Asset Piracy: How Common Is It for Creators?

Discussion started by Tashi59

Hi,
I noticed that my Asset Pack (Ultimate Basemesh Collection ) is being shared on a few third-party websites and Telegram groups. Just wondering, is this something many of you have also experienced with your work?

I’m just concerned and clueless to know how common this is and if there’s anything people usually do about it.
Is it worth filing takedowns or is it just part of being a creator online?

Answers

Posted about 16 hours ago
0

Very common. You can even easily find pirated assets on reputable marketplaces, like cgt, or ts. The more popular and higher quality your assets are, the more chances that they will be pirated sooner rather than later.

If you find your stolen assets here on cgt, it's easy - you just report to the support and assets and possibly the thief will be taken down. If you find them elsewhere, especially in places like telegram, you're basically out of luck. You can try to fill takedowns and if the site is semi decent, you may even achieve asset removal, but it's just a matter of time when it will reappear in ten more places. As you correctly guessed by yourself - it's just inevitable part of being creator. Since some time i prefer not to look for my models online - what you don't know doesn't hurt you.

Tashi59 wrote
Tashi59
Sadly, that's exactly what I did—I Googled my model to see how well it was showing up, but I ended up finding it shared on all sorts of random websites and Telegram channels I’d never even heard of. I guess there’s not much we can do about it. Thankyou for the sharing your point of view.
Posted about 15 hours ago
0

If your assets are pirated it means you are good at what you do :D. People pirating it would not buy it anyway. On a brighter side you get some kind of free marketing :D

Tashi59 wrote
Tashi59
:D hahaha Yeah, I’m not gud with marketing , so I guess the pirates are my accidental promo team. Only if they gave credit to the creator.
3DCargo wrote
3DCargo
@Tashi59, always prefix all your files with your handle/name. Eg my textures/geo etc are always 3DC_Wood_etc... If you have purchased enough from Evermotion and KitBash you will recognize the format. These files generally get sent around to different studios at some point for other conversions or standard industry practices where they do don't steal your data but use it for processing their part of the workflow, they do recognize the prefixes after awhile and if they like the quality of your work will eventually recommend it to others. You can always go a step further and embed metadata into all your files but thats up to you.
Tashi59 wrote
Tashi59
Wonderful —thanks so much for sharing! I hadn’t really thought about the long-term benefits of using a personal prefix. I’ve used prefixes while working with studios before, but I always assumed it was just for pipeline consistency and protocol to follow. The idea of having my own custom name prefix for recognition and branding is something I honestly hadn’t consider before, but it makes a lot of sense. I’ll definitely start using custom brand prefix going forward. Appreciate the tip about embedding metadata too—that’s a next-level touch I’ll look into as I grow. i really appreciate the tips.
Posted about 7 hours ago
1

It is worth your time to directly contact the supposed author/pirate on those websites and threaten then with a DCMA takedownn or other legal action if they don't remove your pirated product. I've found my water models on reputable sites such as Artstation Marketplace, as well as on more sketchy, less reputable sites. In all cases, I filed a DCMA take-down request with the website, and followed it up with a direct contact with the pirate. In most cases, the pirate removed my models before the website owners/managers responded. This is particularly good to do because some of those pirates don't want to get into trouble on those brokering sites, so they will deleted your product if you protest. Also, for some sites such as Artstation Marketplace, the process of filing a DCMA take-down request is unbelievably complicated and difficult to undertake. The process of registering a takedown request is difficult in its own right, and then you must go through the work of proving that the assets belong to you, of course. So, if you can confront the pirate and get them to remove your product it is far more expedient.

Tashi59 wrote
Tashi59
I appreciate the suggestion. As an artist, I’d rather focus on creating than dealing with legal issues—the DMCA process sounds like a big hassle and huge time taking . I’m going to take precautions on my end ( updating files ) , but if piracy becomes widespread or starts affecting my business, I might consider taking action.
Posted about 7 hours ago
0

I sell 3D printing files. ​​And some people steal... my renders. The site looks like a scam store, a render of my product and it says that they are selling an irl copy of it. I'm 90% sure they didn't even buy the file.
After that I started adding watermarks to all renders.

True, some of these guys, apparently, steal in an automated mode. That's why they add my nickname to the product name. On the one hand, free advertising. On the other, I'm waiting for messages from people who haven't received the goods.

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