Copying the Work of Others...

[stump]

Just looking for some thoughts on what is acceptable policy. Eric had the following post when asked about sharing his design:


David,

Thanks for the compliments on my signs.

But, being as I'm marketing my signs nationwide, I'd prefer if you didn't copy my designs or layouts.

I share my sign making experiences with the ShopBot forum community freely because there are so many other folks sharing their experiences too. Like others, I freely share set-up information, feed rates and types of bits used, etc. I've shared the type of paint and finish I've found to work the best, and I've even shared some of my marketing ideas that have worked well for me. I share this information with the forum because they inspire me to be better at what I'm doing, not because I want people copying what I'm doing.

I'm not the first to be making the carved "Welcome to the Cabin" signs. There are tons of folks making these small, affordable, personalized wood signs. But, I tried as hard as I could to make mine look as different from the rest as I could. I want my signs to have a unique look to them if possible.

Hopefully, some of the information I've shared has helped others with projects they've been working on. I'm very happy that I've inspired you to try your hand at making some small signs. There's plenty of business out there for everyone. But, please don't copy me. Thanks.

I totally agree with him on this. His signs are original and look great. That said, I did copy one of his designs as a gift for my Mom last Christmas. I don't see that as being a problem, it was a one off and a gift. But where do you draw the line? If I make 10 and give them away is that okay since I am gifting them? Or what if I only sell one or two, does selling them make a difference?

I am in the same boat with the puzzles we make. There are similar puzzles all over the place, we hardly have a monopoly on the design. Some of our puzzles are based on designs that are hundreds of years old. We try to distinguish ours by making them better, a higher quality puzzle. Still, I know that I would be bummed if someone else copied them and started competing with us.

That said, competition is part of capitalism and makes the system work. Thank goodness for that, or I wouldn't have a Shopbot! Their secret is this forum and support. It is what made us choose a 'bot.

Okay, enough of this rant. What are your thoughts? What is fair use in a business sense? Is it an email to the original designer, making a modification, or just taking another person's lead and running with it?

Maybe I am making more out of this than necessary, maybe it's that "Minnesota Nice" we are infected with around here...

[chiloquinruss]

My personal feeling is that it is a matter of your attorney versus my attorney! If what I was coping for whatever reason was something that I saw some other crafter made at a craft show, it would probably not pay them to go after me. If on the other hand what I was coping was from Disney or Mattel or NASCAR, then I would be very very careful to document that they were simply giifts and have all of your oiriginal art saved to show how you got your copy. I would diffently NOT sell any of the objects listed in the second case shown. Again that's just my opinion! Russ

[steve_g]

Miles

I don't copy others work but am clearly influenced or inspired by other peoples work.... an act allowed by the "fair use" laws of the USA. Now, I'm irritated when some people use a font that you can also legally use, compose words from the English language that you have every right to use, add a graphic from a clip art source you may also own and claim it as an original copyrighted work. Some may claim the composition is original... Well so is yours!

Steve

[CNYDWW]

I've had a few nasty e'mails from people saying i've copied their work. It's recently been on the victorian gingerbread trim i've been working on. I was actually nice to the guy i showed him the blog i found with the very design he was complaining about. It happened to be about the restoration of an old victorian house. The pattern came from a lot of 60 or so balusters the gentleman bought from a salvage yard. The reply was, "But it's MY design". With that i asked if his design was up to code as far as child safety and if he had a matched set that was modified to make sure that with proper spacing it was in fact up to code. I haven't received an e'mail since. In reality, anything like this can be copied. A slight variation of the original which "improves" the design makes it a whole new item.

Regards
Randy

[wardsa]

This has been a real issue for me. I do not post much but this struck a nerve. A couple years ago I started doing a little suppliment product to keep my "Bot" running when cabinets were slow. I will be the first to admit, I did not invent or was the first to make these. But what I did do was research and make sure I didn't step on anyone locally. I invested $1000.00's into marketing, show's, website......... I brought a few to "camp's", explained my process (which I worked many hour's to perfect) to anyone interested only to find a few other people in MI doing the same thing now. Even as far as their font's, layout's, marketing material and verbage is the same. I've had people at show's looking at my work and when I ask if they have any question's, they say "No, just trying to figure out how I can make these myself". Maybe I'm a "wise ass", but I will explain exactly how to do it. Buy a $20,000. CNC, buy $5,000. in software, spend $1000.'s on marketing, spend weekends at shows and you too can make a $200. carving! I have no idea if they are fellow "Botter's" or not. They could have just seen it at a show or on the Web, but it's very frustrating! It is a VERY small market and now I feel like none of use will make money at it. I have nothing against hobbiest, we were probably all hobbiest at one point but none of us can compete with a guy that has a "Desktop" in his garage and makes things in his spare time(not implying any of you fit that). Sorry for the RANT, and I know it is one but this was a product line I was hoping to build and be able to do as my body gives out from doing cabinet's for years. It's true, almost no one does truely "original" work anymore. I get it that idea's or processes are alway's borrowed. What I've learned on this Forum is immeasurable. I just wish people would take a step back and say " Can I make it different/better and is there room in this market for me too?" I won't give up though, I've invested way too much.
Again, sorry for the rant.

[Brian Harnett]

I try to make sure what I do is my design but there are so many designs similarities will come up, I have never looked at another piece of work and copied it and passed it off as my own, notwithstanding the legality, morally it is just wrong.

Years back I worked for a company that made teak outdoor furniture I did most of the CAD and prototype work. The boss decided to branch into indoor and literally had me copy Original design mission Furniture from a very well known company, when I said we need to make the design different he told me "There is no copyright on furniture".

Fast forward about a year we got sued by That well known company, this is after catalogs had been shipped nationwide 70 percent of what we had in the catalog had been ruled by the court we could not make.

It was a very expensive lesson on arrogant copyright infringement.

[Brady Watson]

This is a sticky and nebulous topic that covers quite a bit of ground.

There is no such thing as an original idea. Some people are 'tuned in' and pick up 'unique' ideas at the same time...as was the case with Guglielmo Marconi and Alexander Bell. We all like to think we've got something unique and 'original'...but the truth is, you just picked up on it with your 'antenna'. It already existed. I know that does little to comfort the ego...but we really aren't as crafty as we think we are.

Here's where things get 'muddy'....If I see something that someone has developed, refined and put themselves into, there is a certain amount of respect I have, as a craftsman in appreciation for what that person made. I recognize how much time & effort went into it, because I have done similar projects in the past. "That" is 'his thing', and I respect that. Perfect example is a product that one of the members on here put the time in to make, with profits going towards a charitable cause or endeavor...then another member copied the design and undercut the original guy, basically squashing his charitable efforts. I'm all for laissez faire, but integrity and conscience also play a role - especially if you have self respect & respect for your fellow craftsmen. This sort of 'ripping off' is disrespectful in a 'small pond'...and you shouldn't poop where you eat.

I've thought long an hard about making instructional videos for a lot of things ShopBot related...and if you have ever made a video properly, you would know how many hours and how much effort goes into making a 1st class production that is truly valuable. What turned me off to doing it is the fact that a few copies would be sold and then uploaded to the net for a free for all warez orgy on Pirate Bay or something. With countless bootlegs of CAD/CAM out there, what makes me think that my stuff won't get 'jacked' as well? There is no way to really protect the info long enough to make it profitable & get paid for all the time I would have put into them...so, the incentive to do this is low...and that is the price we pay for doing the things we collectively do as society. How many other people are keeping their light under a bushel basket because of this?

Craft shows are ridiculous. Count on having everything you have duplicated in 1 or 2 years by other vendors. That is the nature of that arena & it is not much different than any other area of the marketplace. You have to keep creating and making new things to bring to market to keep your competition at bay. You cannot get hung up on the copying thing...You have to let your babies go & press on and make new ones. That's just the way it is. No matter how great you think your trinket is, in hindsight it probably isn't that great so get over yourself, don't rest on your laurels and make some new stuff.

Business ethics and integrity plays a major role in my day to day business. People send me many things to laser scan/digitize. Most of them are things that they hand carved, which makes them unique because it is their interpretation of what they saw with their eyes & translated with their hands. There are also other items that are commercially produced, and some of them require express permission from the copyright holder or owner before I will copy. I am certainly not going to be scanning Coke bottles unless I get documentation directly from them. There are certain guidelines that have to be followed in order to 'walk the line'. If I had no ethics and scruples in my business, then I would be selling my customer's data on a 3D clipart site and making a fortune...but what good would I be for my customers who want to make some money on their work before it is eventually copied by someone else? What good would I be if I didn't keep my customer's data and images private? Probably not much...which is why I don't & customers depend on my integrity for that.

Ideas are a lot like food. You are essentially renting them. You don't get to keep that steak you had the other day...but you get to use it for a while. Same goes for ideas. Use them, get what you can out of them to sustain you, and move on to another one.

-B

[waynelocke]

I agree with Brady that it mostly comes down to personal ethics. While nothing is wholly original, specific designs are an original response to a problem. I get paid for my designs and I put a © on all of my drawings, photos and renderings knowing full well that I am not going to pursue any action if someone copies. It merely and hopefully makes "personal ethics" a more conscious thought on someone's part.

I am constantly befuddled and mildly outraged when I see an otherwise high end woodworking or furniture show and see knockoffs of Maloof rockers. Maloof freely shared his chair designs and techniques, but, come on. If you have the skill to reproduce it and respect for the design — then respect the design and the designer and and at least change it in some significant way that doesn't require a curator to discern. Or at the very least, acknowledge that it is a copy.

I remember a story where Robert Rauschenburg asked Willem de Kooning if he minded that artists copied his work. de Kooning smiled and said, "They can only copy the good ones."

[michael_schwartz]

If somebody were making a living off a book they authored, it would not be ok to go buy a printing press, start printing their book, to sell for a profit.

Same thing applies to the furniture manufacture who has a design patent on a CNC produced table. It would not be ok to buy a CNC router, and copy that work.

Now the question is if your lawyer said it were ok to copy a work because it were not protected by law, would it be acceptable to do so from a moral standpoint? I don't think it would be ethical especially when you consider intellectual property protection that is available to small shops is limited, and the creator might have the intent to protect their works, but no obtainable legal means within the scale of their work to do so.

We do not have the same mechanisms available to protect our work, that a photographer, painter, architect, author, musician, or recording artist may have. I feel this is unfortunate, and it sets a bad precedent. In many circumstances, it does come down to an ethical choice and not just a legal decision. I have to agree with Brady's comments.

To some degree copyright protection is a available but the law is vague in regards to furniture, and many do not even know this is possible.

If somebody were to ask me directly for my permission to reproduce my work for (1) non commercial use, (2) charitable work, or (3) limited resale, in non competing market I will generally provide permission to do so long as they agree to provide full attribution, when promoting said reproduction. In certain circumstances I may not grant permission, or I would ask for a very reasonable licensing fee, and I would ask that my choice be respected.

I do have products that I sell that I avoid showing on woodworking, or cnc related forums, or even my own website, because they would be fairly easy to copy.

[billp]

For those delusional few who still think that they can "fly under the radar' remember; EVERY key stroke you have EVER made on your computer is recorded somewhere, by someone, so the idea that you 'thought it up all by yourself' may not be such a great defense in the Cyber age...
PS- http://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/23/more_secrets_on_growing_state_surveillance

[bobmoore]

Copying someones design for practice seems like a pefect way to increase one's skill sets and gives you a direct measure of your skill compared to the person that built the original you are copying. If I were to design a car it would have tires and headlights. If I was designinging a table it will have legs and a relativly flat top. So to say I don't copy others work is a little disengenuous. I won't, however, copy someone's design whether a table or a sign to sell. That would be the most unfulfilling thing I can imagine doing in my shop. Bob

[dray]

This subject comes up year after year. I agree with Brady. There are no new ideas.

A few years ago I had asked on this forum about patents, provisional etc regarding a small universal torque transferring device everyone scoffed said it wont help you a bit etc etc. My provisional Pat stopped everyone in their tracks on the small part and gave me market share for almost two years until a separate design was made. I ended up making a fairly tidy sum on the small stainless steel design.

I designed and manufactured the lithium battery in the below bike. It normally mounts at the water bottle holes or will fit on any bike in the frame.

I had spent right around $55k on all of the injection molds the extruded aluminum mold, the BMS design etc etc. I immediately threw a provisional on it for design and utility. My provisional patent information was extremely vague and hard to comprehend. There was one other in frame lithium battery but it looked nothing like mine, it was a triangle shape, it did not have a locking cage allowing you to take it into work with you to charge it. Mine (10AH) gives the rider a 25+ mile range VS an 18 mile range. Very similar properties but with a spin.

Within 30 days I was cloned by a very large company in China. I was crushed for a few weeks and then I simply contacted them and let them know that this is my personal design, my intellectual property etc. They basically said go kick rocks.

So I emailed them a copy of my provisional and a threat that I will contact the local police in Guangzhou. They stopped immediately.

It ended up costing them what ever stock they had along with the molds they made.

So the bottom line is there are no new designs, but if you throw a spin on an existing design you can protect yourself.

Even with a provisional patent (pat Pend) if you see someone using an exact copy of your design and making $$ off of it send them a certified letter stating that they are using your design etc.

You then wait a year or two and if you go through with your patent you can collect all of the revenue they had made off of the product in the passed two years. This will cover your atty fees and put some $$ in your pocket. If it is an extremely good design companies will ask to use your patent and give you a portion of the proceeds off of each unit sold or a lease price.

But on these boards there was maybe 10 replies stating that a patent would not cover me what so ever yada yada so don't believe everything you hear and talk to an attorney. Talking to an attorney is free and he or her will tell you what your options are.

If it is something simple and another company is not making thousands off of it it really wont be worth your time or effort.


http://ampedbikes.com/tubebike1.jpg

[michael_schwartz]

I am glad you were able to enforce your patent. More people need to stand up and protect their hard work.

[Ajcoholic]

There is a big difference in my opinion, between ripping off someone's work and taking a few ideas here and there from other company's stuff.

We are all influenced by the things we see every day in print, in real life, etc. It is very hard not to draw inspiration from that - and incorporate some of it in our own work.

From a business point of view, it also depends upon where you are, and the market share of the parties, etc. If someone 1000 miles away, copies something I am making for my local market it wont hurt me. If someone here decides to take one of my products and make the same thing, and market to my customer base - then that would suck. Although, it always comes down to how "ethical" you are.

I think it also depends greatly on your type of work. In my case, since I do custom work and seldom make the same thing twice, copying is not really an issue.

AJC

[myxpykalix]

Here is something i did that i don't have a problem with. I found this picture of a door for sale on some website. I liked the design so i copied the vectors for a outline that i cut in mdf and applied it to a door in one of my apts.

[CNYDWW]

Here is something i did that i don't have a problem with. I found this picture of a door for sale on some website. I liked the design so i copied the vectors for a outline that i cut in mdf and applied it to a door in one of my apts.

Hey Jack,

Got the vectors? :D

[myxpykalix]

Randy,
check your mail

[bleeth]

I like the post-modern sculpture on the table to the left of the door.
(Can I have a quarter for everyone who feels the need to explain what it is?)

[myxpykalix]

Dave,
That was my attempt at post war, art decco period sculpture with a flair toward the modernistic period.....I titled it...."Scraps".:rolleyes:

[dray]

Jack is always good for a vector. I think he has every vector posted since 1980 cataloged in his computer lol!

I have been copied on various products that were extreme $$ makers, not just copied but ripped off by the people that were to invest in my products. So it has always been an extremely sore spot for me.

I think as said, it all boils down to ethics and intentions. Our ethics are to have a look at our moral beliefs as well as our intent and these vary greatly.

I am no saint to say the least. Quite a few years ago I had some scrap left of some exotic hardwoods and I tried to make a copy of one of Steve Knights beautiful planes. I have always had a love for planes and I hit the swapmeets and flea markets up where ever I can and especially when I am out of the country looking for old planes.

I remember thinking I really wanted one and his prices were steep. ( I now know why ) But I am cheap. So I set out to make what I had seen based on a plane he had designed using parts I had from various planes that I had collected and put on my shelf.

After a day of designing, a day of cutting, a day of sanding and finishing it was no where near the grad in art or functionality that Steve was putting out. I wasted 3 days broke 2 bits from hitting clamps. I was angry that I could not create near the grade he was creating not to mention that mine didn't even work.

I came to the conclusion that by copying another mans work 1st you get no satisfaction out of it, 2nd you will break bits!! lol :confused:

Earlier I posted on my battery being cloned even after going through great lengths and 5 different mills to create all of the separate parts. The clone was made from a scaled photo so it had a diameter that was a few MM smaller than mine, causing a lower AH rating and they had no internal molds separating the internal batteries creating an air-gap for cooling and making assembly easier.

So just as I tried to copy someone as I was copied the quality is just not there.

Not being the original designer start to finish will cut the quality in half.

My plane didn't even work! The "Iron" slipped constantly. It is in my office for looks but it never worked worth a damn. :eek:

[stump]

Wow,

Looks like I'm not alone in my way of thinking, which is a good thing. If we all didn't have respect for one another's work this forum would dry up pretty quickly.

Too many replies to address them all, but thanks to everyone who contributed their thoughts. I think Terry's question in his post was excellent.

" Can I make it different/better and is there room in this market for me too?"
That is what I ask myself when looking at different ways to go with the 'bot and business. If you can't improve a design, why would anyone buy from you instead of the original?

Secondly, I ask how big is the market? That's where the Minnesota Nice comes in with the "room enough for everyone" versus the Walmart "crush the competition" mentality.

Last comment, Brady, you are absolutely right about the craft shows. My wife loves them, and you can be sure that if an item is popular this year there more of them the next year. And if the popularity rises then in 2 years they will be everywhere.

[ironsides]

On the subject of copying, I am using a set of Aztec/Mayan Calendars vectors that came from another forum that was free.

The discussion was that the free vectors had been floating around on the Web for quite some time.

While that may be true, I take my hat off to the person who created the original vectors.

They did a good job of tracing from a photograph of the original massive stone (created several hundred years ago) in a Mexico Museum.

George

Follow this link http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14870&highlight=calendar

[GioAttisano]

This is a great discussion. I've been making a living full time selling my woodworking for about 30 years, and the last ten or twelve years have amplified the challenges at an acelerating rate. CNC saved some dying businesses only to see them murdered by CNC competitors within a few years. Up until 2007 I used to brag about not using CNC equipment. But if I hadn't built my CNC router/jointmaking machine back in 2008, which was kind of an accident,it would have been difficult surviving the rapid changes in the market wrought by the recession. The demands placed upon those of us making a livelihood through creative arts are increasing week to week --with occassional fleeting opportunities to make better money than we'd ever been able to before.
I'm curious about how people deal with requests from potential private residential clients for work that violates copywrite. Say someone wants you to build a cabinet with Mickeymouse carved in the panels. Do you just say no? Or do you do it, and not even bother photographing the piece lest that photo make its way to Disney's lawyers? What about asking permission, (with or without compensation) not from Disney, but from a smaller corporation you feel might say yes? Anyone bought (or attempted to buy)licences for purposes like this, where you're not competing against existing products, but you're using an existing registered logo to help sell a product of your own design?

[dray]

Disney, McDonald's , the big guys I would do it without even thinking about it.

I live in So Cal and everytime family comes to visit its $75 a pop to get in D-land.. I have paid my dues to Walt! :).

[planman]

If you approach most coporations, you'll find that in many cases licensing an image, sound clip, or video clip is easier (and cheaper) than you might imagine.

Still I question the benefit, for both parties, to licensing a single image carved in a single cabinet. I think a lot of companies, Harley Davidson comes to mind, do a lot of "looking the other way" because they know that having raving lunatic fan customers who plaster the Harley Davidson logo and images everywhere (for free) is the best possible advertsiing and that advertising comes at the (cheap) cost of not enforcing the royalties on their intellectual property.

I think they choose to allow the piracy on a case by case basis because the pirated personal use logos are not sold. As long as the core products (bikes, shirts, swag) are not being pirated you will bne OK. i.e. make a Harley logo for over your bar and they pat you on the back. Include picture of your bar on the 'net and HD cheers. Slap a Harley logo on a clone bike and you will see lawyers.

Myself, I design products for a living. When someone pirates my core products and sells them for a profit I am a REAL SOB. Strangely, when I see somebody copy my stuff for their own use... often because they cannot afford my selling price... I tend to try to help them. The key decision in my mind is whether they are profiting from my idea with mass production for resale (theft) or using my idea for yourself (which is a compliment).

I hope this helps a little. Just my 2 cents worth.

Charles

[myxpykalix]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Charles Caleb Colton

I suppose you could add an addendum..."as long as you don't profit from it":D

[Joe Porter]

Jack, that really is a pretty door. joe

[myxpykalix]

Joe,
Thanks. The house i grew up in was from around 1900 and was built for an executive of Standard Oil and at some point was a Funeral Home and it had a hidden dumb waiter in the wall along with transom windows above the ornately carved doors and i grew up watching old b/w movies from the 30's where you see art decco(?) designs so when i was doing some research for designs for a door, I saw that design in the glass of that door and thought it looked similar to things i'd seen before and thought it would go together with the panels on the wall i had made.

So in this case it was partly a copy of other work, but who would you contact to get permission? It was a door from lowes.com i think.

[paul_z]

I have to disagree with "there are no new ideas". The V inlay process is "out of the box" ... way, way "out of the box". It is enabling the creation of a new class of "wood art".

In this case I chose to give away the intelectual property as a small payment for all the help I have received from this and other forums.

Paul Z

[dana_swift]

Paul- I have to agree with you. There are new ideas. That's where real progress comes from.

Your inlay idea is easily one of the few great inspirations that change everything. It makes inlay work automatically. You could have kept it to yourself and had a proprietary advantage. So I would like to thank you for disclosing and sharing it. There were other ways to do inlay, not nearly as well, already in existence of course, couldn't do square corners, etc.

I suppose Ted could have kept his elegant CNC machine to himself also. There were others on the market for a mere hundred grand or so. Small change for a large corporation.

When two guys decided to build computers in their garage and sell them, there were computers you could buy. You could say they had no new idea. Yet clearly Apple has had new idea, after new idea, after new idea. Thats why they became so big.

Same thing with Google. There were search engines when they came along, the difference is two guys had the insight how to make the same quantum leap in the quality of searches that you did in making inlays. Anybody remember Infoseek? It was funded by DEC, one of the "big boys" in the computer business at the time. Who did some innovations of their own, then went the rigid corporate route and innovation died. Info seek did a lousy job of finding what you wanted on the web, but it (and others just like it) was all we had until Google came along.

There are new ideas, and Google clearly turns people loose to come up with new ones rather than box them in so it stifles innovation. It was not the invention of search that made them rich, its selling advertisements. That is certainly not new. They just saw how to get the advertisements to the people who were searching for specific things.

Thanks for your innovation. Had you been a computer scientist, you could have been a billionaire with the same amount of insight!

And people are clearly copying Google. It seems Oracle/Sun thinks Google is copying them. Sigh.

Thanks again.

D

[steve_g]

"History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new". Ecclesiastes 1:9 (New Living Translation) So many cultures have come and gone... it's hard to dispute Solomon's thoughts while depressed. HOWEVER, much is new to me every day! I truly enjoy solving problems even if they are of my own invention... The ideas I've carried through the patent process were just the combination of things I learned from unrelated experiences. New? I don't know ... or care! It was fun solving the problem.

Steve

[jhedlund58]

Has anyone seen the new movie dvd copying service from wal-mart... $2 dollars to digitally copy any disk. I looked at my kids movies / games etc... most say it is illegal to copy either on the disk itself or the cover or the case.... my wife thinks this is just allowing legal owner to extend the life of your purchase... i guess this is possible... but items say copying is stictly forbidden which to me means NO COPY for any reason honorable or not. to bad there does not seem to be any patent lawyers owning shopbots, because for us to say... i don't do it because i dont understand is one thing... which is my point of view. but to bring morality and goodness into it may not conform to the laws of a civilized country. I can sit outside a ball game and paint on canvass the t-shirt.... i cannot make my own vector representation and carve. even more confused than ever.... either we on this forum are wrong... or wally world going to jail... with that all said... i still not doing it!!

[steve_g]

jeff

I believe the "do not copy" notice is for Illegal copies. State and federal law allows you to make a copy for backup purposes, thus "legal" copies. Perhaps the movie studios are in the wrong when they attempt to make you feel like a crook when you make a backup... Just don't loan out the backup...

Steve

[adrianm]

It's not a straight copy that WalMart are doing. In common with other companies they're copying the disks into DRM linked online acccounts so the backup copy will only play for the person who owns the account.

It only works for movie studios that have signed up to the deal as well.

[WoodMarvels.com]

I've read through most of the posts related to this topic and don't agree with the "everything that could be invented... has" idea, if that were true, we'd still be chowing down on grass in Africa.

With my company WoodMarvels.com, I sell (easy to copy) digital files of all my designs and of other designers... I've had people try to give my plans away for free after paying for them on my site on some forums and all I do is send a note to the webmaster and they get promptly banned. I'd also had a guy try this on his blog and Google promptly deleted his blogger account... but you have to stay on top of things. If things "go free" for any extended period of time, they get lost in the shuffle and everybody assumes that it's free to use and copy.

I've sold digital files and publish books (laser and soon CNC) of my wooden designs in pretty much every country in the world - recently getting into commercial production licenses as well. What I can say is that the vast majority of people and businesses respect designers and their work so I don't let the few ruin it for the rest of them.

All that being said, I still get some "nasty" comments every once in a while from people who, most likely never created something themselves, questioning how/why I don't just make it free and the worst business advice I ever got from a notable reputable company was to jump onto the "freemium" band wagon (just because you are big doesn't mean you are smart - I didn't follow it thankfully!). Some people are really insulted I have the gull to ask money for designs (???) that they wish to SELL THEMSELVES in the back of their truck at fairs.

http://blog.woodmarvels.com/unlimited-production-for-7-95

So, you have the die-hards out there who are PirateBay supporters that IP and copyright should be abolished at one end, and the vast majority of people at the other who respect hard work, dedication and want to see new stuff being created while seeing designers being fairly compensated. I've given-up on one end and focus on the other.

With all things being digital now, it's far easier nowadays to download and sell right away. I also get many designers sending me some really cool designs but I refuse to add them to the site because a CNC SpongeBob or a Super Mario is just asking for trouble... trouble that I don't want to deal with.

Jon

[metabot]

imo..

1. Imitate
2. Assimilate
3. Innovate

-

"Bad artists copy. Good artists steal."

- Pablo Picasso