URGENT: PIRACY ALERT: Somebody's selling sir Julius Perdana's Optimus Prime

[Retired_for_now]

Still need our Mandarin-speaking (typing?) members to build a translated links page to all the free sites and company stores. Then, post inside the Great (fire)Wall so Alice's audience (which seems to be the PRC) sees the real source. Ultimately killing it would also require all the various model publishers to build Mandarin language pages for their sites (a billion new customers could be nice ...) to cut out any value from Alice.
Yoig

[ultra]

Originally Posted by sgoti

Hmm..

Send him the models!- After significantly altering (rescale some parts, omit others, delete portions of parts, etc) the kit. In other words, make the kit incomplete and/or impossible to build correctly. Get them a reputation for selling bad product...

Heck, maybe even offer to "customize" it for them: "This model produced exclusively for XXXX" on the front page or something like that. (Of course "customized" would mean FUBAR...)

i sure like the FUBAR idea

ultra stone

[Revell-Fan]

Originally Posted by 3Turner

DO NOT link to them anymore, it is only more advertising for them and help gain them more exposure to unsuspecting hobbyists that do not know that website is not a legitimate outlet of digital models. All the linking does is give them higher search results and more exposure. Lets not let that happen.

Yes, I understand. My mistake. Sorry. My intention was only to prove my accusations and not to make advertising for that site.

I'm sorry for this, it won't happen again. Thank you very much for pointing that out and for editing.

[airdave]

If one of your photos is being used in a sales listing,
and you can provide details and/or links to your original posted image,
you can report the use of the photos to eBay or the host site.

Make sure you demand the removal of the photos from the listing,
and don't forget to remind the host of the entire copyright infringement issue of the listing.

The same goes for any other content in the listing including the sale item itself.

I bet you, if the host gets enough complaints and enough mail,
it will take action to stop the annoyance.
So make sure you send plenty of messages
and why not send mutliple copies of every message!

[Lex]

Full Mandarin speaker here reporting in. I (we) know perfectly well the situation of paper models in China. We're spending our best efforts to combat piracy in the mainland, and frankly it's a tough call in this day and age.

However I am not familiar with the name of this particular site, judging from the fact its page is in English I can only suspect it's aimed at Western audiences. We already have a blacklist of Chinese pirates and have been at war with them since the dawn of time. From an insider's point, there are plenty of legal vendors of original paper models and plenty of free download collections, the modellers know perfectly well what is legit and what not, so it's dead easy for a modeller in mainland China to get something the right way.

Trouble is, a lot of modellers (consumers in this respect) simply refuse to do so. It's hard to fight pirates when they still have the support of the masses... The overall situation with piracy in general is to do with the social background of China and I can't go deeper into the cause, I'll just state that the near-term outlook isn't going to be pretty, and we're powerless to change it.

Edit: yes it does seem to be a vendor of Chinese origin targeting Western buyers. Aliexpress is affiliated with Alibaba (the overseas branch) which is sort of a Chinese Ebay of the like. It might be hard bringing this thing down but I'll try contact my higher-ups. I am sorry that my country is causing this hassle.

[Retired_for_now]

Thanks, Lex. It's a commercial "wild west" over there, so much to do that the legalities are lagging a bit (not that that hasn't happened anywhere else ... robber barons anyone? Or Edison versus Tesla?). Understand your point on Alibaba, it's aimed westward from its (legal-wise) secure base in China.

On the other hand, so much to do pretty much guarantees progress - so their behavior will normalize eventually (not that Microserf, Apple, Google, Cisco, Intel, and the entire EU aren't suing each other every week).

Yogi

[Neptune]

I don't know why any of this comes as a surprise..... That flippen "Alice" site has been up for years. It's funny, but I can type in the name of any one of my card models into google and have dozens of listing come up of any number of sites and I didn't authorize any of them, but frankly, I don't care. I learned a long time ago that you don't share anything that you don't want some clown taking credit for, or trying to sell. Some people have no talent what-so-ever, except to stir up trouble, or to steal from others. One day Karma, or the law of reciprocity, or whatever you want to call it will catch up with these people. You can't sweat the small stuff. I've been giving away my artwork and references for years and have seen people that I tried to help profit off of my kindness and it ALWAYS comes back to bite them where it hurts the most.

[Wulf111]

Originally Posted by Neptune

I don't know why any of this comes as a surprise..... That flippen "Alice" site has been up for years. It's funny, but I can type in the name of any one of my card models into google and have dozens of listing come up of any number of sites and I didn't authorize any of them, but frankly, I don't care. I learned a long time ago that you don't share anything that you don't want some clown taking credit for, or trying to sell. Some people have no talent what-so-ever, except to stir up trouble, or to steal from others. One day Karma, or the law of reciprocity, or whatever you want to call it will catch up with these people. You can't sweat the small stuff. I've been giving away my artwork and references for years and have seen people that I tried to help profit off of my kindness and it ALWAYS comes back to bite them where it hurts the most.

i feel the same way, i have known about this site for a long time, as well as a few few other sites that have acquired some of my models. there is no way to change the way of others that far away. i make the models for myself, and share them so others can join in my enjoyment of the hobby, if someone is selling that which should be free shame on them karma is a B. it will catch up to them eventually.

[imcold]

I put a note saying "Paper model by ..., freely available at ..., not for sale" etc., doesn't look like it helped much. I could put that on every page, but I doubt it would make any difference at all. Ridiculous.