Bambu Lab announced a new “Creator Copyright Support” program.
The program is intended to assist designers using MakerWorld who have been victimized by those stealing their designs. This phenomenon is rampant on all the major 3D model repositories, as it is technically simple to duplicate the work of others.
When it happens, it’s quite disturbing to the original designers who spent considerable time developing their works. It’s even worse when the perp launches a claim to the work, which sometimes even locks out the original designer from their own design!
The intent of the Creator Copyright Program is to assist designers when these things happen. What exactly does MakerWorld provide? They explain:
“When a creator’s Exclusive Model encounters infringement, MakerWorld can assist the creator in filing infringement complaints to third-party platforms after the creator provides the required documents and authorizes us to proceed. Enforcement actions are carried out by professional third-party agencies partnering with MakerWorld.”
MakerWorld will undertake this work at no charge to the designer — unless the project “exceeds reasonable scope”. It’s not clear what that means, but it’s probably reasonable for Bambu Lab to put a cap on their costs here.
That’s a good start. However, Bambu Lab also intends to add an “originality verification” to models, as well as monitoring for copies of works both on and off MakerWorld. Monitoring other sites is unprecedented, and will be a very welcome move.
For the moment, the new program is in a closed beta phase, with a few designers participating. It seems that any designer can participate, so long as they have at least 500 followers on MakerWorld (but only 100 if you’re based in China). However, each participant is limited to a maximum of ten requests to the program per week. They’re placing a limit because they are still building the program and likely have a limited number of staff assigned to this work.
If a designer is making up to 40 requests per month, you get an idea of how widespread this problem must be.
This is a very good step forward by Bambu Lab, as this problem has reached the stage where theft is now expected by most designers. It shouldn’t be that way, and perhaps the Creator Copyright Program will help reduce the issue.
Via MakerWorld and MakerWorld Wiki
