Undoubtedly one of the most common complaints on the Second Life JIRA is the ability to have a separate body art/ tattoo layer. Of course this is not the only JIRA request regarding clothing layers on avatars. However, recently at Nyx Linden’s office hour, information was released that could dramatically change the way we wear our clothes.

Currently the clothes we wear are baked together and uploaded as six textures (head, eyes, hair, upper body, lower body, and skirt) to the servers, from where our friends and fellow residents download them to render our appearance. As well as this being done, a fail-safe has been in place, which also downloads from the server the separate layers, in case a baked texture is not available (this is why editing appearance can help you bake for other residents). Obviously downloading the unbaked layer textures, which are rarely used, is a demanding resource hog. However Nyx and BigPapi Linden are implementing changes to address this. In the future, hoped for release in RC 1.23, when you change your outfit, your client will bake one complete version of that entire outfit (including skin) which viewers will download only instead of that and the individual layers, as it does now.

Not only will this improve the speed at which you download clothing textures, as layers won’t be downloaded as well, it will also open the door for major future developments. You will be in control of how your avatar looks and in the future you will potentially be able to wear anything you want in a tiered manner. At the moment, if you wear tattoo’s on your ‘under’ layers you can’t wear actual underwear. Once the baking developments have been implemented and completed with a rollover period for older clients, you should be able to wear clothes anywhere, even if you wish, wear your underwear outside your pants.

Nyx also announced that as part of these changes, Linden Lab will also look at having a 4th channel in the baked textures, allowing for alpha masking (also another common JIRA request), meaning parts of your avatar will be able to be hidden. This development will hopefully stop transparency issues on many attachments, for instance sculpt shoes and prim avatars, providing you can remove the invisi-prims they currently use.

Content theft is one of the biggest problems facing Second Life. With the current system, all layers being downloaded as well, it opens the doors to special clients built to steal textures. Once these changes have been implemented single layer textures of other avatars will not be sent to the viewer, therefore clothing content theft will be made harder.

In an environment where Linden Lab are often brought into question over the grids stability and ongoing improvements, these developments (which should start rolling into place soon) will effectively kill two birds with one stone.

Welcome to the new section at Rez Magazine. This will be called Trin & Voo Discuss where we will discuss current topics to amalgamate our views and opinions into one article regarding key SecondLife issues. For our first edition will we discuss the recent major push by content creators to call on Linden Labs help protecting their Intellectual Property.

Trinity Dechou: How much of an issue do you believe this could be having chatted to the people you chat too?
Voodoo Buwan: Well, with the effort that goes into artistic creation and people trying to make it inworld as valid virtual business people, obviously this is something which a great deal of folks are going to be concerned about. However, I must say, this is one of those issues that could blow up into hysteria grossly disproportionate to the actual threat it represents
Trinity Dechou: Well I have seen some of the biggest celebrities in SecondLife's posters with slogans such as "content thieves steal the clothes off our backs" and "I’d rather go bare than wear stolen hair". I think everyone agrees content theft is a HUGE issue in SecondLife, however is it an issue that Linden Lab can control? Can they actually do very much and if so at what cost to an already fairly unstable grid?
Voodoo Buwan: Exactly. I think that the spur of those posters you spoke of, especially the "I'd rather go bare" one, are the correct way to go about this. Promoting an attitude of conscious consumerism where the purchase and theft of content is seen as unacceptable, rather than waste the Linden's time in what will be a never-ending and hugely time consuming quest against this kind of violation is the best way
Trinity Dechou: well lets be honest, some of the worlds biggest corporate companies have issues with controlling content theft, none of them have the answer so really is it fair to haul Linden Lab over the coals? Linden lab already state the DMCA on their website but are very reluctant to get into copyright infringement issues.
Voodoo Buwan: And understandably so. If you really want to steal content, it would be incredibly difficult to stop it. To take textures for example, running a successful art gallery on the side myself, I still know that anyone who really wanted to steal one of my pics simply needs to use the print screen function on their pc, and they can easily do this. The only real way that Linden Labs should get involved would really be to deal with any copyright infringers I find, and ban them appropriately. It's unreasonable to expect them to try to figure out a way to stop it happening in the first place.
Trinity Dechou: Yes but then surely that becomes a slippery slope. Say for example, we both have galleries in SecondLife, and you steal my work. I have to prove you actually stole my work and then of course you are allowed to counter claim this. It all adds into a great mix of slippery slopes. I feel for the designers and content creators stuck in the midst of this, but as you have said, surely educating the consumer is the best way forward. If I want to purchase a Nicky Ree for instance, I can admire the quality and go to her instead of someone else doing a similar design for a fraction of the price, having said that however, how many people are actually this honest?
Voodoo Buwan: This is very true. The only problem then becomes, how do you expect the less sl-savvy consumers to know the difference between the real thing, and a cheap knock off?
Trinity Dechou: Well, I think that's a major issue. Also a very hard one to prove, however so is initial copyright infringement. None of us want to see the end of content creation in SecondLife, we have heard of a few designers ending their business because of the hassle it's brought them, I think that's a sad state for SecondLife to get into. However I also (ironically) feel for Linden Lab, who are stuck in the midst of a massive battle regarding the issue. There is no easy way through this and I feel Linden lab will never be 'right'. They can never been seen to do the right thing as far as many people are concerned.
Voodoo Buwan: The whole thing reminds me of the situation eBay has found themselves in over the years. In the beginning, back in the early days of the net, eBay was very much a community thing, built on trust and a mutual benefit of one man unhauling his trash onto someone else who thought it treasure. However, as time went on, and obviously the site grew in popularity towards being the juggernaut it is today, fraudsters and thieves flocked to abuse the system. And while eBay has set a few things in place, apart from banning the offenders reported (who usually return under another name) they have not got personally involved. And yet, despite this risk involved in the system, it has still thrived.
Trinity Dechou: Very much so, it's an issue, as we have said faced by virtually ALL multinational corporate companies, and while we accept content theft is wrong, I believe we both agree there isn't a lot Linden can actually do. As you said with regards to eBay, offenders return under another name, so more and more alts are created with more and more theft.
Voodoo Buwan: Indeed, although this is by no means a get out excuse for Linden Labs to just say "This is just all your problem. Fight it out amongst yourselves". I think one of the things with this issue is that it can't be solved even by us banging our heads together. But I think the point is that simply ranting that the Lindens should wave a magic wand and make theft impossible is unrealistic and unfair. If we are to get on top of this, it is something that we all, residents and Lindens alike, need to work together to try to make it not worth the while of those who seek to profit off the hard work of others

Content Theft Pictures (C) Chez Nabob. All rights reserved.