Can any of these Civil War decals from this eBay seller be attributed

[Brickadier General]

edit: It looks like my heading was too long and was cut off. It should read: "Can any of these Civil War decals from this eBay seller be attributed to someone else?"

Hi all,

Sorry I don't get to post very much...I'm crazy busy all the time it seems.

I'm writing because I need your help. Some of you may know that I'm a big fan of doing Civil War stuff in Lego. Time to time, I search "Lego Civil War" on eBay to see what cavalry figs are going for these days.

Incidentally, there is a person selling "custom" Civil War Lego minifigs and models. This one really ticked me off:

The Custom Kit in Question

Compare that cannon, if you will, to the one I made four years ago (for my Civil War stuff no less).

Even though hers looks ever so slightly different, you can definitely see an uncanny resemblance, and I don't think it's mere coincidence. I mean, she specializes in selling "custom" Civil War Lego stuff, so I'm sure she did google searches on "Lego Civil War." I'm pretty disheartened over the fact that my design is being ripped off and sold for profit. Sent her a message to please come up with her own cannon design and stop selling the one that looked like mine.

Seeing that, made me call into question whether or not the decal designs in those listings are hers. I know that she once used legofreak's. How do the decals on these minifigs look? Anything look familiar?

princess1226's listings

Thanks for your help!

Edited April 20, 2010 by Brickadier General

[LuxorV]

As far as I can see with a fast browse in the Great Pirates Library (North America section), none of the decals come from designers there. They seem to be re-editings of the old Wild West infantry soldiers like those by Lamanda (Wesretn decals index), but without the 'US' in the buckle. They could be stolen and modified from Lamanda's, but I think it's just they both used the same, common basic design for inspiration.

As for the presidents, I do not recognise any design from our libraries, but maybe other members will know where they come from, or will know the seller is, and if she uses to copy others' designs or if it's again a case of being inspired by the same basic model.

Even if it's hard to accept when you think someone stole your ideas, you have to agree that there are but few ways of making a certain model into LEGO and keep it recognisable. At times it happens that two totally independent builders come up with almost identical designs for the same real life object.

LuxorV

[Brickadier General]

As far as I can see with a fast browse in the Great Pirates Library (North America section), none of the decals come from designers there. They seem to be re-editings of the old Wild West infantry soldiers like those by Lamanda (Wesretn decals index), but without the 'US' in the buckle. They could be stolen and modified from Lamanda's, but I think it's just they both used the same, common basic design for inspiration.

As for the presidents, I do not recognise any design from our libraries, but maybe other members will know where they come from, or will know the seller is, and if she uses to copy others' designs or if it's again a case of being inspired by the same basic model.

Even if it's hard to accept when you think someone stole your ideas, you have to agree that there are but few ways of making a certain model into LEGO and keep it recognisable. At times it happens that two totally independent builders come up with almost identical designs for the same real life object.

LuxorV

I agree with your statement but, in this case, I do not believe for one second that this is an issue of two people coming up with the same design independant of one another. For the reasons I already mentioned, I do not think it is a coincidence. If she wasn't selling Civil War stuff, then maybe I could brush it off, but there has to be something there.

And to be honest, I don't really care if someone else emulates one of my models. For example, someone made a nearly identical recreation of my Hershey trolley, and I thought that was cool. But when you start selling those items for a profit, and with out consulting the original builder to sell the design as your own, then you have crossed the line in my opinion. That's pretty darn low.

But I'm not going to let it bother me anymore than it did when I first saw the listing because, in the grand scheme of things, I have more important things to worry about. Plus, I know that eBay won't do anything about it anyway, and I never heard back from this person.

I thought of doing custom Civil War kits in the past, and this experience will probably strengthen my resolve to eventually go down that path. I just need to come up with a better cannon design. :-D

[LuxorV]

Good luck and happy building, then

LuxorV

[woody64]

Maybe that's an interesting question which should be handled in a separate thread.

What's allowed with the items we or others publish here.

Maybe the admin checks if a new thread makes sense.

For example decals we publish and which are indexed in the library thread, what rights do we then offer to other builders

I did a lot in the open source software scene and there was a GPL or other license agreement which handles this.

If I translate that for example in a decal it would mean:

- anybody can use it in it's own work

- anybody can change it (with remark to the originator) and publish it here offering the same rights as before

- anybody can sell it in derived work but has also the responsibility to transfer the original and the derived decal source to the buyer (if asked)

... this means anybody can print it on decal paper and sell it on bricklink

- anybody can use it in his own work (like a moc or a set) and sell it to a customer but has to give the customer the access to the decal (if asked)

... for example as done here, using it in a moc and selling it on ebay

(mainly you sell the work you have with assembling, building, printing, ... )

Woody64

[LuxorV]

I hope this won't turn into a madness and for now I do not see the need for a separate topic.

If a discussion should arise, I'll take care of separating the two topics.

As far as the online LEGO community goes, it is accepted that when you post a model or custom online, anybody can take inspiration from it. For decals, it's impicitly agreed that you allow other users to print them and use them in their MOCs (if you want to prevent it at all, you have to watermark the design with your logo or something similar), as long as they give credit when showing them off.

Personally, I see printing and selling someone else's decals without previous authorisation as a very inappropriate thing.

Most decal makers are widely known in the community, and we usually accompain the link to the decal with the name of the author, so it is not difficult to idenitfy him/her.

We do not make this designs for profit and we wouldn't like to see somebody else exploit them to enrich themselves! So, private use is welcome, commercial use should be discussed and agreed upon with the original designer. This is my opinion.

LuxorV

[woody64]

We do not make this designs for profit and we wouldn't like to see somebody else exploit them to enrich themselves! So, private use is welcome, commercial use should be discussed and agreed upon with the original designer. This is my opinion.

Completely agreement to the above given points with exception to the last. Because the given example shows partly the needed discussion point.

(the thread was raised by mentioning the cannon design. but also the usage of the decals or any other stuff provided here in one of the library results in the same question)

Let me give two examples:

1. Somebody assembles some Custom Minifigs with parts from brickforge and some decals from the library and sells them on ebay

2. Somebody collects the best "Roman Soldier" decals prints it on sticky paper and offers them on bricklink for ordering.

Is that agreed by the community here or not?

My personal attempt:

- Looking at the dozens of requests for help with sticky paper (2) could be a valuable service for a lot of Lego fans. Most of the work is printing, getting ordering requests .... which is not a personal enrichment since it's a lot of work.

That was the reason I closed my bricklink shop because I still haven't the time to do this.

- Also the minifigs could be a lot of fun for the buyer letting a lot of work left for the seller.

I hope not to bore the readers here but I see from Luxors answers that there may be some different points of view here.

Woody64

[Brickadier General]

I hope this won't turn into a madness and for now I do not see the need for a separate topic.

If a discussion should arise, I'll take care of separating the two topics.

As far as the online LEGO community goes, it is accepted that when you post a model or custom online, anybody can take inspiration from it. For decals, it's impicitly agreed that you allow other users to print them and use them in their MOCs (if you want to prevent it at all, you have to watermark the design with your logo or something similar), as long as they give credit when showing them off.

Personally, I see printing and selling someone else's decals without previous authorisation as a very inappropriate thing.

Most decal makers are widely known in the community, and we usually accompain the link to the decal with the name of the author, so it is not difficult to idenitfy him/her.

We do not make this designs for profit and we wouldn't like to see somebody else exploit them to enrich themselves! So, private use is welcome, commercial use should be discussed and agreed upon with the original designer. This is my opinion.

LuxorV

Sorry, I don't want to create a problem. I was just miffed that night and wanted to make sure those decals couldn't be attributed to someone else...Because I saw them use someone else's decals in the past, I questioned the originality of those.

I do agree with your main points for sure.

[Lawdawg]

Hi All, I have seen some of princess1226s designs. And I currently am trying to create a Lego confederate army. Some of those decals I don’t know where to get them. If you could point me in the right direction and show me how to get my hands on them. The different variants of the confederate decals. Do you know where I could find decals exactly like that or similar. I’m trying to find confederate butternut variants. With like brown light and dark tan the whole schabang! Anyway if you could help me find some items like that I would be grateful here are the items that are similar. These are the ones. 

I can’t seem to load them in so here are the links. 
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/lego-custom-civil-war-confederate-148521723 

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/lego-custom-civil-war-confederate-148521553

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/lego-custom-civil-war-confederate-159786326

If you could help me find models similar so I can build my Lego confederate army I would appreciate it. I currently have aspirations of wanting to make a civil war stop motion series so I want to build my army. I’ve had an easy process with the Union it’s the confederacy that’s the problem. 

 

 

[LuxorV]

Hello, Lawdawg, and welcome to Eurobricks.

Please, keep in mind that reviving a 10+ years old topic to ask a question only marginally connected to the original discussion is usually considered impolite. It would have been better for you to open a new thread for it.

Now, to answer your question, you could take a look into our Western Decals Index. There are a few designs and recolours of original LEGO prints that may be similar to what you are looking for.

Looking forward to seeing pictures of your project when it's finished.