Monday 4 March 2013

'Sharing'

Apparently, someone decided that my year's work is worth $0. I thought $20 was adequate but apparently that was too much. I hate expensive stuff, that's why I put it down to $20. So anyway, without asking me, or discussing with me, you know, like hey erogenesis, your stuff is awesome, can I distribute it for free...? you can now find Lali's Bits all over the internet for $0.

Really, what is so bad about buying stuff? No wonder we're in a financial crisis :P

I just wanna say that every $20 that all you fans have invested in me, is being put to good use:

  • I'm getting a strong battery system to protect my computers from power surges, plus I can carry on working during a power cut.
  • and I am getting the necessary software (yes, PAID) to improve what I've done. 
  • I am also helping my mom repair her house, paint job, new roofing tiles etc, 
  • I'm helping our cook with some new roofing sheets. 
  • All the money from the comics went into two very strong computers and a comfortable office chair, allowing me to render much faster than before, speeding up my production. 
  • And off course beer :) helps with production efficiency too haha
But $0 is not really going to help me with these things. Kinda feels like those people are saying: thank you for all your work ero, now fuck off and die.

Pirates: 'Sharing', sigh, yeah I know the arguments. Let me tell you a story. I live in a country where the clothing industry was thriving back in the 70s, this place was known for its tailors and clothing markets (like in India). But ever since the west decided that all people down here were helpless, naked poor buggers they sent containers full of second-hand clothing. Generous, right? to share your clothing? Well, it entirely killed the tailoring market here. Now there are just a few tailors left, and they're very expensive. But some tailors even died because they went bankrupt and couldn't afford medication, and that is no bullshit. That is what sharing can also do. 

So yeah, go ahead, be noble, take pride, but do think about it first, you, the pirate, might be killing business somewhere, and maybe even a life (I know of a 3D artist that is struggling with health problems right now, and her work is all over the internet, for $0), and forcing software to become more expensive to cover the cost and to pay for someone to track you down. If you were even more succesful with pirating my comics, there wouldn't have been a Lali's Bits for you to steal.

So anyway, me and my lawyers are doing a bit of research, and it seems that we can legally get hold of the 'right info' and start sending some bills. Two sites have already conceded to help. 

So, please, just leave it ok? I've got better things to do than run around and slap wrists. 

Its only $20.

26 comments:

  1. You have my sympathy. This is what causes most venders to sell packages in parts, to keep producing more.

    I suspected that this might happen regardless that $20 is quite reasonable considering how much you've put into it. There's some JCMs that weren't even mentioned which is well worth more than $20 in my opinion.

    Unfortunately this problem is that most people find ways to justify in their minds that they deserve free shit no matter what. Comfortably wealthy families downloding pirated movies because they can. The same people that would raise hell if their salaries came up a dollar short, expect to live by different rules.
    It is shallow, cowardly, and quite shameful.


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  2. I hope you and your lawyers catch that asswipe wanker >:(

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  3. Cheers to you bro

    You know, there's a lot that can be said on this topic. I mean, sure, its a fast world, we want quick fixes, I can understand the temptation if its there for free, you'd almost be an idiot not to take advantage of it and the only thing that stops you is your moral grounding, but the one thing that really gets me, the one thing that I just cannot fathom no matter what, is that somewhere, some guy, or girl, got hold of it, bought it perhaps, and then made some weird brain twist and decided that Lali's Bits should be distributed for free, knowing full well that it was hard work to make it. Now what kind of a warped fucked up mind does that? I really really don't get that part.

    Yeah, the problem could be that our lives are so detached from reality, that being the rules of the universe, action is reaction, and also detached from the world, that some people think that their actions will go unnoticed, completely forgetting that we are all intrinsically the same inside, therefore very likely to behave the same way. You are not alone in your actions, if you fuck up, its very likely that many more are fucking up with you... the world starts with you and ends with you, its really not that mysterious.

    Anyway, we'll see how things go.

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  4. There is always so much we don't understand. I, for example, didn't know about the effects on your country's economy by the donation of second hand clothes. I am sure the people who organised it didn't understand what the impact would be. But, it is easy to understand that if you buy a digital product then distribute it for free the actual developer will not receive the money required to continue to develop more products. Net result, less products available.

    On a slighty different note. I am hanging out (I hope patiently) for the DAZ version of Lali's bits. I do have Poser 8, but now mainly use DAZ 4.5 as I like Genesis with Babbelbub's close up morphs, but she needs a sister.

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    1. Yeah this world is anything but straight-forward! Ideals that seem noble can often cause more shit than we think, and concerning donating to and pampering poor old africa, we're gradually starting to learn that its not always a good thing.

      But I am lucky as fuck to have such a responsive and sympathetic bunch of fans. I feel more and more endebted to you guys every time another order number shows up on my stats screen. I'm like wow, there a person that has seen my shit, and thought fuck I want that, and then coughs up their hard-earned cash in my direction. That to me is very sobering to see happen and I'll bend over backwards to make sure everyone is as happy as a pig in shit. Its a reciprocation thing. To then see it pirated is just demoralising, almost disespectful towards you guys too.

      Having lived in this part of africa pretty much most of my life, I feel I can clearly see the effects of giving, taking and stealing, but in a massive hyperdynamic world as the modern west, its easy to think that we and our actions are insignificant and will go unnoticed... but that is anything but true....

      DAAAZZZZ... yeah suffered a slight delay because my internet antenna was malfunctioning. They say its working again but I yet have to test it. There's a dude that says he can sort it out for us, but he too is busy... so yeah, hang in there... patient;y ;D

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  5. Aaarrg i was too slow. I discovered today that some bastard was sharing Lali's bits, i was about sending you a mail to let you know, but you already know...
    I thought about something : what about a donation system? Let me explain : I'm sure a lot of people were ready to pay more than 20$ for Laly's bit. I would have paid up to 40$ for it. I bet everyone here agrees with me. You and Ken put such an awesome amount of (painful?)work into it, and you deserve to be rewarded for it.
    I just hope you won't give up on improving the poserverse, you have a strong fanbase and we won't let you down! =)

    Cheers!

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    1. hehehe dude, like said above, I consider myself lucky with fans like you guys. Its an eye opener.

      don't worry, I am not going to let a bunch of low-life single-celled fungal-infected primitive blood-clotted dentally-challenged quarter-brained fuckwit manboob-bearing motherfucking crack-smoking lazy zero-to-non-skilled fuck-ass dipshits control my passion for 3D art because they cannot find it within themselves to drag their gangrenous bitch-asses away from the lower end of the moral spectrum and participate with the age-old tradition for honest business. I'd like to see them make something like Lali's Bits haha.

      I had a donation thing going here some time back but there was some issue with Paypal. I also felt a bit odd having people donate money while I didn't know if I was at all going to succeed!!!! I might put it back up again once I get my PP sorted out.

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  6. Hope the little shit gets what's coming to him. Best 20 bucks I've spent in a long time btw.

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  7. I'm not sure those reading your blog are the ones 'paying $0' :) I know I paid $20 gladly to encourage your efforts.

    Best to ask your readers to send you an email anytime they see lali bits in the wilds & you can react. Do what you can, but don't take it personally. I've worked in Poser since 2007 and stuff is always out there on Usenet and torrent. If a monster like Sony can't stamp out 'sharing', don't feel bad little ol' you can't either.

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    1. This is a great idea!

      I used a simple google search so you've probably already seen these, E.:

      http://www.gfxworld.ws/index.php?/gfx/comments/erogenesis_-_lalis_bits_v1/

      http://www.vitorrent.org/Lali's+bits.html

      http://3d-stuff.net/2013/03/erogenesis-lalis-bits-v1/

      http://torrentz.eu/search?q=Lali's+Bits+V1

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    2. yeah they probably won't come here that quickly, but if the downloaders run into trouble they might come here to seek answers. One thing they cannot count on is support cuz they need to supply an order number :)

      I was thinking of doing the same but you beat me to it. Here's the ones we've got:

      http://foxter.ru/showthread.php?t=5916&page=17
      http://filevice.com/ee6kq3x4p5n3 (filevice took it down very quickly)
      uploaded.net
      secureupload.eu
      gigapeta took it down quite fast as well

      How it works is that some forum posts links to filesharing sites (some of which are very supportive of me and are nailing the users in question). Two predomenant sites are: foxter and gfxWorld.

      foxter.ru is notorious for providing links. No point in contacting them because even the moderators love distributing hard work with a mere click of the button. They're worse than the bacteria that gives you the shits.

      I've heard that the guys at gfxWorld are even worse than foxter, and they probably have no respect for life in general and rape babies for a hobby or something.

      Ah well if it makes them happy... its probably pointless to make such a fuss about it because they don't care anyway. But I'm not going to roll over and let them fuck me in the ass just like that.

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    3. PS: there are a lot of bogus links of sites that just pretend to have the link. *shrug... I cannot be annoyed at that, they're just a bit retarded :P

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  8. I still have my $20 in hand, waiting patiently for the DAZ version. The people who are giving away your hard work clearly do not respect you. I am all for open-source sharing and freeware but there is also something to be said about the author's wishes. When I see this happen I do not lump them in with the open-source crowd; regardless of how much they claim themselves to be, they are pirates plain and simple. The open-source crowd understands respect for the author because chances are that they are authors themselves. You have my respect.

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    1. I made freeware in C# for a while. Freeware is awesome, I love sharing, send me an email with a question, I'll help you out no sweat, but I need to eat at some point. Pirates seem to forget that part, as if artists and developers are some black hole that can get shafted without any moral consideration.

      I went through a hard time making 'CODE 10' and 'the Route', I didn't know where it was going and if it was viable enough to keep me standing. I was especially gutted when I saw CODE 10 pirated somewhere, because I didn't know what it meant yet.

      Now for me its less of an emotional thing, but more of a justice thing, also seeing other artist's work being pirated everywhere, especially considering how supportive you guys are, and how much interaction goes on over at Renderotica. Its plain disgusting behaviour, I will not stand by and just watch them get away with it, they need to get kicked in the face badly however I can.

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  9. Sorry to hear about this, but I suppose it was inevitable. For what it's worth, I'd have paid double for Lali's Bits.

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    1. I checked the records and you indeed bought it twice. Can you imagine how humbled I feel? Dude, you are, THE man. Thank you so extremely much

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  10. That's pretty fucked up, it's one thing when pirates spread a work of garbage that 99% of people won't even look at. It's another to spread someone's masterpiece. No honor among thieves.
    This is the reason we have to put up with draconian DRM, online registration with serial numbers, each copy of the product individualized with a limited number of activations etc.

    $20 is enough of a give-away as is, it's not like it's priced for the ultra rich. Who are these people? A bunch of freeloaders living on government handouts for everything and dodging all of their other expenses or some shit? Seriously..

    Wouldn't it have sucked in Peter Jackson made no money on Fellowship, and never finished the series or worked on the prequels? It's not as if this is a hollywood production though where they're not gonna miss a few sales.

    Just lame.

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    1. yeah exactly, who are these people? I mean stealing an apple off the back of a cart because your starving to death might be a necessity, but stealing Babblebub's OMG Pussy is just completely unnecessary and plain dispicable.

      I also have indeed grown way more tolerant to controls and registration because of this nonsense. These pirates mess it up for everyone. I mean they argue that they provide opportunities and stuff, but is that really so? Who knows what the software market would be like today if there were no internet pirates and the black holes they create. Those people would be forced to be innovative, instead of just downloading top-notch software for free, they would be forced to invest in software within their price range, providing opporunities to developers that would otherwise go unnoticed, and creating healthy competition, and eventually better quality.

      I always think: 'Video killed the radio star'? now its 'piracy killed the studio artist'

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  11. Perhaps you can work something out with Rotica when you release an update, that will help you identify who the thief is by distributing different updates with a unique signature embedded somewhere in the product to each owner. Not a readme file, a vital file, preferably in a binary file.

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  12. First thing I've done after reading your post? I've bought your product at 'rotica without waiting for the Daz version.
    BTW, congrats for the manual: it's one of the best I've seen to date.
    Keep up the great work, bud!

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    1. DUDE! good to have you here :)
      you bought it?? haha, ok lets get it working for your DAZ then.

      thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnk *breathes* yooooooooooouuuuuuuu!!!

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    2. Well, it's a nice place to visit ;)
      I'll try to setup Lali using the Python script and my old Poser during the WE.

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    3. and? I hope you're not referring to Poser 7... its been giving us shit lately!

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    4. Sorry for late reply. Not Poser 7. I actually did manage to have her working, but unfortunately my win7 laptop crashed badly.
      Now I'll have to re-install Studio and Poser from scratch and my available time is zero.
      Seems like Lali has to wait..

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  13. I don't know what you are doing in relation to the person who uploaded your product as a free item. Several years ago a, let's say a popular Poser python script vendor had his product/s uploaded as free. Via the file share web site he obtained the identity of the uploader and also how many times the product had been downloaded and issued the uploader with an invoice for the full price of each download. He also threatened legal action to recoup the lost revenue, with costs. Later he added to the blog page on his web site that settlement had been reached, so the issue was resolved.

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Hey, because of a sudden influx of spam, I need to moderate comments from now on, unfortunately. I'll try find a work-around in the meanwhile. Cheers!