Looked on Etsy and mind blown !

[Link 34]

I happened to look on Etsy for something and noticed the sheer amount of people selling other people's designs and more to the point people are paying £7 or so for a 3d printed octopus or T-Rex is mind blowing !, i quickly checked and change some of my free toy designs licences on Thingv to non-commercial, but i cannot believe how many people are simply printing the flexible octopus (given by the designer for free) for example and people seem to by buying them !.

 

Maybe i was naive to what people will do in terms of taking other people's work, and surprisingly what people will buy !. Obviously if the design was set to can be used for commercial use, then fair game i guess, but my eyes have been opened. I would not feel comfortable selling someone else work regardless of the licence set

 

Also saw one of my designs on there, my fault, set the wrong licence, changed it now

[kmanstudios 1,120]

I understand what you mean. It is a thought fraught with choices and each one has its own consequences. @flowalistik is probably the most pilfered from artist out there.

 

There is a scan of the Batman that was from a licensed bust (you can actually see it in the comic book store on the tv show "The Big Bang Theory) that was at one time for sale as original art (as opposed to being a scan). This person also tried to sell the Scanned Superman Bust as well. Then the Batman scan was made available for free on Thingiverse.

 

Note that I have downloaded a few models and printed them for myself or as gifts. But I posted them as makes and believe me when I say these were spot on models. But, I could not and would not sell them.

[nallath 1,120]

The fight to actually get your models removed if you did set the "correct" licence is something that takes a lot of energy. I've heard quite a few horror stories from artists that actually got death threats and a ton of verbal abuse for doing it.

 

A common "defence" is: 'You shouldn't have put it online if you didn't want people selling it'. It's a completely ridiculous argument ofc, but for some reason people do think that way.

[Link 34]

hmmm, yes i can imagine it's not worth the hassle, i am certainly not that bothered about my designs. I guess i was more surprised that there seemed to be such a big market for people buying these models for not (relatively) small amounts of money !, £7 for the flexible octopus is crazy, you only need to sell 3 and cover the cost of 1kg of PLA. And its not like only one person is selling the same model, and they all seem to have a number of feedback ratings suggestinng they are selling !

maybe i am too relaxed and should really be only designing something for myself and get it straight onto Etsy 🙂

 

For me when istarted with 3d printing many years ago it was all about the community and the sharing of models i could print when i had no idea how to design my own, that is such a good thing and why i put my models up for free. All about Carma i guess ! 🙂