I recently had a watchface deleted because of the Tag logo being used, it’s ok, I understand it was my fault…
What makes me angry is the amount of watchfaces using Tag, Breitling, Bentley, Hublot, Omega, etc, etc, etc, including official logos and lettering, some of them fresh but some of them around for months and months, and they don’t get reported or deleted.
Is it because my Carrera SpaceX watchface was the only one decent, with fully working dials and AOD display, and some jealous user with a sub-par replica reported it because he doesn’t know better? Or is this so random that a ton of users are lucky enough to just keep on using copyrighted material without getting a ban?
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It is often because someone from Tag sees a replica face and threatens legal action… I am tired of of all the blatant copies too…
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I recently released another face, and when i went to see if it showed on the “fresh” list, voila, 3 or 4 faces from the same user with official lettering and logos from Omega.
Facer needs a system similar to Samsung’s. We submit the watchface, Facer checks it first, and then if everything is in order, the release is made.
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I think its because the Facer staff don’t check what’s in their catalogue. They are only reactive, and remove once it’s reported.
Hence why you see thousands of copies that are still there. No-one has reported them.
I 100% agree…Best solution is to just create everything yourself and avoid copyrighted material (which, unfortunately, usually means less downloads). I prefer the reactionary approach Facer has though - It would take forever if they had to scan everything manually.
I’m all for inspiration on things that you like, I’m a big watch fan, so it’s no surprise that I search for inspiration on some models sometimes, without replicating them.
But one thing is getting inspiration, another is making a replica, and worst of all, making a replica from a downloaded photo or screenshot from the real watch, and not even putting all the dials working (i saw a couple of watch faces like this)
Yes, the filtering would take time, but that’s the price you pay for better fairness among designers and even more quality. I design faces for Samsung Galaxy Apps Store too, through the Gear Watch Designer, sometimes they take almost a week to approve something, and sometimes not approving because they detected a bug or something like that. It’s a pain sometimes, but it’s the only way to ensure better quality control.
The way things are right now, I don’t expect meeting the demands for being authorized to sell premium watchfaces any time soon. And I’m pretty sure there’s a ton of much more skilled designers than me around here that feel the same.
Hmm it would be hard to monitor so many applicants (especially without the $$ of Samsung behind it). I do think yours probably got pulled because TAG spotted it (which is fair enough). I guess eventually all the knock offs will get caught - Even if they don’t, the people making them definitely won’t be considered for premium status.
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a possible solution is to go through the copies and report them
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True, but that would definitely need a secondary screening system to stop people getting banned for legitimate copyright-free replicas and prevent people getting others banned because they don’t like them etc 
I wonder if that’s what they do already? Or if they just blanket delete watches that are flagged?
Sadly the recurring theme is facer being the bottleneck - they do a great job but really need to get their thinking caps on with this - I’d start with simple measures - such as banning any copyrighted brands and making that a flag in the QA process that is already in place.
As it stands the branded copies are distorting synchs and legit designers are suffering
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I have made many copies. I’ve duplicated them and saved them as drafts. Then, I deleted the released ones later on so my account doesn’t get ditched.
Is it true that if I release some and people favorite them, they can still use them after I delete them?
@FacerOfficial what say you?
Yes it’s true - I’ve got a deleted one (didn’t think it was up the scratch) that’s favourited that I (and others I know who favourited it) can still sync from the watchbox months after deletion. Sounds like you’re trying to go 'black market ’ and keep copyright infringing copies out there without getting in trouble though? I wouldn’t recommend doing that - I’m sure Facer would catch on eventually
So, it’s worth creating the faces, duplicating them on my own, release one, then ditch it like a week later…?
I realize this is off subject, but since you mentioned the Gear Watch Designer, I had to check it out. It is certainly lacking documentation, but its workings were similar enough to Facer Creator that I was able to figure it out. It left me frustrated in several ways. Applying a tint to the watch hands didn’t change their color, there appears to be 2 different tags for watch hand rotation and i didn’t know what difference it made, and after saving a watch face I had no idea how to test it on my watch or submit it to Samsung
Copies of brands with brand names would probably be easier to find than copies of clock face images that someone simply copies and adds hands to. That too distorts synchs and is unfair to the legit designers who spend many hours on their work. Where is the line drawn for that?
Um… design clones are not actually a net negative for the Facer ecosystem. Due to their popularity with certain users, I doubt they will ever be banned.
Creating a high fidelity clone is nontrivial as well. For instance, some of @luro117’s are outstanding (https://www.facer.io/user/imPkJVhJRR). The sky is big enough for us to coexist with them, right? 
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You need a Samsung Account, ask for an Author Certificate from within the app, and also another one which is generated by having a compatible Gear watch connected to the app via WiFi debug mode.
The instructions for this are on the app itself.
After you have finished a project, you have to choose “build” option, which is only possible with those certificates generated.
Then you can submit it to Samsung by pressing the last button which looks like a shopping cart. That will take you to Samsung’s developer webpage where you login with your account, apply for a free distributor account and submit your project.
For selling you have to apply for an Authorized Application Seller account, which is free but has a proper procedure to do, everything is explained there.
All this seems cumbersome and a bit exaggerated but it’s easier than it seems.
You can blame them for lack of creativity maybe, but not for copyright infringement. Unless it’s a carbon copy of a copyrighted design as a whole.
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That depends on how the original artist who has copyrighted or watermarked an image feels about it. Some are honored by having someone else use their work; others strictly forbid it.
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