This morning I had the very bad surprise to discover that one of my MOC is being used without my consent in a contest on the site U2.com; even worse, it appears to be a very popular entry in the contest.

The contest is called “from the ground up” – fans must submit creations that they built themselves… you see the irony.

I did not submit anything in this contest myself because usually these turn out to be Social Networks popularity races rather than being really connected to the creativity of the entries.

To tell you the truth I’m really pissed about this. I initially built this as a tribute to the band of which I am a huge fan, I love their music and everything they represent.

To see my work stolen from me like this goes against everything I like about U2 and I just don’t understand why would someone try to do that… expose himself to the online community with the risk of being busted.

Of course as soon as I saw this I reported the entry to the moderators.. I’m hoping they will do the needful rapidly and that things will be clarified without problems. I have evidence that the pictures were posted on my Flickr 3 years ago.. I even posted them on several U2 forums.

I googled the name of the guy who appears to be at the origin of this theft and I think I found him on FB, I sent him a message to let him know what I think of his actions and give him the opportunity to explain himself.

It is not the first time I have one of my creations being used without my consent, a little while ago someone tried to use one of my MOC on CUUSOO. Some of my “Winchester” pictures, which were watermarked were deliberately cropped and reposted on various sites.

I am completely puzzled by these behaviors. When I first joined the online LEGO community I never tagged nor watermarked my pictures, now I try to do it systematically either with a logo or by inserting an engraved tile into the MOC but still, experience shows me that it’s never going to be enough.

In a way I got lucky to find out about this particular case but it makes me wonder if it is just the tip of the iceberg and I can’t help but ask myself if it is worth it. Is it worth to work hard at designing models, taking the best pictures we can, share them with everyone to enjoy just to be stolen from our ideas down the road?

I don’t want to sound overly naïve… I am well aware of how things are online. I just would like to open up a discussion around these issues, see what other members of the community think.

I will post an update once I hear back from the moderators of the U2 site.

This sucks, but good thing you have enough evidence which makes it clear it's your creation.

Hopefully it will turn around to be some good kind of publicity.

I have a guy taking credit for one of my customs. Kinda sucks also, but it's not for a contest, so for now I take it as a compliment.

That is a really sh***y thing to find. Flattering, but really low. I don't know if it will make much of a difference, but I reported the image as stolen as well. I hope this gets resolved soon

That sucks Yatkuu ! I hope the U2 site moderators will handle this good!

Thank you Bobskink, LEGO Guy Bri & CopMike for your support, it's heartwarming!

I just received an email from the U2 forum moderator, the contest entry has been removed! Woohoo!

That did not take long.. a happy ending and thumbs up for the U2 forum mods!

Great, maybe you should enter it yourself now ;)

Glad that it made a good outcome.

Did you consider putting it on Cuusoo?

Great, maybe you should enter it yourself now ;)

Hehe.. I tried taking a part in the previous contest they organized. They had made a call for idea to design the artwork of Achtung Baby's remastered version. As I said hereabove, the contest felt to me more like a race for whoever had the most FB and Twitters contacts. Not my cup of tea!

Did you consider putting it on Cuusoo?

I think I have had enough with CUUSOO for a lifetime!

That being said, on paper the CUUSOO concept is still great and I still think about it every now and then but to me this system has just not yet proven itself.

The efforts needed to make a successful project on this platform are just not worth it right now. Maybe once a few sets have been produced and the system is out of the Beta phase...

aha, dat was van u :)

I knew I know your name....

I just received an email from the U2 forum moderator, the contest entry has been removed! Woohoo!

That did not take long.. a happy ending and thumbs up for the U2 forum mods!

That was fast! I'm glad this worked in your favor and deserved proper recognition. I hope that guy feel like a shoe... whatever that's like. Cheers mate

Edited March 27, 201311 yr by LEGO Guy Bri

[...] I can’t help but ask myself if it is worth it. Is it worth to work hard at designing models, taking the best pictures we can, share them with everyone to enjoy just to be stolen from our ideas down the road?

That's really up to you, but hopefully you won't let it get to you.

Ultimately, posting images to the web is about pride (showing what you're capable of), participating in a community, getting feedback (improving and evaluating your skills), and inspiring others. You'll need to figure out why you're posting. Seriously, think about what makes you post a picture of a MOC rather than just building it and letting it sit on your desk, or having pictures that never get published anywhere. What's the benefit (to you) of posting your work?

There's an inevitability that if you're a quality builder, you're going to have MOC pictures (or designs) stolen. I've had image theft happen many times (back when I was more actively MOCing), and I'm sure it's even more common today. Sometimes I didn't care (like if people used my image for their profile), sometimes I did (like when submitting for a building contest). Ultimately, though, posting pictures of my work was more valuable to me than not posting. The value I got back from the community was well worth the occasional theft. Particularly considering that people "in the know" in the LEGO community certainly knew that I was the original builder.

DaveE

Glad to hear you got it taken down, it's a great MOC.

That sucks.

A little tip though if your worried about future images. You can add a small watermark somewhere on the image. It wouldn't have to be big but put a small one somewhere near the middle that wouldn't detract from the design. I'd avoid putting it right at the edges as it can just be cropped then. This way there's a much easier time proving its yours.

Probably not much consolation or particularly helpful given the anonymity afforded by the Internet, but you do have intellectual property rights to your MOCs both in the pictures (copyright) and the MOCs themselves (design rights).

I find all kinds of IP theft sickening.

Thank you Bobskink, LEGO Guy Bri & CopMike for your support, it's heartwarming!

I just received an email from the U2 forum moderator, the contest entry has been removed! Woohoo!

That did not take long.. a happy ending and thumbs up for the U2 forum mods!

That's good news, there is nothing that rubs me the wrong way more than cheaters.

Does anybody know if similar things happened on Eurobricks?

That's really up to you, but hopefully you won't let it get to you.

Thanks DaveE, great feedback.

You’re right! I guess when I wrote my initial post I was a bit down and upset ;-)

Now that the problem is fixed I see things back the way they really are - being a part of the AFOL community is extremely rewarding, and yes, it’s all worth it!

A little tip though if your worried about future images. You can add a small watermark somewhere on the image. It wouldn't have to be big but put a small one somewhere near the middle that wouldn't detract from the design. I'd avoid putting it right at the edges as it can just be cropped then. This way there's a much easier time proving its yours.

That's actually a good idea, thanks!

Does anybody know if similar things happened on Eurobricks?

It seems to generally seems to concern peoples instructions being stole and resold. These two topics are more recent examples I could find. Though I believe they are about the same model, I have seen this a few times. I am sure someone can give another incident of someone reposting someone's MOC as there own... unfortunately

another way to quickly convbice a moderator that someone has stolen your idea is to have pictures of your model being built

a thief will not be able to provide such images