Lawsuit Against IMVU for Modifying Audio Items

tkennedy
by tkennedy · 51 posts
13 years ago in IMVU News
Posted 13 years ago
I've been a consumer of IMVU since 2008. I liked the different music products that the Dev's had available. Since the change all those items that I spent money on are now useless. Even after they said the old music items would not be changed. I no longer by music from IMVU in free that will will go ahead and change it again and then all those items will be useless again.
Posted 13 years ago
I'm having a hard time getting the word out about this forum's topic. It seems that people are finding the name of the site fishy, and someone pointed out that if you really wanted to see stories, then all you would have to do is search in the forums of IMVU, There are many many MANY places in there where people have posted thousands of their stories of how they want a refund that imvu won't give. How is it fair that imvu only issue out refunds for one month of trigger music purchases when people have been here for years.. but yea, i'm not finding many people who want to post in this forum, i'll try harder if i have to, but do you think it's possible to get the evidence you need in the imvu forums? there are literary thousands of people writing in there what ur asking them to write in here.. and the subject is getting so out of control, that imvu has been locking some of the forums to prevent more people from posting, but you can still read them. Let me know if that works, because i'm really not happy with imvu stealing from me.
Posted 13 years ago
Just putting my two cents in, I'm a amateur dev who unfortunately was going to base my work around music related items because I'm a rave club owner on IMVU, a month after I made this decision, this happens. Sure it wasn't so bad because we could buy music and make a playlist for all to hear, but before I know it, ppl aren't being refunded for the items that no longer work, the price of 1 track for that darn list hiked, and overall the concept of having music in imvu(which is crucial because music is one of the staples between ppl from other countries/sexual pref/ect) has all but stopped. This isn't fair to everyone, 90% of imvu is about hanging out with different people in a themed environment, and music is if not the cornerstone of social life in its' entirety.I'd say more on the subject but I recently woke up so if I'm needed to speak more, my imvu name is [removed by DVFC]. I hope we get retribution.
Posted 13 years ago
Notice how quickly this topic disappeared, this is more than likely a fake law suit.
Posted 13 years ago
CreatorPuppet wrote:
Notice how quickly this topic disappeared, this is more than likely a fake law suit.


First off, how did this topic disappear?
If it was hard to find it means there was not many new posts.

How would this topic disappearing make this lawsuit fake?

Do you understand how long it takes for a law suit to get done?

Juuuuuuust saying....
Posted 13 years ago
I have been on my current account since 02-04-2008
I began like any other newbie buying loads of music to DJ and impress my friends and make the clubs aka rooms more fun. Then I began to Dev my own music items and Voice products. I was in full control of this option before the September 08 rule was placed in a affect. Before the 08 rule there was a so called problem with some of triggerless music items, and imvu had a major recall refunding the users at the cost of the dev's who were the heart beat of what made imvu so much fun. Many of the dev's going into the negative balance with imvu giving them 10 days to get the funds aka imvu credits in their accounts or lose their accounts. Which I am scared they will do again and all us music dev's will lose our hard earned accounts. Have to remember we pay to create. But trust me if any ruling is made against them they will not be the ones out of pocket I assure you. I am willing to bet they will renig on their stated statement of saying the last refunds wouldn't come out of the Developers pokets. Ok all that aside. They did make the september rule with Mods and Staff saying the 20 second rule would only be for any newly added sound product that each trigger or triggerless items would be limited to 20 seconds and shut off. I my self hid my music at this time as they were on a witch hunt trying to shut down all the music makers they could. Thinking if they recalled at least I wouldn't have to much to have an pay back at my own cost and losing the creds I paid to submit said products etc. So January came around this year and with out any warning they turn off all music rings aka item and voice boxes / sound products to 20 seconds as we all know. This has effected many of my friends whom to be honest mostly bought my music and has made me to have an go back into the preveiwer trying to swap out items adding more work to myself to try and keep people happy on my end. I have lost more then just loads of music I bought and made. But I have also lost precious memories that I can not revive such as when I engaged my Now Real life fiance on imvu I made a voice ring with my proposal it is now sadly only 20 seconds reduced from it 2 or 3 min original self along with some other sound effect items I made for personal use this new rule has effected more then music and with out warning or probacation they took memories and hours of labor away from us users and creators. I am currently a pro developer due to my other items but I feel imvu has robbed me personally of more then just credits they have taken part of me and my fiancé's past as well many of the songs we had or used for personal use had meaning and can't be bought on their service or because we live in different regions their service refuses to play due to region coding. The Music helped us all stay connected around the world and when they took away that vice they didn't even reimburse us. IMVU is only out for imvu their Terms of service is a joke in it's self they claim to be governed by Cali law but they take items at will saying their not rated right etc and the only ones paying is the devs and some times the users also get stuck holding the ball. What they do iis they'll take the item make it UFI aka Un Fit for IMVU making unable to be re-worked or changed and If you email them a question they will say read the tos aka terms of service which is grey at best with out clearly stating much with what is or isn't accepted and is subject to be changed by whom ever is looking at an item. Their service is lacking to say the least and their recent actions show how much they care about the users or the developer. They will come off with this copy rights defense to why they wanted the music gone which would be a good case if they had done it all back in 08 but they continued to allow devs to sell their premade items to the general user they profited even boasting how they made a profit for the year in 09 finally become a legit company blah blah but the real reason they didn't stop the music in 08 was their player wasn't ready to take over heck it still can't match what we the developers had for selection and styles. Our prices were lower now they have no compition. In 08 they said file size was the reason when many devs derive from items derived from items that had been be deved 5 or more times adding kbs to the items when hair was as high as music in kbs some people complained saying they crashed alot they still do btw lol I saw in a forum someone say well the police wouldn't allow you to keep dvd's that were ripped off their right but the cop's wouldn't allow the person who makes them to sell them for a few more years then come around yanking every video away either it's just a clear cut case of imvu changing service to suit themselves they will claim copy right but they allowed it to go on and continued to allow any said products to be sold even after realizing it was an issue. good luck with your lawsuit if u need any further details feel free to message me. If there are any typos I am sorry as I wrote this really late.
Posted 12 years ago
I have not been on IMVU near as long as others but I was likewise affected by the change. I am also a developer on IMVU but due to starting after 2008 was never able to submit to the catalog any audio over 20 seconds in length. One thing that I have to point out is that I know how to make trigger items and developers claiming "hours of work" on their catalog is ridiculous. You are profiting from an item that you had no hand in making unique. It's not like your sending checks to Britney Spears so let's be realistic. The purpose of this lawsuit is not to help the developers of these audio files, its to help the consumers, as stated in the complaint filed. Prior to 2008, I can see frustration at losing the developing fees but the product was in essense not yours to sell. IMVU's main argument will be that the sale of most of these files violates the artists rights and it was essential to keep the artists from coming after them. The problem that more than likely caused the overall 20 second limit in the end was due to the fact you could add songs to and change files already submitted prior to 2008. In other words, if a developer submitted a song prior to 2008, they could go back and add songs to it and raise the price. I understand both sides of the issue, but IMVU did indeed profit from the sales after 2008 and it never stated that they at any time could limit the length of items submitted beforehand. I do hope this goes through. Corporations have to learn to handle things in a more consumer friendly manner.

Minx

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