There is a guy here in Facer who has quite a few faces featured in the “trending” and “top free” lists that are in fact 100% stolen graphics. I know this because I know the designers who actually made the graphics for faces on the WM platform. And apparently this guy has been banned from a number of the WM forums for this very thing.
I reported a particular face several days ago using the link provided in the preview of the watch face. Never heard back besides the initial auto-response. I reported the same face a couple of days later. Still no response, and still these faces are up and even promoted in the afore mentioned lists.
I’m new to Facer so I don’t know how such things are usually handled but I would have hoped Facer’s response would have been more … Well, anything actually.
To add to the mix, all the faces with stolen graphics are of various established brands. I made a point of saying I was not reporting for that reason but rather for the stolen graphics. But still, I thought Facer took a hard line against ANY replicas or brand names. Why are they being featured in their promoted lists still days after I bring them to Facer’s attention?
It bugs me because here I am trying to get a foothold here by publishing a prolific amount of high quality 100% original work for free just trying to get in the door towards the ability to sell faces, and I’m up against a fraud who’s capitalizing on stolen work of popular but supposedly not allowed designs yet he’s still getting promoted by Facer via these lists in the “explore”… Even after being reported.
Have you tried emailing them? Also, saying @Facer_Official tags them and they are more likely to see this post. Hope you have success with getting them off the platform!
The “official” way to report a face, from what I can gather, is by clicking the little gear icon in the preview. It opens up an email to Facer with the subject field already provided. So yes, I’ve emailed them. Twice. No response. Literally every face this guy has up, 20+, is stolen graphics.
While I have not reported any faces, my experience with Facer support for other issues has been mostly the same as described here. No response at all !
Since 23 January 2020, I have logged 5 requests with Facer support (inappropriate comments on faces, appeal for incorrect take down of a face of mine and bug reports).
The first was replied to and actioned after 4 days (I guess OK: it was minor; report of an inappropriate comment on another new user’s face).
Of the remaining 4, one has disappeared completely and the rest are sitting without any reply from Facer, despite a comment or two from my side requesting a status update on some.
The oldest is now more than a month old. To add insult to injury, this oldest request is to remove inappropriate comments on one of my own faces by the same user I reported initially!
Perhaps this a deliberate strategy by Facer to drive support to this community instead of their own support staff (although this community cannot assist with inappropriate comments or faces) .
If so, then it is working, at least for me - I am at the point now where I consider it pointless to log anything with Facer support.
If not, then @Facer_Official should look into this urgently.
Just to be clear, I do not expect immediate resolution of all requests, especially not bug reports, but an automated email reply confirming receipt is not acknowledgment enough.
At minimum there should be an attempt to engage with the user via a reply on the actual ticket within say 3 days max. In the case of a bug report it should be determined if it actually is a bug, and then attempt to work around the bug until the developers can implement a fix.
If you suspect “stolen” graphics the professional thing to do in these cases would be to contact the member privately to inquire about his resources. By doing that you will know better whether they are in fact stolen or were provided with the correct credentials, such as a PSP paint tube. If your artist friends who own the images contact Facer per TOS to provide ownership of the graphics they will probably receive a reply.
These aren’t clip art style faces, so there is no “correct credentials” possible. and it’s not a case of “suspecting”. It is 100% conclusively known that this guy literally stole every layer of graphics from at least 4 different designers from the WM platform (that I know of) and used those graphics to rebuild the exact same faces here in Facer. Those designers have left comments in the previews of the faces AND written to Facer.
But even if Facer wanted time to verify the theft, these are all replica faces which are supposed to be prohibited right? But still those faces are prominently featured in the promoted “top” and “trending” lists on Facer at the expense of those of us actually doing original designs with our own graphics. So that tells me Facer isn’t even doing a minimal following up on these reports.
I don’t share your confidence. It’s been days. From Facer’s perspective what’s there to look into? Even if they completely discount the stolen graphics, every one of this guy’s faces is supposedly in violation of Facer’s TOS for copyright violations. I can understand brand names slipping through the cracks, honestly they are all over the Facer platform, but here they are still up AND being promoted days after being reported. He’s got at least 5 or 6 in the “top free” list. Every one both stolen AND brand/copyright infringement.
Ferrari ? Ball watch company? …lol… again, nothing to confirm. Main stream IP and brand names. It’s obvious. If they read the email and bothered to even look at the guy’s faces, and enforced their own their own TOS, they’d have taken them down immediately.
Keep going mate, I appreciate it, like I’m certain the others do. But I do think you are wasting your time. There appears to be a double standard, others have had the same problem and nothing has happened. I find it intriguing that there is stolen graphics everywhere in here. You know as well as I, it’s very easy to recognise your own work. All they have done, is removed the brand and posted. I give up.
As I understand it only the intellectual property owner or a person authorised by them can raise a DMCA notice. You could pass the link to the people who own the IP and they could follow the process.
Yes it can be frustrating, on the other hand, anyone who publishes digital copies of anyone else’s designs, famous brands or otherwise, may be disappointed if they hope to become a Creative Partner. So despite the frustration that they seem to be getting away with it for a long time at least you can know that they are not likely to succeed in the long run.
Right - these Cloners violate rights, disappoint all creatives and do have influences on the charts. Besides that - they form a false opinion that you only can be successful in getting syncs and follower when you post clones. Such clones and the people who publish them must be banned for everyones sake.
That might be a bit extreme, considering you’ll probably never get rid of them anyway ban one, another joins up. It’s just endless extra work on their end.
That said, whatever system they have in place to check whether a report is valid or not should bit a lot more agile, even if the person issuing the report isn’t the watch face’s owner… Though considering that “new” system they have in place to automatically flag a watch face you publish, my guess is they just don’t have the man-power to make checking these reports any more agile than what it already is, no matter who issues the report; at the end of the day the report is still an e-mail they have to read through to even learn if the sender is or isn’t the original owner of some sort of intellectual property.
It’s not extreme. It’s like exterminating any type of pest. Keep removing them and eventually there are fewer to deal with because they will go where they can survive.
There’s no telling if that’s actually what’s gonna happen though until you put the experiment in motion, and like I said, I’m guessing it’s gonna take a lot of extra work, when they can’t even timely check for copyright reports. Not to say it’s a bad idea necessarily, but it is extreme.
The bottom line for me is very disappointed in @Facer_Official lack of response and communication. I recognize the likely lack of manpower to be instantaneous with every response, but I would think that multiple emails from multiple people as well as a lengthy thread here where they’ve been tagged would at least merit a “we’re looking into it” response after this many days.
If you’re curious about what faces all this is about, scroll down the “top free” list, you’ll quickly spot a few “Ferrari Jumbo” faces, a couple of Ball faces, and a couple of Bell and Ross faces. All published here by the same guy. Click on one so you can see his whole collection. Literally every face was a) actually made by someone else, and b) a blatant and instantly verifiable violation of Facer TOS for copyright infringement.
Now, even if you say A is not easily proven, we can just throw that out because B is instantly conclusive.
So again, how is it that Facer is allowing these to remain in their promoted sections let alone anywhere on their platform? We’re not talking about a lone vague Rolex knockoff buried deep in the vastness of Facer, we’re talking about 6 or 7 direct undisguised copies being prominently featured by Facer’s own promotional lists, from a guy who’s entire catalog is such copies. (And don’t forget stolen on top of that!)
The point has been made clear to me, no replicas allowed on Facer. Because I’m looking to reach designer starts I am respecting that. But again, if that is such a critical point, why the utter inaction over such a blatant violation that’s making a mockery of the rule and Facer’s enforcement of their own rules?
ban one, another joins up. It’s just endless extra work on their end.