The story of the #3DBenchy gets a bit weirder.
Readers may recall last week’s story in which reports appeared of take-down notices for remixes of the popular #3DBenchy 3D model. At the time, it appeared that the company that created the #3DBenchy was acquired by a larger entity, NTI Group. It was believed that the new owner was flexing its intellectual property rights with take-down notices.
It turns out the story is much weirder.
An investigation by All3DP revealed that Printables, the 3D model site appearing in the online reports, had been taking down remixes due to a reported issue. The license used for the #3DBenchy is the Creative Commons 4.0 No Derivatives license, which, as you can see, does not allow derivatives.
All3DP contacted NTI Group and learned that the company had not initiated the report. NTI Group CMO Henriette Tamasauskas told All3DP:
“We are trying to establish an overview of what has happened, as we have not actively and intentionally tried to do a license reinforcement.”
In other words, they didn’t initiate the report to Printables.
Printables told All3DP:
“We are now in contact with the NTI Group, who identify themselves as the owners of the Benchy rights. Based on our conversation, they confirmed they were not the ones reporting the issue. However, we must still act in accordance with the licensing rights. We are currently discussing the matter with them, and if they choose to permit remixes, we will work together to find a sustainable and solid solution moving forward.”
This is all quite confusing for everyone. It seems that someone, we don’t know who, reported a license violation to Printables, who then acted on the report, as they should — the CC4.0 license does not permit derivatives.
Who made the report? At this point, no one seems to know. It might be simply a troublemaker, or perhaps someone utterly dedicated to supporting the CC licensing system. Or could Printables owner Prusa Research’s internal staff have noticed the licensing issue and started to rectify it on their own?
What’s next? If we read between the lines of Prusa Research’s statement above, it could be that they might persuade NTI Group to change the licensing of the #3DBenchy model to one that permits remixes. At that point, everything would be reset back to normal and would be the best outcome for all concerned.
On the other hand, I stand by my statement from the previous post: the #3DBenchy is outdated as a benchmark, and there are plenty of far more useful benchmark objects to choose from.
If you 3D print a #3DBenchy, do it for fun, not for benchmarking.
Via All3DP
