Saturday, May 12, 2012

iRAWK Hits the Rocks

iRAWK Hits the Rocks 120512

I had this conversation earlier today with a DANCE QUEENS member. I have removed her name ...

[04:59:25] DQ Member: hi Nottoo, i'm sorry to bother you, do you happen to know if S4D offers full perm dances?
[04:59:39] Nottoo Wise: hi ___ xxx
[04:59:43] Nottoo Wise: not that i know of
[04:59:53] Nottoo Wise: i dont know any MOCAP maker who does
[05:00:19] DQ Member hmm, i just got a free iRawk dance thingy and inside is 2 full perm S4D dances, amongst others of varying perms
[05:00:34] Nottoo Wise: really
[05:00:40] Nottoo Wise: it may be illlegal
[05:00:46] DQ Member: that was my thoughts
[05:00:56] Nottoo Wise: where did u get it
[05:01:06] DQ Member: market place, let me find the link for you
[05:01:09] Nottoo Wise: ok
[05:01:17] DQ Member:
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/iRawk-Free/2872872
[05:02:21] DQ Member: there's a couple of sine wave a d a couple of ones i've not heard of in there too, not all full perm though
[05:02:24] DQ Member: and*
[05:03:26] Nottoo Wise: i will check it out
[05:03:29] Nottoo Wise: and let u know
[05:03:34] DQ Member: thank you
[05:03:52] DQ Member: if it has free S4D dances in it it is probably illegal
[05:03:56] DQ Member: ty xxx


I had not heard of the iRAWK and went on SL Marketplace to see it. I found that there is a store in SL, so I went there. It's not a big place and you can easily find and get a free version. I have to say the iRAWK seems to be a fun HUD. It lets you invite anyone within chat range (20 m) to dance and provides music. You buy single songs with dances or packs that are automatically added to the iRAWK when you buy them. The current version is 4.3 and there are a lot of songs with dances that you can get. It works with a HUD and a part that you wear.

So, I went home and tried it. WOW, it works and, hmmm, the dances did look familiar. I looked in the HUD and there were no dances inside. Then, I decided to rezz the part you wear. I rezzed it or thought I did and it wasn't there. Weird. I tried it three times. Fortunately it is copyable. It never seemed to rezz. This is something I had not seen before ... an object that you cannot rezz but you can wear. So, I changed the attachment point to my hand and used ctrl-alt-T to see it. There it was as a small box.

Once I could see it, it was just a few seconds before I found inside the small box a tiny set of boxes each containing scripts and dances. WOW. Sine Wave dances and full-perm Studio4D dances. A bad sign.

I sent a note to Live Gears asking him if he ever allowed others to sell his dances full perm. Before I got an answer from Live Gears I was talking with Hendrik Schroeder of Henmations and mentioned the iRAWK to him. He decided to buy a full version with some of the associated songs and dances. He found copied dances from MyAnimation, AKEYO and Henmations. Well, that means a bunch of dmca reports (copyright infringement) on the iRAWK. BOOOM ... iRAWK Hits the Rocks.

Thanks DANCE QUEENS for helping stop dance piracy :-)

This got me excited again about illegal dances, so I decided to update the illegal dance list. I went to all of the current illegal dance sellers. A couple have banned me for my reports on their illegal activity, but a willing friend did the investigative work for me. I updated the illegal dance seller list and made a small spreadsheet.