many other people have suggested that renderosity should not issue, or cancel the cheque to this vendor for this product. since cheques went out last night, and the mail system is pretty slow (and usually not in motion on weekends), they would have plenty of time to cancel the cheques. seeing as all of his purchasers have purchased a warez product and legally arent even licensed to use it, that would seem to be a sound decision. problem is, this copyright infringement claim/counterclaim process will take up to ten days, and by that time he will have cashed his cheque and laughed his ass off at a 'job well done'. what i would really like to see is everyone who purchased it get a refund, or at least a partial refund. i realise that renderosity would bear quite a cost from refunding so many purchases - because of processing fees, credit card fees, etc etc... but SOMETHING needs to be done or there is absolutely no discouragement for people that resort to this. basically, all they have to do is get away with it long enough to make a quick buck, and then it doesnt matter if they get caught - in the worst case the product will be pulled but they still keep all of the money they made. i was told by renderosity admins that the renderosity administration's responsibility ends in pulling the product. after that, any monetary claims, etc, are up to the two merchants to work out. as for taking him to court - how realistic is that? over a few hundred dollars? i dont even know if this guy is in continental north america... he could be in japan or europe for all i know. i doubt interpol is going to extradite him to canada for some major legal battle over an intangible product that only made a few hundred dollars. no, this should be dealt with by renderosity and the community. think about it. in the worst case, this guys product will be pulled permanently. woohoo. he still comes out, by far, the winner. he spent a few hours ripping off a successful product, put it up in the store and made several hundred dollars in a week or so. now it comes to light that he is not the creator of the product... but so what? he still gets his cheque, and nothing has occurred to discourage him from doing this again. in fact, he has the audacity to file a counterclaim to further delay the process. the scary thing is this though: even if the cheques werent mailed yesterday. even if this was the middle of the month, and his product was examined by the administration and proven to be a ripoff, and it was pulled from the store - HE WOULD STILL GET PAID. at the end of the month, he would still get his cheque mailed to him, and hed still be laughing his ass off at me, the poor customers who bought the damned thing - many of them had already purchased Nia and now have 2 identical products - and the administration and community. and hed definitely do it again - this time making sure he was more careful in disguising the origins of his work. so, there is a huge problem here atrenderosity. at the moment renderosity takes NO RESPONSIBILITY for enforcing copyright claims, even though the site facilitates their perpetration. and, people know that it is not within most artist's means to take a matter like this to court - especially over an intangible item and an offense that totals under a grand. so people get away with it, and there are no deterrents. they dont even get banned from the site. so what id like to see is renderosity take more responsibility in protecting its merchants interests. no, im not asking for it to hire a hoarde of admins to police the marketplace and freestuff looking for potential offenders, nor am i asking them to pay for my legal costs or take legal action on my behalf or anything rediculous like that. what i AM asking, however, is that a firm set of policies come into place that deal with this type of activity. a set of rules for the marketplace and freestuff that protects the merchants and their intellectual property. ie: first offense - warning, immediate removal of product. second offense - removal of the merchant account and banning from renderosity in the case of an artist having their intellectual property ripped off and sold under another merchant name, the offending merchant SHOULD NOT BE PAID. the profits should be reimbursed to the customers and/or the copyright owner, and all of the purchasers should be notified of what activity has taken place. now this is just an example. but i would like to see a firm set of guidelines in place for protection of intellectual property - wether those people are just uploading images to the gallery, uploading freestuff, or selling in the marketplace. thank you for your support. hopefully this gets resolved quickly, and with enough support by merchants issues like this become the catalyst for renderosity finally adopting some stricter policies on behalf of the intellectual property rights of the merchants it claims to support so much, and also those of merchants on other sites and communities. cheers, -gabriel (posted a copy of this in the other thread in the poser forum: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12356&Form.ShowMessage=1223357 )