An Artist's Rights Ignored Again

[Majestic]

This is becoming increasingly common, to a point that if some sort of international law that is better than the ones we have isn't introduced, the concept of small time artists, especially fan artists who work on non-profit projects could become a thing of the past.

Ripping off artists and especially making money off them really peaves me off.

The lastest incident was done by a company in Manila, Phillipines against a asortment of artists most noteably Sean Tourangeau, who is best known for winning the contest for the design of the USS Titan, Rikers ship from the novel series of the same name.

These rip off guys are using his designs from his DeviantArt account and making wood models and selling them at around $150US each. No permission no credit and I am sure no permission from Paramout (or whoever owns Trek these days).

ISS Ares Star Trek Fictional Spaceship Wood Model | eBay

deviantART: stourangeau's Journal: My Designs Being Used Without Permission...

Things like this really get under my skin, especially when someone else is profiting from anothers hardwork and done so without permission form the said artist.

 

[thunderfoot]

This stealing from artists has always been the case. Take a good look at the music industry. The recording labels have been stealing from the artists almost from the very second Edison invented the phonograph. The films industry steals from its artists as well. The Three Stooges made almost no money whatsoever off their short films and the studios made millions. Only when the arrival of the internet, which allowed people to trade files of any sort to anyone else, did "stealing from artists" become a problem. And the primary group which has a problem with it - is you guessed it - the various film and recording studios.

Justice in this case is about the Golden Rule. 'If I have the gold, then I get to make the rules!' If enough people will complain to Amazon, EBay and the like about this, then they will do something about it. Since we will withhold our gold and custom from EBay, Amazon and the like until they do. In the business market of today, they cannot afford to ignore the damage this will do to their bottom line. Nor can they withstand the hit to their reputation. Should be easy enough to get a FaceBook page or something started, should it not?

 

[Hellkite]

it not just starships that there ripping off

Spoiler: their store list

Store home

Airlines - USA (164)
Airlines - Europe (260)
Airlines - Asia (112)
Airlines - Rest of the World (508)
Private Civilian Planes (212)
Military planes - USA (90)
Military planes - Europe (34)
Military planes - Others (75)
Cargo Planes (72)
Helicopters (62)
Submarines (30)
Airships & Blimps (12)
Rockets, Bombs & Missiles (62)
Ships & Boats (4)
Spaceships - NASA (24)
Spaceships - Others (106)
Spaceships - Fictional (232)
Star Wars & Star Trek (128)
Experimental Aircraft (11)

Time to write my good friend Robert J. Stevens
(Chairman) & (CEO) Lockheed Martian

As well as NASA and DOD

NASA ,Air Force , Army, Navy and USMC are all fall under the United States Army Institute of Heraldry. It is in the public domain but its use is restricted by Title 18, United States Code, Section 704 and the Code of Federal Regulations (32 CFR, Part 507). Permission to use these images for commercial purposes must be obtained from The Institute of Heraldry prior to their use.

 

[Starfox1701]

Why do they keep tring this stuff. I mean its like seling drugs infron to the police station. WTF All I can say is if you find it report it

 

[Hellkite]

My Email has been sent to Lockheed Martian

I'll a make some phone calls to my old office and let then past this up the ladder on Monday they should have a blast with this as well.

 

[Majestic]

Thanks Hellkite, anything to stop these type of people will make the world a little bit of a nicer place in my view.

 

[Jetfreak]

Aye, what a pitiful shame considering where it's from. I hear Sean is really ****ed about all this.

 

[Majestic]

Yeah he is, and I would be too if it had happened to me.

These guys are also doing Star Wars models and I have emailed Hasbro, the official company that has the exclusive Star Wars licence for toys (except for Lego) and informed them about this. Knowing Lucus as we all do, this is a major infringement and the fact they are producing these models for sale, rather than buying and re-selling due to needing the money or no longer wanting them, means they could find themselves in some major trouble.

 

[Hellkite]

I just got a Email from the legal team at Lockheed Martian They are doing a investigation on this and will more than like have them served with a nice fat lawsuit

 

[Majestic]

Thanks Hellkite, I think these guys need it, as they are ripping from multipule sources including B5 and Andromeda as well as many others both real life and sci-fi shows.

I also noticed thanks to Sean that there are actually three Ebay accounts doing this, it could just be alias of all the same person/group but there are three as linked in the DA link from the first post.

 

[Dan1025]

The things people will do to make money eh? *sigh*

I'll be emailing the various copyright holders as well letting them know about this latest one, luckily we have Hellkite with his connections here eh?

Let's hope they get what they deserve for stealing from decent people.

 

[thunderfoot]

BTW, has anyone seen the DRM guys jumping on this? Oh, thought so. They'll publicly rampage all over some poor teenager in Shropshire about using the Star Wars theme for a school project. But nary a peep about this. Typical, hunh?

 

[Hellkite]

LOL That is the nature of the DRM they only have the guts to go after the little guys not the one that are doing massive pirating .

They like the easy win it makes them feel like a winner not the useless soul P*****less :zipped lawyers they really are.

 

[CABAL]

I wish I could see their faces when the law suites start rolling in.

 

[Hellkite]

Yep I bet they will brown their trousers

 

[thunderfoot]

Unfortunate this happens. More unfortunate it takes a Corporate lawyer, backed by lots of money, to remind people how to act decently. Poor guy wouldn't stand a chance all on his own of getting some type of recompense. Lockheed Martin has some very good legal counsel and I hope they burn these guys all the way down. But it will still take a very long time. Further, what do you want to bet any cease and desist order to stop selling the item(s) in question will somehow wind up not applying to his stuff?

 

[StarBlade]

I collect models --the actual, physical ones-- and I shop on eBay all the time. These guys have been around for a very, very long time. They've got three different usernames listing what appears to be the identical product. It can't be a coincidence that three of these guys operate out of the Philippines. Not because of anything to do with the country, either --like I said, I look at a lot of listings. Most are from Hong Kong, the UK, China or the US. I don't even see that many from my home country. The only ones I've ever come across from the Philippines are from those three sellers. Like I said, not a coincidence.

But take a look at the actual models. Their stuff is poor quality. Most of the details are painted on --pre-painted models are such a cop-out-- and the carved shapes are of limited accuracy. Take a look and compare any of their models to even an ancient A2 model and the old blocky A2 model looks better. The Delta Flyer particularly shows this off. I had considered buying their USS Achilles since it represents the only chance I really have to get that ship on my shelf, but it's just not good enough for me. Were I a creator of something worthy of being ripped off, I'd be more upset that they weren't trying harder. Seriously, wood carved models? Resin is so much more effective at capturing detail, and not terribly hard to work with, either.

Sad part is, I don't think anything will change. They can do what a number of model sellers do. Instead of selling an "A-Wing", they sell an "arrowhead fighter". Instead of a "Galaxy Class Starship" they sell a "New Generation Space Vessel". It's not the "Battlestar Galactica" if we sell it as a "Last Surviving Star Defender".

It all depends on how much attention it gets from the lawyers. If Hellkite's contacts are as good as one might hope, they'll probably have a problem on their hands. It depends on a combination of things, notably how Filipino law interprets this kind of thing and whether or not the corporations are willing to press a lawsuit over it. It may come down to eBay regulations being violated, with dual listings or inappropriate use of copyright, and the listings being terminated. But that's for now. And that's assuming eBay wants to be bothered. Which again, comes back to how vigourous the legal defense of copyright proves to be. There may be loopholes or some ways in which selling on eBay, via the Philippines, contravenes legal pressure from being applied, somehow. Like I said before, this can't be coincidental.

That being said, however, there isn't a member on MSFC who disagrees with the interpretation of artists' rights and intellectual property rights that is commonly accepted practice around here. And it really ruins the experience for everyone.

 

[K_merse]

This is really outrageous. Especially that this happened to Sean Tourangeau, maybe the best designer in the Trek community (he's a great guy too, helped a lot with my Titan model).
I hope that he'll start a lawsuit against these guys. He could make a very nice sum of money of them. And it would be a precedent which could be cited in every similar case. The oinly problem is that the artists usually don't have the money to pay the lawyers...
The main problem is that he's doing it for earning money. If he would be an artist too and he would make a Titan model, that's fine. If one guy comes across the town and sees his model and he says "Awesome, I want one too" and the guy says, that "OK, 200 bucks" that's still fine. Because he made it for fun. Lucky him, he got someone who wanted a repilca.
But in the second he went to ebay and he started to advertise his products, he crossed that certain line...

And to have something positive in this post:
Blade, if you really like modeling (like myself ), you must see the site STARSHIP MODELS (IIRC I can't put an external link in my post). They have several rare and LICENSED models, including the Luna Class. I remember back then, Shean even advertised them on his blog when they released the Titan.

 

[Majestic]

I got a responce from Hasbro today:

Hi,

Thank you for your email.

This is not the first time this instance has occurred on ebay and we are working with ebay to try and put a stop to people selling unauthorized products on the site. In addition, we are trying to find the source of these fraudulent products to get them to cease selling them on ebay, or anywhere else for that matter.

We hope that you will continue to enjoy our products, we have some fantastic new items on the horizon.

I have passed your email to the relevant product manager.

Regards

Hasbro Consumer Services
T: 1-300-138-697 - custservau@hasbro.com
HASBRO AUSTRALIA LIMITED: ABN: 69 004 348 565

 

[StarBlade]

My collection already includes a Luna class starship, which I have yet to finish building as USS Titan. And yes, it's legitimate and authorized --and extremely well detailed.

 

[K_merse]

It's also a real pain to paint it properly