Bloggers, start your engines! The rest of you: Well, you’ll have to wait until Monday to get in. If you’re feeling especially bloggity, make sure you have at least one 512×512 image on white background in your blog post for me to yank for a special promotional opportunity for you – BILLBOARDS! IM me when you get your blog post up with your blog URL and I’ll check it out. If it’s an awesome, originals-only post with all original items (no copyright or content theft violations) I’ll make you into a special piece of graffiti or billboard for the fair with a link to your blog!

NOTE:  Teleport locations are NOT SET so you can land anywhere on the sim!

Fair SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ruthenium/128/128//

Fair Sponsored by: The Artists’ Voice, http://www.theartistsvoice.org

Feb 6th: Blogger Preview Day
Feb 8th-14th: Fair
Feb 10th, 6pm SLT: Literature and Copyright Seminar. Michael A. Stackpole. Robert E. Vardeman, Andrea Howe, and Khia Gherardi as panelists.
Feb 11th, 6pm SLT: Michael A. Stackpole will be reading from his new novel, At The Queen’s Command.
Feb 13th, 2pm SLT: Designers and Content Theft. Jori Watler, Jessanne Janus, Bracken Back and Katey Coppola as panelists.

Previous Posts on the Originals Fair:
http://theartistsvoice.org/featured/i/

http://theartistsvoice.org/headline/av-i/

I <3 Originals Fair:  February 8 – 14, 2010

with a special:

We <3 Bloggers Preview Day:  February 6, 2010

The fair is non-profit.  In other words, rents collected will not exceed the cost of the sim rental, and there will be no sponsorships.  All building expenses will be covered privately, and are not figured into booth rental. We’re making this affordable for everyone.

We’re excited!  Naturally, the fair is open to merchants from all walks of Second Life™!  Fashion designers, builders, landscapers, script writers, sculptors, writers, artists, photographers, group leaders, bloggers and more.   We’ve reserved a special mainland sim which will allow everyone to strut their stuff, and which will be easy and fun to navigate for fair-goers.   We’ve even lined up some special events designed to reach the largest demographic possible!

MERCHANT INFORMATION

Fair Ground Rules:

1.  All work displayed must be original and PG-rated.

2.  No particle scripts, hover text, rotating textures, slideshows, greeter scripts, profile viewers, traffic counters or listening scripts of any kind.

3.  Script-free or single-script vendors only.

4. Booth rents must be paid in full to Kat Brougham BEFORE January 30, 2010 and are non-refundable.  A receipt will be issued within 24 hours of payment.

5. Set-up must be completed by 7pm SLT on February 5th.

6. Each merchant must have at least one new release themed to Valentine’s Day.    Fair gifts are encouraged, but optional.

Notes:  Infractions of any of the rules will result in booth and rent forfeit.    If you have questions, message Kat Alderson before you apply.

It goes without saying that all merchants are expected to act respectfully toward other merchants, fair staff, bloggers, and fair-goers.

Booths:

Forty (40) booths will be available.  Here’s the breakdown:

Five 100 prim booths at L$400 each.
Thirty 200 prim booths at L$800 each.
Five 300 prim booth at L$1,200 each.

Booth rents must be paid in full before February 1st.  All payments to be made to Kat Brougham.  Financials will be made available when the fair opens.  Any questions should be addressed to Kat Alderson.

Merchant Applications

Applications will be reviewed on a first come, first serve basis.   Only those merchants whose shops are completely copyright and trademark infringement-free will be accepted.  Each application received will be reviewed within 48 hours of receipt, and the applicant will be notified as to the status of their application.  Forty vendors will be accepted, as well as five back-up merchants.  The back-ups will be allowed to take over any booth space forfeited by infractions of the fair rules or non-payment of rent.

Merchant applications must be received no later than midnight, January 21st.  Please use the attached notecard and provide all the information requested.  By submitting an application, you agree to abide by the fair rules and acknowledge that infractions of the rules will result in a forfeit of space and rent paid.

Please contact Kat Alderson for a merchant’s application!

UPDATE:  December 23 – 100 Prim Booths are currently sold out!   We are working on being able to accomodate more, but as it stands, only 200 and 300 prim booths are still available.  These are bargain priced booths for a fair, so sign up before those are gone, too!

Artist’s Voice is pleased to announce its first annual Black Friday Originals Only Sale!

The sale will start on Black Friday, November 27th and run through Monday, November 30th!  Naturally, the sale is limited only by two factors:

1. All the contents of participating shops must not violate any Second Life or first life copyrights or trademarks.
2. All participating merchants offer at least one transferable item on sale.

To apply to be included in the sale you can fill out the form HERE or

send a notecard to Kat Alderson with the following information:

• Your avatar name
• Your store name
• Your landmark
• Your SLURL

If by some chance you do have unacceptable items in your shop, you will be notified and have a chance to comply.  On November 24th,  you will be passed the official sale kit which will include sale tags in a variety of flavors, and a poster for your shop.  The poster will dispense a notecard with all of the participating merchants listed, as well information about content theft, intellectual property rights, how to spot imposters, and the best way to report illegal items.

It is necessary for all participants to rez the official sales poster and use the sales tags.

Goals for the sale:

• Offer consumers great deals for holiday savings.
• Offer ethical designers a way to kick off seasonal sales.
• Educate residents and content creators about content theft.

You can message (IM) Kat Alderson in world for a copy of the sale notecard.

We looking forward to working and shopping with you this holiday season!

Hints:

• If you offer clothing, you can offer one layer option for the sale to make it transferable.
• If you have items you just cannot make transferable, why not do a prim exchange with a friend.  Get someone you know and trust to rez some items in your shop, rez some in their, and both sign up for the sale!

Please take a moment and look over the poll on the sidebar and participate!

Here are our council members:

Tenshi Vielle
Arabella Steadham
Kat Alderson
Ayumi Shinn
Darkley Aeon
Rebel Hope
Tracy Rubble
Teagan Blackthorne
Arwyn Quandry (who will be working with the Teen Grid, not the Main Grid)

Future projects for the website:

A forum for Artist’s Voice users.
More additions to the DMCA information page.