I've been on the fence about making this post all day but since a few paid members have reached out, I'm going to go ahead and address it.
Early this week, I received some messages about a designer copying my Legacy of Gods Book Nook on Cults3d. I appreciate you all so much for that. I was able to get it taken down pretty quickly.
When I started this Patreon in January, I mentioned a few book nooks that I have officially licensed with the Authors. That while you may see me post them on my social media, I am unable to share those files. The Legacy of Gods is one if them. When I designed this book nook, it was with the intent to sell it as a licensed piece. That is why I have Legacy of Gods text on it as well as the name of all the books. I had to submit my design for approval by her team before I was even able to list it.
I have had so many of my designs copied over the years. And you know what? That's not okay, but it's also business. I've learned to deal with it, turn the other way and move on to the next creation I have in my mind. I do not confront them, I just let it go. Because when something is popular, it's going to be copied and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
This particular design though, I had no choice but to reach out about because this designer listed a file, not a book nook for sale. But a file, and the option to subscribe to their Patreon and sell prints of the file. This puts me in a pickle, because this is my design and I have a binding contract to pay royalties on all sales of this approved design. I had to reach out to the Author and make them aware of this copy so that they knew I was not the one sharing the file. As the design is so close to mine, I did not want this to effect my contract.
While there are some minor differences, it's clear they copied it as closely as they could. Unfortunately Cults3d messaging is public. So my correspondence, as well as the Authors correspondence is out in the open. This is not ideal, but Cults3d policy requires you to message the designer that way before any action can be taken.
I also want to be clear that my book nook is not the only copied design they had listed. If you are familiar with this situation, you may recognize these book nooks as well.
All six of them. These are officially licensed book nooks from another shop on Etsy that were copied. I do not have any screen shots of the copies, but if you saw them you know they were almost exactly the same. This is why the Authors team was so quick to have them taken down. That is 7 book nook designs in total, stolen from their licensed sellers.
This is why I do not share my officially licensed designs on Patreon. These designs were done way before I ever had intentions of sharing files. I do not share them because if you print and try to sell them, they could be taken down by the Author. We got through an approval process to get these licensed so they are familiar with the design and who is authorized to sell them.
All of that being said, the designs I do share here on Patreon are just fan art. Example... I've shared my Skull and Flowers book nook, my Mask book nook, and my Poker Mask book nook with you all. I do not recommend marketing it as anything other than that. As with any fan art, we all run the risk of selling it. There are dozens of different versions of these out there now, so if you market them smartly, you should be fine.
Please know that this is the first time that I have ever had to report another shop for anything and it was not done lightly. If it had just been a shop selling a physical print, I probably would have just let the author take care of it. But since it was a file, I wanted to get it taken down as soon as possible. Anyone purchasing this file could then get in trouble for selling the print. I did not want to see this happen to anyone.