Meatman Posted February 20, 2015 Posted February 20, 2015 (edited) I think credit goes a long way. Exactly. If the original designer gets his credit, that is what is most important. When I built the Vamp gt, I probably spent well over $400 gathering the parts and paying for shipping from all over the world. Not to mention the time invested placing orders, building the model, etc. I don't think there is an actual price that I could resell it for where I could claim that I made profit considering all of the money and time that I had put into it. Edited February 20, 2015 by Meatman Quote
Lipko Posted February 20, 2015 Posted February 20, 2015 (edited) Look at it this way: what's the point of spending endless evenings on making instructions if you just feed the leeches? You feed your audience which loves your work, and a small fraction of leeches. Maybe I'm totally wrong about the scope of this thing, but I always felt that the Technic community is small enough to detect who is the real designer and small enough not to be profitable for the few jerks who slip through (maybe even unintentionally) the self regulation of this community. Of course, giving a credit, talking with the designer should be simple as a breathe, but it's not a big surprise if there are people who are totally unaware of these basic moral things. Edited February 20, 2015 by Lipko Quote
Meatman Posted February 20, 2015 Posted February 20, 2015 (edited) Not to sway too much off-topic but I have seen many 'recognizable' GBC modules at various conventions/events, and none of them had any credit posted next to them. This is a great point. Of course, giving a credit, talking with the designer should be simple as a breathe, but it's not a big surprise if there are people who are totally unaware of these basic moral things. What if you contact a designer and inform them that you need to sell a MOC that you built of his/hers and they say NO? What do you do then? Edited February 20, 2015 by Meatman Quote
Sariel Posted February 20, 2015 Posted February 20, 2015 You feed your audience which loves your work, and a small fraction of leeches. I don't know about this small fraction thing. This is probably besides the point, but I can tell e.g. that books on Lego are seriously affected with piracy. With MOCs the situation is different, of course, but as Blakbird said, crediting someone takes adding just a few words and makes a big difference. What if you contact a designer and inform them that you need to sell a MOC that you built of his/hers and they say NO? Has this actually happened to anyone? I can't imagine saying no to a person who has the decency to ask. Quote
Lipko Posted February 20, 2015 Posted February 20, 2015 (edited) What if you contact a designer and inform them that you need to sell a MOC that you built of his/hers and they say NO? What do you do then? never mind Edited February 20, 2015 by Lipko Quote
D3K Posted February 20, 2015 Posted February 20, 2015 No one should dictate what you do with the bricks you've paid for, no matter how they are put together. I honestly see no difference between selling a preassembled NMOC and selling an official TLG set. If a designer is afraid of this happening, then they could simply not publish (free or paid) instructions for their creations! That being said, I'm all for credit being given where credit's due. Quote
Meatman Posted February 20, 2015 Posted February 20, 2015 I don't know about this small fraction thing. This is probably besides the point, but I can tell e.g. that books on Lego are seriously affected with piracy. With MOCs the situation is different, of course, but as Blakbird said, crediting someone takes adding just a few words and makes a big difference. Has this actually happened to anyone? I can't imagine saying no to a person who has the decency to ask. Well Mahj said right in the first post that this was a one off thing. So if someone else comes along and wants to sell one of his MOCs that I assume that he would say no. Quote
mahjqa Posted February 20, 2015 Author Posted February 20, 2015 DrJB: Please post away. Mind if I put it a copy of it on Vayamenda.com? I'll credit you, obviously. What if you contact a designer and inform them that you need to sell a MOC that you built of his/hers and they say NO? What do you do then? Then you don't. Or, you know, hand the designer a percentage of the profit. Incentive, you know. Do I need to stress here that without the designer there wouldn't be anything to sell in the first place? I am very much aware that there is nothing that would force a seller to do this. Common decency, perhaps. Still, it'd be nice. So if someone else comes along and wants to sell one of his MOCs that I assume that he would say no. You're assuming wrong. One: the person selling this had a very good reason why they needed the money. Two: they asked. Nicely. If a designer is afraid of this happening, then they could simply not publish (free or paid) instructions for their creations! I've explained this before. The fact that others can build my stuff is worth more to me than the disadvantage that some freeloaders profit off it. That doesn't make it right. As for the "it doesn't hurt anyone" argument... I'm still cooking up actual instructions for some models. Some of which I intend to sell. So, theoretically, that would eat into the amount of people I could sell those instructions to. Quote
JamesJT Posted February 20, 2015 Posted February 20, 2015 Mahjqa, Do you pay royalties on any of the Batman vehicles that you sell? Quote
mahjqa Posted February 20, 2015 Author Posted February 20, 2015 Got me there. Honestly, you do. I could come up with plenty of justifications, but yeah. Quote
Paul Boratko Posted February 20, 2015 Posted February 20, 2015 (edited) 2 or 3 years ago I had a guy from right here in the United States(I think from Florida) send me a messege through Ebay informing me that he was going to start selling my suspension modules that he found on Brickshelf.. Not a "Hey, do you mind?" He came right out and said "I just want to let you know that I am going to be selling your suspension modules" I asked him why he just doesn't come up with his own designs and sell them and he said "I don't need to"... I told him if that is how he feels to do what he wants, nothing I can do anyways... Then of course I have this very popular Ebay Technic seller from Arizona that bought a gearbox off of me 2 years ago, and after he got it, he went right ahead and started selling the exact design right along side of me on Ebay... He still sells them, but ended up altering the design a bit so the colors were different, but still a dick move none-the-less... When I questioned his integrity he said "I'll flood Ebay with so many of these that neither of us will sell any" Then after all of that B.S. he starts buying parts off of my wife on Bricklink to resell on Ebay... You can't make this up... And I didn't even get into some of the nonsense that I have dealt with with full models... I had someone from France sell my Vampire GT and then the buyer contacted me after he got it demanding instructions for it... And not just the download, he wanted paper instructions sent to him... The seller actually told him to contact me and I would take care of him... My favorite people are the ones who sell your models and claim that they have improved it... even though it looks like complete crap... I could go on all day about this... These are just a few of the reasons why I stopped caring about people selling models of mine... You just can't win... Edited February 20, 2015 by Paul Boratko Quote
Rishab N Posted February 21, 2015 Posted February 21, 2015 (edited) There's a guy on Ebay who constantly sells models of Skyliner's Countach and credits him for it... in like text this tiny look in the description http://www.ebay.com/itm/LEGO-CUSTOM-TECHNIC-LAMBORGHINI-COUNTACH-LP400-SUPER-CAR-LIMITED-SET-KIT-UNBUILD-/270849571680?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f0fe47b60 He also charges 100 dollars more for it shipping disassembled and sells the instructions with it which isn't right Edit: This is how I think one should sell someone else's MOC http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lego-UCS-Anakins-Podracer-Custom-/121574277221?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c4e644065 The seller clearly credits Anio and states that "you will have to obtain the instructions from him because they are not mine to sell" Do you guys think that is acceptable? Edited February 21, 2015 by Rishab N Quote
Anio Posted February 21, 2015 Posted February 21, 2015 Thanks for pointing out this auction. It is a very good example of what can be done IMO : 1) The guy sell the model, and I am fine with it if he ask a reasonnable amount of money for it. Which is the case here. 2) He gives credit 3) He doesn't offer the instruction and explain how to get it. So yes, everybody wins with an auction written like that. On the contrary, look at this : The very same model is sold by another guy at almost 300€ : http://www.ebay.fr/i...=item2edd3b0c60 One day, I have seen someone selling my Sebulba's podracer for 1200€. Or even worse. This jackass prints all the UCS stickers I designed and sell them on ebay : http://www.ebay.fr/i...=item1e9780391d FYI : A) They are all available for free here : http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=531321 B) The price this guy is asking for 1 sticker is almost equivalent to the price I ask for 1 complete professionnal instruction... Paul has a good point. You can't win. You just have to accept that some people are morons who have no problem with the idea of taking advantage of other people's work. Quote
weavil Posted February 21, 2015 Posted February 21, 2015 Or even worse. This jackass prints all the UCS stickers I designed and sell them on ebay : http://www.ebay.fr/i...=item1e9780391d FYI : A) They are all available for free here : http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=531321 B) The price this guy is asking for 1 sticker is almost equivalent to the price I ask for 1 complete professionnal instruction... Paul has a good point. You can't win. You just have to accept that some people are morons who have no problem with the idea of taking advantage of other people's work. This happened a year or two ago in the Town forum. An Ebay seller was selling instruction for modular city buildings of multiple people in the forum. Some of the instruction were free other you had to buy for $5-10. He was selling them for $10- 20 I think it was, they all filed to Ebay about it and..... did no good. Quote
zux Posted February 21, 2015 Posted February 21, 2015 Well there a lot of valid points I'd agree. While I understand that feeling when you see someone getting some serious money for stuff you created I don't understand why those who doesn't sell their own MOCs are unhappy with it? Did you offer same service? Probably not. It takes time and money to get all the pieces, sort them and assemble the moc itself. But as you may know people are lazy and those who have $$$ would end overpaying for the model without spending too much time sourcing all the parts. And if they bought it they are probably happy about it. I agree that lack of credit is serious issue here. Or even worse. This jackass prints all the UCS stickers I designed and sell them on ebay : http://www.ebay.fr/i...=item1e9780391dFYI : A) They are all available for free here : http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=531321 B) The price this guy is asking for 1 sticker is almost equivalent to the price I ask for 1 complete professionnal instruction... Same as above, some would pay for ready to apply sticker, rather than going the whole round of finding where to print, printing the sticker and finally overpaying for the whole process. Consider printing same stickers in large amount per sheet and sell for little buck. Also, what is the difference between between reselling a model designed by TLG and AFOL? 41999 set's RRP was 179.99EUR and it is being sold for 350-400 now. I', sure RM8 would be happy to be the initial distributor Other retired models are being sold quite over their RRP too. Reselling of MOC instructions is a hard question. If you offer digital instructions only - you must keep in mind you have no control here. And if i bought one I feel I can give it away with moc I've assembled and then decided to sell. On the other hand, reselling more than once is of course not acceptable. So basically I see following unpleasant moments of other selling your stuff when: Your non-free instructions (only) are sold, resold not by someone else Lack of credit when selling other MOC Selling MOC, for which instructions are not free, more than once Quote
Edwin Korstanje Posted February 21, 2015 Posted February 21, 2015 (edited) When i all read the post of the selling designers here is it said to hear that it's a lost case of al the copyr's around the world. That's the reason that i only work with company's and makes contracts with them. They got a set of there ship ore project and is exclusive from them, but all the rights of the design, parts, partlist and instructions are with me. Also they got never get the partlist and it must be a printed instruction, for the reason that it's not going around the web. Lucky i and the company's i worked for have never found iligal copy's of mine work, but if, they have very good lawyers and they will accuse them . Some of the company's are even bigger than LEGO self. In the past some people makes mine MOC's ore juse mine model for them self, but got always the credit from them and than it's no problem. With the big one of ships i make, nobody have try to duplicate it . Greets Edwin Edited February 21, 2015 by VFracingteam Quote
andythenorth Posted February 21, 2015 Posted February 21, 2015 If someone sold my designs, I think I'd ask, "what am I actually losing?" Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.