Hello Everyone,
I have an account on Cgtrader and I noticed that someone else was reselling my work. I reported the issue and the work was removed. However the user who violated the rights of my work and others, still keeps the account. So I've contacted the Cgtrader's staff and here's the reply.
According to CGTrader terms, violators can resell
up to four unauthorized items and they can get away by that. (I've attached the official messege from CGTrader support) The benefit of this act is that CGTrader can profit from this. Is this a desperate act of generating more revenue during the corona pandemic by relying on cyber criminals?
On the other hand, there's a term that CGTrader can suspend any account for any reason and without any notification. Regardless of such illegal terms that isn't accepted by any court, it is in question that, does theft and Intellectual property violation don't fall into such extreme terms? IS there any greater violation than that?
Whatever all these contradictory terms and laws CGTrader has set, it's not acceptable in any court. CGtrader grew large and now has decided the path of corruption.It's a shameful act and it's illegal.
Of course such issues are considered as "minor imperfections in the system" but technically such terms are deliberately created to promote criminals and IP violators. With no doubt criminals, that abuse and resell work of artists who spent time and effort in their creations, don't have any rights to run such criminal activities and get to continue them as well.
Some may argue that these issues might happen all the time, since the files are publicly exposed and it may not be as severe and impactful as any other criminal acts ( I personally believe these people have never experienced any case of theft and they never lost anything). Even this statement already gives approval and immunity to violators. The reason the violator gains more confidence and the criminal activities keeps growing, is the fact we as civilians decide to approve the actions of the criminals on smaller scales. This encouragement will only do more damage and no good. If these violators truly don't know any better lifestyle, then should they have the same freedom, respect and rights as the rest of the decent citizens and communities?
So far CGTrader has no issue having such criminals. I believe it's the simplest thing not to follow and support Cgtrader. There's no need for any extreme action. Simply by not visiting Cgtrader, we don't allow the websites and the criminals inside to take advantage of us and other customers. Also artists can use other great websites that truly support their work and efforts. It's not about this particular case, I've recently witnessed different businesses take such illegal acts too far just to survive. This is not acceptable by any means. This is the same path any criminal would choose and once the line is crossed, there's no turning back. It's impossible to say, a person or a company had illegal activities for a specific period of time and then they stopped and now they're good. These companies and people will take advantage of any situation once they get an opportunity. So it's the wisest decision that we all stop supporting such criminals.
Sincerely,
