The sad fact is, if you post something online it’s gonna get stolen no matter what fancy fine print you put in the terms and condition’s. and this happens every single day, in every single industry.
the only way to fight it is to. A keep hitting the report button (ineffective)
or B bust out your wallet and take the suckers to court (expensive).
both these option aren’t desirable.
so in the end the only option is to simply not release it in the first place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceZRG-zrsLQ
You can totally also choose C - don’t take it and tell them and the world that they are assholes
Well not totally true. Sparkfun treats electronic design like fashion and simply tries to stay ahead of the curve. Want the latest innovation? You buy a genuine Sparkfun product. Wait a few months and grab an older model for cheap overseas.
BTW, if you keep releasing innovative products, people will recognize your talent and hire you to solve their problems. If your goal however is to create that one winner that lets you retire early, well good luck…
Oh I read Makers from Doctorow too and I do accept the reality that doesn’t make me friend with someone like the Just3DPrint folks
As much as the DMCA gets abused, this is exactly the sort of situation it was intended for. When a site’s policies are going unpoliced, and litigation is cost prohibitive, there needed to be a third option that had some teeth but didn’t require court action/expense… so the DMCA was born.
I’m not a fan of the thing, but when you’re in a situation that it’s legitimately useful and not abusive you might as well actually use it.
thats true Alex, usually by the time a company copy’s your product you’ve already found a dozen flaws and started removing them.
Well it’s a matter of fact so don’t do it…
If you do be prepared for the consequences.
Its like if bridges were new and then people complained that it’s fatal to jump off.
Dont do it.
“Don’t release it in the first place” imho is exactly the wrong reaction. Why should we let some assholes ruin the speed of innovation and the ingenuity that sharing knowledge freely brings us? Look at what happened in 3d printing over the past years. Sharing not only moves us forward but also brings an immense amount of satisfaction about having achieved something together. You need to fight back. You need to keep moving forward. Stay ahead, don’t just give up. If you don’t have the legal means, at least get loud like @Nils_Hitze says - you might get help. There will always be assholes. If you keep everything closed they will still steal from you.
It worries me a lot what this recent case of license violations is doing to the community at the moment… You know, this stuff is nothing new! It has been happening in the open source software communities for years if not decades. Just Google “gpl violations”. It happens because people get away with it. Because you don’t care the cheap router you bought runs a busybox fork for which the sources weren’t shared, it was cheap, right?
So start caring instead of stopping to share!
@foosel It’s definitely the wrong reaction. but it’s the only sure fire way to avoid the situation.
personally i think the best thing is to just ignore them and move on because it’s just a waste of time, when tomorrow someone else will come along and steal it again anyway.
and it’s not only GPL this happens, iv’e known people that spent tens of thousand on patents only to have them ignored, sure they could probably take them to court for it, but it’s simply wasting time that you could be putting into innovating a new idea.
@foosel I totally agree! Don’t let the suckers hurt the spirit of collaboration and sharing that evolved around the Maker’s movement!
In this case: shouldn’t it be sufficient to report the to ebay for license violation?
I’m not saying don’t release it, I’m saying don’t bitch when it’s abused because it’s going to happen, just accept it if you share.
If your a musician and you release an album you expect to have some pirated content out there, it’s not right but it’s factual.
So if your design is so precious that you will get bent out of shape when some jerk takes it and shares it as their own don’t do it.
When I design something for myself it stays mine if its a good design and I upload it then its for all to “Open Source USE”. If I want to do it for money I buy AUTOCAD for $$$ or whatever and sell the design unlock code. Or get a job as a CAD designer, modeler etc.
Things will always be ripped off but that’s no reason to suggest people don’t try to stop any of the bad actors or try to educate.
@Anthony_Truss nope I don’t agree with that. I’m totally ok with ignoring chinese copy cats, I’m not ok with someone in a country I can grab and than having him being a jerk when I say stop it. That’s 100% Japica-Style and I won’t tolerate it. I won’t spend money/a huge amount of time but I will always “bitch”
Ugh, even the thought of attempting IP litigation in China makes my stomach start to churn.
The DMCA applies to the stolen pictures without question. It also applies to quite a few, if not most, of the objects this guy posted because there are very few things he posted that are purely utilitarian.
Once again yes, some of them are. And those are not covered by the DMCA. A distinction so obvious I didn’t see any point in bringing it up. I assumed, apparently incorrectly, that it was clear to everyone involved by this point what the scope of the DMCA is.
@Nils_Hitze “That’s 100% Japica-Style”… I’ve never heard that before but I think I like it. 