Plagariarism at Brickfair

[Edwin Korstanje]

Best EB members,

I olso see that that person have build a Unimog U400 firetruck but can not open his photo's at Brickfair, to see [his]!!?? moc's must you be a member at brickfair ??

[Andrew Page]

Out of 1783 MOCs registered, there were 30 Technic MOCs, by 8 creators.

They nominate 4 per category, and attendees vote. (In Technic they only nominated 3)

Heck, I voted for it. It was up against a Mindstorms drawing robot and a simply jeep done by a 10 years old.

Unfortunate, but understandable.

Andy

[z3_2drive]

I havent heard anything like these MOC displays/competitions in Florida

[Bricksonwheels]

Blakbird is right in saying there is nothing wrong in building from instructions, as not everybody is equally talented.

But one should not get an award for it. Then everybody buying a Lego set should get one, after finishing the build.

[jorgeopesi]

People making instructions teaches us a lot, I still remember me building trials from NIco, cars from Crowkillers or machines from Han. It's a shame that there are people like that...

[CP5670]

I think I voted for this one too. I hadn't seen the model before. Bringing the model wasn't a bad idea but he definitely should not have put it into the drawing.

Edited September 7, 2012 by CP5670

[Ape Fight]

Blakbird is right in saying there is nothing wrong in building from instructions, as not everybody is equally talented.

But one should not get an award for it. Then everybody buying a Lego set should get one, after finishing the build.

Completely agree with this statement. All this chap did is follow instructions like every child does with each Lego set purchase. It's not a MOC.

There's no harm in building another's design, or even copying it from pictures, but the people who don't declare that the work is not their own are as good as stealing it.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Ape Fight

[RoscoPC]

For what it's worth, I am the Technic Coordinator at BrickCon this year so I'll be selecting the winner for Best Technic. That also means I can't win, so don't worry about that!

Damn: so I have no possibility this year

I can confirm the nice cooperation with people like Blakbird, so I cannot understand how someone could do that: you're right Nico, it's just LEGO, but you deserve to be recognized as the original author, cause we live also to get some little reward and satisfaction like this.

[Blakbird]

Damn: so I have no possibility this year.

I can confirm the nice cooperation with people like Blakbird, so I cannot understand how someone could do that: you're right Nico, it's just LEGO, but you deserve to be recognized as the original author, cause we live also to get some little reward and satisfaction like this.

Personally, I don't have any problem with people voting for best model, not just best designer. For example, I think it would be just fine for people to vote RoscoPC's Lotus 43 as "Best Technic Model" and for it to win an award. After all, Luca may never be at the USA in a convention so when someone else builds it, it allows a greater audience to enjoy the model. However, if the model did win an award then I would consider that award to belong to Luca, not to me.

I have even displayed Nico71's models! Nico, if I remember right I have displayed both your wheel loader and your supercar roadster. I think I even referred a few people to where they could download instructions.

I'm not really a designer, but if I was I would like the idea that my model could be shown at many places around the world by different people, but I agree that I would want people to understand that it was my design. Free publicity!

[Technic Fan]

It appears I owe nico71 and the rest of this forum an apology. Recent posts on this forum page regarding nico71's Morgan Three Wheeler have come to my attention. So you know, I am a BIG FAN of nico71's creations and admire his work. I truly enjoy the Technic medium and building Technic models. There are some AFOL creators that intrigue me with their creations, and nico71 is at the top of a very short list. For clarification the Morgan Three Wheeler that was displayed at Brickfair 2012 was done with the intent to add more variety to the fairs Technic genre. It was displayed, so Brickfair attendees would have the opportunity to admire nico71's creation, not win a trophy. I never claimed the car to be my creation nor intended to plagiarize/steal nico71's design. Brickfair requires all MOCs be registered in order to get a BrickFair display card. In my haste, I overlooked checking the block stating that the MOC was not being entered in the competition and made an error in not mentioning nico71 as the creator, for which I am truly sorry. I'm somewhat new to the AFOL community and was not aware of the protocol or sensitive nature regarding MOCs. I was shocked and embarrassed to see the car had won a trophy when other AFOLs attending Brickfair 2012 and Paul Boratko (Crowkiller) knew the car was nico71's creation. Had I known my actions would have created such scorn I would have done a better job at giving nico71 the proper credit or simply not have displayed the car. I'm not an artist or an engineer, just an adult who is a fan and likes to build things with Technic Lego.

As such, I have sent an email apology to Nicolas (nico71). In addition, I made contact with Todd Webb, BrickFair's coordinator and made arrangements to return the trophy to BrickFair.

I apologize for any problems I may have caused.

Regards,

Scott Anderson

[Zerobricks]

It appears I owe nico71 and the rest of this forum an apology. Recent posts on this forum page regarding nico71's Morgan Three Wheeler have come to my attention. So you know, I am a BIG FAN of nico71's creations and admire his work. I truly enjoy the Technic medium and building Technic models. There are some AFOL creators that intrigue me with their creations, and nico71 is at the top of a very short list. For clarification the Morgan Three Wheeler that was displayed at Brickfair 2012 was done with the intent to add more variety to the fairs Technic genre. It was displayed, so Brickfair attendees would have the opportunity to admire nico71's creation, not win a trophy. I never claimed the car to be my creation nor intended to plagiarize/steal nico71's design. Brickfair requires all MOCs be registered in order to get a BrickFair display card. In my haste, I overlooked checking the block stating that the MOC was not being entered in the competition and made an error in not mentioning nico71 as the creator, for which I am truly sorry. I'm somewhat new to the AFOL community and was not aware of the protocol or sensitive nature regarding MOCs. I was shocked and embarrassed to see the car had won a trophy when other AFOLs attending Brickfair 2012 and Paul Boratko (Crowkiller) knew the car was nico71's creation. Had I known my actions would have created such scorn I would have done a better job at giving nico71 the proper credit or simply not have displayed the car. I'm not an artist or an engineer, just an adult who is a fan and likes to build things with Technic Lego.

As such, I have sent an email apology to Nicolas (nico71). In addition, I made contact with Todd Webb, BrickFair's coordinator and made arrangements to return the trophy to BrickFair.

I apologize for any problems I may have caused.

Regards,

Scott Anderson

That is very mature and respectfull!

[sqiddster]

I knew there was no bad intent. Scott was certainly very busy, all of his GBC modules disintegrated on arrival to the con (boxes dropped) and the poor guy had to spend most of the time rebuilding them. I don't blame him at all for missing this.

[Paul Boratko]

Yes, you are correct, Scott started the entire event off with problems... I know he had no bad intent as I said earlier and he is a great guy, there was absolutely nothing malicious that he was trying to do other than help gain some awareness for Technic by displaying some great models... Britton's Brickhouse was there displaying official Technic models from all through the years both past and present, overall together we had a great Technic display for the Public... Which in the U.S. is pretty rare...

Edited September 7, 2012 by Paul Boratko

[BrickFair]

Hi all,

I'm sorry I didn't find this thread sooner. The issue was brought to my attention just yesterday, by multiple people (I presume from this board). I wrote to Scott yesterday, and he is very eager to straighten the situation out.

I wish to explain to anyone reading this, and apologize to Scott. BrickFair is for the most past (I believe, like most other AFOL fests) a show-and-tell type event. Trophies are not the main feature. Most people would not consider the event to be a "competition." Registering MOCs to bring merely helps us plan table space, gets MOC cards printed, etc. There was nothing (until yesterday) in the MOC registration process that alerted a person they could be entered into a contest. Although the nominations, trophies and voting are supremely important to a small subset of attendees, most don't seem to think much about it. And that's what happened to Scott. I think it simply registered what he was bringing, and was surprised to find himself with a trophy. I did the same thing at Brickworld in Chicago a few years back; I won a trophy; hand't planned it nor tried for it, and was surprised.

So anywho, Scott has asked to meet me tomorrow at our LUG meeting to return the trophy, and I will pass it to the 2nd-place winner at our show. And BrickFair's website has been updated, so every MOC registered includes the choice to opt-in for competition (and lists reasons you might be ineligible).

Thank you,

Todd Webb

BrickFair

[Edwin Korstanje]

Thanks Scott and Brickfair to explain to us and i think this topic can be closed and hope for enybody that this is not hapening again.

[sama]

This is how MOCers settle disputes. Maturely and respectfully. Scott, you are a very truthful man.

[Jetro]

Thank you for having the courage to apologise publicly, Scott. Learning about the particulars of the event certainly helps to understand how this all happened.

Maybe it would be a safer option to have a box to tick to indicate something is a MOC rather than taking that for granted and having a box for the contrary. That way it is a lot harder to accidentally not mark the right option.

[Ape Fight]

Well done Scott

Much respect to you

[bb15080]

Scott

there is not much to say other than

Welkom to the forum and hope you injoy your stay

[Bricksonwheels]

That's settled in a mature way, thumbs up.

[Crtlego]

I wish more of our problems could be resolved with as much grace as this one.

I also wish I hadn't been out of the country during Brickfair.. second year in a row that I missed a chance to see Paul's awesome moc's

[Meatman]

It's nice to see this subject get cleared up in a very civilized way.

[kieran]

I am new here as well so having this all laid out explains it very well and although there was an error made its good to see that is has been resolved and in a way that others like me can learn. It's a great MOC and am pleased it was shown off, i for one will be very careful at my first event as an adult to make sure everything is labelled correctly.

[Siercon and Coral]

@ Scott & Todd: Stick around Eurobricks, you don't have to be in europe and it's worth the time :D

@ Scott: Hope none of this discourages you from building. Keep it up, we are all standing on the shoulders of the builders before us. Keep building.

P.S. Had a blast at BF, and will see you both next year!