Apparent pirate Etsy shop: please report/leave a review, if you've been affected

[ReynoldsSlumber]

The Etsy shop "CraftModelShop" by "Juan Jose," which has over 400 items listed, has a lot of what looks very likely to be pirated and/or free material from elsewhere listed for sale. This has been going on for years. If you expand an item description, in the last line (which pretty much no one reads before purchasing), he basically admits it:

This file can be found after careful work on the web and downloaded for free. It is charged only for the work of having been searched and avoiding the work of being found.

Yeah, real cute.

If you are a cardmodeling plans or kit owner whose works have been pirated by this Etsy shop, I encourage you to report it. (Etsy doesn't allow those who aren't personally the intellectual property owners to report, even if one can show that it's pirated.) If you know an affected IP owner, please give them a heads-up.

If you had the misfortune of buying from this shop, if it's within the past 3 months, I encourage you to write a review to let other shoppers know. Fair warning, going by other reviews, that the proprietor might write a nasty reply.

Looking at the shop's paper aircraft model listings:


Here are examples of material that look pretty darn unethical to be selling:

• The "Leonardo da Vinci Glider" is a Canon Creative Park free plan
• The "F-18 Hornet Blue Angel" is a Kartonowy Arsenal scan
• The "Lockheed P-38 Lightning" is another Kartonowy Arsenal scan

Many of the photos on the listings are recognizable from legitimate listings elsewhere.

(I am out of options to personally report or review. And it's apparent that Etsy really doesn't want to pay to have human beings on staff to deal with this stuff. I just don't want any more people to get ripped off.)

[Siwi]

As you say, Etsy requires that the IP holder themselves makes an infringement report. So in theory it should be possible to contact the legitimate company that publishes the model and advise them. On the other hand, I can foresee issues if said company has gone out of business (heard something about one of the Polish firms recently) or if the pirate tries to alter the files in some way that would result in the case being rejected. After all, pirates often sell shoddy scans and then take the money and run, and you've already said how this guy will react to negative reviews.


Speaking of the above, I see several one-star reviews which say things like 'unusable as it is' 'disappointed with image quality' 'this is a scam, files do not match, seller is using pictures of others work to scam people' 'drawings are cut and missing parts' 'a file you can't do anything with' and 'DON'T BUY FROM THIS SELLER...awfuly low quality model scanned in 75ppp'



I see that Etsy's policy mentions several times needing a 'letter of authorisation' or other proof of ownership from the rights owner. I'm wondering how much proof would be required to satisfy them coming from a model designer who has just made something as a side hustle and uploaded it to ecards or made it available for free?

[airdave]

As always a DMCA report/takedown request must be filed.
This can be as simple as a personal email, but it must contain all the necessary information.
No-one other than the author/owner/authorized distributor of the item can file the takedown request.

Most sites cover their asses by having a reporting department for IP abuses and copyright issues, but once again they will demand the proper info in the form of a DMCA report.
It must be filed and signed by the author/owner/authorized distributor.

If customers publicly complain to the seller, post feedback, demand takedown, a seller might give in and do so.

[heinkel111]

I sell on Etsy. Very little because it is not a site to sell paper models and even less so model ships or aeroplanes. Most of them are women and very simple animal models are preferred. The "Ecardmodels" formula does not work on this site.

This "Juan Jose" preferably sells models scanned from Polish publications and I warned him with a private message that he was committing a crime.
I got no reply. Simplenete is an unscrupulous scoundrel. Etsy only responds to a piracy offence if you are the owner and prove you are the author. The next day they remove the post.

In this case only Polish publishers can act and digital piracy does not affect them because they live exclusively from the sale of printed magazines.
I have seen piracy among designers on Etsy. Copying, plagiarising and stealing.
But I've never seen independent designer publications from Ecardmodels.

And if I ever see one I'll let the designer know.

[Siwi]

Originally Posted by heinkel111

In this case only Polish publishers can act and digital piracy does not affect them because they live exclusively from the sale of printed magazines.
I have seen piracy among designers on Etsy. Copying, plagiarising and stealing.
But I've never seen independent designer publications from Ecardmodels.

And if I ever see one I'll let the designer know.

In some ways this is good news. He's probably not selling that many. Also - this is just my assumption from seeing his storefront - the bait for unwary buyers is that the models look incredibly lifelike on the photos. (Perhaps some do not even realise they are buying a paper download kit and not an assembled model, as he sells those too, which also have some bad reviews as cheap and badly made or never sent to the buyer). With the greatest of respect to those that sell on Ecards, many of those kits do not have pictures of the assembled model and those that do often look exactly what you'd expect from people doing their best with a home setup. Whilst this isn't so optimal for a legitimate customer on there, it may well prove to be a defence against piracy on Etsy. Bear in mind Etsy charges some relatively steep listings fees as well as taking a cut of sales (I used to sell 3D prints on there and stopped when these made my profits marginal) to fund the operation, so it is actually costing him to offer these and such a pirate might only pick kits he thinks will shift. It wouldn't be economical to just copy and host every model he can grab.

[heinkel111]

Simi this is my shop on Etsy.

FPDesignCrafts - Etsy

I can assure you from my own experience that it is selling very little because the Etsy website is mostly feminine and youthful.
I have tried to sell my boat designs and in the end I have had to withdraw them because they didn't sell .
On Etsy only this type of paper models are accepted.




The problem is that people visiting the pirate model shop do not know that these are scanned publications circulating on Russian pirate websites. That they are shared on peer to peer networks. They think they are buying something legal designed by the creator of the shop. In the comments you can read how some angry people discover the trap after buying the model. It is unfortunate.
And about Etsy, I agree, it asks for a lot of commissions and forces you to spend on advertising to be visible. it's not worth it. For me it's a disappointment.