I don't really get the whole "Give me credit!" thing when the products are sold.

If it's a freebie, then the person definitely deserves credit.

However, when they sell their product for $$$ with commercial use, then no one is entitled to get credit from anyone. Credit flew out the window when that money landed in your hand.

 

Besides, it's absolutely ridiculous to give credit in a lot of circumstances, especially for us who own thousands upon thousands of models, textures, etc. Even if we have the readme's, it's not worth the time because it could take HOURS to find the person, just to credit. For what? I just spent 1 hour of my life to credit someone I paid $20 to buy/use their model? That "credit" is essentially giving them $65, not $20, because my time is worth $55. If the model cost that much, I'd never have bought it.

Even in small projects, giving credit can be a daunting task. In huge projects? Massive ones? Credit would be ridiculous. "I'd like to give thanks to the following 3632 people..." Organizing and finding the information ALONE, or even TYPING the Credit txt, would be so significant of a time consumption that the price suddenly went from reasonable to ridiculous.

 

I really don't even have time to give credit to freebies, but I will if I have to (and remember to...and can find the readme...and don't lose the note I kept track of the credit list...and remember what I used and from who...) Although I don't use freebie stuff. I buy almost everything, and the sole fact it costs me thousands of dollars over time to buy all these different products, from hundreds of different artists, I really don't think anyone but me deserves the credit, as it's my investment, my hard work, my implementation, and what was once a 3D model and texture is now a piece of art, a game, a movie, or a picture--- which I created, and purchased the rights for. A bit irrelevant if I sell it or not.

 

 

Just my opinion. Anything I release as freebie, I don't care if I get credit or not. I gave it as a freebie because I want others to have it. If it's a product I'm selling, I don't care what they do with it-- as long as they don't resell it as their own work without any change. If they just alter the color and sell, that would be stealing because most of what I sell is grey, so that others can color it. However, I accept any loss from that "theft" as inevitable the moment I sell it. In the end, it's like piracy for movies, music, or games. You may have millions of pirated copies in the universe, but you still sold a lot, and most of the pirates wouldnt even have bought it anyways. You do lose some money, but who is to say you deserved it, when you already made thousands of sells?

 

However, any piracy of small business such as 3D artists, 2D artists, or small teams-- that is inexcusable and absolutely ridiculous. I wish laws against pirating small business (or solo business) was a heavier penalty than against multi-billion dollar companies who could care less about the loss. For them, even a million lost is nothing. For us, even a single sale is a big loss which can end up hurting us and our families.

I honestly don't care if Richie Rich loses $1 off a pirated song, even if it's a million times, since they already have more money than they could ever use. But for small businesses, a single dollar can result in food disappearing from our table. Huge difference.