I’ve spent a lot of time modelling Star Wars spaceships in the past, but they’re just sitting on my Hard Drive collecting dust. Unfortunately, I can’t sell them on sites like CG Trader since I don’t have the rights to the Star Wars IP, and technically it’s illegal. Despite this, I put two of them up for free download two years ago, and they’ve been downloaded around 20 thousand times without much advertising or optimization for the normal Blender user.
Recently, I lost my full-time job in the VFX industry and am trying to make some side money by selling Blender-related content. It’s frustrating to know that I have high-quality Star Wars models that I can’t use to earn extra income due to my consciousness, even though everyone else seems to be doing it. So, my question is, what are some ways to earn money with these models without directly selling them?
One idea I had was to open a Patreon account where people can support me by donating some money, and as a thank you, they can get access to my Star Wars models and other content. This way, people aren’t directly buying the models, but instead supporting me, and receiving them as a token of appreciation. However, I’m not sure if this is just a trick for myself and won’t make any difference legally.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Sorry, you can’t. Commercial use doesn’t just mean direct selling- it also means you can’t monetize YouTube videos with these models, offer them through Patreon, etc.
That said, with a lot of IPs you can slip under the radar a bit. Star Wars is a special case, owned by Disney. You don’t mess with Disney.
They have the world’s best lawyers and they’ve re-written copyright law dozens of times to benefit themselves. They are famous for bullying even fair use instances of their IP with crippling DMCA notices and burying people in legal fees. This is not a battle you can win and I would not recommend trying. People with much more money and huge teams of lawyers have tried and failed.
P. S. Since you’ve admitted in writing in your post that you comprehend and understand that you don’t have any legal ground to use these models commercially, you doubly can’t slip under the radar now. You could have maybe gotten away with it if you could plead ignorance (you’d still get DMCAed and lose a ton of money, but you’d probably be able to settle instead of facing legal penalties), but not now. Your post can and will be used against you by Disney’s lawyers
Are they direct copies of those as seen in the movies or ships that have the same vibe to them…You can do ships that could fit in with originals but completely your own concepts that do not Mention " Star Wars " or refer to it in any way…and then you stand a chance…but it is still risky…
I did a 2d drawing several years ago of a " Marine Band Harmonica" as a T-Shirt design. All hell broke loose when I received a notice from Washington telling me in no certain terms that I had 24 hrs to remove it from the internet, the store had already removed the content…
I was in Direct Copyright Violation as " Marine " the word is the Copy Right of the US Marine Corps.
Disney is far worse to deal with!
That’s odd… because beside the maritime relation in marine-biology, -habitats, -life it’s also an mostly female first name… and the name for “navy” in several languages… so maybe StaWarsDisney should not call it the force anymore… because of the air-, armed-, elite-, special-, task-, -force(s) ?? But then again…maybe they are beaten by the force of nature…
I think in that case their success hadn’t anything to do with laws and copyrights though (I’m seriously in doubt you can legally claim any ownership of “Marine” as much as of “Ocean” or the word “blue” - and if you can, your laws are fundamentally flawed), but because they arethe f*ckin USMarineCorps, they didn’t like that and they would have come for ya, in a tide of sheer, overwhelming force.
Actually, from my experience, Star Wars are pretty chill when it comes to this kind of thing, unless you actively hinder one of their own massive marketing pushes. (Baby Yoda is a prime example of this).
The 3D printing, Prop Making and Cosplay community is overloaded with amazingly talented individuals that release Star Wars files, and LucasFilm kinda encourage it - heck, they even hire the people for costumes when they need extra hands!
Two words: 3D Printing. There is huge interest in high quality models for this very purpose, from Hobbyists, cosplayers, and collectors. If you can adapt your files for 3D print, and they’re not directly linked to anything Disney/LucasFilm are aggressively pushing themselves (which isn’t much these days), then you’re more than likely to be good. Just realise, that most of the time, it’s individual websites policies - designed to protect their own asses - that often hinder earning income from these things. There are several 3D printing related outlets which are more relaxed when it comes to copyright, and so you’re more likely to be able to sell there as opposed to Etsy, for example.
Another option is to offer the files yourself. Start an Instagram page, post images if your files, and tell people to DM if interested. You can then use PayPal invoicing (or whatever you desire) to handle the money side of things, and either simply email files to people, or use some kind of hosting site to do if for you.
Regardless though, just be prepared for bad eggs who will buy your files and re-distribute them for a quick buck. It happens all the time and there’s not much you can do about it.
It was specifically that I drew the harmonica and it looked like this image but in pencil and the fact that the “Marine Band” is a Group of the US Marine Corps…and the Name and Image is Copy Right of the US Marines Corps…
I drew it as a realistically faithful image, something like this…
When I first got the message from my store, I thought it might have been from Hohner copyrights…but when I looked …
…surprise, surprise! ( hope that’s not copyright material)
It was from the office of the US Marines…it was during the time that they were cracking down on all infringements like the Marine Logos and the Bulldog… all of that…
I was in the wrong, but luckily it wasn’t as serious as it could have been… I was at least WARNED… VERY STRONGLY… and I apologized admitting my mistake and swore that it would never happen again…
This is all true, and technically you can do whatever you want. I’m just saying when you’re on the wrong side of the law and relying on a company’s goodwill to stay safe, that goodwill may change very suddenly and leave you out at sea without a sail
Ooh for sure. Using my own example, I remember when people started getting slammed with copyright for their Baby Yoda stuff. It was madness at the time as no-one was used to it.
Of course some have absolutely no chill, though, regardless.
Warner are the absolute worse. They’ll claim your first born in damages if you’re not careful
Any commercial use is commercial use, at the risk of sounding obvious. That is to say, if someone pays you to make something that infringes on someone’s IP, you are at risk legally.
There’s a common misunderstanding that “commercial” means “direct selling”; it’s far more expansive than this- commercial means you benefit or you could benefit from an action financially. Note that you don’t have to make any money; if you monetize a YouTube video with Disney content and that video gets 0 views, it’s still copyright infringement even though you didn’t make a cent from it.
Again, you can probably get away with it most of the time, even though it’s not technically legal. You have to be aware that you are technically breaking the law and you could get in trouble.
Also, this is all US only, I don’t know enough to speak for other countries
Thank you all for the replies. I guess I’m going with the safest, yet not completely legal option, which is to offer them for free, while trying to also redirect some of that trafic to my paid products.
so maybe StaWarsDisney should not call it the force anymore… because of the air-, armed-, elite-, special-, task-, -force(s) ?? But then again…maybe they are beaten by the force of nature… 
