Happy PRIDE! Free electric rainbow wings BOM Add-On for the Titania 3.0 Fairy Wings at the Made By People Festival in Second Life, plus 20% off all wings in the booth!
Made By People is a group in Second Life dedicated to creations made by people without use of generative AI. Come on over and support some wonderful creators!
My Titania Fairy Wings Infringed *Again* in Second Life by Full Perm Store
I’m sorry I’ve been so quiet, I have some big news that will explain some of my silence and some of it ties into this infringement which I’ll say more about at the end.
Above, you can see the ‘Bad Katz Pixie Sitting’ mesh character wearing fairy wings that are very much the same as my own Titania Fairy Wings I have in SL which are placed right besides it to show the similarities. She curled the tips of the upper panel and the tails, and the tails have been very slightly warped but none of those tiny alterations are transformative enough to make any of this acceptable.
’Substantial Similarity’ is what courts look for, and whether the core or ‘heart’ of the design has been used. This fits the bill.
I didn’t get a chance to save screenshots of all the individual Marketplace listings before she started removing them. I guess the customer I initially approached about this must have let Katz know so she started removing - or maybe only hiding or archiving the listings, because I still got a notification from LL that they’d removed all the infringing mesh ‘pixie’ characters.
Above are the 2 DMCA reports I sent for Bad Katz items. There are 2 because I also reported some of the fairy mesh characters and textures she was selling since she’d bought my Bee Fairy Wings Stock in 2017, and it appears she used those overlays in her SL item and violated the terms of use that clearly state they must NOT be used in Second Life. Crediting me is also a requirement that appears to be violated.
The Terms of Use included with the older version she purchased is below, under the wings overlay graphic. The only difference with the current version is the newer one includes even more information.
You can also see those overlays on my site now here:
https://fancy-fairy-wings-things.myshopify.com/products/bee-fairy-wings-transparency-stock
I’m not sure if she realizes I have the receipt for her order from Paypal (above) showing her Bad Katz company name, but I did include that information in my report to LL. I’d assume they would send all that to her, but I’m not 100% sure.
She bought them through Etsy however, before I took them down from there to only sell from my website. This was when we’d get 2 receipts before Etsy started processing the funds from orders using Paypal themselves, so I got an order notice from Etsy with her real life name, address & phone number which matched her contact info on the Paypal receipt for that same purchase.
Unfortunately she started hiding or archiving some of these items before I could take more screenshots. Above are the Bad Katz Fairy Texture Christmas and the Bad Katz Fairy Texture Blue. The Christmas version probably showed the wing details with what looks like my iridescent highlights more clearly, but I didn’t get a chance to purchase those to view them up close. If she has proof that what’s in use was not my overlays I’d love to see that.
But knowing that my Titania wings were for certain copied, I’m pretty sure the overlays were used and either way it shows access to my designs from my own shop and awareness of my ownership of them.
While I obviously don’t own exclusive rights to bee wings, I DO own the rights to this version of them. The overlays are from a real life photo of the real life wings I made, and then further edited and painted on. I don’t understand why those overlays would be used instead of a texture that actually fit that wing shape correctly or just, you know, create the vein work entirely.
A day or so ago I got a notice showing I’d been ejected from the Bad Katz Textures group in SL. I find it funny how those who’ve infringed on my copyright tend to be the ones to somehow block me, when I should be the one doing the blocking and they should probably be doing some apologizing or explaining but it’s so common that I’ve gotten used to that behavior.
But today, I friend showed me this notecard from her group, shown below.
This kind of response is sadly pretty typical when I catch someone infringing on my work. Over-the-top false accusations against me that I’m ‘harassing’ them or others, insulting my character, although accusing me also of being drunk or having paranoid delusions due to drugs is a pretty unhinged thing to say in response to a DMCA notice.
She falsely claims I’ve harassed her customers, when what actually happened was that I sent a fairly polite message and notecard to the person asking them to remove the items infringing on my Titania fairy wings. I even told them I understand if they came across my design from a third party since this design has been so frequently stolen and redistributed online. I usually don’t even do this, I started going straight to DMCA reports a while back because of the aggressive responses some infringers gave me but I thought I’d try this time in case they did indeed get it from a source who distributed it illegally & represented it as their own.
I also noticed the 2 customers were both selling the same ‘pixie’ and ‘fairy’ meshes so I figured there was a common source.
One of them was kind enough to let me know who they bought it from.
The other was Xanthe Firehawk of Enchanted Fantasy. I wasn’t going to call them out initially since I assumed they didn’t know at first. But after they responded almost as badly as Katz did in messages, ejected me from their group, then banned me from their main store, they start to seem suspicious of hiding things from me. They did remove some of the items, as LL mentioned a few that they couldn’t locate, which I even thanked them for, but getting banned or blocked is always a red flag - I had not even banned them from my store like I probably will now. So since I’m experiencing defamation of character by Katz and she seems to be commiserating with Enchanted Fantasy about this, I’d like to head off any potential slander or libel that may be coming from them as well and show you exactly how our conversation actually went, below. And I do consider that notice from Katz to be actual libel. Notifying someone of infringement isn’t harassment, I’m not under drug induced paranoid delusions, and she did in fact infringe on my Titania Fairy Wings as well as violated my license terms if she used those Bee Fairy Wings textures in SL which it appears she has.
This is what I was met with the next time I tried to visit their main store - ban lines.
So fairies, this kind of thing is why I’m going right back to simply reporting infringements rather than try to be nice and give them a heads up to fix it on their own. It’s usually not worth the vitriol I get when I do try to communicate directly.
Ironically, Katz is complaining that I never mentioned the infringements to her directly but she had every chance to reach out to me as well after her customer let her know about the issue. I had not banned or blocked her yet but I will now.
Katz says she’s going to counter the removals with a counter notice.
Well if she does so she’ll need to provide all her real life contact information when she does so. Providing false contact information is a violation of DMCA law and they would not need legal escalation from me to get in trouble for that.
It would also force me to escalate to a legal claim, which I’m more than happy to file if it comes down to it. I’m willing to look at her argument that she didn’t use my Bee Fairy overlays if she can prove that, but the Titania wings are 100% my original design and I will not allow those to go back up under any circumstances.
I’ve had several legal copyright settlements, filed several CCB lawsuits, a couple federal ones, and in fact just won my first lawsuit a month ago for the same Titania Fairy Wings design although I still haven’t gotten paid and have no idea if I ever will, due to the infringers being overseas.
That’s the big news I’ve been sitting on, and still processing, while I get ready to release new wing designs (possibly next week!) and try to develop different items that may sell better in this tough economy.
If you’re curious about the details of that, I’ve written about it in my Patreon and you can read it for free without a subscription. I have no energy left now to make another blog post about it here tonight:
https://www.patreon.com/faeryangela/posts/i-won-my-first-161112980
Adventures and Setbacks In Becoming Tiny, and Fantasy Faire Extended
It took me over a week of all my nights and free time trying to put together a good petite fairy avatar to show you I have wings for them and Dinkies too! Some of that time was unfortunately also spent dealing with an infringement of my Teasel Fairy Wings from a prominent Dinkie creator at Fantasy Faire. Read on for more.
Petites aren’t as common on the grid these days, and creators like Yabusaka, who also made the bodies for the Fallen Gods petite avatars, seem to have disappeared along with some of the brands that made clothing for them. That made it tougher to put together a cute look for them, but Dinkies and outfits for them are everywhere!
I got myself a pink cat body and easily found this ridiculously adorable ‘Watermelly’ outfit from Micachan Store ( http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Melloona/43/232/64 ) to go with my Titania Watermelon ‘Fruit Fairy’ wings at Melloona, where I couldn’t resist taking photos near the watermelon juice pool.
It’s like these wings and that region were made for each other, and I almost ended up with my Fantasy Faire store there.
Since the fair has been extended to midnight on the 13th, you still have today and tomorrow to shop! If you’d like to try my fairy wings, here’s my Fantasy Faire LM:
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Amon%20Galadrann/52/25/82
Back to my quest to create a cute petite fairy avatar.
I decided on the Yabusaka 3 Petite female body, which comes ‘Omega ready’, an ancient (sort of) applier method of putting on skins and system clothing that was in use before all the bodies started using BOM and providing their own appliers for creators to use.
There’s actually a Universal BOM Converter that works with Omega Ready bodies so that we can use BOM skins and system clothes on bodies like the Yabusaka petite, so I got that as well as an eye alpha which didn’t come with the Yabusaka body. If everything looks fine except you have huge bug eyes, you need to wear that eye alpha.
It took me a minute to figure out how to use the appliers and BOM converter since there wasn’t much instruction in either one, but what I figured out is you wear / ‘add’ both the Skin Applier (or whatever layer you need to add to) and BOM Converter to your HUD, and click on both.
If your body is all red, that probably means you need to remove the body alpha.
For the head, you’ll need to use a system skin that includes it and uses the old SL UV map or it will look wrong & upside down, so all those EVOX head skins won’t work.
But some of those ancient system skins will, as will the head skins for Genus or any head skin that uses the original SL UV map.
You don’t need the clothing layer mesh that comes with the Yabusaka body for putting on skins or makeup, but you do if you want to add system / BOM tattoo layers or clothes with the clothing applier. For that, it seems you need to wear the clothing & makeup HUD that comes with the body, and to click on all the layer buttons so the BOM layers show.
Some clothing layers get wonky in certain body areas like the hips, so there’s no guarantee they’ll all work flawlessly but it sure gives us a lot more options for customizing a Petite fairy avie!
Bare Rose still sells some clothing for Petites, although for some strange reason their perms are no copy, and WishBox still has some nice Petites items that do have copy permissions. Wasabi Pills on Marketplace has some longer styles from some years ago, and newer short styles that are unrigged & resizeable.
I may come back with a list or new post with more sources for shopping when I have more time. Let me know if you’d like that.
Discovery of my Teasel Fairy Wings infringed
Unfortunately, the reduction in available items for petites was not the only issue delaying my progress.
After a kind soul showed me the newer Ruth petite body & head by Jinx early on, and gave me some suggestions for creators making clothes for them such as Isaura Simons, I went shopping.
I was having trouble getting the Jinx head to look right so I’m glad I got it for only $50L at faire & the body was free there which is also nice because there are so few brands making outfits for them. There are enough differences between that one and the Yabusaka 3 Petite bodies that most of the older petite outfits I found didn’t fit the Ruth body right.
Then, after finding the Jinx Facebook group & asking where I could find more outfits & hair for petites, I was invited to the Petites Discord where I was told I may find some of that info.
That’s when I saw the infringement of my Teasel wings. Right there in the shopping channel, someone posted a video of Isaura’s Petite Goth Fairy outfit which made it easier to see the details and that my photo of my real life Teasel fairy wings was used as the texture.
Since the infringement was right there in the channel, I responded to that post and commented that it’s infringing my Teasel fairy wings & provided links to my real life image that was used as well as to my Second Life wings of that design.
I even made clear that it probably wasn’t intentional & that Isaura may have come across it via a 3rd party who stole it from me.
Here’s the link to my old Wordpress blog where I posted this particular photo in 2008:
https://fancyfairy.wordpress.com/2008/03/02/new-pair-of-teasel-wings-for-sale-and-a-peak-at-the-rl-azarelle-dress/
I was met with a sort of hostile response from Julala, who said “They don’t look anything like your wings - what are you on about?”, and then told me to file a DMCA & not deal with it through that server.
Screenshots of that entire conversation below.
I responded that I was disappointed in that response, asked if they were really okay with people’s work being used without permission and tried explaining that I mentioned it since there are no rules about discussing infringement in that server & requested it be added to the Rules.
Julala’s response included her saying that the rules say ‘not to be an asshat’ and that I can interpret that how I want, inviting me to leave the group if it was too vague for me.
Isaura was not even in that group when I checked. I further explained I’m autistic & how helpful clear guidelines are, etc.
Cinny Fluffington then stepped in to also deny that the wings had any similarity at all, said all wings look similar and that ‘that’s not how copyright works’.
They complained about me causing ‘drama’, yet either one could have simply told me to message the admin privately or not to post about infringement in that channel & left it at that, rather than belittle me and my copyright in my work, which is what actually created the drama they say they don’t want.
All screenshots are above so you can read exactly what happened for yourself without bias from me.
I do think it’s unfortunate that in some circles in SL, pointing out copyright infringement is treated as a worse violation than infringement itself. This is not the first time I’ve encountered this attitude even when it’s very obvious, and so far it’s historically been employed when the infringer is someone they’re either friends with or profit from in some way, so they don’t have any incentive to do the right thing or criticize their creator friend if their policy is to stay loyal regardless of bad behavior.
I left that group and blocked those 2 creators plus a 3rd that was reacting with hearts on the insulting comments, because after a couple decades of having my IP stolen & met with vitriol I don’t want any contact with those who excuse or exhibit that behavior.
I realize Julala is more established and has a larger presence than I do in SL, being the developer of Herb & Fable and responsible for one of the Fantasy Faire regions, that Cinny is also tightly connected, and that’s precisely why I felt I should get the facts straight before a twisted version of them gets spread around behind the scenes to hurt my reputation.
Been there before, and I’d like to avoid it.
I had no animosity towards Isaura and hoped I’d eventually get a response that included an apology and how it was an innocent mistake.
But then, after Fantasy Faire removed the 2 infringing vendors on Saturday, I finally got a notecard from Isaura. Here it is, along with my responses below.
She’s refusing to cooperate or continue conversing with me, insisting that it’s all her creation when my photo is there in her texture plain as day to anyone who has an artist’s eye. Maybe even those who don’t.
She also put the vendors back up. She seemed to not know that Fantasy Faire had already removed them at the time of her initial notecard.
I reported the updates to the Fantasy Faire team that day, and as of last night the vendors were removed again. As far as who removed them, I’m not really sure. The person most in charge has not responded to me yet since my last message but 2 others on the team said it was not them.
I did report it to Linden Labs so it’s possible they removed it without updating me via email yet, but it’s also possible Isaura had a change of heart.
I blocked her after she told me she didn’t want to communicate with me anymore, but my website has a contact form for email that is still open to any of these people to use should they decide to reach out. Perhaps they were in a more emotional state at the time and could later see more clearly what the problem was.
Those are all my relevant receipts of the situation. If anyone has questions or needs more details, let me know as I’m happy to give it. I’m not hiding anything.
Treat Yourself to Fairy Wings in Second Life or Real Life
I loved the ‘Lotus’ colors on the Kira fairy wings in Second Life so much I decided to make them as real life wings too! Ready to ship.
Of course there are some differences due to the nature of the real life and SL materials I have to work with and RL limitations, but I tried to get them as close as I could.
They will be available in a small flash sale for $360 plus shipping.
Again, if you'd like the Second Life wings, you can either buy the Kira LITE version and then also the BOM pack, or you can get the FatPack with all the colors that includes the Lotus ones, here:
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Amon%20Galadrann/52/25/82
Since I've gotten such a good response at Fantasy Faire, I've also now set all the FatPack vendors at Fantasy Faire to donate 10% of sales to Relay For Life, except for the Titania Fruit Fairy Wings and PRIDE Teasel FatPacks as those already are donating to Doctors Without Borders and the It Gets Better Project.
These large Lyra fairy wings above in iridescent Opal with copper veins are also going to be the second *new set of wings listing tomorrow, Saturday May 2 at 12pm PST!
I'll also have a set of Aphrodite fairy wings in Ultraviolet also with copper veins. I thought I'd be able to offer a set of Fauna wings with copper veins but I wasn't able to get to a 3rd set for this sale. If anyone wants to place an order for those and choose the film color or even get them painted, do reach out!
Again, the link to the Flash Sale page:
https://fancy-fairy-wings-things.myshopify.com/collections/flash-sales
*For any new comers, or anyone confused by the 'new' description of existing wing designs, I consider new wings to be a set done in a colorway I haven't made before and call the others that have already been done in that colorway 'repeats'.
As always, thank you all so much for being here. If you think you know someone who would want fairy wings please feel free to share my Patreon or website with them as my reach on social media is abysmal these days. I need all the eyeballs on my work that I can get and it's part of why I'm offering fairy wings in Second Life again.
Stay safe out there and continue fighting fascism wherever you have the opportunity to do so.
New Releases at Fantasy Faire
It’s the biggest fantasy event of the year in Second Life, and this year I have a store there!
Fairies, I've finally made it to Fantasy Faire, the biggest fantasy event in Second Life that is a giant fundraiser by Relay For Life benefiting The American Cancer Society.
You can support me and so many other amazing artists while funding cancer research & patient support programs at a time when public health has been so defunded by the Trump admin.
I'm offering 2 exclusives for the event, the Titania and Teasel fairy wing BOM layers in the Lotus colorway, of which 100% of the proceeds goes to RFL.
I’ve also finally released the Titania 3.0 bento animated fairy wings in all the Essentials colors. You can get the LITE pack with just the Bubble and Dark Crystal BOM layers without the Animation HUDs and then add the Essentials BOM pack with all 8 colors, or the FatPack which includes all of the Essential BOMs plus Animation HUDs.
There’s also the new bento Kira fairy wings, shown on display in the top photo, which also come in a Spring add-on pack of 4 BOM layers which includes the Peachy colorway that I used in the wings for the 2014 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
There are now LITE versions of each design with just 1 or 2 BOM layers, and the animation HUD sold separately, as well as BOM FatPacks, and a full FatPack that includes all BOMs and the Animation HUDs. The FatPack also includes an unrigged set if you want a completely different size or pose for photos.
I will post more images during the week, but at the moment I'm pretty exhausted having worked completely thru the night Wednesday and not stopping until 11am the next morning an hour before it opened to the public! Plus I had to fix a vendor issue with the Titania wings early Saturday morning, and then had to deal with grid wide rezzing and inventory issues throughout the day.
This is the second all-nighter I've spent getting a new release ready for an SL event, and although I REALLY hope I don't repeat that, this one was worth the stress as it's funding a great cause and helping me get my work out there in a more visible way.
In fact it’s going well enough that today I decided to edit the vendors for the FatPacks to donate 10% of each sale to Relay For Life, except for the PRIDE and Fruit Fairy FatPacks as those are already set up for donations to other charities.
I also want to thank Siyu Suen of Illusions once again for all her help, she also made the Kira wing mesh to give me a leg up while I learn how to make these more complex meshes with separate veins.
All the rest - texturing, rigging, animation, is still all me.
Here's my faire store:
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Amon%20Galadrann/52/25/82
Titania 3.0 Fairy Wings Updates & New Bellisseria Store in Second Life™
I’m so sorry to keep you all waiting, but I had some improvements to make to the Titania 3.0 wings in SL before releasing them again. I’ve fixed some of the AO animations, some texture issues on the veins, and now the Shine HUD also includes vein color options.
I’ve even added some additional BOM texture layers to the Fruit Fairies series, such as the Cherry Pie variation below.
I spent a stooopid amount of Lindens trying to get this BDay Bash bodysuit from the Gacha (like a slot machine) from"Off-Line" because it was too perfect not to use for a shoot with these wings, and these berry goblets from Random Matter.
There’s also a new blueberry version, which comes with the Berry Tart set as well as the Cherry, and orange and lime flavors added to the Lemon Drop set.
The Autumn packs of the Titania wings and the Lily Corset & Skirt set are also now available, all at my new Bellisseria location, where everything is 30% off with your Fancy Fairy Update Group tag this weekend! I may extend it to Monday as well since I didn’t get all the notices out that early.
Here’s the landmark: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Schplitz/33/100/24
And if you’d rather shop for them on the Marketplace, here’s a link to that:
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/13225
New Exclusive Titania 3.0 Fruit Fairy Wings at Obscyra Event in SL
Obscyra is now open! You can find my new Titania 3.0 Fruit Fairy Wings there through Dec.6.
The Watermelon wings (above) are bases on the illustration I made in support of a ceasefire in Gaza / Palestine as it is a Palestinian symbol, converted to fit in the Titania wing design.
When the theme of Obscyra was revealed to be food themed I knew I had to bring that design into SL, and automatically donate 50% of the proceeds to Doctors Without Borders / MSFUSA as they provide aid to displaced Palestinians under famine & genocide, as well as those in Sudan and Congo. I’m glad that I’m able to help in any small way and it’s much easier to donate from SL sales than real life as I’m struggling financially myself.
*Cute little outfit not included, and is from Flysoffi for only 5L on MP. It was too perfect not to use for pics! I added normal & spectral maps tho as it did not come with any.
The Lemon Drop wings were fun to paint, and although I really don’t like the color yellow much in real life, I really like how these came out and have been wearing them around the grid. Maybe it’s the gloomy RL weather we’re having, their brightness is a bit of a mood lifter! Should I offer an orange and lime set too?
The Berry Tart wings have my favorite colors, raspberry & blackberry, lots of shades of purples are where I am most at home.
Finally, the Dragon Fruit wings round out the series in bright pink and green with a white base speckled with black ‘seeds’.
They each include a default large and XL size for each gender plus one for Petites & Dinkies, an AO for each size, and a Shine HUD with 7 different iridescent specular color textures.
All mod / copy so you can edit and tint as you wish, and unlike my previous wings the veins are separate faces so you can color them individually.
Each are $150L individually, with optional Animation HUD for $99L, or $349 for the FatPack. This is introductory pricing, they’ll cost a little more when the event is over.
An optional Animation HUD with 5 static poses, 4 short gestures, and 8 different flutter animations is available for more control, and is included in the FatPack.
Exclusively at the Obscyra* Monthly Event http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Obscyra/123/67/41
*Available to bloggers in the blogger room
New Releases for Second Life!
Fairies, the Titania 3.0 mesh Bento animated fairy wings are out now in autumn colors at the Fae Faire Autumnal Event along with the Lily corset & skirt!
It's the debut of the mesh version of my original Titania design, as well as the mesh corset & skirt loosely based on 17th century wear.
The corset set can be worn with the corset only, or with the skirt and it even has a bit of room under it to fit other skirts & bottoms. The straps are also optional, so it’s really versatile.
There are 3 color versions each with a golden iridescent sheen to the fabric, and have modify / copy permissions.
It's an exclusive for the Fae Faire event, and so far it’s only for ReBorn bodies & features a custom chest add on. It is $199L.
The versions for other bodies will be released before too long as well.
I also have a small pack of 3 autumn colored Titania wings with the additional animation HUD as well as AO for each wing size for $199L.
One of the colorways is from a real life version I made that went viral on Twitter & Pinterest without credit to me and infringed countless times so I figured people must like that version.
It’s one of my most popular designs as well as one of the most stolen.
The Cinnamon colorway wings (above) are a hunt item for $15L, just look for the leaf!
Many designers have items to hunt for priced between 1-50L each, so come on by to shop or just hunt for the amazing deals disguised as sparkly leaves here:
https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Seas%20of%20Eden/14/151/3987
The corset & skirt with chest addon was custom made for me by a pro mesher & rigger based off my design sketches & input. They did amazing work, but since they expressed that they don’t want to be bugged with customer questions and are currently closed for rigging commissions I’ll keep them anonymous rather than crediting as I might otherwise.
I know a lot of SL designers & stores don’t like to disclose that they use outside help to create and rig their clothing meshes but I don’t want everyone to expect more from my skills than I actually have right now.
If anyone needs to know I don’t mind telling you, just don’t bother them right now.
Big thank you, again, to Siyu Suen of Illusions (whose booth is right across from mine btw & whose necklace & ears I’m wearing here) for meshing the Titanias with separate veins for this iteration, and it was a bit more complicated than we thought. Also for decorating my booth for me since I was literally up all night till 6am to finish my items for the event!
She’s been a huge help as I learn how to make proper meshes in Blender, and hopefully soon I’ll be making the more complex wing meshes with separate veins on my own.
If you’d like to keep up with my Second Life creations, you can also follow me on PrimFeed:
https://www.primfeed.com/fancy-fairy-wings-things