Boys and Girls Come Out to Plagiarise

I've often talked about my relationship with my customers on my blog.  They have become trusted friends whose support has meant a great deal to me over the years I have been commission building.

Up until this year I was building for a client in the UK who I thought was an aviation and history enthusiast, and who I believed wanted to expand his personal collection of wartime fighters.  So you can imagine what an unpleasant surprise it was when I found out why he really wanted my models.

Logging on to eBay yesterday I came across a very familiar photograph of a Ki.44 Tojo for sale. Nothing odd about that, except that I had built the Tojo the previous year and now here it was on eBay, apparently built by my client.   It was not enough to rehash my own text and postal reassurances - he'd also added a link to 'his' build on the ARC forum - here it is for curious readers.   http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal12/11201-11300/gal11218-Ki-44-Walker/00.shtm. 

And this is where it got really upsetting - the same client has listed at least ten of the models he has bought from me in the ARC gallery,  claiming all the work as his own.  In the text he uses descriptions I myself wrote for him in emails passed between us when I was in the process of the builds.  He didn't even bother to take new photos, but simply used the ones I had provided for him as I was completing his commissions.

It's entirely up to my clients what they do with my work after they have bought it, but I do however draw the line at plagiarism.

I'm now put in the position of having to safeguard anything I put out on the internet.  I may be late to this - many others have discovered the downfalls of the virtual marketplace the hard way, but I was trusting of those in my own modelling community.  So now my photo albums are private on Photobucket, and I'll have to start watermarking photos, possibly spoiling detail for viewers.  It's been a disillusioning start to the new year for us.  I know this client was also commissioning other builders in the past, so it's entirely possible that other builders have been taken in too.  Let's hope it's a fairly isolated incident and that faith is restored soon.

© Copyright Philip Goodier 2013