List of ripped models (stolen models) on the asset store

im seriously hesitant about purchasing models now... not that it stops me but, dang

 

The $10,000 question is will Unity refund anyone who bought it or just tell them to go get their money from the scam publisher.

 

Unity give all puchaser refund, once they confirmed the publisher is scam. But when you spend countless hours to setup those assets in your project, a $50 refund is worthless.

 

No, they don't.

They refund a maximum of 1 month for pirated assets. Given the time it takes them to even start caring, people won't get any of the money back. Neither the money that the pirate gets, nor the share that Unity takes.

 

Seems like Unity took action. Both publishers are gone.

 

Just this last week I got a refund on an asset I bought last October, so there's more time involved than that.
However, I am upset that they didn't send me any official notice about the asset getting removed because it was stolen, they just emailed me an updated invoice from last October. I had to compare it to my own records to find what was even different.

It looks like another publisher was taken down. Someone named (or pretended to be someone else names) fubbi1000.
So I guess this mutant rat monster is something I can't use?
Would be nice if they sent me something directly saying "don't use this asset, it was stolen."


Course, I'm not getting a refund on the sound packs I bought for this creature. Anyone seen any good rat monsters that I could buy legally?

 

props to the assetstore team removing * Redacted * from the store (ripped tony hawk animations). justice baby! . but really, what would be the end scenario if i would have used their animations for a skate game and activision would sue me?

 

Not very happy one. In best case you would just have to remove the assets.

 

Worse than Activision suing you is that you'd forever be the guy who stole from a commercial game and who made money from it and in that matter stealing money from everyone who bought your game. You may of course claim that you bought it from Unity, but then again Unity removed all evidence. So wherever you'd have gotten the pirated assets from would be on you. And only you.

 

I spent the entire night a couple days ago browsing some of the art on the store,

I'm shocked some of the items I've seen didn't have maybe further qualifications..

How can we be sure that some of this nice art we see, isn't a rip off of some obscure non-mainstream mobile game sold in say Korea mobile game market or similar???

 

Okay, I have to revoke some of the things I said earlier.
I got an email from Unity the other day about this very issue.
Here is what the email said:

So yeah, Unity DID in fact notify me about the removed assets.
That said, the one they mentioned in this email was one they pulled a month ago, not the one they sent a refund for last week. I guess I'll get another email a little later?
Still, it is good to see Unity taking the action that they should.

 

Ha ha ha no.
Who exactly are you? What kind of money do you have to be sued for? Do you even have enough liquid assets to pay for one day of what Activision's lawyers would charge Activision to file the lawsuit?

No, what WOULD happen is they would get in contact with Steam (and any other store where you are selling your game) and have your game taken down. They couldn't even take the money you earned from your few sales without winning a lawsuit first, although Valve (Steam) would freeze any unpaid earnings. (Remember, they would get sued if they knowingly gave you money for selling stolen goods.)

This would also drag your name through the mud, and honestly, that is the most damaging part of the whole thing. Don't be surprised if it becomes harder to publish another title after that. Don't be surprised if other companies like Amazon Business or Google or whomever start flagging or freezing your account, now that you match certain identifiers that their algorithms look for to identify potential risks. Say goodbye to doing business through any company too big to have a human review your account.
(A fate I already deal with.)

But here's the (somewhat) more positive outlook on all this:
If you were making any kind of decent money from your game you'd also be able pay someone to make some legitimate assets to replace the illegitimate ones, and then have the game updated and appear on the store again. It would cost a bit of money, but it would be well worth it if your game was even marginally successful.
And if your game wasn't successful enough that you could pay someone a couple hundred bucks for a replacement asset, well, I know its harsh, but nobody would ever notice that you had stolen assets to begin with.

The worst realistic result is that it becomes hard for you to sell another game in the future.

 

Therein lies the entire problem in this discussion. There isn't. You accept whatever is put into the store under an almost AS-IS agreement. Did Unity do their due diligence in trying to determine the legitimacy of this asset? Does Unity bear any responsibility if you get sued over the use of any asset? Does the asset author?

The problem is that buying something from the store (Unity or Unreal) means you have to do your own investigation. What are the reviews like? What other assets does this person or company sell? Any comments in the forums about it? You're pretty much left to either accept the asset and just use it, dealing with any issues later or do your own searching about the asset and author(s).

Sure it's very possible someone is discovered and the asset is taken down, you get a refund, etc. but as others have said the damage is really your reputation. The one example I know is 7 Days To Die when they used a store bought zombie that was ripped from another game. Once they found out they immediately replaced it, but for a short time the game was suspended from sales and hit the various news outlets. Did it have a permanent effect? I don't think so (other than people talking about it). They went on with sales and have done well for themselves (don't get me started on how long their alpha is taking to bake).

So caveat emptor, buyer beware. Do you research and make your own judgement call based on said evidence. I think that's all we can do for now.

 

Looks like * Redacted * is back:

https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/3749

* Image Redacted *

With a lot less assets. While fbxdownloads is still down. Makes you wonder what really happened. Still no statement from either of the publishers after I sent them both mails.

 

Feel free to comment on these:

https://forum.unity.com/threads/lis...n-the-asset-store.1163021/page-4#post-7678795

https://forum.unity.com/threads/lis...n-the-asset-store.1163021/page-4#post-7681672

https://forum.unity.com/threads/lis...n-the-asset-store.1163021/page-4#post-7718389

https://forum.unity.com/threads/lis...n-the-asset-store.1163021/page-4#post-7767858

 

just checking your store page for 2 minutes and directly seeing tony hawk pro skater animations, just without the board. The animation file names are the same from your (now taken down) skate animation pack too:
S@Slant_Croocked_BS_In.fbx, S@Slant_50_50_in.fbx etc
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/animations/ice-skating-animations-134122

 

So your publisher page is gone again. Neither did you comment on what I or RobertOne wrote.

What should anyone make of that?

 

Well at least they were polite.

 

Hmm, I just came across something and I'm not sure how it plays out.
They certainly stole the design, but I can't confirm that they actually stole the model.

So there's this:
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/historic/pirate-island-simple-royal-fort-85890


...Which is doing more than "take inspiration" from Lego set 6277 "Imperial trading post" released in 1992.

https://en.brickimedia.org/wiki/6277_Imperial_Trading_Post


I also notice that this seller has a variety of assets, none of which match a consistent artistic style.
But that said, I can't fathom where and why someone would make a low-poly near-replica of this Lego set, matching the shape but not the details. So altogether I'm guessing they based it off of this set, but didn't recreate it exactly.
So I don't know if that's legal or not.

 

I don't know if it's truly legal or not but I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole. Why would someone even risk using that asset pack? I am getting so sick of buying models on the Asset Store because, with the exception of a few, I can never be sure if it's even worth purchasing them and utilizing them. It's not Unity who risks anything it's the developer who purchased them.

 

Interesting that this is happening now. I sent that official company contact mails more than a year ago. Just asking if it was them who is registered at a gmail address on the asset store, but using their company website with a totally different contact email address. Never got a reply.

 

I just got a reply to one of the newer mails I sent them:

Yes Dear ,
this is * Redacted * Team,
see what you have done, wrote lot of negativity,
spoiled our revenue, our reputation, our team career disturbed,
we made thousands of animations, some animations done by our remote
freelancing,
no clue how they did , but for only because the one package called
skating,
you made all our assets down,
which you thought all wrong direction,
cant we make such animations what the difficulty in it is,
probably if you go through all the packages we have done,
you will get to know, how much hard work is involved,
you may never seen our packages anywhere in the world yet,
you really processed all wrong direction, if you see some similarities
that doesn't mean that are ripped,
of course we dint want to involve this mail id for store due to traffic,
but dear friend you spoiled our company,
may god will forgive you,be kind to others always, if you spoil some
ones career what you get out of it?
you claimed for 2 animations ..that is ok ..what about other animations
and packages, if you would have
send us a mail before claiming to the store , that would have helped
us.to investigate form our side,
we definitely dont want sell any ripped items, you would have asked for
original files and check .
you never checked our mesh , rig, animation files, then how come you can
write all the negativity,
kindly think twice before writing anything on others, if you are 100
percent sure then you can write I agree too, but you wrote without
investigating,
but any way thank you my friend,
we dint sleep for many nights, because we worked for that profile for
many years,
but I think you are sleeping well everyday by throwing negativity on
others hard work, these thing will not help to grow your career or
others career,
do some worthful work in life my friend, blaming innocent people is
easy,
try to do one package and get approval from unity then you will
understand the pain,
wish you great life my friend


On 2021-12-07 18:25
> Hello,
>
> is this you on the unity asset store?
>
> https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/3749
>
> Thank you!

 

Well, if they are innocent, then why not have a proper discussion here on the forum? Instead it's * Redacted *. "remote freelancing" is just blaming some fictional 3rd person that isn't touchable.

 

I mean when you create a marketplace where everyone can sell whatever and the only risk taken is by the buyer and no one else, it’s normal for the sellers to get pissed off for *some* consequences arriving at their doorstep.

In the meantime Unity can be seen yawning and shrugging at the corner.

In any case, that seller will probably be back. There are no consequences for Asset Store sellers here, same as we were forced to “forgive” Livenda, which are now pulling the same S*** they did years ago, and yet negative comments about them were deleted in the forums… but that’s another story.

 

In this industry that happens, I don't agree with some of the stuff I see, but is it legal? some of it sure, it is not ethical no.... So, what I do see is people attacking some folks with LITTLE to no proof... I seen some companies go out of business, when they are accused of this stuff and they never stole or used anything.. THE DAMAGE IS done...

People need to have 100% proof, that is in fact ripped..... you can COPY designs all you want, other wise every game and film on the market would of been sued by now....CODE is another, I see people all the time, using others people code.... Which is illegal... But people do it... its not ethical either... 7 days to die, took a massive hit actually, which is why they had to get a publisher... to help them out.

now is it 7 days to die fault? not always, people pull scams all the time, its how you handle that scam artist... I hired an artist for one of my games before, and found out he was using the internet and just copying crap, I also had a programmer do it... is it illegal? no.. I use an actually lawyer for my business, and should ALWAYS use a contract.. as a professional, I have it in my contract...... That is someone that works for me using ripped, stolen art, that they will be responsible.. and be sued x times more, and they are required to sign it or I don't hire them. So there is ways to protect your self..

The asset store could do the same thing.... if they wanted.. .This way they are protected and the person buying is protected....

Asset stores Unreal, Unity or any where need to do a better job. of handling this... Also, people need to stop saying if art looks like another game, that its stolen.... ITS NOT. you can copy designs all you want.

 

No you can't.

And * Redacted * wasn't about copied designs it was about stolen animations.

 

Oh but you can ....... clearly you have no idea.... a design can be copied , most games do it as well, they copy game play mechanics, designs etc, most military style games like COD, BF, would of been never made.... I had my DESIGNS for UI used, taken ......NOT a damn thing you can do about it.... I know, as I had lawyers involved... But back to RPG, games, mechanics , designs, most RPG games would NOT exist....


So YES you can.... You can make any car you want....That is 100% LEGAL.. I don't go off bull crap that some folks use, I used actually contracts lawyers in this industry for decades, so I find it funny that people think everything is stolen...

Now, sure some crap is, and that should be called out....if it is fact stolen, but just because it LOOKS like something, does not make it so.,....Ubisoft should be out of business, for using other people DESIGNS.... So should most AAA and indies.....

BattleRoyal mode is a game play design and mechanic.... That is copied all over the place and guess what its LEGAL..... go talk to a lawyer, I have and work with a few lawyers since the 1990's.... Any other professional, that knows better will say the same thing....


If someone RIPS art, code, that is in fact ILLEGAL... when you POST a video Rowlan, that is NOT ethical. saying look what I made..... . That is NOT your art... you need to be putting credit out...You don't so you want to talk about what is NOT legal.. or ethical.... I watch you do that and others , go look what I made...no you did not.... The artist, designer, who made it did.....

I never see credits on most of the stuff you or some others post....Which is totally frown on....

PS::

As far as the animations, I was not talking about that, I was just saying in general.. I seen careers destroyed, which is one reason Unity, is being careful .. .You can't say something is stolen with out 100% proof, and someone copying something is not stolen...

If someone ripped animations, code, art, sure that is stolen... if someone makes something like something else in a game, that is NOT stolen....Games, Films COPY DESIGNS, game play all the damn time...... The whole asset store should be shut down nearly if that was the case.....


If someone uses names, art, that has copy rights, that is illegal..... and I agree, with some of the stuff you guys called illegal since some proof is shown, but I also see people just saying it with NO PROOF, just because it looks like something, that is NOT proof...

The right way about it, is to find the company/person who made it and let them know that it exist, and they can contact Unity, also sure contact Unity...but to make a public comment about something that may or may not be stolen, is NOT professional or ethical at all.....

if the person is a thief, I'm all for them being nailed and posted about, but I seen this happen over the years to many times, that TRUE artist, have there career ruin off people saying this looks like this or that..... its stolen..

The new thing on Steam now is saying a game is fake...Which I find funny, who would want to spend money to make a fake game to NOT make money?? Makes no sense, but that is the issue with some of this generation today, they are jealous of others actually working hard and think everyone is a thief, or bad... Sure there are alot of scam artist and believe me, I can't stand them..... nor i'm I defending them.......


I know first hand what its liked to have my designs actually stolen and I didn't make a penny, and they are used today in some very popular games, I had 100% proof as well..... But legally you can't do S*** about it.... and sometimes when you can, the larger companies will use $$$ to wait you out and bankrupt you.... So again DESIGNS can be used, by others, they are in most games today and films, I can name 80% of games that have the same designs, in them..

Many games copy Rust building Systems in runtime..... Rust was one of the first to do it, so those assets in your book, should be illegal? So should every game that has that design??? and game play??? So get real....


So learn the industry and what can and cant be done, before saying, you can't copy designs, game play, animations can be copied as well, that it NOT illegal, its done in many games ....

I think some of you get confused with ripping, copy right art, and people making stuff that "LOOKS" or copies a design, or game play, models, animations...


If they are thieves , i'm all for exposing them 100%.......

 

Were those animations stolen? Yes or no?

 

I agree with most of what Recon03 is saying.
People shouldn't be attacked for making similar designs. And people shouldn't be quick to slander another party when they don't have proof. You could get taken to court over something and win your case, but it becomes a hollow victory when your name has already been dragged through the mud and your reputation destroyed over some false claims.

So I agree with the sentiment that one shouldn't put any claims against anyone without hard proof.

Identifying the source game with identical file structures is hard proof, though.
Personally I haven't seen anything get taken down that wasn't clearly stolen, but I've only seen a tiny fraction of these assets that have been removed.
If someone wants to stand up and claim that they didn't steal their assets, I fully support their right to do so. I just hope they have evidence that's better than their accusers. And if you don't, well... You gotta learn how to pick your battles. Sometimes its better to accept a loss, regroup, and try something else.

 

Hi Asset store Team,
this is an explanation bringing to your notice that there are some groups of people, with immature brain,who are attacking hard-working artists, without any reason .. they don't do any projects with unity in real life, that is the reason they dont know the value of hard work.
for them it is just writing some baseless slanders, for us it is a career,
unity is really been a great career for us,
i think you guys need to support us, and need proper investigation ,
all these days you guys have taken commission from our assets, till 30 percent of our assets,
when someone raised some baseless allegation you guys took the decision to takedown our assets,
which is not fair, the allegation about my assets are completely baseless, you can go through my toon lion asset package or any other package and open , check with the lion king game model versus our lion model , then you will understand weather it is ripped or not,
lion looks like lion, whoever creates that, we have to add lion properties, it may look like some where someone created it ,that doesn't mean that we have ripped that model,
what a baseless poor investigation you guys have done,
need to bring the humanity first business is secondary ,you think if the allegation affects your business, you need to stand for righteousness, stand for the truth, if the allegation is proved then the action must be taken , no one can deny it, but what you guys have done is not fair,
i am attaching the original files that raised complaints, its open challenge to anyone , if you can prove that my files ripped i am ready to make all my files to be open free source. but what if you cant prove that it is not ripped, the damage has already happened. an unfair justice ,
it is not good to punish who dint do any mistakes, it is not good for anyone.
please check the document and files, if you find any similarities or anything ripped , let us know.
kindly think about the unfair justice you have done for us.
there are some spelling mistakes in our website that doesn't mean that we are fake.
run looks like run any where, you cant claim any motion or animation ,when is motions became copyright in the world,
and who register the motion of any character that it belongs to only to them. if i did some run animation that doesn't mean no one else can do that animation, we watch number of videos in the youtube, everything you cant act and make it work, some of the toughest stunts you get it from internet, that doesn't mean that motion is belongs them,
what kind of understanding is that to blame and take off the account.
we have shared the package link here , any one can download the file and check.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nqfaG8H37tuSxMIEQNDKC8_46qxAuRNV/view?usp=sharing


we are challenging all who speaking ill here , download the files and prove that they are ripped .
if you cant prove this is ripped , dnt come back here,

 

Any ripped asset you see they have lot of tries, and
the one can not be used for skinning, difficult to
animate after tries are formed.
Our asset was completely done in Maya, you can
check the mesh type and flow, all are Quads
who ever writing all sick writings here, they are really wasting their time and others time and hard work . lot of positive things in the world to do. help people to learn things, write tutorials to people, if you have some knowledge. Obviously you will not gain any thing any knowledge by writing these baseless complaints.
remember what a nonsense work you are doing.

 

Hey Rowlan,
This is for you ..you must feel free to discuss,
You are throwing undigested S*** on eveyone, we can understand that, before that let us knkw abour yourslf ? Who are you ? Are you a developer? Or artist? Hav you ever made anything in your life? My ask meaning is have you released any game or any kind of apk. Just want to know what are you capable of .
We believe you havent done anything in your life..these kind of negative talks comes from the people who cant do anything in their life.if you are dare enough to justify yourself show case some of your work here..i bet you cant show any s..t here.because you have time yo useless things.im sure you wouldnt do anything useful in life..after showcasing some of your portfolio then start judging others.it is very easy writing all nonsense.keep your clear identity, proper Display profile picture.you yourself is fake.and you are telling others as scam. You are simply sitting and troubling the hard working people , you are making their life trouble..there are many ways to become famous..you can make video tutorials, make nice forums, educate people..look at the postive side of the world.why you are stuck in negative side..where there is jothing wrong.you are trying to make it wrong.where you dont get any penny.same time you are casuing others revenue troubles.this is not right thing to do..prove it document it and then claim it..you have purely immatured mind.less techincal knowledge.i wish to say you have zero knowledge ..kindly work on yourself..leave this forum.work on your projects.make some money.that will help you better in your life.surely you are not right person to judge others.
E

QUOTE="fbxdownloads, post: 8129987, member: 5902473"]Any ripped asset you see they have lot of tries, and
the one can not be used for skinning, difficult to
animate after tries are formed.
Our asset was completely done in Maya, you can
check the mesh type and flow, all are Quads
who ever writing all sick writings here, they are really wasting their time and others time and hard work . lot of positive things in the world to do. help people to learn things, write tutorials to people, if you have some knowledge. Obviously you will not gain any thing any knowledge by writing these baseless complaints.
remember what a nonsense work you are doing.

View attachment 1054571 [/QUOTE]

 

You dont have to worry about it. Movement or motion of any object or avatar cant claim by anyone..these things cant come at copyright. Things comes under copyright are purely techincal stuff.branded designs..talking about movement of any 3d object comes under claim is foolish, these guys Rowland and Robert are immatured. dont listen to them..all their claims are baseless..if you done some animation .for example any jump or shoot..if you feel that can be done only by that particular author. then that is nonsense.anyone can do that motion..moment and anination is everyones choice and right..if you make similarities in their technical things or designs..then it will come under claim issue..what i make a run animation and claim on every run animation in the world? How does it work?skating moves are same who ever does it right? Try to understand things ..dont look at negative people here..its waste of time to read their comments...all the best

 

The question is more: Who are you? Are you * Redacted * or are you the other publisher / account?

This asset here was from * Redacted *. Someone asked about the contact information and the owner of that youtube video replied with fbxdownloads@gmail.com.

Asset store link:

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/animations/bike-racing-animations-hd-197099

Video from that asset store page:

Currently I only see a text with "3 Comments", but not a single comment on that page. Is it a youtube bug?

 

Keep it civil or you will be given holidays, everyone. Personal beef -> Private Messages.

 

Here's one that looks like it's original artwork, BUT it's using a copyright character. You can't do that either, it doesn't matter if you create it in Maya yourself.
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/humanoids/humans/enemy-boss-01-destro-216938

https://gijoe.hasbro.com/en-us/prod...essories:97C86D42-DDE8-4265-A7B4-B669523F6255

If it *were* legal then we'd have a bunch of Mario, Mickey Mouse, Homer Simpson, etc. models all over the store.

 

Who are you ? Are you cyber detective Rowlan?Common new detective arrived in the market, Put some sense in your brain, what if we have multiple accounts in unity? Or multiple channels in youtube .the work become fake? , grow up dude..we have changed our team ventures..internal team changes thats why we started all together new one..previous account was not logoff..whats the big deal in it.
Now you got your answer right? Now show your work? Show your identity.show your portfolio?
By using your amazing brain, you ruined the hard work, now can you recover the damage? Can you write to unity that the files are original or not copied? Can you apologize for what you are doing?

 

No, I'm just a customer who almost bought one of the assets and would have lost money for one and would have risked getting sued when I'd have used that asset in a commercial game for the other.

So here's a common response to what according to moderator's request should have been a personal forum message. This affects everyone who purchased those assets.

The purpose of the youtube comment is simple: Show that those accounts are linked. I got help from someone on discord. If you sort by "Newest first" you can see that what was previously fbxdownloads@gmail.com got changed to * Redacted *.media@gmail.com. But you confirmed the link already.

The purpose of the consideration of those linked accounts is this: When both are the same, then if one publisher got reason to not be trusted, then why would the other be.

Fact is: One publisher seems to have taken animations from an Activision game, the other seems to have used a model from a Disney game. Of course one can't be sure. So I reached out to:

* Unity Support
* Unity Legal
* Activision Legal
* Disney Legal

Whatever led to the decision for the takedown is behind the scenes and won't be disclosed by any of those parties. The decision however is obvious.

Thank you very much for sending me the model in the same mail that you sent to Unity support. I took the liberty to compare them upon your request. So I searched for the Scar model on sketchfab. First one I found was this:

It's possible to download it. So I did under the impression that this model was legal and the model just remodeled to look like the one from the game. However when you extract the downloaded file there's a file in it called "PlayStation 2 - Kingdom Hearts 2 - Scar.zip". And a readme.txt "Model ripped by Roxas358, no credit needed."

Before I deleted yours and the sketchfab file I took a quick look at both. The sketchfab model has triangles, yours has quads. I'm very well aware of the process of converting tris to quads. I'm also very well aware how to create a mesh from an image. So I took a closer look and saw this:

fbxdownloads:



sketchfab model:


Well, unless you have a very good explanation I won't waste my time any further with you.

Besides the fact is that your model is obviously one that Disney owns a copyright to. It's not just a toon lion.

Tagging @AndrewAssetStore since he's of the Unity Asset Store support and probably knows who gets your mail in order to process it.

 

I know how poorly and unprofessional way you compare things, its difficult to educate and make you understand, but i still give a try to make you understand, you are already wasted lots of time for yourselves and as well as others time and hard work,
check the attachment, that is how your comparison eye works, its not your fault, your thinking problem, and same time you dont have much knowledge, have you ever completed any single project in your life? check this attached image i compared being as professional , try to learn how to compare , our vertex count is 13 658 , write your model tries count,
you dint showed UV layount, you dint showed texture page, because you know they both are not same.
now you run away because you dont have point to discuss, now you realized you have wasted lot of time.
*Unity Support..
* Unity Legal : you misled them , its not their mistake, they were scared of their business
* Activision Legal : they have better understanding than you , they wont do nonsense , time waste things like you
* Disney Legal : they have better understanding than you , they wont do nonsense , time waste things like you


i think this guy Rowlan misleading the forum , creating unnecessary panic to the customers, he is baseless in every way,

 

check leg structure, palm structure, foot structure, front hair structure, tail length ,nose, nails eye texture, stomach texture, hair brush storks and color , texture variations, they both are not same dude,
for you it may look like same, but for an artist there are many differences which you cant find out.
check the technical comparisons, like UV layout, texture page,
you have done really wrong thing for us, also many people in this forum,
what ever you are saying process of triangle to quads, will disturb the flow, they will not be comfortable to animate, i know you don't have any practical knowledge about art , all you have theory, that too half knowledge, get some deeper practical knowledge , if you want to be a champion in forum,

 

Rowlan , Rowlan , where are you ?,
think he will never come back, again, i think he realized his stupidity.
if you are capable of imagining in highly talented detective mind. then why dont you rip the lion model from Disney and get a proof here. .
do you know how they work ? and which Disney lion ? which game? at least show some pictures? compare with same angles as i already sent you my original files.. why dont you do that , again when i asking you compare means with all techincal data, mesh flow ,mesh count ,uv layout ,texture page., but trust me , you did really bad thing, do your work , focus on your career, when you have knowledge to judge then do it ? im still waiting for your portfolio, if you cant share you are the original fake here.you are unnecessarily pulling another sketchfab publisher here, you need to understand if something looks like something , that doesnt mean they are ripped, put some commonsense while you throw negative talks on others, its easy to blame. But for us it will be painful . educate the people like you is highly difficult.lion looks like lion every where , it wont look like elephant if some one else do it. Everything cant be same i agree, if you think everything is modified, when the person is capable of modifying eveything why do they rip others model?cant they do their own model ? If you understand the process of modeling you will understand fight here. I request asset store team to investigate with original files , kindlh dont belive fake identity people . they dont know the hard work value. Litterly spoiled us with fake allegations.
And again if the person holding more than one account in unity or youtube they are fake! what kind of justification is this? Unity investigation also logicless. All they want their bussiness, you guys built your bussiness by the artists like us.now you are not respecting the artists who trusted you for their career. Atleast you should compare with original files with claimed one.no explanation had been given, just taken down all assets just because some baseless allegations. You need to stand for truth not for the business.we have served unity for almost 7 years.now this is the respect we got from unity asset store team.very sad and heart wrenchingincident.

 

i know rowaln will never come back , he escaped from here. and this is how investigation has to be done, i do open challenge who spoke negative talks here , prove your words ,you guys will reap what you sow,
because of you all , we lost our revenue and career here, what a shame less job you guys have done here.
i request unity also compare the files and investigate thing properly , end of the day truth is important, these kind of fake identity people will never stand till the end. now the damage is done for us. any of these false allegation people can recover our damage now ? either unity nor these people can recover our damage, shame on you guys.
Mr andrew the administrator of unity did unfair job for us,
please check the above images that is how investigation has to be done.
@ rowlan before reaching Activision or disney you need to reach a psychiatrist. that will help you better.

 

The TOny hawk video was released in the youtube with ripped assets in december 16th , but our skater video released before that time december 2nd 2018 , our first skating video was released in 2016 , your points are baseless,
when is motions and animations become copy right? jump means jump everywhere , if i do a jump animations, and i think jump animation is my life time roaytly and my copy right? that doeant work, because your baseless investigation , all our assets has been taken down, think twice before you blame someone., you cant recover the damage for us.

kindly look in to the problem once again,
you have done very poor investigation,
the video showed in the forum thread about tony hawk skating video was released in 2018 December 16th, but our video was released on Dec 2nd 2018,
our first skating video was released in 2016,
you guys never took chance to ask for original files or open my files and check by comparing things,
for example if im holding a skateboard, i have to use my hands, that cant be copyright anywhere,
once that animation is done by some one later others has to hold the skate board with legs or eldows ? ., they also holds it with hand right?
jump means jump who ever does it, they cant be claimed as copyright.
my animations are not ripped their timing is different ,my timing and posing also different

check the links here

released in 2016

tony hawk released on dec 16 th 2018

released before the video released our video released on before december 16th
infarct our first skating video was released in 2016,
please check the date in youtube,

we have been serving unity for 7 years, its highly difficult to build that profile.
if some fake identity people raised some allegations . they dont know the value of hard work.
its not fair decision to take down all the assets

 

Mh, tricky... Keep in mind the prices in the asset story are incredibly low compared to hired makers. Even compared to rather semi reliable people from Fiverr & Co. who can only work so cheap because of low-income countries.
Most sellers there are hobbyists and having to sign a contract of full responsibility would deter many. Since at some point, even if you do have done things right by your belief, someone will end up suing you somehow I'd definitely not sign a contract of responsibility for that price.

Maybe Unity could establish a "verified sellers" program or something like that for people who are willing to go all professional and thus allow for both worlds to exist.


On the matter here in the thread:
I tend to side with fbxdownloads to be honest. Yes, they clearly looked at the originals when creating those works. But are they stolen? Not really.

The reason we do not see Homer Simpson and Mario all over the store is because those designs are under additional trademark protection because they are recognizable. In German we call that "Geschmacksmuster"; think in English that's "design patent"?
In every case, the matter there is not whether something is 1to1 copied (that's what "copyright" is there for), but whether it is has the same recognizable attributes, aka similar enough to be interpreted as the same.

Designs do not get that protection automatically though! It has to be acquired from the patent office and paid for, plus not everything is acceptable (a minimum of uniqueness is required).
Therefore I guess Scar is not really iconic enough to have that trademark protection (and would be hard to acquire, as it's quite a classic stylized lion design) and Tony hawk animations definitely do not have that kind of protection.
Would be surprised if there are patents on any animations (though I remember some article about hassle around trying to patent the Fortnite dance q_q' ).

So while fbxdownloads way in all this might not be the most noble approach at being a content creator, I'd say they helped indie devs get affordable content for their game.
If someone makes an actual Lion King related game with that Scar model, then they would be rightfully sued by Disney because they infringe the design patent of their brand. However those devs would clearly know what they are doing!
If on the other hand, they just use that model as a stylized animal among others for ambience in a FPS or whatever, there's hardly that risk.


Also where does that fear of community-backlash for copied designs (when an indie dev would use one of those resources here) suddenly come from?
"The community" tends to celebrate for example fangames of Nintendo games and get angry at Nintendo when they shut them down.

 

I think you answered why we don't want to purchase copied designs. It's clearly because it could lead to legal issues for the developer who purchased them. Do you really think you could, for example, copy the design of Mickey Mouse and not get shut down by Disney? Also, why would we risk losing money and time (or any other legal consequence) on a game we worked so hard to make because someone thought they were perfectly fine infringing (or stealing work) from another company?

I think there's some confusion between creating inspired works and out right copying designs. The more generic the original design the closer you can be to copying it (dwarf, for example) but the more iconic it is the less you can copy it. A good example is the Batmobile which has been proven in court to be iconic and cannot be copied.

 

There is a significant difference between creating a fangame on one hand and on the other hand, just using an asset for something entirely unrelated without aiming to make profit off the fact that the asset is from that brand...

That is true of course, but I feel you have not read my whole post, because I explicitly talked about protected designs which are what the batmobile falls under.
Not everything is protected like that.


Hope fbxdownloads manages to work this mess out with the Unity staff.

 

I think this thread is running it's course as people are just chatting and so on, rather than it being a list of stolen models.

 

I think this came up (either in this thread or elsewhere) to this exact point. As a game developer do we trust assets we buy from the store or not? If we trust them, blindly, then we can't be held libel for a downstream infraction that asset developer did (e.g. copying assets from a brand) or can we?

A verified seller won't 100% fix this, but I believe it will go a long way towards a better place. It's similar to the early days of online payment. I would never give up my credit card if the site didn't have a valid SSL certificate and was protected (that's not the only reason but it would be the main show stopper). Now I still look and sometimes check the cert for companies I don't normally deal with but there's a level of comfort that comes with it.

Same with asset developers. If one was to take the extra steps, whatever they are as long as they're not just a rubber stamp, then I would give that developer more weight than one without it given similar assets.

The complication is, as a game developer, you cannot be all-seeing and all-knowing about what's out there. There are obvious trade and brand infringements. A Mickey Mouse, Marvel, or Nintendo character is obviously a no-brainer (or at least should be). However recently I've seen a lot of "WoW-style" monsters and characters and discussions would come up in discord channels about the validity of these. Sometimes they are ripped models, but other times they're similar in style but an exact match can't be found.

The problem is compounded by the fact that even doing "research" you might be in violation of an asset copy without knowing it. For example let's say I want to make a zombie game. Lots of zombie assets out there so I check them out. I find a few that are cool and maybe I do some basic checks (on the publisher and the asset). A reverse image search, etc. and feel pretty good about one of them. I check some commercial zombie games to make sure the zombies I'm buying are not the exact same and look at Back 4 Blood, Left 4 Dead, Dead Rising, and a few others and I make my purchase. Then some time later someone finds that the models were ripped (and slightly modified) from World War Z. Hmm. I didn't check that game but now I'm in a state of violation. The asset gets removed (and maybe the publisher along with it) but I don't get a refund and more importantly I'm now facing a potential lawsuit from Saber Interactive (the makers of the game). It's going to take me weeks (or longer) to find a replacement and I've got to pull my game from Steam, fix the issue, do damage control with the community, etc. All because I bought an asset on the store from someone I thought was reputable.

Where does that leave indie developers who don't have a huge team to manage and research this type of thing (I'm personally a 1-man operation). Do I trust what I'm buying or not? Is there any protection for this type of thing or are we all flapping in the wind to manage our own pit we're in?

Like I said a verified seller won't fix this but it would be a start.