I’ve come to find out DEFCAD has ripped my Projectile Dysfunction 15mm design and is selling it on their site. What can I do about it?
I’ve come to find out DEFCAD has ripped my Projectile Dysfunction 15mm design and is selling it on their site. What can I do about it?
If they are using your files, you have a copyright on them which automatically comes into existence when you created the files and published them. They are in the U.S., so you can sue them in the U.S.
Under U.S. law, it is important to register your copyright with the Copyright Office (Library of Congress). If you do this in a timely manner, which means less than three months after publication, you can sue in federal court for statutory damages of up to $150,000 per file for willfully redistributing the files. Suing in regular federal court is difficult and expensive and takes a long time and you would likely need an attorney to navigate the process. There is an alternative, however:
You can also sue via the Copyright Claims Board at ccb.gov which has a simplified speedy process and which can get you up to $15,000 per file (with a limit of $30,000 per suit). Note, I do not know whether you need to have timely registered your copyright with the CO/LOC to do this. (You DO need to register it, though, even if untimely. I don’t know how an untimely registration affects the damages you can get with the CCB.)
Registration with the CO/LOC is simple but does require paying a fee. Last time I went through that it was $40 per registration.
You can talk to or even hire an attorney to help you navigate the CCB if you really want to, but AFAIK it is straightforward enough that most people can navigate the process on their own.
Edit: I noticed below you mentioned you published under a CC license. You still retain copyright, CC licenses just tell people how they are allowed to use the files, and is explicitly not public-domain. However, that may or may not complicate things with the CCB and/or regular federal court. You might want to talk to an attorney familiar with copyright law and Creative Commons licenses to figure out how much you can sue for.
Another edit: note, I haven’t tried registering STLs, STEPs, or other CAD type files ever. I assume they can be protected the same as software programs, but I don’t know this for certain. My work was mostly with commercial packaging (to be able to block counterfeiters).
Disclaimer: these off-the-cuff remarks are not legal advice. For legal advice upon which you can rely, please contact an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction. These remarks were made using 100% recycled electrons.
Fantastic info and tips, thank you kindly. According to them, they can still monetize it even this the license it was published under. I’m on the fence on how I want to proceed. I design things for the people and the community and it rubs me the wrong way that these guys take advantage of it and sell IP they never touched. I need to figure out what license to actually publish my files under to prevent this in the future whilst allowing the community to build upon it open source.
If the license is NC, they can’t legally monetize it by demanding fees, that’s the whole point of the NC license. (I don’t remember where I found your file so I don’t know what license you put it under, but the other guy wrote that it was a NC license, so I’ll take his word for it.)
I would recommend registering your files with Copyright Office / Library of Congress immediately. I think I remember that your publication date was early August so you are still within the initial 90 day period. Copyright.gov has the forms and FAQs. The forms are self-explanatory.
It’s up to $15,000 of free money to you if you use the CCB, or $150,000 for statutory damages if you go with the regular federal court system – but you have to register the files timely for that.
DefCad has a long history of ripping off people’s designs in this manner. I remember people complaining about it regularly in /r/fosscad (RIP in pepperoni). Frankly I think it’s long beyond past due for someone to take them to task.
DEFCAD told you they could monetize your file that you licensed under CreativeCommons-Attribution-NonCommercial-4.0 Intl?
Disclaimer: IANAL.
Your artwork is being used to incentivize users to pay DEFCAD’s subscription fee in order to access the file. That’s clear violation of 1.i in the text of your license which defines NonCommercial as “not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation”. Using your design to entice users into paying a subscription for access is absolutely using it for monetary compensation. That’s like arguing that GamePass advertising that they have Halo is noncommercial use of the Halo IP.
They’re either seriously mistaken or willfully malicious. Getting into a legal pissing match with them is signing up for a lot, but you can also submit a DMCA at Cloudflare – their CDN – if they’re electing to give you the runaround.