Is Someone Making A Virtual Buck From Your Art?

I received an email some months ago from a lady who is a player/participant on the virtual world game…

Second life.

If you haven’t heard of second life, in summary here it is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

It’s not my thing, but it has given some people a chance of living out their fantasy world.  SL actually has it’s own currency (Linden Dollars). You can buy Linden Dollars with US dollars.

And Linden dollars is exchangeable to US dollars. I’m led to believe the exchange rate is something like L$275–285 per US$1

Anyway…

This lady wrote to tell me that she owned an art gallery in SL and that she had been selling images of my art (obviously taken from my website at CAKUart) to people who want art for their “virtual homes”

Kooky, but true.

Due to some new enforced copyright issues, people such as the lady who owned the gallery were forced to re-assess where and how they were accessing and distributing the art and images of real life artists.

Hence why I was contacted.

Ultimately she wanted permission to continue using my images to on sell to people who wanted some cool art for their virtual homes.

I rejected her request.

It’s nothing personal, its just business.

I said that unless I can see how the images of my art were being distributed for sale, and how they were being represented in her gallery, I no longer wanted her using them and requested that she delete them from her gallery.

I am aware that there are artists using SL to promoted their art. I have even heard of one story where an artist has done quite well for himself in terms of recognition. His popularity as an artist has shifted from the virtual world to the real life world.

Good for him.

Though I wonder if all that time spent on SL promoting his art could have been time better spent promoting his art in the real world.

Who knows for sure.

What’s your opinion on this?

Perhaps you are an artist who is using SL to promote your art. If so, how is it working out?

Or have you had any similar experienced with virtual galleries using your art to sell the images to members of SL so they can decorate their virtual homes and offices?

Perhaps you don’t even know they are using your images. Do you care or are you not phased by it?

Power to you and your art!

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