Accused of Stealing, 3D Printing Design Marketplace 3DLT Apologizes
Yesterday, Wired reported that a new 3D printing design marketplace called 3DLT was accused of selling stolen merchandise, i.e., designs, on its site.
Designer and co-founder of Nervous System, Jessica Rosencrantz, was surprised to learn that some of her fashion designs were being sold on 3DLT. Wired interviewed Rosencrantz:
“They never contacted us,” she says. “I had never heard of them until someone sent me the link last night to ask me if it was legitimate.”
The designs at issue are five of 3DLT’s fashion offerings (until recently, the entire fashion category). “They changed the names and descriptions but are using our images,” says Rosencrantz, “They claim to have the STL files for these designs, but I guarantee they do not. The last design they show — ‘circle necklace’ (our name ‘Radiolaria Necklace’) — isn’t even 3-D printed.”
Today, 3DLT CEO Pablo Arellano Jr. issued an apology on the site.
3DLT.com is currently in private beta. The site is not yet live and we are still testing the platform. We recently had an issue where the eCommerce portion of our site was activated and exposed to the public. Some of the products and images on the site were being used as placeholders and were not approved for use. These products and images have been removed from our site. Two orders were placed. The users have been contacted, informed of the issue and will be refunded any monies due.
We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. We take this situation seriously and will ensure that upon launch, all of our designer onboarding processes are clearly documented and available for public viewing, including our process for vetting design files.
We apologize again for any inconvenience and have put the site on hold until our development team fixes the matter.
So was this simply an innocent mistake? It definitely calls attention to the issues of copyright and piracy in 3D printing.
[...] a 3D printing marketplace that was accused of stealing designs and subsequently issued a mea culpa, has rebounded and officially launched. Wearing a tuxedo, [...]