Pirate Sites and Copyright Violation

[rickstef]

I have seen multiple files from paper-replika.com appear on pirate sites, and all of them require a password

[JohnM]

Even UHU's models are on sale on the well known chinese site.

But why pay $39.99 for the Black Pearl when UHU gives it away free?

It's a crazy world out there.

Johnny.

[AndyDuframe]

Originally Posted by papersmithforge

...since the password is readily available, pirates don't have a problem distributing it along with the password.

Exactly. All the pirate has to do is buy one copy to get the password.

I guess that's why I'm thinking maybe the best approach is to assume your PDF will in fact get copied, distributed, sold at some point in time (without your permission), so just make sure to embed plenty of links back to your site along with some special offers on other products.

[Combatant]

Creating the edition, we discussed a piracy subject. The decision was - not to give to the buyer of any files. Now our engineers are engaged in this plug-in in java. In case of success I will tell about our method to colleagues. Another problem. The content is laid already out at pirates. There is very old way to solve and it. But he assumes not absolutely lawful actions in networks and association of forces. Though who told that it is necessary to struggle with pirates in white gloves.

[Retired_for_now]

Just a comment, patrons of foreign language pirate sites may lack the language skills to find the models (free or reasonable priced genuine files) and so are unaware of the original source. Wonder if a Google-translated barrage of Chinese language pages (ECard Models, LowerHudsonValley, Paper-Replika, etc.) would seriously cut into Alice/Alibaba's sales?
Yogi

[sporticus]

Wish someone would launch some sort of computer virus/cyber attack on the websites of the pirates. Not that I would suggest someone does that, just thinking it would be nice.

[airdave]

From now on, all my models are infected with W32mydoom

Be warned.

[Retired_for_now]

I was thinking more of something like an update to Hamanaga's links page ... Need one of our Chinese literate members to take that on - translate our links section here and put it up on a web page inside the Great Firewall.

Yogi

[grimpirate]

The underlying truth of the matter (whether one accepts it or not) is that piracy does and will exist, and no matter what methods you take, your content runs the risk of being pirated. You can debate that some methods of protection are more "effective" than others, but there's no actual proof of that. The only real issue is WHEN the protection will be defeated (just look at Microsoft, Sony, Apple, etc.).

Why will papermodelers ALWAYS afford pirates a method of pirating? Because in order to build a model, you have to give the users of your file the ability to print it, OR you have to provide them with a hardcopy. The person who wishes to pirate it can then simply scan all the pages. If the belief that a pirate won't scan the pages is in your mind, feel free to look up all the printed media that wasn't originally available in digital format that now is up on the net (violating copyright of course). Once you have it scanned, you can vector trace the shapes, the degree of accuracy is only limited by how good the scanner's resolution is.

Are pirates REALLY willing to invest the time and effort to do this? As with anything it varies with the individual who is doing the pirating. However, if they're willing to scan hundreds of pages of books, odds are they're willing to scan a couple of pages of a model. They likely don't even need to print since screen capture software is readily available anyhow.

[Lex]

Personally I couldn't care less about what I would lose from an already free model of mine being pirated. However they are counter-productive to the community as a whole, I give that point.

...So give them a hard time pirating your design, and they'll opt to pirating something else (like books). From now on all my free models will be watermarked on every single blank space (and across the formers themselves) and any unsuspecting buyers would quickly realise they had made a mistake. I wouldn't think any pirate in the world would spend the effort to remove them.

The worst part of things that I'm seeing right now is the line of thought on some modeller's side that first, free models are crap, second, commercial models are expensive, and so building a pirate copy serves as a good and cheap practice with no obligation, therefore I think it's them and not the pirates that we have to deal with first. On this end I will continue releasing industry-quality free models to make people realise there is another option.