Plagarism

[exxtrooper]

My friend at flickr,BrickArt!san found this at lego.com, the offical site, looks like the guys from mocpages have moved.

Ok, LEGO accepting an image (of a MOC) stolen from the real creator is one thing... But granting it one of the winners in a contest just makes me sick...!

And believe me, this is a hoax. After checking the kid's other MOC's (which don't come close to the level of MOCerage here) I found he was accused before. Another member of LEGO.com commented saying he pirated the image. The "ahem" "rightful owner" denied the claim in his grade 3-level English comment.

C'mon LEGO, get with the picture!

The main reason this was posted was simply to notify the rightful owner of this image, in case they would like to take any actions they deem necessary.

Here Is his page.

He seems to of had removed the Ninja MOC But look at the (pirated) Ironman MOC vs. his jet thing!? Damn.

He also said he painted this figure (the figure isn't his ):

Kids these days.

To admins and/or mods: delete this topic if you want.

[AwesomeStar]

First off; I agree totally, plagarism is a terrible thing and can be immensely annoying

Second; This is in the wrong forum, maybe Community would be better

Third; As I was rightfully told by KimT about 6 months ago, created topics that Mods can just delete is a great way to get banned, and that would be a great shame, as your customization skills are sublime!

I completely agree exxtrooper and cheers for pointing this out!

~A.S.

[strider406]

I have to agree with you that's not right. I put a reply on the kid's page I hope Lego doesn't delete it.

[bugefun]

I found who actually made the iron man. Here is a link to a page that has the info.

[Darth Legolas]

Somebody better notify Lego! This kid is such a...

I petty the people who commented. "Wow so cool!" God, what a liar.

[Adam]

I have contacted LEGO to inform them that soemone has pirated an image from Brickmodder (Rob Hendrix) - hopefully, something will be done.

[exxtrooper]

I have contacted LEGO to inform them that soemone has pirated an image from Brickmodder (Rob Hendrix) - hopefully, something will be done.

Let's hope so, and I checked other places there, he isn't the only one

I think lego should get "delete" button, or maybe delete al the photos, get a fresh new start, with real admins and moderators.

[ILikePi]

I also wrote a comment about how he stole the picture and pretended that it was his. I hope that the moderators and admins (if there are any) do something with all this MOC stealing and stuff.

[Dragonator]

Unfortunately I think this sort of thing is happening a lot on the site. In just 5 minutes of searching I have already found two very suspicious cases, as I really don't think Rocko and DNL have registered, at least certainly not with those names. Really, very disappointing.

[Captain Green Hair]

I think the Ninja castle is 007's...

Where is he?

[Toa of Whimsy]

Maybe we should all start putting annoying watermarks on our pictures of the stuff?

But then we'll have disputes if our watermarks look alike.

[Ralph_S]

On Thursday I was told by a friend of mine that my B-1B had been entered in one of the build challenges on the LEGO Universe homepage. Since I didn't enter it, I decided to have a little look round. I've contacted LEGO through their customer service Thursday evening. I've already heard back from them. Customer service obviously aren't really the people who should deal with this, but I had no other way of contacting anybody. They apologised and will forward the message to the people who run LEGO Universe so that they can see what they can do to prevent this sort of thing. They'll also remove the pictures and the user. It's pretty much all I could hope for.

However, there's a bigger problem. In the meantime I've spent some time browsing LEGO Universe and I found another copied picture of my B-1, two pictures of my E-2C Hawkeye (both by the same person), and one each of my F-15E Strike Eagle and my Mi-24 Hind as well as several other MOCs I recognise as belonging to particular people. I've made a list and I'll probably be contacting them. Just about everything on there that doesn't look as though a little child built it is either a set or a copied picture. I hate plagiarism with a vengeance and I don't understand what people gain by getting credit for something they didn't make. It's disgusting. LEGO have a problem if they have pictures on their website that are not copyrighted to the people who post them there. Perhaps this is something one of our ambassadors could raise with LEGO as well.

Cheers,

Ralph

Edited April 18, 2009 by Ralph_S

[Skipper 24]

I'm surprised LEGO haven't done anything about this yet. I can't think of a way to stop it though .

[Ralph_S]

I'm surprised LEGO haven't done anything about this yet. I can't think of a way to stop it though .

I think that the most likely reason for why they haven't is because they're not really aware of it. If you don't follow what's going on on brickshelf/mocpages/flickr odds are that you won't recognise that any of these pictures don't belong to the persons who posted them there. Furthermore, I suspect that few AFOLs ever check out what is on the LEGO universe pages, so won't even know that other people are copying their pictures. I wouldn't have known that my bomber is on LEGO universe either and wouldn't have complained to LEGO if I hadn't been told about it by one of my friends on flickr.

The only certain way of stopping it is to pull the plug on these challenges, but sadly that would also affect the vast majority of children on there who do post their own models.

Cheers,

Ralph

[General Armendariz]

I cant believe they do this stuff, really its worse than what I did! I mean mine was just a joke, but STEALING someone elses work and posting it as yours?

That is horrible

[Buttons]

Well, I am sure that CopMike or another ambasador, if willing, would notify Lego of this fraud and that would certainly get the issue sorted. Right?

Buttons

[Freddie]

I'm surprised LEGO haven't done anything about this yet. I can't think of a way to stop it though .

A suitable method would be to have a report function, similar to what one can find on art-oriented sites such as DeviantArt and similar. When reporting a theft, a reference (such as an URL) is provided by the user to back-up the claim. LEGO should implement a similar tool, as it simplifies the process to the point that LEGO's moderators should have no problem with going through claims and verify them. Likewise, if claims of theft aren't backed up, they are ignored. On the other hand it would require some effort from our side as well, but I believe it's cheap enough for LEGO to work.

[Eilif]

While it may take some time for LEGO to take action, perhaps the rightful owners of these MOCS could create a universe account and post the fact that these are frauds in the comments areas. A simple note of who the original builder is, and a link to where the original can be found should be enough to prove that the Universe version is stolen.

It's already been done in the Iron Man case, and if such comments were to appear often enough, it might discourage others from doing so.

[MetroiD]

This is definitely an issue with MOCpages and one of the main reasons as to why that place has let me down. I've contacted kids who posted other people's creations on multiple occasions - almost every time they had the sense do delete the respective MOC almost instantly, but sometimes they needed a bit of convincing. In any case, posting someone else's MOC on mocpages is lame, annoying and sad... but not unexpected. So it's only logical that it happens @ LEGO Universe as well. I do believe that the guys over there should have some more direct contact with LEGO Ambassadors in order to sure this doesn't turn into a habit for lame glory-hunting builders.

[CopMike]

I agree with everybody else, it´s sucks Big Time !

Comments like this:

Lego Copter

Stolen picture. Original by Mad Physicist, http://www.flickr.com/photos/madphysicist/2301189301

CopMike

LEGO Ambassador

posted on all of Ralph S Moc´s in LEGO Universe and post made in the Ambassador forum on the issue.

CopMike

[Tinn-man]

I like how the kid said that HE posted the pictures on google and ask( ), and Kamionan stole them. This sucks, but I've seen it happen to a lot of people.

[ILikePi]

That's one reason why you should put some like watermark with your name or something on all of your extremely good creations... (or ones that took years to do)

I also need to start to do that on my MOCs (if I make any ).

[Ralph_S]

I agree with everybody else, it´s sucks Big Time !

Comments like this:

Lego Copter

Stolen picture. Original by Mad Physicist, http://www.flickr.com/photos/madphysicist/2301189301

CopMike

LEGO Ambassador

posted on all of Ralph S Moc´s in LEGO Universe and post made in the Ambassador forum on the issue.

CopMike

Thanks. I'm not sure whether posting a comment will help, but I appreciate it. I have contacted LEGO again (via e-mail) and have told customer services that there are a lot more pictures, not just from me but from other as well. I'll keep you informed of what I hear back.

That's one reason why you should put some like watermark with your name or something on all of your extremely good creations... (or ones that took years to do)

I also need to start to do that on my MOCs (if I make any ).

This is one of the reasons why stopped posting on MOCpages as well several months ago. The problem there has decreased considerably, because Sean Kenney has been very diligent in removing them. Of course, I hadn't realised that the people who do this sort of thing have simply moved elsewhere.

Adding watermarks isn't an option for the hundreds of photos I already have, of course, but I'm certainly considering it for the new ones.

I am also seriously considering taking my creations away from MOCpages and brickshelf, because unlike flickr, there are no restrictions on who can download what.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Darth Legolas]

Let's start a petition! Who says, we band together, requesting a "Report Fraud" button on every uploaded image to Lego's website. If the link is clicked, the picture is removed until a full investigation is spread out.

And the investigations are freaking easy. Just take the picture, and find the original source.

The only problem is that, in a day, hhalf of the uploaded images will be missing due to the fraud button.

[Derek]

The kid refers to "My model" in nearly every descroption. Almost seems he is trying too hard to claim it as his own.

I hope this punk gets what he deserves...