more Piracy concerns?

I have been dealing with a small authorship issue over the last 24 hours,

and I thought I would share the outcome.



To some, this might be a non-issue.

I know there are many who think a "free" is free to download, free to share, free to do what you will.



I look at this differently.

An author, designer, distributor has the right to share his files in the manner he wishes

and he has the right to demand cooperation from those who download his models.

(Yes, I agree with Uhu's rights...I don't agree with all his methods...but I support his right to do it "his way")



I share my KoolWheelz models freely.

But I ask on my site, and on the models themselves, that they not be shared anywhere else.

In other words, I want you to come to my site to download the model.



A Russian paper only website is sharing thousands of paper models

from all over the internet.

These include pirated print models, pirated for sale models, and freely shared digital models.



Two or three members have been sharing my KoolWheelz models.

Half a dozen of them have appeared in the last few days.

Who knows how many over the last few years?



The models are shared using newly hosted files from various file-hosting sites.

Photos are pulled from the actual model pages, and although my information has not been altered on the model pages,

the images on the website have their own URL watermark (not mine).



I have had no luck contacting the website itself asking for the sharing links to be removed. (No reponse so far)

I tried to sign up at the site...so I could contact the culprits and post comments.

But I can't get past the Russian captch code thingy (to register).



In the end, I started contacting the file hosting sites asking that the files be removed.



The problem with this, is I have to hunt through hundreds and thousands of entries

trying to find my models and then track down the file links and go to the hosting sites.

Then I have to report the violations which generally involves a lot of writing, information and tracking down links and proof of ownership.



I don't have the time for this.



But I did submit a couple of violation notices...



I got some postive, although confusing repsonse from two file hosting sites.

Rapidgator and Depositfiles.



Rapidgator informed me that I had to submit proper DMCA forms with all the correct information (to have files removed).

They also sent me three emails announcing the removal of three different files.

lol

Depositfiles did the same thing...except they only asked for the proper DMCA forms.

But, within one hour of me sending the DMCA stuff for one Koolwheelz file,

I got this response:

"Dear Sir/Madam, We hereby inform you that your takedown notice entitled Re:piracy sent on Thu, 19 Feb 2015 14:54:59 +0100 has been received by us.

Upon thoroughly analyzing abovementioned notice we found the following links to be comprehensibly indicated and subject to takedown...

The access to the links above has been blocked and material removed, as requested."



I don't know how much more time and effort I can spend on this.

The KoolWheelz models are just not worth the effort (?).

If and when I see copies of "for sale" models on a pirate site,

you can be sure I will take every action to stop the violations.



But, its nice to see some response from the file hosters.

I personally have never held file hosting sites responsible for piracy related issues.

There are just as many valid uses for online file hosting and file sharing.

I also shouldn't judge a site by the actions of its members.

(Staff yes...but not its members)



But this particular Russian site is built on one thing only...pirate material.