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Sadly, there are people who'll always want something for free .. take solace in the fact that they probably wouldn't have bought what you're selling anyway. They take it for free because they can and if they were faced with having to pay they probably wouldn't and would go without for most things.If you're still making things - then you might aswell do so as a vendor. Even if only 1 person bought it and 9 pirate it - it's better having that one sale in your pocket than nothing given you're doing the work anyway.
It hurts customers too. I have spent a fortune here and it bothers me that others have gotten it all for free. I suppose if it's just some teen playing around with no intent of selling their art and who would never have purchased anyway, maybe at some point when they could afford it, they'd like the hobby so much they'd invest. But if people are making money off other's stolen work that's really bad and they should definitely be stopped and sued. Maybe Daz should hire a lawyer just for this purpose instead of all the PAs having to do it on their own.
There may be two aspects to 'all of this'.
I haven't tried to sell any 3D work so far. But I did sell a few works in another artistic endeavor also plagued by piracy and thieving resellers. I'll write about this first.
Piracy and DRM
Yes, the pirates are infuriating. Some creators think of every act of piracy as a lost sale. But most pirates are probably not lost customers. If they couldn't steal the stuff, most of them still wouldn't buy it. They'd often do something else with the money.
It's still frustrating and stressful to watch someone brazenly and highhandedly steal from you, as if they have a right to your labor for nothing. But creators often find it not worth the hassle to thwart people who were never going to buy if they couldn't steal.
Digital Rights Management is often not a good solution, particularly if what you're selling is data. (3D models are data. So are ebooks and e-music.) DRM often gets in the way of legitimate uses by paying customers. It rarely stops pirates for long -- though sometimes delaying the pirates is commercially useful, because what you're selling is of interest to most of the market only for a short time, and it converts enough would-be early pirates to early buyers.
Daz floated the idea of putting DRM on newly released models for a year, a while back. I was OK with that, and not because I'm a potential buyer of 3D assets encrypted against me -- I'm no part of any such market. I have no use for DRM'd 3D assets, in part because I don't render in Daz Studio. I export everything. But my purchases usually lag well behind the release dates anyway. I wouldn't care much about a year's delay. (The DRM idea wasn't adopted anyway.)
I'm usually willing to buy software with DRM, because software usually has a strictly limited useful lifespan. Ifa program works past 2 operating system versions, it's unusually long-lived.
But I mostly expect any data I buy to stay useful indefinitely. That means if I can't acquire it without DRM, I'm probably not interested in it. I always expect the entity selling the DRM to a) go out of business or get sold, or b) stay in business, get big and uncaring, and eventually wreck my purchases by some one-sided policy change, because they're big enough to get away with it. So I rarely buy.
Daz doesn't sell me HD Addons for Anybody because I can't export HD from Daz Studio, so far as I know. That means HD addons are useless to me. Any figure whose interest is probably highly dependent on HD detail is also of no interest to me, even though otherwise I'm strongly in the market for middle-aged and older figures.
The sellers make their choices. I make mine. If we meet in the middle, there's a trade. Otherwise not. ...
But there may be another issue here.
What Does Success Look Like to You?
There's another kind of "Is it worth it?". That's "As a seller, is it worth it to me to do the things I have to do to succeed in this particular market?"
Then: "If not in this market segment, is there another market segment where different conditions suit me better?"
There is more than one market segment for 3D assets -- and I don't mean just stores. Daz and Renderosity sell a particular kind of asset, at a particular price range, for similar uses in similar software. But there are other 3D markets where assets are sold at different prices for generally different uses, with higher prices that possibly permit different approaches to doing the work. You might find yourself unhappy working in the Daz/Poser market segment, but happy in another. If that's a possibility, it'll take investigation.
But there are also endeavors where a necessary feature of commercial success in the whole line of work turns out to be something you hate. That's the time to drop that endeavor as a commercial enterprise. You might use the skill in a different manner at other work. Or you might keep it as a hobby.
That other medium where I sold a few things? I'm not still in that market, at all. I discovered that I liked simply doing the work itself, as a pastime. But I don't work in the fashion that makes commercial success a bit easier in the market I was aiming at. It wants fast releases, and I'm slow and painstaking. I wasn't averse to learning to work quickly ...
But in the end, there was one thing necessary to succeeding in that area, that I not only don't like doing as a chore -- but I would also hate the results of having done it. Many people would enjoy those results, and even dream of them. Not me.
So I found myself stalling and not doing the part of the work I did like -- the part that made it interesting in the first place -- because I was starting to foresee that, the better I succeeded at selling it, the more unhappy I'd be, in every way except money.
If you have something like that going on, then you really do want to do something else.
FBX exports at base resolution, but you can export OBJ at whatever resolution you want and re-rig in your target program, or you can use a Bridge (any of them, as far as I know) to bake resolution into an FBX.
I know how you feel. Once, I reskinned a simple Infinite Runner game back in 2015 and published it to GooglePlay. Let's say the download / install data was statistically corrupt. The game was free but that didn't stop it from being stolen and distributed to pirate sites. I removed it from distribution.
I still have interest in making a couple of products I have ideals of for the DAZ Store but I know that they will be stolen as soon as I do. It doesn't matter to me though, if I get what I want to do accomplished, I will still publish them (I might not though as it's difficult work maybe I lack the motivated patience or the smarts) as I'd do it for fun, and not to make a living, although I could surely use the extra income (which probably wouldn't be much and would docked from my disability income anyway, besides the headaches in extra government paperwork and meetings with the government officials that me publishing such products would cause).
I feel bad that LAN security is after all these years still like cutting through butter and it causes people like you to lose income. I kicked them off my LAN again today (I no longer have any DAZ content on internal drives and keep it disconnected when not using DAZ so they can't win there ever again, however, yes, I've just I've upgraded LAN edge devices in the last 6 months, use encrypted DNS, use VPNs, ..., yada yada yada,...., and they still break in...fact is if any non-tech granny or gramps can't ignorantly plug it in and be safe from criminal activities then you cannot depend on your anonymity to the general public at large as actual security because those devices are being systemically probed 24/7/365 and that will only be improved with AI).
Computers are getting able to solve massively complex problems and one does not want one's electricity or compute power used for illegal activities no matter who the culprit is. With such power, it's the someone else problem solving on your dime that is dangerous and not anything you have personally that they might steal. I am flat broke and yet they persist for years in breaking in and using my devices to problem solve, misdirect culpability, and they do that with countless people's and organization's devices worldwide. These edge devices must be made secure from every user and organization's breakin attempts no matter what excuse they give for breaking into a device. The devices behind those walls are only growing more capable and shouldn't be in hostile control.
Ah. I haven't delved very far into that, except a little experimenting. I'm working on rigging competently now (interspersed with a few other tasks). Exporting somebody else's existing detail work is a timesaver, but it's not essential to me: I'm already handy with digital brushes and can add my own fine shaping. That's probably where my projects are heading.
I use Daz assets just as a matter of opportunity cost, really. I'm not an experienced modeler, and while there are certainly benefits to learning how to model and rig my own characters, that's also time that I wouldn't be able to spend on the things I actually want to do.
Ooh, yeah. The system is set up so that if you can pole-vault into a full-time job, you can leave assistance; but otherwise the disincentives for trying to gradually climb out of it are fierce.
I, too, expect to make a few things to publish -- more things, if the first succeed well enough. Probably not here, though, since I'm moving out of this market. There was once the possibility that I wouldn't; but Daz hasn't updated Carrara or Hexagon. That means I had little choice, if I wanted to model, but to learn Blender. Once I've gone to that trouble, I usually might as well stay in Blender.
I'll likely still buy occasional sets and props as long as I can easily convert them. (And, yeah, that's opportunity cost. I want to spend my time making the things I want that don't already exist. If they do, I'll buy them.)
First off, I'm a big fan of your free stuff at Rendo and always leave a thank you to show my appreciation. With redard to 'rotica, they are a legitimate site and I'm sure they would take action if you contacted them. Unfortunately with a pose and not a model with geometry it may be hard to prove ownership, but I'd contact them anyway. The person who did this is likely to be doing similar things to other PAs. Cheers Richard.
AI is causing just as many problems as piracy. Many of us see AI as a form of piracy. Keep up the excellent work. Locked doors, keep good people honest; honest people will pay and not steal. And if even one pirated user helps bring attention to your work and others buy it as a result, look at it as free advertising.
Thankee kindly for your generous words. I did go through the 'rotica DRM process, and they immediately suspended the set, then after a week the set was re-released without my pose in it. The effort involved in collating the evidence and presenting it in the required form was not insignificant. Must have taken me longer than the entire pose set. Regards, Richard
I'm glad you took the issue up Richard/Tracy. I guess you would have to superimpose your pose onto the other one and it it matched 100% then that would be proof enough.
As someone else already said, but I'll say it again. Anyone who pirates something has no intention of ever buying it anyway. So anyone who downloads it likely never would have bought it anyway, since honest people don't go to pirate sites.
Pretty much this is the problem, this sort of thing does not hurt the pirates, but it can hurt the legitimate paying customer.
Good luck. I was already pretty long in the tooth when I was classed as disabled and 10 plus years have passed since. Even with my demonstrated experience at on the job learning at different jobs at my age and with my disability no business or government is interested (actually one was) and I've applied to many. I am going back to university again probably and earn another degree or certificate in some sort of technical specialty and so what that gets me. No student loans though! None. I will do without at today's prices!!! I am also still gathering all the hardware to be able to complete work offline without external interference but I've got about another $750 worth of hardware to complete that task to my satisfaction. I'm satisfied.
I kind of support the belief that the people who would pirate stuff wouldn't bother paying for it anyway. I originally thought pricing my comics low would combat piracy since, you know, they were affordable and I was hoping people would see it as a small way they could support my work. In the end, they all ended up on multiple free sites anyway as did the comics of some of my peers who charged twice as much. But, I still sold some to people who obviously wanted to support my work (and told me so), which changed my focus from 'focusing on the piracy' to 'focusing on the people who really liked what I did'. I would have loved to have made more off of it, but it is what it is.
Let's say what you are saying is true, what about resellers? Those are thiefs, and for sure they didn't buy anything. The first one I was able to find was selling my models on Patreon, and since he has a lot more followers than me I'm pretty sure he caused me a big loss. I was able tu put down the link but it took almost a month! Same thing happened with CGTrader and 3DExport, and maybe more. And all this was possible because someone shared my content. So yes, piracy caused me a BIG loss, and this is a fact.
Okay - we need to differentiate between internet theft and piracy (from my understanding of those terms online).
What I experienced - having people take my comics and just giving them away - is what I'd call 'piracy' in internet terms (like Napster just allowing people to trade MP3s for free or torrents for movies). There's no concrete proof that every person would have bought the MP3s, my comics, movies, etc. and often times it's Whac-A-Mole trying to shut them down for little gain on your part (since time is money). I would even argue that some of those people may eventually see the benefit in buying your stuff so you continue to make stuff, but that's another story.
What you are experiencing - people taking your work and selling it - is theft since they're taking the money you would in fact be going to you (since people are actually buying it).
never claimed to, just said DRM is not the answer
I have lost stuff on corrupted discs I paid for because I could not back them up due to DRM
It is just the impression i get in this thread, as if piracy is such a devastating experience, that an artist wants to quit creating. I paid several thousand usd here in daz 3d alone, and many people pay much more. Isn't it possible to focus on the positive and fight the negative if necessary, like eman did? I don't use pirated mp3 music, movies and software ( and i guess many a pa have already used pirated PS or 3d software for example, for which i don't judge anybody, btw.). But are the paying customers so unimportant compared to the thiefs, that the latter can make an artist want to quit creating, completely ignoring the former?
This whole train of thought is based on a fallacy: That you can ever really lose what is truly yours. If you live long enough and pay attention, you will see yourself and others appearing to lose what they have while those same people are also effortless recipients of goods and favours they neither worked for nor deserve. It balances out; so, don't fret.
Piracy is frustrating and demoralizing for sure. It makes me appreciate the honest folks who pay all the more. Thank you again to all of you who have bought my assets. You folks are the only reason I keep making stuff instead of doing other creative endeavors. I do also believe that the pirates wouldn't pay, regardless of any measures taken to dissuade them. DRM is not the answer. It only turns into an arms race between pirate hackers and DRM vendors. And the only people to 'benefit' are the DRM vendors. And this cost is born by the suckers who pay for their snakeoil promises, and worst of all ... it results in a worsened experience for the paying customers who end up dealing with technical issues when the DRM system inevitably glitches. That's unaccaptable to me.
Oh, yes, the resellers of property they have no right to are doing damage in worse ways than the pirates. Practically every scam you could think of, and a few you probably wouldn't, have infested some other digital markets. And it can be hard to get a major shop to take the stolen material down in a timely manner, or even to correctly identify who's doing the thieving, if it's only damaging the original creator and not their own brand.
I file for copyright on every important work that I publish. It's a nuisance and it's become more expensive and slower in the U.S. over the years. But (in the US) it also permits one to sue for statutory damages for copyright infringement (which can be formidable), instead of proving actual damages (which can be hard). And (again in the US) it shifts the burden of proof: I am presumed to be the creator of any work I have a copyright certificate for, and anyone wishing to claim that I am not the creator of that work, has to rebut the presumption that I am. (This is not the sort of thing you can rely on to be true outside of the U.S., though. The Berne Convention established broadly similar copyright among the nations that signed onto it, but the details are all different. You need to check your own laws. Also, I'm leaving out details.) I do it as a defense against the most aggressive scammers, whose chutzpah reaches the orbit of Neptune.
Naturally, I only do this for works I think it's worth my while to publish, for money or otherwise. This means the bad behavior of the thieves and pirates shrinks the number of creations available for everyone, since it shoves more work into the "not worth the hassle to publish" category.