Selling copied MOCs

[autorazr]

Lego has detailed how their pieces fit with each other properly, every piece to every piece in which it can connect, therefore, I think you can equate lego system to say connecting a macbook to an iPad with a lightning cable. If no one outside of Lego has copywritten an MOC in the decades that lego has been around, I have to assume they covered their bases on this one and you can't (even that famous work of lego art by Nathan Sawaya has been copied and sold, it would seem even his work isnt copywritten, but if anyone knows please share). I have seen many printed works featuring lego (as in say, The Brick Bible) and surely his work is protected, so by that logic, one could most likely copyright instructions. I feel bad for you guys getting ripped off, I'm sure we'd all love to make money building with Lego, and heres a guy making money off of something you built, its infuriating.

[kieran]

It is a shame when this happens, there are loads of cd's of public pdfs for sale as well, still copy written and people are selling them openly on the web

[Sariel]

Oh, look: http://www.ebay.com/itm/291156583762

Look strangely familiar, but he removed all PF elements and changed windscreen, so I guess that makes in a completely new design...

[Edwin Korstanje]

[Tommy Styrvoky]

That seems a little steep for the price, but if it had PF parts then It might be worth it.

[R0Sch]

If you think that the sellers listed before are bastards, look at this "private ebay seller": kibo51-2008 or mairim20 (his other account).

He sells/sold over 8 of Designer Han's Moc's in different colors and says he is currently selling "part of his own LEGO collection", "not original LEGO sets, but own creations"... looking at his history it's clear he is doing this as a business. I don't know how much he spends on the bricklink parts, but making 12.000 Euro in about 3 years, is surely profitable, or else he wouldn't keep doing it. He doesn't give credit to Designer Han's creations but merely puts youtube links of the MOC's he stole. He seems to have two accounts, both are from Krefeld, DE, probably because private sellers have a yearly selling limit.

At least this seller 7865432auto makes his own MOC's and sells them for a profit.

He has some interesting ideas and started first with Unimog attachments like salt spreaders (although stolen from Cypr-21), street cleaners, trailers, snow plows and blowers, wood shredders etc. now I see he is making earth moving construction vehicles and is constantly inventing new MOC's to protect his ideas from copycats like ebay seller eisenbahn-nrw.

Having tried to sell a couple of Unimog attachments myself, I just don't think that the time and effort is worth a few Euros profit and I think that stealing someone else ideas for own gain is immoral.

[Bzroom]

What about MOCs that you put on LEGO Ideas. Do you guys share the LDD? The plans? The rules say you can't make money of an Ideas project or it will be disqualified. What if someone else is selling the plans?

[N-4K0]

Greed and bad morals at least

[bord4kop]

And this one on a dutch trading site:

http://www.marktplaa...te-sumbeam.html

I am pretty sure this is a Moc of one of the great MOC builders here.. Can 't remember which one, Paul maybe?

Seller says he has a red version as well

EDIT:

He does not claim it is his own build. But no mention of the inventor however

Edited June 3, 2014 by bord4kop

[lego2lego]

And this one on a dutch trading site:

http://www.marktplaa...te-sumbeam.html

I am pretty sure this is a Moc of one of the great MOC builders here.. Can 't remember which one, Paul maybe?

Seller says he has a red version as well

EDIT:

He does not claim it is his own build. But no mention of the inventor however

To be fair, he is not selling instructions, but the whole complete model. If the price is good, that's not as much as a problem as people buying digital instructions and reselling them as their own. Just to say, one is allowed to sell their LEGO.

[DickesC]

At the moment I'm building a Leopard 2 which i think has 90% of the design from Sariel's Leo2. I do this because this thing is simply awesome

But will i sell it? Never ever!!

It took me hundreds of hours to build this beautiful thing in LDD just from the few pics he released

And also hundreds of €€€ to get all the parts, especially the rare rims and modified tiles in the right color.

So even if i will get let's say 2k or 3k € for it, it would never compensate my costs and above all my effort i spent on this realy nice model.

So selling copied MOCs? I'm against it, even if you build it from scratch without some LDD files or instructions.

Edited June 3, 2014 by DickesC

[Blakbird]

And this one on a dutch trading site:

http://www.marktplaa...te-sumbeam.html

I am pretty sure this is a Moc of one of the great MOC builders here.. Can 't remember which one, Paul maybe?

That is Jurgen Krooshoop's model.

[Alasdair Ryan]

I am pretty sure this is a Moc of one of the great MOC builders here.. Can 't remember which one, Paul maybe?

Oh Paul is going to be offended now that you said that....

[Balrog]

As far as MOCs from Designer Han are concerned, he doesn't care. I contacted him a while ago about MOCs of him being sold on eBay and he told me that he doesn't have a problem with that and that he does indeed find it funny what outrageous prices are asked sometimes.

edit:

I just saw that now he is selling most of his instructions. So I guess his stance in this matter might have changed a little, since those sellers of his MOCs usually offer to include instructions as well.

Edited June 4, 2014 by Balrog

[designer-han]

I just saw that now he is selling most of his instructions. So I guess his stance in this matter might have changed a little, since those sellers of his MOCs usually offer to include instructions as well.

Still not change my view on selling my MOCs. For me there is no difference in selling official LEGO sets as used versus MOCs as 'used', even if people just build it once with the purpose for selling in their mind.

It even might look like those people make a lot of profit, but I doubt that given the investments in time to collect all the parts, rebuild it and sell it. Besides the prices to be paid for buying the parts. And, given the unique number of some parts in my MOCs, one could hardly have more then 20 items on stock.. So, make a living of that? No, not via Bricklink.

It is correct that I changed my mind regarding free versus sell instructions. But that is mainly because today it is quite easy to sell instructions with a 'stamp' on every page with the buyers name on it. So, the chance is minimal that people buy instructions and put them somewhere on the net with their Paypal name on it. I always had the idea to sell instructions for a small fee (hey, it must be affordable and low entry level for kids as well), but I was realistic about not having any mark of the buyer on the instructions..... for sure its copied on the net. So, I decided to keep them free, but with a clear disclaimer on it that they were 'free to use for every LEGO fan. It is sad, but I received emails of people who bought my instructions and noticed later on the disclaimer.

[Balrog]

It is sad, but I received emails of people who bought my instructions and noticed later on the disclaimer.

That is really sad.

But I like the idea of having the buyers name on the instructions pages. Though, this again is manual work, I doubt someone has a shop system ready to do this automatically?

[designer-han]

But I like the idea of having the buyers name on the instructions pages. Though, this again is manual work, I doubt someone has a shop system ready to do this automatically?

Is no manual work, fully automated and stamped on every page after buying before the buyer receives a download link...

[Balrog]

Is no manual work, fully automated and stamped on every page after buying before the buyer receives a download link...

Cool. That might be interesting for Crowkillers or Sheepo as well. And of course all the others who sell instructions.

[Paul B Technic]

That sounds like a really good idea ;)

[MrTekneex]

Another "professional seller"...Can't we really stop this disgust?

Edited March 26, 2015 by MrTekneex

[Pat-Ard]

no chance...

[JaapTechnic]

Another "professional seller"...Can't we really stop this disgust?

Wow, I wasn't following this topic.

But it also includes me on that webpage.

On that webpage you can find my Actros and Scania Tow truck.

I have never sold those two models to the same buyer in China...

Maybe the owner of that webshop is located in an other country in Asia? any suggestions? I can check all my customers in those countries.

[MrTekneex]

Wow, I wasn't following this topic.

But it also includes me on that webpage.

On that webpage you can find my Actros and Scania Tow truck.

I have never sold those two models to the same buyer in China...

Maybe the owner of that webshop is located in an other country in Asia? any suggestions? I can check all my customers in those countries.

I asked to a buyer of my 42009 C-model (chinese) to help me: this seller is located in hu-he-hao-te, the capital city of Inner Mongolia province.

Unfortunately I haven't sold BI in that area.

[__________________________]

I don't have a problem with copying or modifying. But I don't like that some people earn money with it...

Do you have instructions for your beautiful Mog?

[Pat-Ard]

Which Unimog do you mean? atm I have seven...