Advice/Solutions regarding licensing / commissioning modeling works

MakerWorld
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First. I know most, if not all of you, aren’t lawyers and I should take the advice given at face value.

That said, I stand with the good guys here, I don’t steal models that I will make money on, i barely sell anything I do anyway and do it just to give my creative side an outlet.

To the point, I am “creative” and love to mashup models and make things out of models but, I am no sculptor, the parts I can’t create I download and use. Again most of what I do is for myself which is how the models are intended to be used. I’ve come to a point where others “like my ideas”, want me to make it for them so they can then resell or mold or whatever they want to do. Some of it I can create myself, other parts I can easily find models for but here is where I get lost and/or am not certain on.

In any scenario, ask someone to make, ask someone if I can pay to use commercially or go some place like 5er or even here and commission someone to make what I need with a license agreement I can do what I need to do with it. How the hell do I know they didn’t use someone else’s something to make all or some of what I paid them to make? I don’t want to end up on the end of a lawsuit or complaint or whatever with the “ignorance” defense, “well I paid them to make it, they stole it not me”.

Apologies this is getting long winded. So in short, I know some of you guys likely do similar things. Blanket made up example, “I want a model of a car tire with a tiger head bighting a bowling pin model” that I can deliver to a customer to mold and cast in whatever they want to sell.

How would/do ya’ll approach that situation? I know , don’t waste time suggesting I learn how to model. I am learning but, the levels at which I need things done, ie: sculpting, will take forever, if ever, for me to learn so lets assume I am going to pay or come to some agreement with someone to handle the skilled sculpting side.

Appreciate any advice or suggestions. Thanks all.

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Hi,

I am not creative (I do my stuff, but that’s it), and I am not a business guy. But I consider myself a practical person.
In my opinion, you should order a design service. The model will comply with the specs written in the agreement, and you’re the owner, so you are entitled to do whatever you want.
Edit: Besides the great designers you can find here at the forum or MW, you can find further professionals with portfolios on platforms like GrabCad.

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Awesome, thanks much JayZay. I’ll check out the other forum as well. Sadly these days I consider most “bad actors” before “good people”, just seeing what people are willing to do to get something for free and make money off of astounds me and with the large number of creators who can and do make derivatives of the same subject matter I’m just concerned with 2nd hand stealing work that is not mine nor the person I hired to make it.

Again, appreciate the advice and will check it out!

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I agree. Digital content is too new for any legislation to be effective.
Be careful. For example, when I need to manufacture a prototype, I sign an undisclosing agreement and split the work among a few manufacturers so no one has the entire design. If possible, you can try a similar approach with your ideas.
Also, when I work for the EU Commission, they oblige me to sign an agreement stating that I cannot share any info, and I am forced to destroy all documentation after the completion. They don’t verify, but I am legally responsible if I don’t comply with the signed agreement.

If you hire a professional CAD service, they must know these protocols. Many companies use third-party services. It may be expensive, however.
If there are concerns regarding the intellectual property a specialised lawyer may help, as laws vary depending on the country. This doesn’t ensure that your work won’t be shared.

Another way is to establish a partnership that ensures that the designer will not be interested in disclosing the work as he earns from it. But this can bring many other problems.

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IANAL (I don’t even play one on TV).

I was a businessman until health put an end to that. I lived with contracts for 35 years.

I am considered a designer here (I so love low standards).

Your contract is your friend as @JayZay already said.

There is something else to consider when creating a contract, these are the source files. These are used to design your final model.

For the uninitiated; source files can be considered the instructions and ingredients for making a cake, the cake is the model in this analogy.

You should consider the value of securing the rights to both the source files and the resulting model. Many companies will only hand over the model and not the source files. If you disagree with the company you engage with, you will not have anything to pass to a newer less annoying company.

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I had to read that 5 times…

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The very first time I saw it written this way, so did I.

I Am Not A Lawyer

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Not that threre’s anything wrong with that.

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Yeah, took me a few seconds too. :smile: