Standard Digital File License question

MakerWorld
105

I started using the standard digital license file because people kept feeling entitled to do whatever they wanted with my designs, to a disrespectful extent. I’m not talking personal modifications and stuff, but taking my work and reposting it as their own, even on the very sites where I’m active, then giving me attitude about it. We’re not even talking remixes, just straight up greasy behavior. Using the SDL gives me more of a leg to stand on to shut that behavior down. The only people that think I’m selfish are the ones that are trying to profit unfairly off my work, be it for attention, points, or money.

It takes time, skill, to design stuff, especially more complex things. Too often people seem to just disregard that and act like they’re entitled to everything, and the time and effort we as designers put into stuff doesn’t matter or have any value.

6 Likes
106

Excuse me!

How “selfish” it is to give away our labour free, how dare us, the humanity!

If this is a way to encourage people to further allow additional access to our work by allowing remixes or more, you shot yourself in the foot.

Firstly, stating that we are less than generous is disrespectful.

Secondly, you are asking us to let others make our work theirs or to profit from our work.

I have the view that others being able to print our work for their own use is very generous.

Not wishing to give up control or to allow others to profit without being part of the design is a choice, it isn’t a negative choice. Telling others they shouldn’t allow one or both of these isn’t my place nor should the reverse be yours.

I always find it strange that you can devalue my work to the point it has no value to me, but I should allow others to benefit from the value it somehow stills.

I don’t sell my own work, I only make models to share. It is my right and privilege to choose how to share those efforts. I always allow true charitable uses (given away, not sold).

Despite being this generous of my work, I still have to spend time tracking down the significant number of thieves selling my work as their own. One of the most recent is Amazon, not a reseller, actually Amazon.

If you wish to give away your models and all rights to them, you do you,

Except, you have not produced or shared any models on the MakerWorld platform.

You can’t do what you tell others to do.

I will stack my 850+ models against your zero.

Your views are clearly disingenuous.

5 Likes
107

The “standard digital license” isn’t actually standard. Printables has one, too, and it’s worded differently. Since I release on both platforms and have plans to release on others, I decided I needed something that was repository agnostic.

Having my own also allows me to grant specific exemptions for charity. I have it linked to on every model page. It’s not ideal but it’s the best I can do.

1 Like
108

Over the long term I’d expect BambuLab to make a rule against this, it’s not practical to have a box that says “license” and a description that says “that’s not really the license, this is”. Nor is having 200000 different licenses on the site.

Ebay had the same problem, people would list things as “new”, but then in the description say “it’s like new”. So now on Ebay you can’t override the form selection with additional conditions in the listing, what you say in the box goes irrespective of other conditions in the listing text.

109

I have it worded so that it “supplements but doesn’t replace” MakerWorld’s license. I am on their platform after all and so their word is first and foremost.

Mine is essentially the same but I make specific exceptions for charity.

If they wanted to get into a license wrangling dispute with me over that then I suppose they could (but wouldn’t be a good look for them :winking_face_with_tongue:) What I would prefer is that they have a sort of diy license where you could select add ons such as allowing charity use.

110

I vaguely recall seeing a “license builder” like that someplace, I think it’s enabled for the patreon-clone thing they are doing. But yes, that would be a big improvement over the SDFL.

111

This is rude. Designers have the absolute right to put whatever restrictions they want on their models. For some, this is their income stream and they need to get paid to eat. If they want to sell their designs so others can print and run their businesses, we should be okay with that. If they want to give designs away with restrictions, we should gratefully accept those restrictions.

My concern was that I think that most, if not all, designers would be okay with allowing a design to be used so that we can print models for charity. We’re not making money (quite the opposite!), we’re not changing the models beyond color and size, and we’re not going to take away a potential revenue stream. The license, as written, doesn’t seem to allow that.

If designers want me to have a commercial license to print for charity, so be it. It’s my choice as to whether I pay to use those designs (and I already have a couple of patreon memberships for this purpose) or somebody else’s. I am not going to tell somebody else how to license their work. All I’m asking for is clarity on what is allowed and what isn’t so that I can legally and morally abide by the license agreements.

1 Like
112

one of the major problems with this is the intent is often different than the words. The words are there to minimize unwanted behavior. And some acceptable behavior is the collateral damage.

Lets say the donation is to a charity that you don’t agree with. I am avoiding saying a charity to not turn it that direction. I am sure you can think of a “charity” that you think is wrong. It is easy to identify the ones you agree with. But that does not mean all charity is of your liking.

The concept that has been mentioned of give away your models is offensive to anybody making a living at something. I have no clue what you do for a living. What if someone ask you to work for free to any “charity”.

What i suggest is contact the designer of the models you want to give away and tell them what charity. And ask for a license to give away to… If you really want to follow the intent give them credit. maybe with a little sticker or card. or depending on the model maybe it can be added to the model.
the user interface for something beyond a case bases would be confusing.

113

When you create something that someone else distributes as their own, please do let us know. The license is our only backstop to being able to stop thieves from profiting from our work.

The reality is much of unlicensed selling/distribution is under the radar. If you want to make some bits for friends or family nobody is going to know. Selling unlicensed stuff on Etsy in violation of a license? We need ways to stop that.

You can print anything you want from MakerWorld. You can modify things for your own use and nobody would know. The conclusion is that’s not sufficient for your purposes so you must be wanting to print/sell either models or files. It’s not your work and you aren’t entitled to profit from it without the creator giving you permission. End of story. Until you lead by example with your own models you really don’t have any leg to stand on. We might as well be asking you to give us access to make withdrawals from your bank account. You give away something valuable to you and others can consider giving away something valuable to them like rights to print/sell models.

2 Likes
114

MyMiniFactory responded to my ticket regarding donations to charity using the standard license:

Thank you for this question. Even if you do not charge for the models that you donate, distributing physical prints of the models is still sharing the designers’ intellectual property.

As the designers own the rights and designs to their models, please contact individual creators to ask whether they would permit printed models to be donated without a commercial license. Here’s a simple guidance document about how to reach out to the creator and what to expect for the next steps.

1 Like
115

Which boils down to the already common sense question of “ask the creator”

1 Like
116

The important thing though is that makerworld has been licensed the reproduction rights:

By uploading and publishing the User Content to using the Service, the User grants to MakerWorld a worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license to the User Content with the ability to sub-license for, for example and without limitation, the reproduction and distribution of the User Content, as well as displaying the User Content to the public worldwide and for the duration of the proprietary rights to the User Content. MakerWorld may use and sub-license the User Content, for example and without limitation, for the purpose of operating and promoting the Services and other services of MakerWorld.

It is not stated whether in physical or digital form. And you could simply think that is about copying files for operating the website, but I guess this license could easily include more rights than the standard digital license restricts.

117

Without this, they wouldn’t be legally allowed to include the models in the MakerWorld catalog (website) or use them in promotional material that helps drive traffic to those lucky models. Often found in the filament section or MakerSupply for the items successful enough to warrant a custom kit.

118

The real question should be, why are people using MakerWorld in the first place? There are many other sites to download 3D Printing models that generally do not have these ridiculous licensing limitations. Most creators on sites like Printables and Thingiverse encourage others to remix and share their designs. It’s literally the point and why it’s called “file sharing”.

For example, on Thingiverse, the default license is Creative Commons - Attribution: The standard selected license, you can share and do remixes and the like, if you give proper credit.

You will likely find any model you want or need on Thingiverse or Printables and most carry the Creative Commons license. Make and share all you want with no legal or moral concerns.

119

Most “remixes” tend to not be remixes. At least from what ive seen, most are minor changes that dont effect the functionality.