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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Dizingof having his desgins misused by 3DSystems and Stratasys

Thingiverse user Dizingof, well known for intricate latices work designs, recently removed most of his designs from thingiverse in response to 3DSystems and Stratasys ignoring the non-commercial license associated with his things and using his designs to market their product. There are so many facets to this story I can't decide which one I want to talk about.

For starters there's two huge companies ignoring licenses protecting a little guy because what's he going to do, sue them? It is disgraceful and shameful and probably not going to effect their bottom line in the least. Sucks. And in a perfect world they'd get their comeuppance, but the world still ain't perfect and that's the risk you run when you give your stuff away for free. A "Don't make money off my stuff and be sure to credit me" license doesn't mean much when they've already got your stuff. My stuff has been used to endorse more than a few projects without my knowing about it. You gotta decide how you're going to react when the time comes.

Dizingof chose to stop offering most of his stuff for free on Thingiverse and started selling them on Ponoko. This has upset some people since models that were for free are now upwards to $25. (I may not be quite aware what models like this are worth, but I think that's a bit high myself. But whatever the market will sustain I guess.) Thing is, yes he was giving it away free and now he's not, and that feels a bit like being cheated, but really that's just the gravy train hitting the station. Before he started giving stuff away what did everyone have? Nothing. After he took it away what did we all have? Nothing. What did it cost? Nothing. So in the end no one's any worse off and arguably a little better off. Sure, Thingiverse got him where he is now and in his little way helped thingiverse, too, adding content that clearly had value in excess of what he was getting for it. So it was mutually beneficial.

But he left the listings up on Thingiverse and Thingiverse does drive some mad traffic. That's a little jerky. I mean putting one thing from a set on Thingiverse and then linking the place to buy the rest, that's fine. That's shareware. But flat out using Thingiverse for it's traffic and giving nothing back isn't cool. That's not exactly what happened here, he did have the things on thingiverse for a while, but this is not a trend I want to see continue. Dizingof gets special consideration in light of his circumstances but that is it. No one else gets to do this and escape the wrath of a lengthy comment on their Thing's listing. Fear the lengthy comment!

I hope Dizingof consults a few attorneys and sees if he can build a case. But then again the time he spends fighting this is less time he has to make cool things, and that's why this story is so tragic to me. Why can't creative types share their worth with others, be fairly compensated when appropriate, and be left to excel? Because the world doesn't work that way. This is the way the world works.

And that is a depressing way to end this post, so here's a clip from Grim Fandango:

5 comments:

  1. Joe, you are wrong.

    First off i do not offer the designs i removed from thingiverse for sale on my shop at 3dizingof.com
    But IF i DO choose to offer them for sale its because they are MINE and i am the IP holder. Make no mistake about it.


    Now.. when i started removing my things from thingiverse.com it took ages for one single page to be deleted - as the server goes thru thousands if not 10's of thousands of user's private collections.. - so i chose to just remove the STL files for each design page (which took only seconds).

    I leave it to Stratasys staff to remove all the other pages entirely.

    As for the "mad traffic".. You are as gobbled with the hype as anyone else.. (3d printing industry is good at it)
    I was receiving an average of 40.. yes 40.. unique visitors a day from thingiverse.com.. but that had absolutely no effect on my passion to design and share thru-out the past years..

    Here is a screen shot from Jan 2013 till today:
    http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j322/dizingof/Album3/dizingofstats_zps5cefb4a8.jpg
    (the counter code can only be placed on the main profile page at my Ponoko.com shop)

    I understand you are upset and resentful.. but not as much i am at these corporations violating my IP rights time and again then apologizing while emphasizing it was "unintentionally" (clearly their lawyers words to avoid a copyright law suit with "willful intent")
    http://www.thingiverse.com/make:40039
    http://www.thingiverse.com/make:39714

    http://publicknowledge.org/node/7623



    These corporations including Makerbot and lets not play naive here - are in it for the MONEY..

    Makerbot was in the process of been acquired by Stratasys at the time of these events.. Makerbot's staff couldn't have really offered me any help, a legal advise or otherwise, when a $400 million dollars were on the table..

    Hours later, after i've removed my files, an announcement was made: Stratasys acquired Makerbot (and Thingiverse..)



    Joe, i've enjoyed sharing my designs in the past 3 years and even excited when my designs were loved by so many makers all over the world. (a truly amazing phenomena) but there was never any personal gain or "fame" here for me.
    (except for one time when my doorman approached me all excited when he realized i am THE Dizingof lol - other than that i am a private man and that wont change)

    In an interview i had with i.materialise.com in Dec 19 2012 - i was asked why i share so many designs on thingiverse.. i replied: "I have seen the available free designs and in my humble opinion the personal 3D printing revolution needed more than a Yoda" -
    http://i.materialise.com/blog/entry/meet-the-designer-dizingof

    That's about says it all.



    Few days ago Stratasys Executive VP for Business Development & Strategic Marketing - Dan Yalon - sent me an email offering me an apology and a $1000 worth of 3d printed parts - I suggest Stratasys DONATE the sum to "Yad Sarah", a local charity - to which he replied "Re Yad Sarah – absolutely. Happy to do this"

    Read his emails on this Google group discussion:
    https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/makerbot/nYuQWBy2lWo





    Dizingof

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Dizingof, thanks for replying.

      Maybe I didn't express the tone correctly but I am all for this move of yours. I don't mind at all. There are many who are bothered, but I'm all in support of you. My negative tone was more about the general reality of creative types not being free to just be creative. But nothing against the choice you made. I'm in support.

      Delete
    2. Damn you sound like a punk.

      Not only did you get sonned like it was High Noon but you didn't have the decency to APOLOGIZE?!!?!!?!??

      You have about as much respect for him as Makerbot and Stratasys. Get off the computer and out a little more techno geek.

      Delete
    3. Joseph - perhaps you - like Dizingof - should think about this a bit.

      Makerbot as the owner of Thingiverse allows creators to retain license to their creations.

      Dizingof got his panties in a twist because MAKERBOT didn't run off on his behalf and enforce his license.

      Dizingof then deleted all of his STL's so that the people not violating his license would no longer have access to them.

      Dizingof chose not to attempt to enforce HIS license. He now "understands" that Makerbot did not enforce his license because of the pending sale.


      Delete
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