Sad Face! IMPORTANT NOTICE!

cults3d

Human: Why is Sad Face so sad? A sneaky eBay seller has stolen multiple (2K+) models and photographs from Thingiverse, possibly from other sources too, and is selling prints of the models for profit. They're using the photographs or screenshots of the 3D view to advertise them. EBAY LINK They did this with my model Aria the Dragon, designed for Dual extrusion: https://cults3d.com/en/game/aria-the-dragon-for-dual-extrusion-hello Here's the listing: http://www.ebay.com/itm/261964153371?euid=5be5a7af4ed349ec87a18cad7c671875&cp=1 I sent them a polite message via eBay asking them to take it down, and this is their response: "When you uploaded your items onto Thingiverse for mass distribution, you lost all rights to them altogether. They entered what's known in the legal world as "public domain". The single exception to public domain rules are "original works of art". No court in the USA has yet ruled a CAD model an original work or art. Therefore, you have no right to exclude others from utilizing the CAD models you've uploaded." The seller goes on: "Furthermore, if in the future we do get a precedent in the USA for establishing CAD models as "original works of art", we would still likely be just fine as we are not re-selling your CAD models, but rather "transformative" adaptations of them in the form of 3D printed objects." SFE P.S. When you created these CAD files, did you really want to limit the amount of people who could enjoy them to the 0.01% of the USA with a 3D Printer? 100% of America can purchase the items from us at a reasonable cost and enjoy them-creating made in the USA jobs in the process as well. Furthermore, if you hate the idea of people profiteering from your work, you may want to take it up with Makerbot/Stratasys who only hosts Thingiverse for ad revenue, to sell more 3D printers." I've created "Sad Face" to highlight this problem and so that other makers can check to see if their work has been taken.