Last February 5, 2008 there was a skin theft protest at a mall in Scapoli. Out of curiousity, I went to take a look at an actual skin theft protest. An avatar named Thora Charron was there with a huge sign above her head. The sign had the words “stop stealing my work” written on it. A few other personalities were also there but what caught my attention were two avatars, a male and female, wearing a plain white texture as their skin with the words “I’d rather go naked than wear stolen skins”. The white texture skin looked creepier than the default grey skin seen on your avatar while it’s loading.

I didn’t stay very long. I just took my snapshots and then logged out. My guess is, protest like this will become a common sight in Second Life, at least until Linden Labs finds a real solution to the problem.

Below is a snapshot of Thora Charron with a sign over her head.

Don’t Want To Be A Skinless Avatar?

So, you are a casual Second Life resident and you don’t want to spend $10 to $20 for your avatar’s skin but you don’t want to look like a newbie forever, right? Well, you are in luck because there are skin creators who, from time to time, gives out free skins. An example would be Minnu, just read my post titled Get Minnu Model Skins Free. Just follow the steps and hope that the notices are still there because the free skins are attached in a notice. Skin creators like Minnu sometimes give away free skins to their group members. That’s why I advise you to join these groups.

You can also get FREE skins from an Evian water dispenser and there is one at Japan Resort. I checked some of the other locations where Evian water dispensers are supposed to be but only saw one at Japan Resort. I believe the free Evian skins were created by RealSkin. Just touch the dispenser to get an Evian water bottle and the free skins.

If you know how to work with Photoshop then you can grab Eloh Eliot’s Skin PSD files. Yes! You heard me right. Layered PSD files!!! I was surprised myself when I found out about it and yes, they’re free! You can modify and sell them as your own, just follow the very simple licensing which is basically just keeping the original license intact. The license is in a text file packaged with the PSD files. You just copy the content of the text file and paste it in a notecard together with the skins. These PSD files are great for those wanting to learn how to create their own skins. Visit Eloh Eliot’s blog to learn more about it.

Remember, buying expensive skins is optional because there are many free skins out there. Just visit the many FREEBIE places in Second Life and you’ll see many of them. Some are good, some are okay and some are really bad but, at least, they are free.