Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar..

"Who me, couldn't be.. then who?"

What a night at the Lab I've had dear reader.

What started with a gentle mob beating down the doors to check out the premiere release of the A.D.D. Chav Outfit turned into a very long and twisted tell all tale.

Now before anyone starts pointing fingers, let it be noted that there's a new and powerful creative force at work within Second Life which some of you may be familiar with.. to avoid excess verbiage and profanity we'll call it "innovation".

The friendly people at Linden Lab saw this coming well before the first virtual dawn and had a team of lawyers draft up a lengthy and obtusely interwoven string of legal jargon called the "Terms of Service" with a special section (3.2-3.4) dedicated to Intellectual Property, Trademarks and Patent Claims (or the lack thereof).

If you're not familiar with the TOS, it's a fun read if you have a few days to spare and retain a law office to walk you through it... now back to our story.

My personal introduction to this story starts with finding our head designer in tears and ready to resign from SL because one of her favorite designers showed up at the Lab claiming that she had ripped off her design.

Not little claims like.. "hey, that's kind of similar to my stuff." but big capital claims with multiple exclamation marks like:

[21:08] Kioko Kumaki: look
[21:08] Kioko Kumaki: i dont appreciate you ripping me off
[21:10] Kioko Kumaki: i just happen to runinto your sotre.. and there it is .. MY SHIT!
[21:14] Anti Destiny: Hi Kioko! Umm.. i dunno exactly what to say. You're like my idol. There's no denying that you're like my muse and inspiration, but I've put alot of work into making my stuff unique. I'm not trying to swipe your stuff
[21:15] Kioko Kumaki: BULL SHIT!

Here's where it gets good and you'll understand later, but for now enjoy the foreshadowing. You can't even buy drama this bittersweet at the super market checkout counter:

[21:15] Kioko Kumaki: you have a prim replicator .. and used it on my shit .. and added a bit of your own!
[21:15] Anti Destiny: i spent two weeks making that skirt perfect mathematically symmetrical.. i'm not going to argue with you.
[21:15] Anti Destiny: i have no such thing
[21:15] Anti Destiny: i made it by hand
[21:15] Kioko Kumaki: crap!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's watched Anti slaving away at her creations for hours on end in that little sky box she stays locked up in. She refuses to use the Prim Finder let alone a building script, the notion of her using something more nefarious is laughable to say the least.

I'll spare you the diatribe of placated harassment and skip to the part were our fashion designer shows up to be met by Kioko and her pack of not totally in agreement "supporters":

[21:18] Cyia Kanami: well as the pics rezz for me im not seeing anything exact except the prims its self
[21:18] Kioko Kumaki: destiy this is bull shit
[21:18] Anti Destiny: wow hi all ^.^
[21:19] Kioko Kumaki: you added shit to MY SHIT to call it your own!?>
[21:19] Anti Destiny: it's similar but it's not identical.. i created every object from scratch
[21:19] Anti Destiny: like i said i'll give you a copy to compare.
[21:20] Kioko Kumaki: heres how i know its mine and a relpilcated copy
[21:20] Anti Destiny: i love your work kioko
[21:20] Anti Destiny: and i'll take it down if it offends you
[21:20] Kioko Kumaki: the top of your belt bucckle is missing the not that i didnt place on some of my older copys
[21:21] Anti Destiny: i don't understand the buckle bit.. it's a transparent alpha made by Starship Jefferson one sec sweetie.
[21:22] Kioko Kumaki: no im talking about the .. buckle .. look .. older peices on the bigger skirts i made have a prim ball .. but the smaller ones on the older ones DO NOT due to .. size limtations..
[21:23] Kioko Kumaki: till i replaced it on newer ones.. ...
[21:23] Kioko Kumaki: you how ever have bought ALOT of my shit.. to include older stuff and now i see this ?

I don't know exactly how many outfits Anti has bought at Kioko's store but I do know they start around $500 or so and go upto about $1000 a piece. Any of the readers out there that are on speaking terms with Anti also know that she used to proudly brag about owning almost everything in Kioko's store. It's ashame that the value of her investment is about to bottom out.

[21:23] Anti Destiny: i changed the price to $0
[21:23] Anti Destiny: can you get a free copy?
[21:24] Kioko Kumaki: i dont want a copy of shit i have in my inventory .. thiose legwarmers are a STRAIGHT UP RIP!

OMG... I can't believe she actually said that -Remember, foreshadowing- I can't wait to share with you what I discovered. But I figured it's best to share all the juicy gossip first.

[21:24] Anti Destiny: i'm not disputing that it's similar..
[21:24] Anti Destiny: hmm.. they're closer to deviant kitties eskimo warmers
[21:25] Anti Destiny: would you prefer me to model the outfit so you can compare in world then?
[21:25] Anti Destiny: they are not identical by any means
[21:25] Anti Destiny: similar for sure.
[21:25] Anti Destiny: as i said your stuff is definitely my inspiration

Oh ouch, that must of hit too close to home.. little did our Anti know how right she was- but fear not for all is about to be revealed shortly.

[21:26] Kioko Kumaki: you know what destiny .. Im through with this I know what you did .. and you know what you did .. how ever.. dont come in my fucking store agian

OK.. I'm sure, you the reader are not fully aware of the extent to which guilt induced paranoia was fueling this conversation and neither was Anti which is the main reason she took it all to heart.

The thing is.. I know what Kioko did-
On Oct. 10th 2007 to be specific.

In my next post I'll tell you all about it and we can discuss it over high res screenshots.

In the meantime, the offical release of the A.D.D. Chav Outfit and grand opening of the AD Labs Multisim Vendor Network will be postponed for a few more days.

Apoligies for the delay- but you know it's worth the wait. =^.^=

~Avant D.