Have you had a model stolen?

hellnbak

I'm gonna tell

thomthom

@chris fullmer said:

Of course you can't, you jerk. That would be stealing.....from me. Because I've already got Dave's models for sale on China's black market. Just don't tell Dave.

Yeh dirty little.... you're taking away from my sales on eBay!

iichiversii

this is a gray area, i myself dont sell my models or claim someone elses models are mine, but i often download models from the warehouse and modify the models and makng them different in many ways, i add and take things out of them, its simply using work others have uploaded to the warehouse to speed up the process for me, out of interest would i be wrong in claiming this model as mine even tho it doesnt resemble the original model????

Dave R

Hey you guys! At least give me a cut. Sheesh!

Damien, you ask a good question. I don't use models from the warehouse mostly because they usually require more work from me to make them work for my use than it takes for me to draw them from scratch. So I don't know what the answer is. Models put on the warehouse are free for the taking. That's part of the deal with the warehouse but it would be pretty low to take a model done by someone else and claim it as your own work and then to sell it when it is freely available.

hellnbak

@iichiversii said:

this is a gray area, i myself dont sell my models or claim someone elses models are mine, but i often download models from the warehouse and modify the models and makng them different in many ways, i add and take things out of them, its simply using work others have uploaded to the warehouse to speed up the process for me, out of interest would i be wrong in claiming this model as mine even tho it doesnt resemble the original model????

I started a model not too long ago, my first roadster (thread here http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=333&t=39427), using a very basic model for a contest on the warehouse. I got a little carried away, and when I was done there was virtually nothing left of the original model. I asked basically the same question when I posted the model in a thread on the forums, and was advised that I should give credit to the original model. I suppose it's best to err on the side of caution in situations like this.

iichiversii

Yes i see, heres another example, if i were to construct a model from the beginning while using anothers as reference, then would credit need to be used, heres an example, i browsed turbosquid for a Afgan town, and found pictures of a town from all angles, so i used these pictures and made a reconstruction of the town in SU, the Afgan town was on sale for $500 on turbo squid, now should i claim the modelling is mine or should i give credit to the modeller on turbosquid?? please bare in mind im not using these models to profit and i dont have them on display over the net, i just usedd this model as a test to see if i could make a reconstruction in SU

iichiversii

Just another note i think should be added, im totally against other people using others models and claiming them as their own, dont get me wrong, im not all for this carry on, i do believe credit should be given to those who create these models

iichiversii

Heres something i just tried, i looked for a car in SU Warehouse and found this Aston Martin DBR9, grenn in colour, with some yellow, search it on the warehouse, then look at this on turbosquid for $49 -

http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-aston-martin-dbr9/507500

exactly the same, is this a stolen model?? infact everything on SU warehouse can also be found on turbosquid for a price, very gray area indeed

solo

Moral of the story:

Turbosquid is overpriced crap so rather go to warehouse and get the crap for free.

gilles

If you create a model of something that didn't already exist you have intellectual property of it.
But if you model something that already exist you don't have any right on it. And you can't show or sell the model without express permission of the inventor.

irwanwr

sounds like "someone's selling Google Chrome on the net". or, someone's selling any other freeware, open source, etc. on the net. if it's really there in 3d warehouse too. it may sound funny, if people know that the ware offered as freeware or opensource. yet someone trying to sell it.
that's for the "money making from other's effort" part.

for "credits", i guess what Dave wrote above is adequate to give the idea of how bad and low the person might be. not to mention giving slime a bad name

hellnbak

@iichiversii said:

Heres something i just tried, i looked for a car in SU Warehouse and found this Aston Martin DBR9, grenn in colour, with some yellow, search it on the warehouse, then look at this on turbosquid for $49 -

http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-aston-martin-dbr9/507500

exactly the same, is this a stolen model?? infact everything on SU warehouse can also be found on turbosquid for a price, very gray area indeed

While I'm not defending Turbosquid, and I'm certainly no expert on this or anything else, how can you be sure it's the same model? If two people choose to create an accurate model of the same car, they are bound to look very similar, and the colors could simply be a popular color scheme for that car. Unless there is something visually very distinctive in the model, something that there is virtually no possibility of two people coming up with the same design, the only way to be certain is to compare them both, in SU.

iichiversii

@gilles said:

If you create a model of something that didn't already exist you have intellectual property of it.
But if you model something that already exist you don't have any right on it. And you can't show or sell the model without express permission of the inventor.

Ok, so should the architect get credited for his building you created in 3D form on a PC? after all it was the architect who designed it, your simply copying it from reference pics, measurements and so on, i used pictures of a model, but not the model to replicate a model in SU, this is a gray area no matter what, i dont agree with people stealing models and selling them

unigami

I'm kinda bummed out because I just checked Turbosquid and none of my models in the Warehouse have been stolen.
Guess I just don't make the cut....

hellnbak

@unigami said:

I'm kinda bummed out because I just checked Turbosquid and none of my models in the Warehouse have been stolen.
Guess I just don't make the cut....

Well, from what I've heard whenever someone stole one of your fantastic models and put it up for sale there, the demand was so great that it crashed their server. So they've had to ban your models, sorry

gilles

@unknownuser said:

Ok, so should the architect get credited for his building you created in 3D form on a PC?

Yes. It is his masterpiece, he could hire you for modeling or built it, but it will always be his idea.

iichiversii

@gilles said:

@unknownuser said:

Ok, so should the architect get credited for his building you created in 3D form on a PC?

Yes. It is his masterpiece, he could hire you for modeling or built it, but it will always be his idea.

I totally agree

Alan Fraser

It is a grey area, yes...but you can't really state that a model has been stolen on the basis of thumbnail pictures. You'd need to have both meshes and do a vertex by vertex comparison. I've actually been accused of stealing stuff from the Warehouse, based on nothing other than a small preview pic, but it was a totally unfounded BS claim...precisely because of what I've just said.
As somebody already stated; if two people model the same object from the same stats (and they are any good at modelling) then the models are going to look superficially identical. In fact, my versions were more accurate and contained about 10% of the faces in the Warehouse versions....many of which are just high poly Max models imported into SU, complete with reversed faces and micro missing faces galore.

As for 'borrowing' somebody's model and substantially editing it so it doesn't look the same...can you claim it as your own? No, you can't. If there is any of the orginal mesh in there, then it's not your model. Your model starts with a blank drawing window.

I've also had loads of models pirated and posted onto warez sites, but we're pretty hot on that kind of thing and Rapidshare and others are very efficient at removing them quickly.

I can't imagine why anyone would buy something from Turbosquid without checking out the Warehouse first. I'll bet a heck of a lot more stuff heads in the other direction (TS to 3DW) than the other way round.
So if you have genuinely had a Warehouse model stolen and posted to TS, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

JMJOhio

3d modeling is one of my hobbies and I enjoy sharing my creations with others. Some will download them to study and learn from and others may use them as components in their projects. Some will edit the original to suit their tastes and possibly morph it into something very different. And there are the talented rendering and post p folk who surf for models to be used to create fantastic images. I endorse all of this utilization. I do expect to be credited for my original efforts.

But...for someone to take outright credit for my work when there has been no value added by them, or worse yet, openly offer same for sale is totally unacceptable to me.

I'm willing to compromise a bit, but will not wholesale give up my freedoms in trade for better security, (encrypted software, password protection, etc...). I will probably be more discrete in the future and offer my major works by invitation only.

Here is the final reply from TurboSquid relative to the incident that prompted the start of this thread.

Recently a friend of mine submitted a request, see #87588 & #91544, regarding a model of mine that was downloaded from google 3d warehouse and offered for sale on your site by jessel sullivan. I go by the name JMJ-Ohio in the 3d warehouse. I do not know a jessel sullivan and gave no one authority to sell this model. Model in question is "Ford 427 V8 SOHC". Would you supply me details relative to the resolution of this issue.

Thank you,
Jim Jeffries

Hello,

I handled the case. We found that the model offered on the Google 3D Warehouse and the one on TurboSquid were the same. We took the model down and contacted the artist who posted it. The artist did not respond to our message and has been banned from TurboSquid.

Sincerely,
Kevin
TurboSquid Member Services
Basic | Advanced | Product | Licensing & Usage | Copyright & Trademark Infringement

Jan-09 2012 13:09

irwanwr

hi Jim,

i'm glad to read your post and see the replies from Turbo Squid.
hopefully that "slime" learnt a lesson from this.