PMBD

If you don't know who they are, you can read about them in the FAQ. The Teutonic Twats!
In my opinion - a perfect describtions, unless, i would use even harsher words.
The TWATS started out another website to suck money out of people: habitat43.com
So what are they up to now?

A Friend of mine of a friend of mine of a friend of mine, told me that they are watermarking their files.
They have put a lot of money into watermarking their files, to prevent sharing. That means you my friend,
will not be able to share the files you buy from them with your friends. Shouldn't they suffer? I think they shall suffer,
i mean real suffer!  >:( The greedy money-whores are sly scoundrels who might send you a package now and then,
telling you that "we have technical problems at the moment, so we send you our weeks files manually"

They send this obvious to see if their Ikea stuff is going to be uploaded in the booty, and of course people share to break them,
so when they see their Gustav Ikea packages in the booty, they can track up the person who have bought these packages.
Then they send their customers e-mails, telling them how busted they are! I would actually encourage people trying to destroy them to dust!
Nuke the hell out of them, or whatever, let them suffer!

EA games have socalled Securom, now paysite owners like habitat43 have their files watermarked. So, what can be done
with watermarked files? Can EA games really accept that files used for their game is beeing watermarked?
I think maybe Pescado could do something about this. If there are anyone else reading this who got the package from
habitat43 manually, send the package to Pescado. I am sure he wouldn't mind.

OMG that is so wrong. SOMEONE DESTROY THEM!  :'(

You should research on where the watermarks are, and get two or more versions of files to see what they change. Are they in the pictures? If so, just open up simpe, export the picture, edit out the watermark(s), build dxt to place it back without quality loss. You'll have to be sure to find all the watermarks.
Just like TSR, I would be proud ;) if the watermarks are not in the images, Pescado can handle it.

I'm actually quite surprised that they haven't thought of this already. Kinda wily. But, like Nouk said, I have little doubt that pirates will find a way to circumvent it, 'cause pirates are even wilier. ;)

The moniker "Greedy bitches" really fits them well.  >:(

I guess Birgit abandoned the "it's only for teh webhosting, srsly!" excuse a long time ago.

Like Nouk said, Pes and the booty staff should be able to handle it.

Yes, they are using tracking cookies. Have no doubt spoken to Thomas and taken the idea of him - of course, Pescado is more awesome them Thomas and eats them cookies right up. NOM

Well, ehm, one of the staff did actually pick up the image from the site. So i do not think the watermarks are in the pictures?
i can't start cleaning up files, i have no idea how to do this. That is why i hope pescado might do something with it.
OMg, i am so furious at these twats, i have no words for it. they actually set their own COPYRIGHT in files belonging to EA games!
And expect people to pay for their IKEA items, they are copying everything themself, and claim copyrights for some meshing they do.

The copyrights are only in their heads. Once the stuff is packaged in EA's package format they can't claim copyright over it. So the only thing they are doing is trying to find people who share.
Report it to Ikea and see what happens. They are the ones with a contract with EA to sell Sims 2 stuff, and not with Birgit or however they are named. If they indeed claim copyright over Ikea name and/or design, Ikea could take action.

This is why we recommend everyone use Certified Booty Content - Pescadoized for your protection.

And of COURSE the Twats are using the same system TSR does. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Thomas gave them the system or they do it through the TSR servers. What blows my mind is that Thomas KNOWS we can eat the tokens, so he must have realized it wouldn't take us long to figure out the Twats are using it too. I suspect one or two subs will get killed off because of it, but in the long run, we will solve it.

Edited to remove grammasite.

I have found several items which is clearly copied from IKEA, i saw the details on the swedish Ikea site - and the twats have copied them:

vika from Ikea:
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/tymnia/Vika.jpg
From Ikea Sweden:
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/tymnia/workingchair.jpg

study gustav from Habitat:
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/tymnia/studygustav-1.jpg

I am going to do some more resrearch, i can see where they get their ideas from, if they call it another name they still claim copyrigth over their design!
So i guess i have to contact Ikea and tell them. They are probably getting their ideas from more designers than Ikea. The toilet and bidet might be from a french or a spanish catalogue.



*sigh* How the hell should i know, nobody has ever told me to use any Certified booty content.

LOL- So what it all boils down to is, the booty versions will be the superior versions of their own files.  Silly Teutonic Twats, I don't blame you entirely, I also blame your parents for not teaching you how to share.

* Pictures three nastier versions of Veruca Salt sitting atop their pile of toys* 

And Hmm, let me have some fun here please!  ;D

This is the original picture from Ikea Catalogue!
(http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/tymnia/swedish_Living.jpg)


And this is the watermarked set from Habitat43!

Swedish Livingroom from Ikea:
(http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/tymnia/swedish_Livingroom.jpg)

They update sets EVERY WEEK! Of course they must have the magazines to get ideas, and to claim copyright over their creations!
Damm, looks like i have to order some of Ikeas magazines, catalogues myself.

Blech! There's only 2 items of Birgit's shit that I actually like, that stuff is pathetic. What fun, we get to be blinded every week by that crap. What scares me a lot is the Ikea catalogue is like 100 of so pages, which means 100 weeks of visual rape from them.  >:(

I much prefer the eaxis Ikea stuff, and more importantly, the beautiful Ikea stuff on MTS2.

Is it just me or does the room look close to what the Ikea ad shows, but really quite far away from it? The pillows on the sofa don't even match, and where are the stools?

Birgit copies her designs from many companies, I don't think she's had an original design idea since she's  been simming. 

Holy shyte, that's what I always thought of it: "somebody's Mommy and Daddy didn't tell her to share her toys." LOL!

Too much work to make the stools too i think, we don't get what we pay for!!  ::) And of course they have replaced the bookshelf with another
bookshelf from Ikea.. Can i say busted! to them now?

I wonder how EA/Ikea would take to this, considering they could potentially lose profits on their upcoming stuff pack due to this.  It is entirely possible that someone could see paying Birgit for her Ikea stuff as a cheaper alternative to paying $20+ for EA's stuff pack.  If that were to happen, EA and Ikea would be losing their profits to a lowly paysite owner who is making stuff without Ikea's permission in the first place, and having the gall to charge for it against EA's EULA.  That's two copyrights being broken and some business crap about stealing profits and whatnot. I don't know the name for that, lol

Yep, she copies high end designers and does it badly.
I'm a design whore IRL, and since I can't afford all the stuff I want to, I live vicariously through my sims.
However, I very rarely download anything from her. She releases a new set and usually I can spot the designs she's copying a mile away, but I very rarely download anything from her, since her versions are just fugly.

You forget, "and do not function."

I'm not a huge fan of the original IKEA designs shown in that picture in the first place... but what I could learn to tolerate, the Twats butcher with their sloppy handiwork. That shelf wood texture is some unholy manifestation of ugliness, and even that's a praisal. I wonder how many painful minutes it took to create that crap - hell, from the look of it one would think that adding the watermark takes more time than putting together their precious cash cow.

Teutonic Twats have already made the Vika desk with it lamps, and i read recently that the desks and lamps are included in the new Ikea Pack from EA. Habitat43 call the same set Gustav Study. If you saw the same pics i did, it was a true copy of Ikea. so i think i might contact some here, i am not sure how to come in contact with EA in USA, but i sure know how to contact Ikea. Birgit is breaking 3 laws here.
And i have seen they have made the same Ikea shelfs, white ones i have on my bathroom.

Um, everyone here knows that spyware, viruses and the like are removed, if they are present in the first place, when items are placed on the Booty. Besides the whole "not having to pay for something that might turn out to be crap anyway" aspect, that's one of the major benefits of getting your paysite stuff here instead of somewhere else. So, perhaps nobody has ever given you a PB&J with the crusts cut off and explicitly said those exact words to you, but you probably know it anyway unless you haven't been paying attention. And, it's completely idiotic of these creators to think that by recycling an already failed defense system, the ramparts will suddenly rebuild themselves and the poor wittle pirates will be unable to find their way inside. That's all that Hec was getting at. No need to get all...cranky.

Anyway, on the issue at hand, am I being too pessimistic to assume that Ikea won't really care all that much? I mean, yes, their designs are being used, but they probably aren't going to lose any money over this. And if they do, we're talking drop in the drop in the drop in the bucket numbers, I would assume. It seems like a lot of companies are either ambivalent or even pleased when they make it into Sim form; free publicity is the best kind, and if you really wanted an Ikea desk IRL, you'd still have to buy one from them. If EA doesn't care, and they are the company who could potentially be losing real money from their overall profits on the next pack, then why would Ikea? Don't misunderstand, I hope I'm wrong. It would give me giggles for days to know that these jackasses went down because they made crappy digital knockoffs of a desk, I'm just trying not to get my hopes up to high lest they be dashed. ;)

I don't think they would either.  EA as a big company who makes millions of dollars, yes, I could see Ikea wanting to get something more out of it than free advertisement.  A small sim creator, who doesn't make nearly as much, I doubt Ikea would so much as blink.  I know there are a few companies very uptight about their copyright, especially in instances where it doesn't matter, but I don't think Ikea is.

Besides, Ikea does a good job at copying famous trademark designs, editing them slightly, making them out of crappy materials and then selling them.  There is not much anyone can do though, as knockoffs are perfectly legal, and I would assume that so long as Birgit doesn't call her items Ikea there is not much Ikea can even do.  Herman Miller sued a company making knock off Eames Loungers.  The court basically said the the only think Herman Miller could trademark was the names "Eames", so other companies were allowed to make and sell trademarked designs so long as they called them "Eames Style Loungers" instead of Eames Loungers. 

Probably more realistic than pessimistic. But on the off chance that a corporation will crack down on the offending paysite (Subway did, I believe), it's still worth the effort to inform them when some manipulative twat is turning a profit on their work.

Sherry makes some excellent points, but Snarky's right, too. *sigh* I guess it's time for a little cautious optimism.  :-\

Of course i know about spywares, viruses whatever, but this is not the issue here. I have uploaded hundres of files!  ??? How can we know if the files are watermarked or not? Do you check it out before you are sending a set to the staff?  I was surfing watermarks on this forum, all i saw was some few results with images. And stop correcting me all the time please! You do that very often, or all the time actually.  I hopefully wanted an answer from Pescado or the rest of the staff, Not another correction from you GC. Calling me cranky? wtf? I guess Hecubus can answer for herself.
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I have sent a big e-email to Ikea already, luckily in my own language,  and i do think they care. Swedish business people are not to joke with. I have told them that EA games has known about these paysites for a long time, but not done anything to stop it. And that a lot of IKEA stuff already is out on the net, before the new package is going to be released. I told them that players have complained about this for many years,  and that people are claiming copyrights over stuff they don't should claim copyright for. I showed them links to habitat43 and all they need. I also asked nicely for an answer.

Isn't it illegal to upload Disney logos on stuff uploaded to the official EA site? Who did complain on that?

I just now need to do something with EA, but i don't know how to get in contact with them in USA. i see hundreds emails around the world.
And to write to them in english, well, hopefully that could actually be possible.


EDIT: On Ikea's own site, they have VERY strict rules from using their photos, stuff, logos without their permission! They will not like this. I am quite sure.
But i don't know what they're going to do, so i just hope they do something! That would be nice. So EA games at least could suffer too.

Would you chill? I'd really love to see some evidence that I correct you "all the time." In another thread yesterday, you made a comment about something I said, and I responded in kind to let you know that you had misinterpreted what I'd said and there was no reason to get mad. I responded to this remark directed at Hec because it seemed a little rude to me. It sounded cranky. Maybe it wasn't meant to sound that way, and in that case, my bad. Other than that, I don't know that I've ever said anything about your comments, although there have been times that I've wanted to.

We're all at this site for the same reason, and it doesn't have to involve drama. Seriously: relax.

okay, this is a vaste of time.   ::)

If anyone have an answer on my question how to contact EA i would preciate that.
Send me a pm or something. I would like to do what i can to make these teutonic twats suffer.

All I was asking for was proof of your claim. And I guess that settles that.

Anyway, if you read the rest of my comments, you'll notice that I gave my support to your attempts to prod Ikea into action. I think it's a great idea. I don't know whether or not it will work, but it would be awesome if it did. Contacting them is an excellent start, because we might not know if they will respond, but we can be assured that they won't if nobody tells them.

In the same vein, didn't Krispy Kreme come down on HChangeri?

They should have. perhaps no one notified Krispy Kreme while Heather's shit was still pay?

Mmm, I still don't know, there are more than a few model sites making 3D models of their stuff, most of which are pretty well know, and making far more hefty a profit than Birgit.  Ofcourse none of them say "Ikea" outright though. I am sure somebody has contacted them about it.   

Besides if they do care, I still think it's stupid, and unfortunately if they do care it won't just effect the paysites we all hate.  If thier rules are that strict, Disney strict, they will effect free creators, and free stuff.  Just like it did in TS1, I still remember a free site that had to remove all sorts of nursery items.   If Ikea is concerned with Birgit, they will also be concerned with that lovely free Ikea set on MTS2.

Well, could think of it in terms of fan fiction/art again.  While Rowling may not care about Suzy the Fan drawing pictures of Harry Potter and writing slash fiction 'shipping Remus and Ron and sharing it for free online, she'd probably be more than willing to make a fuss if Suzy the Fan started selling her art and writing.

And even if they can't copyright the actual furniture designs, they may not be happy with their catalogue images being used to sell something not endorsed by them.

OK im no brainiac when it comes to all this watermarking stuff, but I do know Trend micro kills the tracking cookies, and wouldnt the fact some like me are in the ice age and have dial up be of some help with these files as my IP changes every time i log off and back on?? ...*Runs her finger round the rim of her rum mug before chucking it down fast* ahhhhhhhhhhhh rum

Ya, this is one of my biggest issues with these people. Cashing in on an somebody else's hard earned image, then having the audacity to claim proprietary rights. FUCK OFF! You wanna claim authorship, think of something on your own, figure out how to make it by yourself, then put it out there and see if one other person in this world cares. Ya'll ain't Andy Warhol so enough with charging for the soup cans.

Make it if you want, call it an homage, and share it freely, but it's not your property to sell. It's like a thief calling for justice because he got pick pocketed of money he just stole.

Or worse, like these teen twits: http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2008/05/30

The best quote: "It may be a crime, but it's an easy crime." Sounds like the attitudes of a few paysite owners we know. I'd like to think that those girls' mothers are going to slap the shit out of them, but somehow I assume that they aren't.

For me the best part...now they're pissed because of the charges.

At least they're getting accustomed to the camera's which will come in handy later, cause you know they're end up on Jerry Springer before they're 20.

Well, it's Ikeas own unique, simple but also cool design who have made them so popular together with a price most people can afford.
Up until about 15 years ago, Ikea had a reputation in Sweden for poor-quality goods. That perception no longer exists. I am not an Ikea-hater,
but i can't stay paysites who claim copyright over something they don't own. 

Birigit uses Ikea in at least 2 of her items. But the latest set, a bathroom was called Philippe Starck-x - from a designer in France. Right! Ikea and Starck, the last
bathroom they claimed copyright for was items from Philippe Starck in France.

Bath tube original:
(http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/tymnia/bathstarck-x.jpg)

Habitat43:
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/tymnia/Bathroom-Starck-X.jpg

Sink Original:
(http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/tymnia/Phillippe.jpg)

Habitat43:
(http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/tymnia/sinks.jpg)

They also use his design on the toalets and the Bidet, like i guessed, it could be from France.

Shelf original:
(http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/tymnia/shelfbath.jpg)

Habitat43:
(http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/tymnia/partbath.jpg)

This was the set they they sent out manually to their members, claiming they had technical problems.
Afther the set of Starck-x own design was in the booty, they tracked the person who shared it, and closed the account.

Reflex did that tub a year ago. And sold it, in the Pearl bedroom set. What's the real issue - that they called the stuff Ikea and are charging for it, or because they are fake-copyrighting their stuff, or because you got caught sharing it because we didn't know they used TSR's system?

I knew i had seen that bath tube before, somewhere.

I wonder what a designer like Philippe Starck would say, that his items are made in a game for EA, by people claiming copyright for his own
design, they certainly haven't asked a designer like him to use for selling them further. Of course they don't expect most people even
know about this guy. They think people are stupid.

Yeah but he did charge, and that is an important point.  His SoupCans weren't free if you wanted to buy one.  Heck Roy Lichtenstein (http://davidbarsalou.homestead.com/LICHTENSTEINPROJECT.html) copied other comics pretty much verbatim. 

While Birgit is using Ikea's (among others) designs, she is neither competing with Ikea, nor is she diluting their trademark.  As in the case of Warhol, or SNL doing a Harry Potter skit,  the models could reasonably considered a parody and therefore protected under fair use.  Plus she is not even calling her stuff Ikea as far as I know.  If I made a "subway" looking set and called it "simway" I don't think there is a damn thing subway could do to me, even if I was making money.

I agree Birgit is a twat and all, and she mostly does a disservice to the great designers who designed the objects in the first place.  Also she does a disservice to the 3D model sites she originally pirates those meshes from (again - who sell all those same designs and make much higher profit than Birgit) by not taking the time and care to properly transfer them into something usable and nice looking for the game.  However, I still don't think Ikea has much of a case.   They may contact her and she may just decide to remove it but if she didn't and it came down to push or shove I don't think there is anything Ikea can do.

Again -  Phillipe Starks, like many designers such as the Eames, Corbusier, Jacobsen, all their designs knocked off in the actual real world, in furniture where it actually hurts them (ok some of them are dead now - but still).  Even Ikea does this - to them!  I doubt they really care about any sim furniture.  Heck my diningroom chairs the "Jake" (http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/collection.do?method=get&id=377418&cat=51) Chairs from Room and Board (a very well know and respected company) and are knockoffs of the Series 7 Chair (http://www.fritzhansen.com/content/us/products/chairs/series_7) by Arne Jacobsen.  Neither Jacobsen or Republic of Fritz Hanson who owns the rights get any money from Room and Board and they can't do a damn thing about them selling the obvious copy so long as they don't call it a "Series 7".  Yet they are supposed to be able do something about models or sims .packages?  I don't think so. 

ETA: Stark, personally would not probably care, as he is supposedly "retiring" in two years and apparently regrets designing products that lend toward wasting resources, and I have heard other designs kinda nod he is going off the deep end.

Sherry, i am not talking about free creators. They do not profit from others work, they get inspiration to create. But it can be quite serious when
someone profit from a designers work. I doubt that is legal. I have been in a similar situation in real life 3 times.

I skip the 2 of them. But i felt very hurt by the latest incident. I had a website with huge photos, very special photos and historical photos.
I did not watermark them, i was simply not thinking of doing that untill later.

One day, around 2 years ago, i went into a store nearby where i live. When i should go out again, i stopped up, looking at a Print on the wall
next to the door. It was an invitation to an exhibition for an artist. He should sell pictures, photos and paintings. The photo i saw, was excatly
the same i had taken.  I did not know what to believe, i thought: maybe the guy took excatly the same pic as i did of the sculpture, same angle, and...
same cutout from the picture?? I went in a circle and studied the photo. I had to go back home to grab my own photo, go back and compare,
There was no doubt, that thief had downloaded my picture from my website, and used it for his own profit to have an exhibition! i saw every single detail.  He used my Photo as a logo on his print. I was furious, but i did not go to police, i simply did never know what to do, even if i told all my friends, who gave me advices. Some times it might be difficult to win cases like that. If it was much money involved, it would be different, but i don't think it was, well, i never knew. Now i see, i should have
made a case out of it. I can't believe i didn't do it when i should do it.

Like i said, i have had similar experience 2 times before. One of them had to pay, not with money, but by beeing humiliated.

I am not blaming free creators, i blame them who profit on other artists, designers work. That is financial theft. And not legal.

BIRGIT is USING IKEA in 2 of her sets! And to me it looks like it's something wrong with the designers, first Ikea, now Starck, do you really defend paysites
profiting on other artists/designers work?

If you called it SimWay, and as long as you're not using any copyrighted images/trademarks/etc, they won't say anything.  Someone who made a Subway did have to take it down, but I think their main problem was that it was being charged for.

Birgit is not only making that stuff look pretty identical to Ikea, but using the exact same name.  And if they are are being included in the Ikea Stuff pack, why would I buy it?  I'm not saying it's a likely scenario, but if EA were selling their SP for $20+ and you found you could get the same shit from Birgit for $8, and free from the Booty...EA/Ikea would lose out.

Also, it's not just like Ikea is doing this for "free publicity".  I'm sure they are, but they will certainly get a cut of the profits from these packs.

Will EA/Ikea do anything, maybe not.  And yes, there may be other places which sell Ikea 3D models and whatnot, but that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't a problem.  Ikea and EA have an agreement for this Stuff Pack and may not like the fact that their stuff is being sold for the same game, without their knowledge or permission - and they aren't getting a cut of that.  Also, Habitat43 is trying to claim a copyright on it - it isn't theirs to copyright on more than one level.

I can only HOPE they will do something, but who knows.  If I were a company that had a contract with a game to have my stuff in it, and I had control over what was made, how it was represented, etc, I'd be pretty pissed off if some one else was trying to profit by using my stuff in the same game - especially if they were trying to claim the rights to it.

Sherry: They may or may not care about it.  That's true.  Alerting couldn't hurt though. 

Luna: Sorry for the situation you had with your photography.  I'm sure that was very frustrating, and hard to deal with.  It would have made me very angry.  I do see the similarity between the two, although, when it comes to pixels, it can be hard to pin it down.  It does appear to me that some of these Habitat sets are replicas of the originals (at least based on the pictures they use.  God only knows what they actually look like in game.) I think that Sherry's point was that in some of these situations, they could be sneaky and loophole around the obvious copy they have produced.  Say it's similar, or something of that nature.  I think that's what Sherry was getting at.  I don't think she was advocating this as ok.  More, hard to prosecute. 

Like I said before though.  Alerting them couldn't hurt, especially since they are turning a profit on it.

I am sorry about your situation, but as I reason in my post above, there are situations where it is legal (knockoffs), and reasonable that nothing will be done.  I am not trying to say that it's right or wrong, I have opinions which sway to both sides, (although I am still not going to pay more than $79 for a chair that cost far less to make just because someone "designed" it)  but it is what it is.  Your example was pretty much a direct rip off right down to the media so I think it's much different than what we are dealing with here.  I don't think there is much of a difference in wrong or right when it comes to this issue and paysites or free. EA's copyright definitely, but when it comes to furniture and cloths designers, not so much.   If the company is like Disney arse about their trademarks and copyrights, it has little to do with profit, it will also effect free sites like it has in the past. 

As for Birgit's marking, the matter at hand, whatever, I am sure Pes will find a work around, just like for Rose and TSR, but she even more retard than I thought if she thinks for one minute it will even remotely effect any pirating of her files. 

ETA:  EA is probably worked with Ikea because they are a huge company, and infringing on another large companies trademark or copyright, even if the legalities from difference of media is debatable, well it is probably just better for them to cover their asses.  Birgit's copyright is a complete joke anyway and we all know that, but it hasn't stopped her or others from ever claiming it.  She doesn't make the models, or textures, or SimPe or game contents (EA).  Whether it has Ikea in there or not makes no difference.  She can't claim any piece of it with or without Ikea. 

Renegade, i totally agree! ;)

chemis, alerting can't hurt, i did a try at least. Thanks for understanding my situation - lol, it was pretty frustrating.
Damm, i am still angry.

Sherry, yes, that is the solution after all, to avoid such situation in the future, paysites shall not win! They try, but i know
they try in vain! We have Pescado! ;)

Omg, i am so tired, i need sleep.

I'm a history of art major, and I remember learning in my pop class that he was sued for infringing on copyrighted images - I remember it being the guy who designed the Brillo pad box symbol, but when I google it, all I'm getting is that Campbell's did (but eventually decided it was good publicity and let it slide). Just thought I'd throw that in there, even if they WERE andy warhol it wouldn't be ok. ;) Although, it is important to note that he recreated these images by hand - he didn't scan it into his computer (which didn't exist then, not like now at least) and duplicate that way, like they seem to be doing. To back up Sherry's point of knockoffs, i read about a certain band (can't remember which one now) in my local newspaper that was suing the makers of Guitar Hero because the knock-off cover of their song (the rights to have someone else sing it had been obtained and everything) was "too good" basically. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=622 This article claims other singers have won in 'similar' cases: http://www.newsoxy.com/tech/romantics_sue_activision_over_guitar_hero/article10211.htm

Now I'm not all knowledgeable of the law like some of our other members but I thought this was all interesting information, at least...

Copyright of images and trademarks can be hinky... at what point is something in the public domain enough that a brand isn't compromised? For example, the word Kleenex™ is listedn in all the style manuals as only to be used as a brand name, with the trademark symbol. Otherwise, it's 'tissue'. It's crazy - in the US, Kleenex™ has become as common a term for a tissue as "xerox' has for photocopying or 'band-aid' has for a self-adhesive bandage strip.

In fact, all intellectual property issues are hinky - the creator wants to protect his/her creation, but also wants that creation to be in the public eye.  In the US, you have all sorts of cases where two businesses have the same names but do different things or are in different parts of the country; at what point does it not affect business A to share a name with business B? Or for two bands (how many crappy local bands were named Paradox when you were in high school? Yeah, we had three in our area).

And then you get to the whole 'fair use' issue. Disney is a total bitch about its characters even being used for free, no less pay items. Other companies don't care.

It's all terribly pear-shaped, really. I don't think Birgit should be advertising her stuff as "ikea", but I could see her saying "inspired by ikea" and getting away with it.

Bingo. If Ikea were upset enough to do something about the issue, the simple wording Birgit employs could make or break her case, at least as far as I understand it.

You know what, you're absolutely right. Was Warhol an opportunist, yes.  I'm sure we've all been in a faux Corbusier office, have some faux Stark objets d'arts around the house, a Monet poster maybe, the ubiquitous Vuitton handbag,  my €10 Armani sunglasses. It's all there, and I have no problems with that. Do the creators of the originals have a right to a problem, oh ya. They can deal with it however they see fit. My problem is the pirater claiming copyright protection, because that's just quite frankly ridiculous. It's one thing to do it, it's another to say you own it.

I don't care if it's Ikea or whatever, just drop the pretense of having created it and getting pissed because someone else is pirating your pirate.

I don't know about whether or not Subway contacted them but I did make a thread (http://phorum.mustnotbenamed.com/index.php/topic,857.0.html) about it, said I contacted Subway about it and the textures in the set were quickly changed.

Philippe Starck ripped off from his designs for almost all their items, that's it i'm totally pissed off. They even label his name on the free sink http://www.habitat43.com/components/com_remository_files/file_image_21/img_21_01.jpg
They chose well as it's probably the more sweet and gentle person on earth and would never do anything against them. I like his designs, specially for home clutter. Even his salt & pepper shakers seem to come from outer space lol.

(http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/3539/starkveiledwatchah9.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
(http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/3539/starkveiledwatchah9.0fd8524000.jpg) (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=300&i=starkveiledwatchah9.jpg)

Fuck'em.

I just want to see a twat water mark.....the suspense is killing me.

Are you sure you wanna see a watermark of a twat? Just askin! Hey! Put down that broom! No! Get away! No! Don't smack meeeeeeeeeee! *runs like all hell from a Corona drinking Army Wife* OW! That hurt! Mean!!

Watermarks? What a silly idea.

You give your money for the download to your best friend Buffy, who lives in a different household and buys the item for you on her credit card. Buffy posts the item here. She could even post them from a third person's computer (and the person then pleads ignorance)  in another town to really mess things up. Buffy is disgraced! Banned! Oh, the agony!

Problem is, Buffy couldn't care any less. Buffy isn't a Sims fan. Neither is the third person. If the twats ban Buffy or the third person, so what?

This can work for the Silverwinds site, too. Buffy buys on your behalf, raids the site, and gives you the goodies, or submits them.

Please. Waste of time.

And the one thing about the Ikea name is that I would be concerned that Ikea might go totally overboard and ban ALL downloads mentioning Ikea, whether they are pay or not. And I do see items on free sites using Sanrio images, for instance.