Yes - you’ll get free, unlimited access to those prints.
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I should also add that the perspectives here are very useful, and the catalog team is reading this thread with interest. For those reading this thread but not posting, feel free to chime in with further ideas, concerns, or suggestions!
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There should be an easy way to flag designs that are stolen from the original designers.
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Good…
especially things like the luggage tags: need a full matched set!
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I’ve mentioned this before but I think they’re has to be a certification process for each of the designs and for each designer themselves. I also think there should be cost to the get certified as a Glowforge designer and for each design. I then think that Glowforge should use this money to test each design and weed out copies as the designer will have to sign that it’s an original design. One strike rule for designers and non original designs. Nefarious Ned won’t last long with these rules and would think twice about it in the first place.
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I really hate to shoot down an idea so completely but… The goal is for people with talent to design, and possibly sell their designs. I can’t imagine much interest in this “certification” method. I also can’t see Glowforge having the resources to check out every single design to see if something similar already exists. Like most works of art (music, video, written word) it needs to be up to the artist to police other works and identify signs of infringement.
I definitely agree w/ @jeremiah that there needs to be an easy flagging system for such events. Like everything else out there, Glowforge needs to act in a reasonable time (yes, that’s a non-specific term TBD) to perform a takedown. Also, I don’t think anybody but the original artist should be able to flag. Others should simply notify the person they think is the original. I mean, somebody else won’t know if the 2nd artist has gotten some sort of permission from the 1st. Or, really who was first in the first place necessarily. The “owner” of the design should be the only one requesting takedowns.
Just my humble opinion.
- Tom
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I highly doubt they will be using the camera to verify a successful print. That would mean a complex system of automated image identification with error detection specific to the print. Even that would only capture one side of the product, and not account for various issues.
It would be far simpler to just have the unit confirm that it completed a print based on the movement of the unit, and then have the user submit issues if they had any. What will be interesting to see is the policies around damage due to negligence.
I’ve seen a few responses from people here already that blatantly state they are clumsy as well as unwilling to accept the responsibility for broken bits. It will be interesting to see how much derp GF covers.
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Not so hypothetical at all! I’m an Etsy seller, my work is copied ALL the time. I’m not overstating that, this is truly something that I deal with on the daily and it just bites. Here’s an extreme example of how that stuff can snowball, and how it impacts artists. My story is not unique. I know other Etsy sellers who deal with this on a much larger scale than I do.
A good friend is a well known bead artist/author. Her popular books and patterns are her livelihood, and they are copied relentlessly… people just scan the pages (or the whole book!) and upload them to Pinterest and Biser and the like. It’s horrible, and unfortunately, every single one of my author/designer friends has stories like this.
My apologies to all who’ve heard me rant about this before. It’s not my intent to hijack or threadkill … but if there’s only one thing that I can contribute to this community, I’d like it to be a healthy respect for IP! Those “Nefarious Neds” are out there in spades - most do it innocently enough, I’m sure - but it has a real impact on artists and designers regardless of intent.
With that said, it’s really, really, really worth having all of this ironed out before the catalog goes live … and before there are 10,000+ home lasers out there in the wild. I do hear what you guys are saying about the limitations of single print files. Perhaps the solution is for GF catalog to define terms for the end use, rather than the quantity printed? i.e - personal use VS commercial use? I don’t know the answer, but I do know that it’s worth exploring - both for the sake of GF and the designers they’ll represent, and for the end users as well.
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What if the single use license actually gives the purchaser a two or three try limit? You might have to adjust your price up a little, but this way you give each single use purchaser 3 tries to get it to work, after which they would have to purchase again if they wanted to do it again.
This way, the first time it messes up, they have one or two tries to get it right. I think you might have a few folks who go ahead and get two or three completed models out of it, but I think most folks would just shoot for that one good “print”, and moving the price up a little would cover those folks who decide not to play by the rules…
Just an idea.
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By certification I mean but signing up with your real name and contact information. Not Nefarious Ned and North Pole with a Paypal account number. By certifying designs I mean that Glowforge run them through a couple of tests with Proofgrade material to ensure they work. Let the market decide if they actually like the design and want to pay for it. If I want an untested design I can go to Thingiverse. Glowforge can’t test everydesign unless they can allocate money and resources to it. But if it’s the Glowforge catalogue it will need to be tested. As far as copies go yes the design will probably need to be flagged by the original designer. But with my suggestions Glowforge will have a real person to go back to.
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While it was not stated explicitly, back at the beginning of the campaign I got the feeling that any glowforge owner would be able to submit designs to the catalog, with the potential to make some (albeit limited) amount of income. That was one of my (many) motivations for buying, and the reason I began spending time on the forum. I was hoping (probably mistakenly) that I would be able to have designs submitted, vetted, approved, and waiting in the catalog for others to buy by the time machines were shipping out.
In my case, I was not thinking about designing physical objects like boxes or gears, but decorative designs and (fine?) art. If there were an initial cost basis to worry about I might not bother, and just implement design sales on one of my personal websites.
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Oooh, I like this idea. 3 Strikes rule!
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I just don’t see it being possible/desired. But, that’s me.
The issue I see with letting people print a single print item 3 times is accepting failure. If the glowforge and catalog are setup properly they should by their design print perfectly. Of course, accidents happen and there should be a process for that, but overall a single print should result in a finished product most of the time.
Now there may be variables that very well make this the accepted solution, but it shouldn’t be the starting goal. I for one have no concerns that GF will adopt a policy that makes the catalog highly usable for people interested in that sort of service. Tricking us into buying extra prints when something breaks doesn’t seem in line with their goals.
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The way things work is that a file is sent to your Glowforge directly from the Glowforge controlled site. It is not loaded into your computer in any way that is useable. The purchase would be limited to the logged account and I assume could be limited to a single Glowforge. I’m sure legal terms will state for personal use only and not to be sold or otherwise infringe on the creator’s ownership. That means someone with a Glowforge has to make a conscious decision to break the terms of service. If you find your product for sale on another site you might find a legal way to brick the offender’s Glowforge. The Glowforge Terms of Service already allow them to brick it for similar reasons.
But I honestly believe that if the Design Store control is too tight (single print) you will find that sales would be negligible compared to what it would be with a limited use personal license. Of course I’ve seen artists so concerned about the possibility of someone stealing their design that they would rather not sell any.
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For the single print option, what happens if someone were to pull the plug on the machine at the very end of the print? Would Glowforge register this as a failed print, and then let them try again, even if the print is essentially complete? What kind of damage does that do to a machine if the plug gets pulled during a print?
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I’m curious now, what part(s) don’t you see as being possible/desired? You don’t think Glowforge should test / certify designs that are submitted for the catalog? Designers shouldn’t have to go through a registration process and state their designs or original? They shouldn’t have to pay to submit? All of these things?
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Indeed, all of those things. Glowforge is in no way responsible to test your designs for you and to ask them to, I think, is ludicrous. A designer stating their work is original is fine. It helps protect Glowforge. But otherwise it’s meaningless. People shouldn’t have to pay to submit to the catalog. If Glowforge wants to make money from the catalog they can take something from the sale, not the submission.
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Hmm, this is alternately comforting and unnerving. Comforting from the perspective of a designer. Unnerving from a sort of Big Brother-y standpoint.
Agreed. Single print doesn’t make much sense to me. When I make something by hand, I typically do several variations - exploring different sizes, colors or finish - before settling on one that I like. I suspect that I’ll approach lasering in much the same way, so I wouldn’t want to have to pay for each individual experiment.
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It will be interesting to see what model they go with. I’m not a designer. As a customer I really can’t see myself paying for a design I don’t know will work. If it had a few positive reviews I might give it a go, however I definitely wouldn’t be the first to pay for and try something like a complicated leather project.
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