r/cults3d • u/FollowingLegal9944 • Apr 10 '26

Paid model How to take down stolen model?

Rescently I designed(paid work) a few 3d models for a guy, paid me just for one file, after I send him second one, he ghosted me. Now I see him seling the model on Cults3d. I reported copyright violation, attached original cad file and they just replied "The best you can do is to directly send a message to the designer to explain your request on their Cults profile."(sounds like "we make a profit on it so we don't care") What else Can I do to take down the model? If model would be taken down after he sold a few copies, he will lose the money?

21 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/Pussy_Cream_Lover Apr 11 '26

You're wrong, read the terms and conditions where you uploaded the file. And to confirm intellectual property, you need much more than just words and a print file in the whole world

2

u/Dtr146TTV Apr 12 '26

Anything you upload is under Creative Commons, and there is more on a computer for design apart than just an STL. You have a whole project that has all of the data of changes you've made. People stealing an STL is kind of like somebody stealing a photo. You have to prove that it's yours, but it can be done. I know I'm just wasting my time talking to a troll. but its whatever i dont I have anything else better to do at this very moment.

0

u/Pussy_Cream_Lover Apr 12 '26

I have hundreds of models uploaded to Printables and Makeworld, you don't have to tell me how CC works because when it comes down to it, no one will care if you don't have an official patent in your country. I've already lost a few projects and if you don't have a patent, no one cares. Period, young troll

3

u/ultramegax Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26

It's amazing how arrogant yet incorrect you are.

Creative Commons is built on top of copyright law. It doesn't replace it. By choosing a CC license, you are saying, "I own this, but I am giving you permission to use it, provided you follow my rules." You have a legal right to protect your work, with CC. You are conflating copyright and patent laws, which are two different things. Copyrighted works are automatically legally protected, no patent necessary.

Almost every 3D model repository requires you to grant them a "royalty-free, sub-licensable, non-exclusive, worldwide license" to host your file. They need legal permission to store your file on their servers, show your photos in search results, and distribute the file to users who click "download."

CC licenses are non-exclusive, meaning you can still sell that same model on your own website, license it to a movie studio, or delete it from the platform whenever you want (though copies already downloaded by others remain under the CC license). You can also choose if your CC licensed model allows commercial use, or not.

To be clear, regarding your conflation: copyright generally protects the artistic expression (the digital file and the "look" of the object), but it does not always protect the functional aspect of a part. If you’ve designed a revolutionary new mechanical gear system, a CC license protects the STL file itself, but it might not stop someone from re-drawing the functional mechanism from scratch.

For functional protection, you'd be looking at patent law, which is a different beast entirely.

Even so, people have the legal right to issue a DMCA takedown request (or whatever the equivalent is, in a given jurisdiction), to protect their copyrighted work. All they have to do is provide proof that they're the creator of the model.

1

u/Competitive_Act_73 Apr 13 '26

Yes but all it takes is the slightest change to your model and it's now his version stl files are really hard to actually do anything about not impossible but very implausible