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Most good SL builders refuse to copy another design, and some refrain from copying even a tiny part of another building. It's a part of the architect's moral code in world and it benefits us by providing a unique look to each sim we visit. Unfortunately, morality isn't a part of everyone's drive and copycat builds do exist. Yet, what if it's not just a build, but an entire club, that is duplicated? Last night's opening of Spirit at Gay Village introduced a club that is so obviously replicating Blu in Boystown that inV found it essential to share the lack of ethics.
Spirit, owned by two current Boystown residents, bears such a striking resemblance to Blu that it's impossible to deny that this was a blatant theft of logo design, building and club concept. As the picture above shows, Spirit even went so far as to create shirts exactly like those worn by the Blu Boys with the only difference being the Spirit logo and color. The logos are also so similar that Spirit seems linked to Blu.
Whether Spirit is trying to play off Blu's success, recreating what has worked with another club or based on even worse motives, we may never know. However, when copying occurs it usually is testimony to the lack of creativity on the copycat's behalf. As Aribella Dinzeo said, "Oh, well, I don't think they are the same, Spirit is not executed well.. Blu on the other hand is amazing, reminds me of a club irl, in Vegas!"
Not only have Spirit's owners crossed an ethical line, they did it poorly. As patrons of such establishments, we need to consider how early morals will impact the venues we frequent in the future. Is it better to attend a club that began with creativity and a unique approach or to spend our time and Lindens at a club that is simply a subpar recreation of a quality club?
21 comments:
definelty a copy to me. Not good.
All content creators need to consider the ethical implications of anything they create. Unfortunately, the builders of this new club did not think about this and it shows a lack of original thinking in terms of visual space. Thanks DeM for bringing this to our attention.
I stopped by there with a few of my friends, and this by far has to be one of the worst copycats i've seen. But kudos to you for thinking it had a chance. I guess the "creators" of Spirit already caught wind of this blog because around 2-3pm Central Standard Time/ 12-1SLT the sim literally shut down and everything was removed from the "Village" which might I add, everything else around the club sucked. A close friend of mine, who I will elect to keep nameless suggested I get a job with the copycats. What a funny guy.
How awful! But your blog is not a court of law. Do you need 7 photos to prove your point. Maybe they hired the same builder. Shameless promotion of Blu is my thought.
...umm I love visuals. If you don't start your own blog. Also I checked into the builder myself for you. Adham built BLU. Do you think he would build a poor replica of his own club? Have a nice day.
... get your own dream I say to Spirit *snap* *snap*.
People will steal your underwear right off your arse. I'm not surprised and I will not be going there.
How Silly... the same builder hired? Why would this come to light if that were true. That was a silly comment!
Point is... the pictures prove that someone copied a design.
And btw, BLU does not need shameless PLUGS, the times I have spent there, the place is packed. Maybe this poorly constructed knock off was hoping for a little attention? I have never heard of this new club, so who knows what they were thinking. I mean, besides that they wanted to copy someones design.
Regardless of the matter, I have not heard of anyone pressing a lawsuit or asking that it be removed. This story just brought to the surface that this happened. So, I know nothing of the article asking for judgement or looking for a jury. So again... your comments are silly.
In the long run, I hope that whoever copied the design will come to terms and then thank the original builder of BLU ( Adham DeCuir) for being creative and brilliant in the design, so that he had something to copy...brick by brick, window by window, dancefloor by dancefloor, font by font, clothing by clothing....etc.
When one club is built by Adham and the other by the owner of that club, it's pretty obvious it's not just a builder with the same style. Additionally, no self-respecting builder would duplicate his or her own building...
LOL did they rally think changing the color we wouldn't know or notice. Some people are brainless.
I got into a rather heated, erm 'debate' last night with a friend of one of the owners (heated because he was obviously angry his friend had been called out, he'd appeared to have had no small amount to drink and he had no ability to see any view point other than his own)
Now according to this person, he'd just been to see BLU for 10 minutes for the first time, and could see absolutely no similarities. Eventually he did concede that the windows upstairs were a little similar and that the uniforms were close...but that 'everyone in SL has tanks'...! He hadn't bothered to look at the logo (!)
But, as far as he was concerned, the downstairs water feature was in a different place, the stairs were straight, not curved, the dancepads only looked like the old BLU ones, not the new ones, the lighting was different, there's no doorman at Spirit...among other major differences.
Now obviously this new version of Spirit is not a prim by prim copy... and I can't see a big problem with being influenced by design style, operations style or whatever. But to copy the colour scheme (changing one signature colour), duplicate the logo, take the name, use the same style of furniture, same number of dancepads, same shape, style and location of dancefloor, virtually identical uniforms, same lights and ropes, at the entrance - any one or two of these things would probably be fine, but everything together just leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
He was pretty worked up, very defensive, viewed this article as an attack and didn't seem to realise I hadn't turned up looking for an argument...just wanted to show my bf the build. He did say that publicity is publicity, and that people would flock to Spirit now and they'd keep them, that BLU should be worried...fair enough, though he seemed unduly annoyed over something so positive.
In the end we had to agree to disagree ...mainly cause he was starting to repeat himself, and there only so much effort I'm willing to put into a conversation that the other party is unlikely to remember in the morning:)
I was planning to reply to this blog anyway, but this little encounter has made this post fractionally more interesting than it would have been, heh.
My friends and I will never go there. To piggy back off others is called LOSER.
The tank top picture laughs. Nobody will respect this sperm club.
Some say that copy cats are the shearest form of flattery, but that is a little overated. Too bad that you cannot have a vision on your own and develop something different and unigue. Shame Shame
Rippers
Loving the blog guys.
Hadoc.. thank you for informing us of what his friend said. It just makes you think that they are being defensive because they were caught.
But who knows?
However, I don't think they need to make silly threats that BLU needs to look out or be worried. Mainly because as far as I know, the builder and owner of BLU has not asked for them to remove or change anything, nor has he asked for anyone to make this into a big deal. I'm sure he just wants people to make up their own mind in the matter. If people want to go to The Pink club...fine. Or they can still go to BLU. That is the great thing about SL, there is a club just around the corner. Some clubs stay, some go. And I am thrilled to see that BLU has been going strong ( even during the rebuild of Boystown) for over 6 months in this arena...unlike some that have closed a couple times and have reopened in new places and other builds.
I hope the club of another color is successful and has the stamina, support, dedication, and huge following like BLU does. But so far on this blog, I have not seen any of that.
Best of luck to them...
...I do get alot of questions about "Do I read other mags in SL"? Answer is no not really. I support all mags in sl and I also say to everyone to read them all and enjoy them. I personally don't because I don't want any outside influences which I think can lead me to copy. Its much easier to copy and take the work of someone else but it is very easily seen by everyone and you are never respected in the end. I like being myself wether I succeed or fail. At least I know where to improve and make changes. Just my opinion.
Successful business, clubs, and objects will spawn copies sooner or later. It's an attempt to capture a proven format, to ride on the success of the original. But hopefully, the copy will improve or revive the original, not rip it off.
I did see Spirit before it was removed, and yes, as the pictures in the article show, there were striking and undeniable similarities, in fact, little effort was made to be original.
I am not here to slam the owners of Spirit, good luck to them, and well done for removing Spirit so quickly when it was mentioned in the inV Blog. But a little more smarts and creativity, next time, please!
LMFAO Rest a sured Miss L's. club won't be duplicated and yes anything successful will more than likely be copied to some degree. Great post.
OMG!!!! That's disgusting club of Spirit
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