Are these 3D models genuine or stolen?

News & General Discussion
1

Hi Guys,

Could someone tell me are these characters original or game ripped models?
http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_search.aspx?id_author=556989

Thanks for help.
Marius

2

Well half of their models violate copyright, so regardless if it’s ripped or not, it’s not stuff you can sell in your game.

3

Thanks hippocoder for reply! Do you mean that copyright of those characters are already belong to an existing game? (in that case I’m pretty sure they are ripped). If you could you provide a link where I could see any of those characters is really used in a game, I would be very grateful!

We run a 3D model marketplace CGTrader and ocasionaly we get these models published on our website. I am interested in how we could identify more easily which content is stolen and/or infringes copyrights.

Thanks once again.

4

A lot of the models are ripped from World of Warcraft (such as http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_details.aspx?id_product=625474)

5

I see some that I’d swear are from Dynasty Warriors, too.

I’d be very wary of this guy’s stuff. He seems to have posted them rather quickly, and I doubt he just sat on these for a long time before deciding to sell them.

6

A good start would be to just review the models. There are a ton models on your site that are clearly infringing. Seriously, you have Iron Man on front page.

7

A lot of sites on the internet that have assets (models, textures, especially fonts) like these for sale or for free are completely illegitimate. They are often ripped from games, art tools, or other products. A lot of those were taken from MakeHuman, Poser, or Daz3D. The authors just need content to justify a website that will get them some ad views, and the occasional sale.

Even if some of those models are original creations instead of being ripped from another product, they are still infringing on someone’s copyright or intellectual property.

Your best best would be to finish up your game with free placeholder models, and then once you have a project of actual substance, talk to some artists and hire them to create some art for you. You might even buy some legit pre-made characters from a reputable source and just have an artist create some original texture maps for you.

8

Also as a site owner keep in mind that legitimate artists will very likely to stay away from any site selling copyright infringing assets. No matter if ripped or recreated. The quality of the assets you sell on your site reflects the quality of your site and reviewing process in general.

9

The site doesn’t even have a simple way to contact the admins. I’d rate it “skeevy” on a scale from “Burger King” to “BP”.