#BE VERY CAREFUL: there are environment thieves and scammers!!

27 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

jagged stone
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The user https://www.spatial.io/@ecultify_77816 downloads the original environments of other users, makes some modifications to them and re-uploads them to spatial on his account.
We are already 2 victims of this person.
He has already downloaded, modified and re-uploaded my environment https://www.spatial.io/s/Water-meditation-6360b6aeefd04a000164ce29?share=5311293624842168214
This is his copy: https://www.spatial.io/s/Kamaverse-Pleasure-Wing-63d0e4233be345818497f1db?share=2653112502336683011
It is evident from many details that my environment was directly downloaded and not just taken as inspiration.

I specify that my environment is completely self-produced, I have not downloaded models that this thief could have downloaded too.

The same thing happened to @ pangyarita and his space https://www.spatial.io/s/SPACETIVAL-Loy-Krathong-635e7ec0f3ac5700012e5382?share=3792179167832719566
She is very sad. She contacted these thieves and they offered to give her €85 to buy his silence.

@SPATIAL, YOU ARE A VICTIM TOO!
Does this space remind you of anything?
https://www.spatial.io/s/TimesPro-Web3-Launch-630dd7235a35ea0001788ea6?share=3826957952661237603

That's not all, this user pretends to be an agency and sells models downloaded from sketchfab or other unsuspecting users as an environment and offers them the sale of these for the crazy sum of $ 30.000

Please all of you boycott this user and Spatial to take action by deleting all his spaces and banning the user completely!

Artists put their passion and many dozens of hours into their work and they don't deserve this.

We would also like Spatial to encrypt uploaded glb files so that they are not simply downloadable from the browser's developer console!

water-meditation-copy.jpg water-meditation-copy2.jpg COPY3.JPG COPY4.JPG SPATIAL-enviroment-COPY.JPG selling-scam.jpg
jagged stone
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@fierce current @jovial light @rocky finch @tame wyvern @uneven pier

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@spring steeple @distant atlas @pseudo frigate @ember apex @elder ibex

elder ibex
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That's terrible.

spring steeple
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I'm so sorry 😞

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This is heartbreaking 💔

tame wyvern
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Oof yeah this is so bad. Stealing content is really terrible. Having your stuff get ripped of is seriously horrible especially when they are profiting off it.

My opinions from the perspective of just a Dev/Artist (not a community manager):

I don't think you are gonna want to hear this 🙈.... but these spaces do not appear "stolen" to me. All the geometry and textures seem entirely unique. I looked through your space, and the copy of our auditorium. The meshes seem entirely unique to me. I literally don't know anything about copyright law.... But I don't think re-creations like this are actually any sort of legal violation.

Let me be clear, these are obviously rip-offs. I think it would be great if we could enforce some sort of artistic-honestly inside spatial, but I have no idea how that would even work. Even youtube cant stop copycats.

Encrypt GLB files.
This is outside of my expertise, but I don't think this is realistically possible. We could add some sort of encryption sure, but ultimately anything you download can be inspected in some form. AAA games have their assets scraped all the time. The only way we could truly solve this is by transitioning to a streamed-only experience.

❗ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
I don't want to come across as though I am dunking on your problem! This absolutely sucks and is a major problem we should try to fix, I just have no idea what we can do about this (personally).

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Like we can't necessarily ban copy cats, because if this guy is licensing spaces then the user who uploads a copied space, then gets banned, they are a major victim. -$30k for nothing.

In the future environment templates will be a more integrated spatial feature where you can buy/sell environments through the app. In that context we will be able to crack down on this, but until then.....

jagged stone
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@tame wyvern I haven't registered a copyright for my environment.. that's obvious.
However, my space is undoubtedly downloaded from the browser developer console, the ground, the river, the fountain are exactly my 3D project (not copied but the same objects).
If you look at the center of the fountain there are even cylinders of water falling from above (it is possible to count the number, it is obviously identical).
This person just deleted something, added something else, and changed the colors.
I didn't discover this either, it was reported to me by another user who recognized the environment.

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I'm honestly not worried about who is crazy enough to pay this person 30k, I just warned about it.
The problem is that this person downloaded my environment's glb file from the browser console, edited it, and re-uploaded it.

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Not only mine but also Pangyarita's space, of which they practically only changed the colors.

jagged stone
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No words are needed..

Kamaverse_-_Pleasure_Wing_on_7-3-23_at_19.32.png
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I just changed my Blender project to red

jagged stone
tame wyvern
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If you want a bit more security I think it's a bit harder to scrape assets if you upload through the creator toolkit.

jagged stone
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I just want this user kicked out.
For the copies and for the behavior with my friend.
She was intimidated taking advantage of her young age by this user!

jovial light
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@jagged stone Thank you for bringing this to our attention. At Spatial we value artists and creators above all else, so it disheartens us when someone in the community appears to be stealing the work of others. We will investigate this issue further and determine if their actions are in violation of our Community Guidelines and Terms of Use.. If they are, we will take the appropriate action.

dry coyote
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Some people in Spatial are also clearly using copyrighted content, and sometimes directly ripped game assets
And Spatial doesn't seem to care much either strangely...

grim swift
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I think it’s not spatial who have to take care and been responsable for. Much more publisher responsibility

jagged stone
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@dry coyote & @grim swift
The argument here is not the use of copyrighted material but the download through the browser's developer tools of the glb files of the environments.. in my specific case (and not only in my case) completely self-produced environment.

grim swift
jagged stone
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@quartz furnace (aka eCultify), instead of private message me pretending willingness to answer my questions, please answer the question here.

jagged stone
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I am Italian and in my country this phenomenon of copiers causes our economy to lose many millions of euros every year in all sectors (fashion, craftsmanship, food, art).
This happens because for many people in the world there is no culture of beauty but only of easy business. These people know how to live only on the beautiful things created by others instead of contributing to the beauty of the world with their ideas.

The fact that this person claims not to copy but simply to be inspired is pathetic.

Having said that, I have nothing more to say about it.

If within 24 hours I don't see any action against this user, to protect my creativity I will make all my spaces private, therefore no longer accessible to anyone.

Probably someone prefers the "Parmesan" cheese passed off as the original "Parmiggiano".

This is sad...

jovial light
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Hi @jagged stone - I hear you, and I very much understand your frustration and pain as an artist - your architecture is fantastic.

Our team has looked at the models, and while they do appear to be heavily inspired, the meshes are different. I have spoken to the ecultify team, and i have asked them to include a credit to you as the original inspiration for the spaces.

At Spatial we take art, and content creation very seriously - and work to protect artists work and copyrights to the best of our ability. If a copyright claim & takedown notice is issued, we will work through the proper channels to verify those claims and take proper action.

As was mentioned earlier, similar to other multimedia sites like Instagram, YouTube, etc it can be hard to stop content from being fetched from browser loads. (And again to clarify, that does not appear to have happened here.)

With the recent addition of the Spatial Unity SDK, however, makes it much harder for content to be “fetched” through browser content loads, as the user is loading a processed Unity package file, and not a GLB file directly.

I do hope this clarifies things, and happy to answer any further questions you have.

violet bear
astral kraken
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happened to me also

wind bolt
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Wow this is wild