WARNING Site that "sells" MOCs without author's consent

[Captain Roger]

Dear Lego fans

Some time ago I created some MOCs about real-life samurai Miyamoto Musashi, and a few years ago I posted them here. Now, I have found a website that, supposedly, sells my MOC without my consent. Look:

https://swpwak.sleepysheepy.shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5354&products_id=104927

I feel that I need to warn all Lego fans about this, because your MOCs may be in that site too.

I created my MOC with Bricklink studio and the person who, supposedly, sell my MOC has used the same pic I created, so I guess is a scam. If they had recreated my MOC with real pieces, I guess they post their own photos instead of mine. But I don't really know. Do you know something about how that website works?

Best regards

Edited Saturday at 01:46 PM by Captain Roger
Mistake. I wrote "days" instead "years"

[Murdoch17]

Might want to not include a link to the site... just name it. Otherwise, you'll drive traffic to them @Captain Roger.

[Captain Roger]

Thank for your reply but I think I need to share the link to show what's happening. And I am not sure about the name of the site is swpwak.sleepysheepy.shop or susshopes.

I may be wrong but I don’t think that more traffic would benefit the site if visitors know that site is not ethical.

[JesseNight]

Selling other people's work happens a lot, with Lego mocs as much as any creative works. As long as it's published (even if it's paid), some will want to resell it for a profit. It is a fight we cannot win, either we stop publishing stuff or try not to let it get to us too much (neither being a great solution...).

That being said... This website you linked is very likely a scam. I've seen more sites like this show up lately, they seem AI generated and not in a very good way. Product ranges that feature the same product with different photos and almost the same price, very few different products that are totally unrelated to each other. Nothing makes sense about the whole site and their offerings. Big red flags all over.

[smazmats]

This has been a thing for years now (I feel like it really picked up in like 2020?). Unfortunately, there is really nothing you can do. It’s happened to me as well and I know it sucks, however the best thing is to just ignore it and not give them any recognition 

However I don’t think this is even one of those MOC piracy sites. Their typical Modus operandi is to just scrape rebrickable for MOCs since they already have created instructions and a parts list. While these sites have hundreds of MOCS, It’s not logical to build everything and my theory is that the work similar to those print on demand shops and they will only part something out if it’s ordered. Also even if they did build it, it’s easier to take your (and your customers) pictures then take their own :( 

What you have looks different from those sites though. I’ve come across some of these before (usually finding reference photos for MOCs) and the scam is that they just scape google images to pretend like it’s a real product to order but all you get is a crapy picture instead. It might be a print on a Tshirt in this case because of all the size options they have available.