Someone is selling other peoples add-ons on artstation (including mine, @pitiwazou, @iceking, @noidtluom, etc, feel free to tag people I’ve missed)
Reported, but JFYI…it is probably not something you’d want to be involved with.
It’s technically not piracy, because GPL, but it’s certainly scummy behavior.
Although legally not required to I think ArtStation typically remove such items when they’ve been reported.
I know the GPL is very pro “piracy” (yes, people ARE allowed to sell other peoples code with GPL) but it can be complicated when such a person is using the same names etc. as this may be more of IP infringement, or fraud case, or impersonation or some such.
I don’t really want to dive too much into technicalities so I will stop here. Still scummy, indeed.
I can’t speak for all the add-ons there, but in my case it is extra scummy, as keKit “V1” (or Standard Version I presume) is actually free already. Not $15.
This is 100% fraud! And such people must be reported and banned! 
Thanks for tagging me. Indeed, the BlenderBIM Add-on is free.
It’s not legally against the GPL, but it maybe against the Epic Games content guidelines (the rules behind artstation). See: https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/content-guidelines under “Scams and Deceptive Practices”.
More than just money, the bigger risk is that they’ve manipulated the package somehow and put dodgy code in there. I’ve reported both the listing as well as the user.
Another issue is that the addon code may be GPL licensed, but not all files in the product outside of the addon are required to be licensed under the GPL.
For example, the content of a product could contain training videos under a royalty-free license that restricts re-distribution. Or another example, the files alongside an asset manager addon, such as a collection of models and materials may not be allowed to be re-distributed.
In our case, the FLIP Fluids addon product contains supplementary content that is not licensed under the GPL and cannot be re-distributed. We had reported this ArtStation listing and account on February 14th 2024, but it appears that they have not yet taken action on the report and we have not heard back from ArtStation.
Despite the fact what im personally against it and buy addons which i use for my work, i dont think this can be classified as fraud in law terms.
We had reported this ArtStation listing and account on February 14th 2024, but it appears that they have not yet taken action on the report and we have not heard back from ArtStation.
Ah - that is not so great news
Send them a formal letter of C&D.
I also reported him but no answer from Artstation!
If that’s the case, the affected addon authors need to skip the reporting process and lodge a DMCA takedown request.
I dont think artstation are even send any answers. Except the cases when you wrote a letter to support or something.
In the past im few times report some users who post some nonsense in gallery like advertizing of pipe manufacturer in India, or bordel in Dubai.
Each time their pages was closed pretty fast, but again - artstaton doesnt send any notification like “Thank you for your report” or “We take an action based on your report”.
So i guess the best way to take any answer from them - is write a direct mail to their support.
Sending emails to ArtStation support is a waste of time. Make a DMCA claim to their legal department- they’re required by law to respond to it within… I forget how many days, but it’s not very many.
That sounds like a plan. Unfortunately I do not have ‘extra parts’ not subject to the GPL in my add-on(s). Yet.
edit: No wait, I do have custom Icons? those png files could maybe count?
edit2: We’ll see I guess - the custom art content in keKit is CC-BY-SA4.0 (repos updated to clarify)
I tried visiting the link today and it seems as though it’s now a 404. This could mean that ArtStation has taken it down. Can somebody confirm?
I can confirm. 404’d. (I never did send that DMCA mail, so it is unknown to me what happened)
Edit: I checked my report, and it is closed, reporting an action was taken. the language is alien, and probably automated:
Good, thank you guys!
It’s quite strange… I don’t really understand why the addons have to be licensed under GPL… Could anybody explain that to me? But good that the account seems to be taken off already.
Add-ons use blender code to do what they do. Blender wrote the code, blender has decided on the license requirements.
Yes, that’s true, but the thing is that the Blender code is open nevertheless. The addons also cost something, and there is the own code work involved. But I get the point. Still curious to me why the two things can’t be separated. It’s not as if part of the general Blender code would suddenly no longer be available because the addon code is protected.
