I've been infringed!

[Klaus]

I had a couple of my chess pictures used for mousepads and such by some outfit in Hong Kong, eBay took them down very promptly but there's not much to do beyond that.

Larceny is the sincerest form of flattery!

 

[SeerSGB]

From what I remember, around the time of Episode III's release some freelance artist who was hired by Lucasfilm to do a mural/print/something for the Celebration Con then (i think) google searched "star destroyer" and came across Howard Day's "legacy" Star Destroyer I think it was, and used that in his work.

Again, from what I remember Howard or someone managed to get in touch with the artist, and while I think he said he didn't know it was a fan piece and apologized, there was nothing he could do, Lucas owns it all, so it would have been up to them to do anything if at all.

Something like that happened with nuBSG didn't it? A fanship was used in the show to "fill out the fleet" over New Caprica.

Addendum: Found the BSG ship I was thinking of: http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Wedge-shaped_vessel

 

[BolianAuthor]

That's actually a ship from the TOS BSG ragtag fleet, redone in CGI for nuBSG... it's not a fanship.

 

[ST-One]

BSG did use at least one fan-design. But at least they asked the creator of the model first before they used it.

 

[LordSarvain]

This guy must be busy scooping up whatever pics he finds from the internet and offering to build models from them. I never finished this version of the Planet of the Titans ship, he must have had some ideas though lol...

I don't think there's much that can be done though, still it would have been nice to have been asked.
http://cgi.ebay.com/USS-Enterprise-...&otn=2&po=LVI&ps=63&clkid=6939947561995842163

 

[BK613]

You could always try DMCAing eBay on the use of your images.

 

[Ptrope]

^^ Was just going to suggest the same thing - whether or not one has any license to a product, the art you create is legally yours, and eBay should be required to remove any listing that violates your copyright; you may not be able to stop the miscreants from making woodcarvings, but you're perfectly within your rights to prevent them from using your images to promote them.

 

[neoworx]

You can at least get them to stop using your image. Ebay will actually end auctions if content (words or images) is reported as being pirated.

 

[Birdog]

Here's another one off the board
http://cgi.ebay.com/USS-Constellati...232?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5192d47588

Not to mention all the Star Fleet museum ships I've seen.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

How's he making them? Or is he just collecting the money for them on the promise they'll be built and shipped later?

 

[backstept]

How's he making them? Or is he just collecting the money for them on the promise they'll be built and shipped later?

it seems like he offers them for sale before he's made any (to see if there's interest?) and in subsequent auctions he posts pictures of the models themselves

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Are they the actual models or are they just the CGI models? The reason I ask is the physical Constellation model posted -- does it look like the original CGI model?

 

[Birdog]

Are they the actual models or are they just the CGI models? The reason I ask is the physical Constellation model posted -- does it look like the original CGI model?

Compare for yourself.
http://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=96553&highlight=madman+1017&page=18
That's Madman's CGI model.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?VISuperSize&item=350355748232
And that's what's being sold on ebay.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

The ebay link's not working right now. My recollection was that it's a close replica but not exact. In fact, the physical model looked lesser in quality somewhat in comparison. Is my memory right about this? If so, he can claim he's making knockoffs or some such, and in some countries get away with it. As a collector of Major Matt Mason, you can imagine my surprise when some knockoffs from a SE Asian country suddenly started appearing. Is this more of the same? I'm not sure that Mattel was able to stop them from making MMM.

 

[Dac]

He never made a physical model of backstept's cygnus, but what he has done of other ones he's got somewhat of a rounded perspective on things, and they generally look a lot softer than they "should", however the paint job is generally spot on.

I gotta say, i'd be hella mad if this were me, but I can't help but at least admire some of the craftsmanship.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Thanks, Dac. That's what I was trying to see. Is the craftmanship good? Not that it matters, but if I were an artist and if he'd stolen my work, I'd hope to hell he at least did it some justice.

That being said, I, too, wish they'd stop this sort of thing, but it would take Paramount/Viacom to sue him, and that ain't gonna happen. They'll tell you that you should've have been playing in their sandbox in the first place.

Another thought is that it might not be craftmanship. My neighbor does racing go-kart parts, and he has thing big ol' plasma cutter thing that you feed in a three-dimensional image, and it'll cut it out of aluminum for you, or wood, or whatever.

 

[Dac]

^^^A Plasma cutter would be more precise, and I saw he made a physical model of the enemy ship from Silent Enemy (Ent) of all things. As far as I know, theres no fan design available as a mesh, just Doug's plans from Drex files.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I worked on nailing another guy a couple years back - I think his name was RedSoxFan or something like that - for stealing 2d and 3d schematics taken from my site (www.shipschematics.net) from various artists (including myself) and making T-shirt designs out of them for profit. I got signed affidavits from the other artists and, basically, eBay said "not gonna happen", because Star Trek is owned by Paramount and Battlestar is owned by Universal. If anyone had to bring a complaint it would need to be them, as I didn't own the intellectual property. Even though you make "fan-made" designs, because they exist within the universe of the parent material, everything technically belongs to the suits. It's sad, as it clearly stifles creativity, and ultimately the corporations lose due to crushed interest because of this kind of activity, but it is what it is, I'm afraid.

These bastards stole my stuff, too, without giving credit. And of course, all emails I sent have gone unanswered:
http://blog.tshirtinsight.com/television/battlestar-galactica-nova-schematics-t-shirt

These guys also stole it, but it looks like it has since been taken down from their main site:
http://www.tshirtconnoisseur.com/2009/01/nova-via-mini-cassette.html

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Our lawyers told us the same thing. FASA appropriated the name of my fanzine (Stardate) and even the cover design for their own gaming magazine. They said I had as much rights as a "driver driving the wrong way down the interstate with the emergency flashers on." I'm just curious as to whether or not he's making enough money to attract some official attention from Viacom/Paramount.

 

[David cgc]

I don't think you'd love it if they really did it.

Wasn't there one guy who did a star destroyer that showed up in a SW game cutscene? And some lazy guy at a VFX studio got paid for downloading the model. I really don't think you'd like that.


At least this one takes the effort to create proper wood models.


Write a review in which you make clear that this is your design. Write a blog entry about it. Do a couple of posts on various message boards.

I thought it was a super-star-destroyer CGI model that was used in "Something Something Dark Side" and "It's a Trap!"? I remember someone telling me that one of the guys over at theforce.net was claiming Fox had ripped of his model for the those movies.

They both happened. Same guy, too.