ends on our strings. Also, when looking at the photo where you can see the polygons, you can clearly see that they are made differently. The form clearly shows that it is not modified and pulled around, but actually made from scratch to fit the SL mesh body.
However, even before getting a second opinion of whether or not the outfits in question were copied, we made an agreement with the Renderosity designer to remove the items from our store and marketplace. Why would Entice do that? It is simple. We took an idea that someone else had and we re-made it. The problem is not that we did this so much as the Renderosity creator has told us that it is okay if we use her ideas. But, our item looked so close to the original that she was contacted about it. This is a problem. It is a problem because when a designer can’t easily tell if something is theirs or not, it becomes difficult to know if licenses have been broken. It also becomes a question of whether or not there was an intellectual property infringement.
Normally, if there is a question about legality of a product, a DMCA will be filed by the original creator. We did NOT have a DMCA filed against us, nor were we threatened with one. Instead, because we understood that the items that we produced are too close to the original items and therefore, could cause a hardship to the original creator, we respectfully removed all items from our store that were inspired by things we saw on Renderosity. This consisted of three fantasy releases. In all honesty, because we never had any intention of purchasing the original items and then remaking them to use in Second Life, I never in my life even considered that someone might think we had. That might make me stupid or naive but it is the truth.
So once again, I would like to apologize to everyone involved. To the very sweet Renderosity designer who has fought by our side in this battle against those who would have the world thinking that we are evil and malicious, all I can say is thank you. You are the most beautiful and genuine person that I have met in a long time and I consider you to be a friend and ally. To our customers, friends and event organizers, we are sorry to have used such poor judgement in creating items that were too close to the original inspirations. We have learned a lot from this situation and in the future, will be more careful about the items that we create so that our ideas are more our own creative choices and less replicas of things we have seen elsewhere. In short, we strive to add more originality to our original mesh.
Thanks again,
Jolene Carami & Kira Paderborn
(owners of Entice)
