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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 8h

If we hear GW pursuing a "small creator" over "unfair competition" our alarm bells kick in. How can GW claim to be the victims of "unfair competition" with a small business?

If you know nothing of Italian legal terminology, you'd be easily misdirected from the fact this is about IP claims.

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 8h

There's a fair bit of grumbling about his theft of other 3D artists' work from the community, going back years. It seems that GW isn't the only homework he's been "copying". Pointedly his attempts to solicit donations have been in English and focused on the terminology of the court case.

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 8h

And through it all, he was making money from it. GW would spend months of RnD on new minis, then after they were released Ghamak would release his copied versions within weeks for sale for a lot less than GW charged. He thought he'd found a money printing machine - he's screwed over other 3D artists

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 8h

I dunno about that. Ghamak straight up copied GW designs, in some cases down to the exact posing of models. GW sent him a C&D years ago that he ignored. He flew like Icarus, and his wings caught fire. His *not space marines* even copy weapons down to the coils on the plasma pistols.

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 8h

Because GW paid for the marketing, designers and artists to create and sell the very models that Ghamak copied and sold without crediting GW whilst claiming as his own designs, GW are pursuing him under those laws. IP sucks, you have to claim it and protect it or you lose it.

bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 8h

Because Ferrari put the time, effort and resources into researching, designing and developing the car that I copied, me then replicating their work whilst avoiding the same overheads they invested counts as "unfair competition". Which is the law GWs pursuing Ghamak with.

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 8h

It's operating under Italian legal systems as that'swhere Ghamak is based. There isn't "copyright" in the same way. Instead there's "competiton" law. If I copy a Ferrari car but replace the badge with "Bestie" and change some detailing, I fall foul of the "unfair competition" law.

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 12h

If anything Ghamak's made it actively worse for the small enthusiasts by a: having a history of stealing small enthusiasts' work and making a profit doing it and b: drawing the gaze of Nottingham to the area they all share with his blatant infringements.

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 12h

"UwU i smol bean being buwwied by bad corporashun for 'competing unfairwy', I'm just a smol beaaan, I'm a lil' guuuuy, i coudnt compete wiv dem. Give me money pwweeeass".

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 12h

It's the same thing? To "grift" is to perform a confidence trick, right?

If he was reproducing these models as STLs and giving them away for free I'd have no issue with it.

More power to him.

It's the making a profit from stolen work *and* going begging to people for yet more money whilsg lying.

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 16h

If you're enjoying something of objectively terrible quality, I'm not going to stop you. Nor will I walk over and point out the poor quality.

It doesn't change the fact that it's objectively terrible quality and if you ask my opinion I will tell you as much.

bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 19h

Yeah, he's not a good guy. The fact he's trying to fund raise to pay legal fees while hiding the stuff that brought the legal case in the first place cements that.

The other 3D artists whose stuff he stole dont have the resources to take him on. GW, however does.

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 20h

Yes.

But Ghamak is a thief, stealing frok other artists for years. And with his "fundraising" he's also a grifter.

I don't care about the outcome, I just think people shouldn't be making Ghamak to be something he's not.

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 20h

Ghamak has been stealing GW's designs for years. Under Italian law this is the aforementioned "unfair competition". (He's also been stealing the designs of other 3D artists uncredited, but they don't have the money to take him to court.) Is GW a greedy corporate entity solely concerned with profit?

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 20h

The framing is important. The Italian system frames it as market competition. If I copy a Ferrari car and slap my own "Bestie" badge on it, I am able to sell it cheaper because I didn't pay for the research, development and design of the car. That is "unfair" on Ferrari, as I'm stealing their work.

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 20h

That's literally just the Italian version of "Theft of Intellectual Property" in the Italian legal system. The basic idea is that if you steal someone else's work and reproduce it for sale, you're not "competing" fairly.

He's been using that confusion to elicit sympathy from his Anglo audience.

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 1d

That's my guess. People are lionising him, when he's got a track record for stealing parts of other people's sculpts without crediting them. He did it to GW and they were a bigger fish. Is GW a leviathan of corporate greed? Yes.

Is this guy a shitty grifter and parasite? Also yes.

bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 1d

Anytime I hear bootstraps mentioned I am compelled to ask people to reach down grab their shoes laces and pull themselves into the air.

The point of the aphorism is that it's an impossible task, not an actual thing you can do.

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 1d

No, it is a good thing they're all dead. Imagine being too much of a fundamentalist zealot for a country that banned Christmas.

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 1d

The more you think about it, the worse it gets.

Grown men made this.

They made a fully voice acted animation.

They put presumably months of effort and work into it.

They could have used that labour to do so much interesting stuff.

But they made...

*This*?

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 3d

I'm being entirely neutral. I don't "support" GW. I'm just used to them pulling this kind of move. This is turd vs. poop. My main concern is that poop is seeking to grift people for money at the same time.

bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 3d

This guy's not your friend either. He's a grifter famous for stealing other artists works and selling them as his own. They're both shitty in their own ways.

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 3d

I'm not saying one is more correct than the other, but if you're a soulless corporation which are you going to do?

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 3d

GW had two options - the first is to go for a whack-a-mole approach where they catalogue specific items he's currently selling, allowing him to go straight back to copying future releases the minute they turned their back, restarting the whole process.

Or they can just shut down his whole business.

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bestie @bestiel.bsky.social · 3d

But this isn't a story of David and Goliath. It's of a hack getting caught red handed and then grifting the public for sympathy so he can once again parasite on others. A plague on both houses, to my mind.

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