Pirate Sites and Copyright Violation

[michael dazzo]

i see why pirates don't bother with my free papercraft concept cars!
for insteans 1.i don't glue them together 2. i never put tabs on them 3. i only tape them togerther nice to make it look like shiney new like medal not photo or spray on like cemicles! mabey you all should try it! someday! it mite help you beat piratecy!

[AndyDuframe]

Originally Posted by Lex

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 realize they had made a mistake.

It would be so great if ethics really played a part in the buying process -- but I think we both know that for most people it doesn't.

[mldixon]

Originally Posted by airdave

From now on, all my models are infected with W32mydoom

Be warned.

Man, that is a nasty little bugger, your planes will be dropping bombs in more ways than one...

[sporticus]

Make them walk the plank.....a paper plank

[John Wagenseil]

The only way to counter pirates is to offer a product that cannot be effectively or economically copied and transmitted over the internet.
Laser cut parts (especially of repetitive parts: tank tracks, ships fittings, struts, or hard to make such as wheels, tire treads, grills, ect), high quality printing on high quality paper (I think there is a Dutch yacht model that is lithographed), metallic paper or printing with metallic pigments (like the PMI airplane models), paper mache cast parts, paper embossing are examples of this.
Including moiree patterns or other hard to scan and print textures in models would cut piracy.
Another possible trick (probably illegal) would be to embed scans of currency in the model. Supposedly recent scanner have features which will prevent them from scanning currency.
One thing a lot of paper model designers do not do is water mark their product and provide information where other products are offered for sale or where a donation can be sent.
Eastern European publishers suffer a disadvantage that encourages piracy: postal rates that result in shipping costs greater than the model's cost.
Japanese paper model vendors make it very hard for non Japanese to purchase their models. Limiting overseas customers seems to limit the number of Japanese paper models that are pirated.

[airdave]

Hey John...I think I can get around all your securities! lol

anything printed can be scanned and copied...metallics, moirees, embossing...all easy to deal with.
embedding currency in the pages...easy, just avoid the supplied printing software that comes with printers and scanners.
watermarks...easily removed

In response to an earlier comment about filling the unused areas of every page with logos and such...
been tried once already by a well known designer. Didn't go over too well.
In fact many people will stop buying or downloading your designs because of the ink wasted when printing.

Wanna limit the pirating of your models?...make them more easily available.
Sell them in a reputable place like ecardmodels.
Make you free models easy to get to and download.
Sorry...got to say it...stay away from "secret libraries" and cryptic passwords.

Notice I said "limit"...stopping it is not possible.
Printed stuff is gonna get scanned and copied.
We all do it just to make backups or emergency copies.
So unless we suggest outlawing all copiers, faxes and scanner machines, then we should stop whining about it.

Remain vigilant...stay connected as a group...and protect each other within that group.
Spread the word as much as possible to try to limit the amount of unfavorable piracy.

oh yes...there is "favorable" piracy.
Music artists have found that out!!
Many bands routinely "leak" tracks for viral exposure.
The term "viral" is commonly linked to Videos being "pirated" and then widely distributed much quicker.
Even movie studios now do it with "sneak peeks" and trailers.
They cry about piracy, but use it themselves to stir up interest in projects.
Hipocracy and piracy sound a lot alike don't they? LOL

[AndyDuframe]

Originally Posted by airdave

oh yes...there is "favorable" piracy.

Exactly. Since there's really no way to completely eliminate the problem, we're probably better off using our creativity and ingenuity to gain benefit from piracy, rather than fighting it.

[airdave]

I give away KoolWheelz models on my website.
They're fun and I like to share them.
But they are also a good way to attract people to my site
and then they see other stuff that I make.

I fight hard to stop others from sharing my KoolWheelz on other sites.
(I want people to visit my site to get them!)

But if someone downloaded a KoolWheelz model
and then printed a few copies and gave them to friends
and got those friends interested enough to visit my site
...then I love those kind of "pirates"!!

[Wad Cutter]

I think stealing is stealing no matter what you call it. There's enough free models out there to keep any one busy for a long time. When a modeler makes a models and you steal it and sell it and make money off of another persons work you should be shot. Wrong is still wrong Andy.

[Lex]

Japanese paper model vendors make it very hard for non Japanese to purchase their models. Limiting overseas customers seems to limit the number of Japanese paper models that are pirated.

Precisely otherwise. When buyers have no way of obtaining a legitimate copy it only adds to the reason of buying a pirated one which some might not have done otherwise. I think the Japanese phenomenon is simply due to the lack of interest in tapping the western market more than any copyright considerations.