Please be advise that this topic is the continuation of the discussion in this topic. If you have problem understanding what's going on, I strongly suggest you to read the original topic HERE.

Bethesda Softworks Community Manager has already started legal procedure as stated under tda...



Discuss...

KILLLLLLL!

we have so far established that the guy who did this is a theiving [censored]tard of a [censored] and so many more things that will be censord.

and also, that a fat guy witth a berd in a sailor moon costume is so far beyond disturbing that sheogorath might JUST let him live for haveing a berd in the first place.

damn beat me to it... but its the thought that counts right? even if theyre thoughts of hate about some random [censored] who rips people off... i seriously hope this guy does NOT get off lightly

Watch your post people. Anger is no excuse to bypass the filter.

On topic - If he was banned from IMVU, they would ban his IP. (I'd know, because I use it) so he would not be able to return.

Fix'd

i doubt he will. so far, (if he lives in the US) he has violated SEVERAL copyright laws, and a couple outher things

Not to be the antagonist, but are we certain he's actually taking and selling the mod itself? Or is it weapon and armor names and model ideas he's ripping off and remaking them with a different engine? Sorry. I haven't read all 212 posts. Kind of a late comer into the discussion.

Hes ripping meshes and textures and rigging it to the imvu skeleton.

To clarify, imvu is a 3d chat program, where you can buy stuff for real money to put on your avatar.

Veras - From what i can see he's using my models and textures, along with other assets from mods released into this community.

He claims to have "recreated" them but i dont buy it. They're vert for vert, poly for poly, pixel for pixel the same as my stuff.

That is one image that will be burned into my retinas forever...


Take good look at his items. It's very obvious that his content is stolen. Look at the Assassin Set, and TDA's Saurion Armor if you don't believe. Heck, with enough time you could match each item to it's respective author.


You may fool the system, but the Administers aren't fools. And typically they do frown on things like that. But funk and such should be ok.

BURN THE WITCH!
What a piece of scum he is... (And a load of words that would end up censored, too.)


If you read his journal there on IMVU he claims hes only stealing the ideas. I don't know if there can be any sort of copyright on a mod idea or not so he may very well get away with this.

this is my model


http://img247.imageshack.us/my.php?image=u...led5copysw9.jpg

easy for me to see it. And now I remade that model completely in a better way, will he 'update' his work when I release it?

and he's making money, although he's not going to be rich at .37$ a piece...

yet I did the work and I never got a cent.

we SHOULD all go kill him, bu he isn't stealing ONLY the ideas, though he claims he IS. he is ACTULLY stealing the entire thing, but only claiming he's stealing the ideas because thats all he can get away with

I checked the pictures. You're right. I recognize those textures from the scythes as the originals. Lets hope Bethesda's legal guys rip this piece of crap apart.

And not to forget, he also blatantly ripped off Relic/THQ by stealing weapons and the Grey Knight and Chaplain models right out of Dawn of War/Winter Assault/Dark Crusade.

I contacted THQ about 4 hours ago, but still no response from them.


And can we please stop with the killing/hacking threats?
Call him names or whatever, but theres no need to go that far. Just let Beth and Relic have their go with him.

Death would be too quick...and murder too illegal...
It would be much more painful for him to be chucked apart by Bethesda's Lawyers.

Lets try not to get swept into a murderous rage here. Wouldn't want the Moderators to get the wrong idea. He'll get whats coming to him.

dunno about the crap, but defenatly the wallet



but death threats are FUN...

Right. *gives Kim Jong Il a call* Nuke da bastard!

A quick way we may get him if he uses the 'i took the models not the mod' getaway:

If TDA used the original scythe from the game (I saw a normal scythe in his mod and on the jerk's site) we can say he technically stole the texture, then let Beth have their way with him. Them and their dark perverted ways.


EDIT: Typo :'(

I agree that it's despicable. If he is actually using original meshes, then it is outright theft. If on the other hand he can prove that he is simply taking the idea and recreating it from scratch in a different engine, he'll most likely get away with it. From a legal standpoint, ideas as intellectual property is every lawyer's worst nightmare.

Flaw in that argument, Tda doesn't CHARGE for his mods.

Well, I hope he gets what he deserves. Jail time for many a year. I feel awful for the modders whose work he has stolen.
I certainly extend my sympathy to those of you who got ripped off.

So?

The point is tda isn't profiting off it, which is all right legally if he makes a mod for a game that let you make mods to make something already in game usable legally that all right. Now if he charged for the mod that be a no no.

The guy isn't going to get jailed or anything like that, at most he'll be banned. All i want is my work removing.

Anything that touches the CS is copyrighted to Bethesda though. Which means the guy from IMVU is selling Bethesda's property.

A swing and a miss..

The guy was saying the kid could try to weasel out by saying one of Tda Scythes wasn't made by tda, thus tda himself was breaking the law . I was pointing out! That tda doesn't charge for his mod and this is in the legal clear.

technacly, every mod created in the CS if bethesda's property, so selling ANYTHING for a TES mod is illegal, including the mod it's self.

Not 100% true, Just case tda put his armor into Oblivion CS doesn't mean the armor it self belong to Beth, But since for his armor to actually work need Beth CS system to make it move in game then correct he can not sell the mod, but if he took the armor he made to say a different game that allows you to sell mods, he could sell his armor and beth couldn't stop him the armor was made 100% by Tda.

banned definatly... not that it'll do mutch good.

if he's made any money yet, he WILL be fined because the police will probbly get involved... possible worse, depending on how mutch he made. possibly jail time, but I doubt it.

yes, if the armor it'sself never touched the CS... If it was ever actully put in game, bethesda could claim it was theirs

The sooner we can get this guy defeated the better. I don't really care if he gets jailed or not. Just that he doesn't get to do this again.

If he does it again, when he already knows not to do it, and he doesn't honestly try to set things right by taking the right steps...
Well if he does that, then I'm all for placing him behind a comfy set of bars.

Not true, If Tda Made the model AND texture those belong to TDA, No matter how hard beth might not like it that belong to him and that mesh/Texture he can use as he damn well pleases, Now any kind of mechanic such as animations, movements, so on and so forth that he used from Beth he could not of cores use again in another mod for another game.

If a Mod is created in the cs it is property of Bethsoft...If it was designed in CS editor (SCripts, Aipackages, Worldspace, etc..Stuff that the normal editor can build)..then Bethsoft ...

In the case of a model / textures and it is a 100% new model or a texture that was created with 3dmax or Blender , Photoshop etc..then it is considered property of the person who created it..And they have the legal rights for that..

You can tell from looking at the pictures that are posted on this person site and see that they are cleary using some else models and textures..Has mentioned Already...

TDA has gone through alot of work and this person is stealing his work calling it his own, and if you check his blog he clearly states that he uses stuff from other Games and Mods...and Charges a price for them..that is a big no, no...In the games business

Hopefully that person account will be banned not his ip at IMVU ..because ip address can change. Unless static ip, most ip are not..but,

TDA I hope that you can get this solved..

yeah, your right, i'm not thinking straight today.... never agin will I chug 5 cups of punch after someone warns me it's spiked...

Er... Thats what I said... already.

Your immaturity is unprecedented.


====
[twocents]
I was pretty impressed with the speed and tenacity of people on this issue. It just goes to show that internet is not as big as it seems, and if you try to cheat someone, people will find out, and you better hope they don't care. I really hope this goes out as an example to further would-be infringers. It is kind of scary though. I would venture to guess that most of us have downloaded music, TV episodes, movies, software, and/or anime before in a manner not legal. How are we any better than this person? I guess stealing from the big players is more chivalric(a la Robin Hood) than stealing content made by a servant to the people.

[/twocents]

Ugh...starting to think that people will have to put deformities on their models just to make sure no one tries to steal them. Like they did on old plastic toys by having the thumbs upside down(GI-Joe I believe). If I ever get into modelling, I know I'll mark my models with some sort of hidden mark. Maybe my name scaled down to look like a pixel or something.

That way if someone tried to simply convert my things, I can make them look like an ass by scaling up the name for all to see.

Ever head of Eric Bauman? He stole, could not prove it was his, and STILL got away with it!

Nevermind, I should've remembered the OP...

If I ever get into mods, I'll an incredibly small "Nice Try" somewhere on it.

I hit the add reply button before I saw your post



I don't think watching a TV show, or listing to music online is really hurting anyone, most of the time your only watching what you would have already seen if you had rembered to turn on your TV

no need to hide stuff in...

there's absolutely NO WAY two person can come out with the exact same mesh for a model.

and even just looking at it on a simple photo I know that he stole one of my swords, hey I built the damn thing and textured it myself, so I should know.

there's not even a question about it. He stole everything.

nobody was ever able to prove it WASN'T his eather

Ok, that [censored] does it. I am fed up with these ingrates. First I see a dozen threads on mod pirates. Then i see people saying the IC expanded project should be stopped. I am not in the mood to have some cretin steal IC expanded and sell it or post a topic on how my mod sucks like one of our mebers did about Bartholm. I already have had a few people tell me that IC expanded project is stupid and should not be made as it insults gamers and Bethesda. Should we just put the Project to persona use. i mean really, we work hard and then we would eighter have our od pirated or criticized on a forum which woul lead to hate mail. It is a real connundrum.

Except Newgrounds, YTMND, and everyone else he stole from. He looked through everything and got rid of anything incriminating. He then claimed it.

Here is a link that shows his email addresses as well as his face.

http://ace-angel.deviantart.com/

You could email him with your thoughts on this, although I would advise against hate-rants.... I think it's far more powerful when someone writes a mature thoughtful kick-in-the-ass

J

er- double posted when trying to edit. Sorry.

His face has creep written all over it

Downloading, not watching. Old Napster vs. Youtube.

===
I don't want to start a digression on the legality(there are other forums for that) of it[downloading], just mentioning the similarity between the two acts.

Thats blatantly wrong.
He should just take them down without a fight, so much easier oneveryone.

Also, TIME PARADOX

I know I know. It would be a just in case thing. Like if someone knew how to rearrange vertexes and keep the general shape, all while keeping the textures in place. Like some sort of 3d Subdivide/Deteriorate master.

That way, if he tried to be smug and say it was his because the mesh was slightly different but not exactly the same, I could find my secret name and nail him dead in a lie. The only problem I would see is preventing the name from getting garbled as well. If only there was a secret watermark option, now there would be something cool to have!

do what you want to, do what you think is good. People who tell you you shoulden't should be given a swift kick in the ass.



...well, he's a real basterd, huh?



ooooo..... well, so long as noone is selling it... lol

Who ever the owner of an mod is, only Beth and no one else is allowed to charge money for mod`s.

That is a pretty significant difference[downloading and selling vs. downloading]. I can't believe I completely overlooked it.

That's actually a very good idea, I know if I actually did work like this I would attempt to do something of that nature.

You just gave me a great idea.
Modders, listen up, I think we can catch this guy. I don't know if hes keeping an eye on this so post here if you're willing to listen to my plan and I'll drop you a PM.

i'm interested.

Hmmm?

I have a screencap of his IMVU and DA page incase he decides to nuke the offending "submissions"

is this thread dead?

do the japanese torture put shards of bamboo and smash them under his finger nails

no, though it DOES sound very effective

sorry the Reaper in me came out

Well i never intended this thread to get as crazy as it has, i was just hoping to give everyone a heads up to the situation. It turns out more than just mine and cultbrain's stuff was ripped so it was a good job i posted it, and it looks as if perhaps it spurred beth into action as well, who knows.

Either way all that can be done now is to sit and see what happens. I certainly won't be losing any sleep over it, but i hope the people who can do something about it, do something about it.

Well said my friend, but a public flogging and then followed by traditional drawn and quartering would be adequate.\

But I hate theft in any form.

Sry to hear about your stuff tda, and anyone else whoes stuff was stolen, i recognize the masks but dont remember the creator.

If Beth cant do anythgin about your stuff, they sure can do something about the DarkBrotherhood armor that hes using, because that is a direct model from Bethesda.

Id love to be at their office and listen in on whats going on.

*imagines a bunch of guys quietly sitting at a bunch of desks, one of them trying to contact the IMVU people and worrying even more about what the guy next to him did to his coffee when he wasn't looking*

Well...

Ontopic: Any updates?

Exactly. Has anybody sent a pm to Gstaff about this?

Gstaff hasn't been online since he said that we was talking to the legal department this afternoon. (Atleast I don't believe he came back online). So we are just waiting for the news. Probably won't be for a day or two unfortunately.

What a wanker. And his "I'm innocent" post proves he's a moron too.

It should be pretty easy to prove that a mesh is a stolen or derived work, simply by studying the vertex relationships. Even if effort has been made to hide it, meshes become almost like a fingerprint based on the work done to them and the techniques used. Textures can easily be differenced in almost any image manipulation program.

Yeah I didn't see the initial post unitl after I asked. It's what I get for not reading the post fully before I post.

If he's talking to legal, That guy on IMVU will wished he charged a whole more than a few cents, cuz he'll have one very hole in his pocket.

Awsome.. so happy Beth is stepping in.. i hope this guy gets screwed over

It'll be worse. He doesn't actually get money, but he gets credits, which can only be bought with money otherwise, so they are basically IMVU's currency. (cannot be turned from credits to money though)

As such, if he actually gets sued, he'll be banned from IMVU (IP blocked) for violating their TOS, and he will also have to pay lots of money out of his pocket, none of which came from what scraps he was making on IMVU to start.

Simply put, he's not actually making money, so the damage will be even more when/if he gets sued.

(before you say anything, I'm not suggesting not making real money < actually making money, or that what he did was not that bad. He deserved to be strung up, or thrown in the slammer with that sailor moon guy for a few years... that'll learn him)

Serves him right!

Oh yes, I just realized something... Bethesda actually does have partial ownership of the models made for their game . (By modders, that is) Unrigged, they own no part of it, but once rigged, they own part of it, due to you using their skeleton. So, infact, bethesda can get involved, not only in the dark brotherhood stuff, but all of the oblivion modder models, as they used their skeleton rig, which he ripped apart to suit IMVU.

So sue more Bethesda, sue more! Make this guy your [censored]!

Wow this is the first time I am cheering for the big faceless cooperation as opposed to the little guy

The little guy normally isn't a criminal stealing from modders who work hard for the community for no profit, though, so its understandable.

I think in this case the big faceless corporation just became our friend.

This is just disgusting, I can't believe how low some people will go just to make a few bucks. I sincerely hope this guy gets whats coming to him. I have made a few mods but nothing big worth stealing or selling, so I don't know how it feels to get my work stolen like that. I'm very glad to see that Bethesda is doing something about this.

Looks like the guy blocked access to his page with an access pass. Anyone here happen to use IMVU and have one so you can monitor what hes up to?

Well of course I do and of course I can.

In addition to blocking the page, he also deleted all of the messages left on his page. Somehow I suspect I'm not the only one with an access pass that's keeping an eye on him though.

And I think I'll take this time to do away with all this subterfuge nonsense. If AceAngel hasn't figured out that I'm Schadeljager by now then he truly is dense, but there's no reason for pretenses now.

I've been keeping an eye on him for some time now, ever since I saw the Warhammer 40K stuff he "created", but it wasn't until he ripped TDA's stuff off that I saw the chance to completely catch him out for his plagiarism. I'm really glad everybody's worked to pull this together, identify the other mods that have been stolen from and also bring this to the attention of Bethsoft and possibly other companies involved. This is one of the main reasons this forum community exists; not just so modders can give us all kinds of shiny goodies to play with but so we players can give support back to them whenever we can. Damn fine job folks.

I think he bot banned from IMVU already. I get an error page when going to his product list and home page. the "Unable to find page" type of error.

A new thread. Alot happens since I was last here.
My comments on his homepage were removed as I knew they'd be. Oooh, it looks like Ace has locked down his homepage. Only those with an access pass can get in. Lucky for me I have an access pass Although I haven't used the site for ages (since it was first launched) so don't know if it applies to other user's pages as well as the adult-related stuff I originally bought it for

We shall see...

Edit: I'm in. So the access pass I bought way back whenever is still valid. Coolies

Hm, IMVU is kinda fun... I would like it if it weren't for that horrid blog integration. I have enough journals to keep track of as it is, and the fact that you have to pay for credits, WoW sucks up all my money...
Anyways, there is a point to this post. IMVU will probably start paying attention if everyone with an account flags his items as a copyright violation.

IMVU was fun, when it first came out. I made some things for it, and only recently got a PM from the admin saying my eye and hair sets violated their mature content policy. I don't see how. They received a lovely reply from me. The truth is I disabled them because they were boring, and not very good. They tried to say that they disabled them for some violation. I can think of plenty of other add-ons that are definitely breaking the rules...the reason for this thread for example.

I just prefer faceless MSN now

Yeah, nothing beats the simplicity and ease of use of a classic IM, anyway. Oh, I think I've derailed the topic, a bit eh?

That person is lower than whale poop!

oh my god...what a jerk O_O, and to think people actually get fooled thinking he made this stuff and they're buying it from this jerk...i'm sorry to hear about this guys >_<.

These threads fill up with crap to much. Any more official updates from the legal team or mods? Do they even plan to keep us updated since it was a community user who spotted this theft?

I doubt Bethesda will have any word until the work day starts today at the earliest. The legal guys are getting up having their breakfast right around now, most likely.

According to the Berne Convention, you are entitled to damages, up to 110,000 USD. This same goes for that guy who tried to sell our content on eBay.
I am currently seeking out lawyers who will take the cases.

I bet if the guy read that, it'd scare him the [censored] out of him.

I'm sure Relic would take an interest in this as well, those Grey Knight and Chaplain sets are without a doubt from Dawn of War (I know, I own all the DoW games and play Eldar or SMurfs all the time)

I have a great desire to see this guy slammed with a lawsuit, it's despicable that he should get away with plagiarising, and make money out of it at the same time (From Non-profit mods or games that people actually spent a large amount of time working on)

Do you want to contact relic about it? I'm sure they'd love to know.

I can try, but I'm not sure how I would word it....

The major tell though is the quality of the models and the textures. I'm fairly certain the Warhammer Weapons are also from Dawn of War.

I contacted THQ yesterday, but Relics homepage is a little...empty. So I couldn't find any email or so. But since THQ is the publisher, they might have some interest of slapping him in the face with a wet noodle.

I really doubt that any big company is going to want to get involved in a lawsuit over this. A cease & desist letter is the most he'll likely see, unless he's even more foolish, considerably more foolish, than I already think he is, and decides to ignore the cease & desist letter.


Actually, according to the CS's EULA, Bethesda does claim the rights to every asset used in a mod. Wouldn't stand for a second in court, but the claim is there. I believe the idea is that it's to prevent you from offering a .esp for free, and then charging for the models and textures or whatever.

This has got to be one of the worst things I've ever read about here on the forums. That guy is just low and I truly feel sorry for the modders who's work he is stealing for profit.

I reposteth my song now.

Once upon a time
On the internet
There was a guy
A convict from a manger
They called him the AceAngel
He was a total ass hole
And nobody knows why

He traveled all around
On release of each damn awesome mod
From Tanzit set on to Glass Scythe
With his sex slave Bill St. Smythe
He stole and stuck it all on IMVU.com

It wasn't fair
To those
From whom he stole
But did he care?
No, not
One bit
And then he had the nads
to screw
young lads!
What a piece of [censored]!
AceAngel

Ace is quite a [censored]
Other people's work has made him rich
He hired some male prostitutes
Dressed them up in 3 piece suits
His faithful team of lawyers
Made the Internet his [censored]

Till all us came along
Hit him with a rake
and banged his mom
And Mr. Angel, quite disgraced
Had all his products erased
Well, sadly, that's a lie
They're still on IMVU[dot]com

But if we all join hands
And sing this song
Then our call will reach the sky
And maybe Zeus and Thor
Will smite that [censored]
Well, it's worth a try

OH,
AceAngel
Is going down
We've got to rise up from the underground
And show AceAngel
A thing or two
About how stealing simply isn't cool
Right now we're making that our mission
And if that bastard doesn't listen
Then we'll get sick of being lawful
And brand his ass with
Something Awful!

Does it go to the tune of anything, any song I might know?

--

He has some male and female skins up as well, and I scrutinised as much as I could (I'm no expert) and hoped they weren't Exnem's or Robert's. Put onto an IMVU model, thing, I can't really tell. I sure hope not, though.
I didn't look through all the stuff on his page but recognised quite a few things.

Someone earlier posted his Deviant Art page. Is it definitely him? If so, is there somewhere to leave comments
Although things are probably now being done to sort him out so I'll watch and wait in anticipation over his demise.

wow, what a [censored].



I can't believe someone would be so lame and actually do this.

Cleitanious says " YEEEEEAAAAAAARRRRRG!!!"

Thank you TDA for exposing this thief and Brandon for pointing it out to me, he's selling at least six of my masks and like you I'd like to see my work removed from his list.
You have my total support... He better be crawling under a rock!

It's the tune of eBaum's World Dot Com. Look for it on Newgrounds.

Tell Cleitanious "Amen to that." and say it's from 1337M347

No, this was worse
eBay
From what I gleaned from this post, this sorry SOB is not quite as bad as the other SOB.
I’m not defending the SOB but just pointing out that this SOB is not directly taking Oblivion material & selling it for the Oblivion game.
This new SOB is using Oblivion modder’s files to create something for another program / application the IMVU 3d avatar. I admittedly don’t understand or know about IMVU & don’t really want to, whats important to me is this new SOB is ripping off modder’s stuff.
I do find some comfort after reading some of the post that they are going to roast this new SOB.

I can't seem to register an account, all I want to do is flag his stuff, but oh well. (Figure enough of us do it, as mentioned, something has to come of it. )

Off topic but I bet Jack Thompson would say something like this regarding the situation: SEE! VIDEO GAMES TRAINED HIM TO PIRATE THE MODELS AND NOW HE IS EXPLOITING THEM! AND VIDEO GAMES ALSO TRAINED THE REST TO GANG UP ON HIM!!!!!!!


Back on topic...was he banned or something?

I disagree. The other guy never claimed that he had made the files. This guy is claiming all of the credit as well as making money. That's worse, IMO.

lol i think the guy is upset ;p

can still access the page we linked, but if you try to go to his homepage you get

I thought the other guy did claim to have made some stuff, must have been mistaken.
But I know Bethesda is more interested in him (her) because I heard they were selling official plug-ins.
Anyway, they all need to be stopped ASAP, I think it’s cool that this site has a hand in that.

Ugh...don't even bring up Jack Thompson. Some people are just too stupid even for life.

The guy would blame Pong for gang violence if he could...

I'm shocked no one gone to the IMVU forum and posted a link to this guy work and the mods he stole them from.

Vetto, usually the person making such a posting in the IMVU forums would see the topic closed very quickly and possibly get TOSed for flaming another user. That's one of the reasons I came to TDA first. In order to get anything done about it, it really has to be the original creators of whatever material that's been stolen that contact IMVU about it.

the internet is for porn lol






eMail THE BASTERD!!!!!!!!!!



that guys gonna have his own speical place in hell.

"This avatar homepage is unavailable" hmm?

I hope this is stopped immediately by bethesda

At least his IMVU page is gone now.

its still there, as are his items.

I get a 404 styled page with the words "This Avatar homepage is unavailable." message in the middle.

works here, even tried it in IE as ive never tried it on there before n it works there too.

He access blocked it. You need to be 18+ and own a 20$ access pass now to view it.

yeh, the link on the first post still takes you to his items tho, n they still show.

he prolly blocked it due to the massive amounts of abusive comments he got left

Yeah, he apparently deleted all of the comments myself and the others left, as well. I've reported all his items I know are stolen multiple times and IMVU is still not doing anything.
Anyone heard from Gstaff?

I've recieved an email back from clare@imvu.com. I won't go into details, but it would appear that they are more than happy to accept a filled in and completed DMCA Takedown Template via e-mail. I'm filling it in now, and just uploading all relevant evidence they need to see i am telling the truth.

With any luck, it should be cleared up by the end of the week. Hooray for the little man!

Edit : Waalx, if you want your models removing by sending this guy a takedown notice you will need to email clare@imvu.com with the same sentiments i have, complete with a filled in template. If you want to see how i've worded my email/template, just PM me.

The same goes to anyone who's models may be up there, including cultbrain if he's around. I REALLY don't want his sauron set to stay on there, it's too pretty. If anyone knows/has seen him, point him to me please.

-------------
I also have a nice contingency plan as well, should this not go through, and should that assasin armour not be bethesda's mesh.

As some of you might recall, when i made the original scythes i used base textures of wood which shipped with oblivion (for the handles), and they are a large part of my texture file. This technically means bethesda legally owns that section of my texture map, the texture map that he is selling.

If he has indeed ripped the model directly, bethesda could well sink ther teeth into him for that.

I sent them a mail yesterday in the mist of it still didn't got an answer though, but I didn't had that form either I just sent them a word and a link to compare my release and 'his'..

The thing is, he isn't supposed to make cash on a Conan sword! who would do this? it's already a famous trademark item. it could go to the Conan estate or whoever hold the design rights as well if I wanted to stir trouble..

I'll check out that form, thanks

edit: ah seems I just got the answer from imvu. hehe

Thanks for following up on my message to you about all this, TDA. IMVU is pretty overrun with untalented wankers stealing the work of others but what really made this bad was not that it was so blatant but that it was work made by very talented folks who never expected to turn a cent of profit off it. You, Waalx, cultbrain and anyone else he's stolen from gave us the products of your talents. You expected nothing in return for it except the appreciation you obviously deserve. For this little turd to turn around and not only steal it but then claim it as his own is disgusting.

Does make me feel pretty good to have helped do something about it though.

glad the site is at lest THINKING of doing something about it mabye.

like i already posted on tda's thread

SUE THE NUB!!

Then beat him with a salami.

Any new news on that, have they done anything?

They haven't got back to me about whether or not the DMCA doc i sent is up to snuff with their requirements, if they don't get back in the next day or two i'm just going to print it and sign it, and send the scan. Then if i STILL don't hear anything and his page is still selling the stuff after a few more days, i'm going to say that i contacted a solicitor about it and they should be expecting a letter.... but i doubt it will get that far.

Hopefully this mess gets cleared up.

Such a distasteful business. I really don't understand how IMVU got so popular, and again, why some a-hole thought he'd get away with theft.

I bet he's even read this thread.

Hope IMVU grabs the cash he's made back from him, and Bethesda goes after him.

I'd love to see some punk get "Punkbuster'd" to quote Quake Fans.

It's been said before... but this is pretty low. I recognise the Swords of the Father... were they proprietary work aswell? The guy should be stopped... maybe not in some the ways listed here... but stopped anyway.

Hope this gets resolved promptly.

If Beth's legal is looking into this or perhaps even pursuing it we are not likely to see any further comments unfortunately. Lawyers do love to work in "stealth mode". Hopefully they will contact TDA and other affected modders at some point, although that might not even be necessary. If they are actually forging ahead then they have my respect for protecting the community that they created and the countless hours that these amazing modders have poured into their wonderful creations.

Good luck to all - I'm hoping this fellow gets exactly what he deserves.

Better than that. He hasn't made money. Hes got credits form this which cost money to buy but can't be exchanged back into money, the way I understand it.
If Bethesda goes after him he'll lose money that he hasn't even made.

=D

good... but will he be hit with a large hammer?

That's all I want to know.

Will they hit this a-hole with a megaton hammer or not?

its called "cat o' nine tails"

on the sauron armor, The greeves and gauntlets (oh and the boots too) are 95% bethesda meshes iirc. just retexured and a few spikes added. so this dude is not just messing with modders, he's poking a very large legal snake pit with a short stick.

I really hope you're referencing what I think you're referencing.


While I don't know what 'it' you could possibly be referring to, since no one has mentioned a whip of any kind, much less a cat o' nine tails, that's still an excellent, albeit biblical, idea.

Wow, some people just need to be euthanized. Or perhaps that's too humane? Stealing from a modder and trying sell it is pretty low. I can't imagine how this guy thought he was going to get away with this. And come on, 0.37$ a pop? These works are worth way more! tda, waalx, and others I hope you can get this all sorted out without too much trouble, and I hope that AceAngel gets royally [censored]!


Wow, what a [censored] moron.

Kinky.

Hah I once knew him on deviantART, he was pretty friendly... I don't like him anymore.

i noticed he is using assets from Dawn Of War (THQ, Relic), it would be best to contact THEIR legal departments as they have much leverage over small sites like this.

Yeah then we can lead a Black Crusade against him, and scream, "FOR DA WAAAAAAAGH!!!"

Ugh.. This is what kills modding and might keep good modders from releasing their work. Idiot's like this should just go into a coma for a few years >_>

wow, what an [censored],
this is seriously one of the worst things i have ever read on theese forums
Hope that [censored] goes to hell.

agreed!

YAY!!!!!!!!! EVERYONES ANGRY AGIN! I LOVE MOBS!!!! here comes the death threats and assassian contracts! OK! LETS ALL GET DRUNK AND KICK SOME ASS!!!!!!!!!!

WOOT!!!!! lol

Aye, if the [sarcasm] spectacular [/sarcasm] horse armor DLC sold for 2$ imagine what their mods would be worth (I would personally be willing to pay ALLOT more than 37 cents, at least 6$ or more)

Is he the one who tried to claim one of the Unique Landscapes mods as his own? I think I heard about him before. A word of warning to said plaigariser...THE ANCIENT SPIRITS OF THE UNIQUE LANDSCAPE AREAS HAVE PLAGUED YOU WITH A HEX...FEEL THAT ITCH THAT JUST WON'T GO AWAY FROM THAT SENSITIVE SPOT ON YOUR BODY? JUST WAIT UNTIL YOU GO OUT IN PUBLIC...YOU WILL BECOME THE LAUGHING STOCK OF EVERYONE!!!

What's the word on this jerk lately?

I don't think theirs any news... eather they did something or diden't.

If his items site is still up it means they didn't do anything. This is all really going to depend on how reputable IMVU wants to be. If IMVU is a one or two man "garage" roody-poo operation..they probably won't do anything because they don't care and don't understand the legal issues. If they are an actual brick and mortar company then they should have already dealt with this issue, considering how big the legal ramifications are. All in all...I have a feeling IMVU is nothing more than the one or two man show running a hosted site on someone elses bandwidth, with a rinky dink avatar program on top of a IM platform. This has gone on far too long, and the fact that complaints have to be sent in in writing means the company lacks any kind of structure for dealing with these kinds of intellectual theft as far as I'm concerned.

EDIT: Just checked his items link and yep..he's still up and selling, so it seems IMVU really doesn't give a crap about blatant intellectual property theft. It's probably going to take some serious legal pressure to get them to move, because they obviously won't do the right thing on their own. Let's just hope Bethesda and THQ get involved, otherwise I doubt any modders are going to afford the legal bills necessary to get this AceAngel assclown shut down.

seriously though, a friend of mine ended up with a few viruses on windows install disk through shere [censored] luck... so anyone know this guy's Email?
and mabye the Email of the place allowing this to go on?

(might be an empty threat but then agin...)

I honestly do not think that Bethesda will NOT do anything. Beth has made way too much to not defend their work; I'm pretty darn sure that Beth will defend the models that he is selling. And I get the feeling that the idiot will hide behind a lawyer. The fact that I'm no longer able to access his profile tells me that he might have already been contacted with a "cease and desist" order, and is probably on defense. (meaning he ain't cease and desisting) We're looking at a fight here. A fight that Beth will leave the sucker drowning in the deep end of the pool with some really big holes in his pockets.

I hope the poor guy doesn't mind parting with his life savings.

It turns my stomach to read what this guy did stealing other peoples work!

Worse, he deleted all the posts made on his IMVU page where we warn people of his thievery (or he blocks us) and then he made it so we can't access the page.

He hopes to silence us and that we will just go away, but here's another idea how we can Protest against him!

Correct me if I'm wrong because I don't know IMVU at all...

We need someone here who already has an IMVU account.

Make a new character or account called TESModders or something.

Make our own IMVU page where we can explain in the blog that this guy is a thief, exactly who's work he took, comparison pictures, etc...Advertise this page well within IMVU.
Then to be more of a pain to him...(first contact each Oblivion Modder who was robbed and get their permission to do this) buy a sample of the Oblivion Modder's work he stole directly from his page, then turn around and sell it on the TESModders IMVU page for $00.00 with explanations that we offer it free to protest against the work he stole and is selling (and we would show credit to the original creator of the work). In this way, we kick him where it hurts (his sales) and advertise that this guy is a thief. No one will want to buy the stolen works from him if they can get it for free from the original creators.

If he tries to complain, delete his posts and block him. Also, he can’t very well complain to IMVU about what we take back from him and resell since we would have the original creator’s permission.

Again, this could only be done with the original Oblivion Modder’s permissions.

Just be careful that any works stolen back from him and offered for free do not contain any original Bethesda models or textures so there is no trouble with Bethesda.

Anyhow, it's just an idea. I think that the complaints to Bethesda, IMVU and the other companies whos work he stole was the right thing to do.

Sounds like a good idea to me Xiamara, hopefully, someone will run with it.

Hmm, a TESModders account, where all the files he stole are made available for free... that kind of rips the rug right out from under that moron's feet now doesn't it? I don't know anything about the site, but if there are forums or something, be sure to get the word out. Also, anyone here who has an IMVU account should alert people to the fact that he's a thief. Don't wait for the laywers, destroy him in his own community, both by eliminating his credibility, and making the models he stole available for free.

I don't have an account, unfortunately, and i don't know my way around the site. The ideas in this thread, and the post above mine require someone who knows what they're doing. I just hope there's an IMVU user on BSF who can tell you guys how the system works so that you can put your models up, destroy the thief, ect

Some people just suck, and that's all there is to it

I found an unofficial IMVU forum Prehaps someone could ask around on there and spread the word? Contact the moderators or whatnot, and get a stickied thread alerting everyone that there's a thieveing *#@$% running loose on IMVU

I browsed that forum for about 30 seconds and lost close to 40 IQ points... It's nothing but a gaggle of horny high-schoolers looking for sleazy VSex hookups and a wankfest to see who can be the most "Emo"...

In other words don't waste your time posting there..if you aren't talking about sex, goth chicks, or GG Allin then no one is going to understand what you wrote.

Seniosh, I like your idea of exposing this guy as a thief in his own community. I agree with you that we really need an experienced IMVU user who could help us fight this guy on his own turf. Otherwise, what you said about advertising that this guy is a thief on IMVU Forums I think is also a great idea.

Trith. hmm it kind of shows the type of moron we must be dealing with. eh?

Well regardless of the kind of community we might be dealing with on IMVU, I still hope we may at least annoy. irritate and inconvenience this guy by not going away.

Well. One of us could make an account called sexygothchick112232 and pretend we want to cyber then tell people to spread the word and say that doing so is uber-emo.
That'd probably work.

Wow... that forum is worse than i thought. Should've browsed it before soiling the good name of BSF with the link there. I sincerely hope all of IMVU isn't like that. If they are, nothing will work, ever. There are 7 million people who use the program, so lets pray that some of them have enough intellect to care about thievery. You could still try posting on that forum, though i wouldn't want to be caught with an account there...

I don't think that buying the stuff from him and offering it free to IMVU users is a good idea. Many of those models use Bethesda assets, and we know that they are not going to give permission.

thats not really a good idea, dispite your willingness to offer them free, you are paying him to buy them and so aiding his cause

I agree with DragoonWraith and Refraction, that seems like it would only make the problem worse.

Good point.

=D

Anyway, guys, if you want to start an advertising campaign against this guy I created the account:
http://www.imvu.com/catalog/web_mypage.php?user=15309631

PM me for the password.

Any word on what Legal did with the notification? Because it's awfully quiet...

Thats how anything legal tends to work.

Reading through this topic, I can understand your anger. However, Bethesda legal are aware of the situation, let them deal with it. The official forum will not be used as a source of death threats or organised attacks.

Please take care with the content of posts.

I hope this doesn't sound stupid...
Is organizing people to spread awareness to IMVU users allowed?

After reading what the average IMVU user is all about, I highly doubt they would even care. But who knows...

Awareness is fine, as long as that is all - eh?

I have to say, though, I think that is the best written Rules thread I have ever seen. Interesting, that. Apparently the administration/moderation staff is not nearly as stupid.

Sex and goth chicks? What's the url for that message board again?

(kidding...just KIDDING!)

No kidding. One look onto their General Discussion thread and I thought I was back in high school. It shows in their moderation team and their rules. Some of the locked thread that I read revealed some of the toughest moderators I've seen. And as such, if we posted something about this, it would have little effect as it would probably get locked very fast. PM'ing their moderators would have a greater effect in my opinion.



Sorry, but my cyber days are over. And I don't go the emo crud, I go for the goths.



Agreed. Their Moderation is one of the most prepared moderation teams I've seen. And that forum needs it.

Bethesda-1, noob haxxorz-0

That forum made me want to punch someone.

Of course with the little friend there who was ripping everyones mods and making them his own, it would not surprise me to find someone else, one of those IMVU "merchants, modders or whatever", that have decided to do the same thing as buddy guy did there. Anyone else bother checking other IMVU members while they were at it?

Actually, I can't find it, but I could have sworn I saw several recolourings (and the original) of glass armour in the catalog (by another user, that is)

Whilst ripping off modders work is more a moral thing than a legal thing, hes definitely put himself in the firing line by trying to sell it.

Even if its inspired by content created using Bethesdas tools, its still illegal. Its all in the legal disclaimer for the game and construction set - which he obviously didnt read... or possibly cant!

And since Bethesda is now aware of his actions...


I'm guessing that this guy is going to be full of legal bullet holes before the day is done.

going to that site made me remember why I hate almost everyone at my highschool.



lol



most people only use 10% o their brain. where talking about the people who use just enough to not be considered vegitables here.



most of us are just joking around with the death threats and such, I doubt anyone is going to Email a hacker group or hire an assassian... lol



is it OK i we all make this guy VERY aware of the fact the we're all pissed?



i DID punch someone. hope I didn't break their nose...

I still have screenshots of this guy's main IMVU page.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d19/chri.../ace-angel2.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d19/chri...n/ace-angel.jpg

Second link contains email contacts.

The more I read through his profile on hi5 (obtained through the second screenie) the more I realized that this guy (or kid for that matter) is very stuck up. It's very obvious, this is the type of guy that most people do not like. You know that "I'm god and you're nothing" manner of thinking.

Just something I noticed.

Is anything been done about this? Its been a while since this first happened, if Beth is going to act they should have by now.

All the more satisfying for when this pompous ass is brought down.

Who's god NOW?


Legal action is never simple.

I have an IMVU account, and can access his page, as I have an access pass. I also have just over 7,000 credits. I'd posted a few warnings on his IMVU page...all deleted now, of course. If I could get him to chat to me I'd beat the crap out of him...because you can do that
Well, I'm up for your suggestion. I don't use it to chat or buy stuff anymore, as all my online friends just use MSN Messenger. I used IMVU when it was first launched but it didn't take long for the novelty to wear off. Especially as the first person I chatted to beat me up just to test out the new features

Yeah. Well, it was a good idea in theory.

I have a blog entry on my IMVU page. He even visited it himself I hope he also visited this series of threads.

If he did visit this board and read this thread, all it probably did was boost his ego.

If he is really in Libia as he says, he is pretty much untouchable. Last I heard, US and Libia don't have any "formal" relations, putting him basicly out of the reach of the long arm of the law. It would be easier to pursue legal action against him if he were in China.

edit: typo

I have to agree about this, which is why it annoys me so much. The guy thinks so much of himself to post blogs asking the public to wait and explaining his absenses etc, as if he has adoring fans (no pun intended).

He needs to step away from his computer and realise there is a world outside, and to stop stealing other people's stuff in order to make people on the internet like him more, like it even matters.

I see his E-Mail.
Lets spam bomb him

No, no, we would never do that.

Anyone knows one of those enlargement sites where you have to fill in your email?

My Hotmail junk folder should have oodles. It's considered polite to share...I might share my junk mail

Lets not reduce ourselves to that level. I tend to think of the users of this forum as more respectable than that. Though it's really really tempting to spam him I must admit.

Any news or updates on if/when legal action will be taken, or if/when the downloads will be taken off IMVU? or even any news on awareness in the community.

I don't know if this has already been brought up, but we should alert Bethesda. He's using the Shrouded armor mesh and making money off of it, which is clearly copyright infringement. Now Bethesda can't sue you because you simply altered the color for the existing item (I assume that you did indeed make the edit for the armor) and used it without charge as free-ware additions to their game. And they at least acknowledge the modding community, otherwise they wouldn't release the construction sets. Forget killing him, let him rot in jail (in addition to loosing everything) after getting sued by a corporation. We should also involve IMVU legally. They should have to pay reperations or something. Or at least do more background research on what the custom materials look like and where they come from.

read the whole thread

edit: Also, don't blame IMVU. Blame AceAngel... they did not upload it, he did... their catalog works like Tessource. no moderation on uploads. They do, however, look through the catalog and remove offending items. I doubt they play TES so they wouldn't recognize the armour

I used to go to IMVU, it's a pretty cool place when I wanna chat, so let's not blame the site.

besides, wouldn't they need the knowledge of Oblivion? If they don't know, then they can only rely on members to tell them.

But I do think the guy who's doing this needs to stop and get a life seriously

done.


the sholder-angel parody:

angel- we must forgive
devil- kick his ass!
me- sounds fun.
angel- you musen't
devil- he called your halo 'master cheif'
angel- lets fry that basterd!



should i do a serch?

on another note... do we need a new thread?

Closed for post count. Start a new thread if (and only if) you have something constructive to add: information on making complaints through proper channels, positive identification of plagiarized artwork, evidence that Bethsoft or aggrieved modders may be able to use. Please don't use another thread to continue any discussion of how to retaliate outside proper channels, such as spamming the plagiarizer: that's stooping to his level.