WTF !! Fujimi stole my work........

Have a read of this :

http://www.liveupdater.com/toymod/fujimilivearticle.asp?ArtID=1603241709

Main page is here : http://www.toymod.com/

Me...A Fujimi Engineer ?

:disappoin

In reality I don't think a Fujimi employee has ever built a Fujimi kit. Otherwise they'd know what shockers many of them are and improve. :lol:

I hope you can kick the asses of the guys responsible, Steve. To be fair it looks like a New Zealand affiliate. Probably some sumbag importer middle man looking to rip the modeling comuity off, the real Fujimi company included.

i think you need to have a little word with them maybe even in a court house,maybe if they asked you and stuff it woulda been ok,but stealing your pictures?! they need to be fined a crap load of money.

I noticed they cropped the photos just enough to hide the infamous HiroBoy watermark. I don't understand what the big deal is about people not giving credit where credit is due? Isn't this the second time someone's claimed your work as their own? I recall another incident awhile back.

Cropping off the watermark is just wrong. Implies they knew what they were doing and are stupid enough to think they could get away with it.

Taking credit for other people's work is unfortunately very common. Some of the best modellers now refuse to publish their work on the internet because of numerous similar instances in the past.

What a bloody cheek!

As if it is not bad enough that they are taking credit for your work without your permission, but also deceiving potential customers with the fine turned metal brakes, etc that you have crafted yourself.

I would complain to see what they say.

I suppose in a good way, your work is recognised by a mainstream manufacturer.

i think it's outrageous that a big model company just steals their photo's. You' d think they have their own built up models, but instead they nick your pics because you made a gigantic effort to improve their model (and succeeded btw, *kneeling to hiroboy, omnipotent modeling master*), so they would look good advertising a kit that isn't as good as the photo's imply. It's deceptive and overall wrong.

(still it's cool that you apparently model better than the professional modelers hired by fujimi)

I suppose it could be seen as a form of flattery......... yeah, if you're blind!!!!

Man, this is waaaay out of order and I would be looking for somebody responsible so I could go to town on his face. I'm not sure if you've got any legal standing with regards the pictures. Have you had them registered as copyright? But one thing IS for sure, they're falsely advertising a product which will NOT turn out like the pictures and for that alone they must pay!

Do you know anyone who works in law? Or is there anyone on these forums who is familiar with this kind of possible copyright infringement and false advertising?

THEY......MUST......PAY

Did you mail a copy of the pictures to a third party, and to yourself to prove this as copyright material, as you being the owner?

The proof though is that you do have the actual car, so it will be easier to prove you are the owner of the images, but all images if to be copyrighted need to be mailed to yourself and to another trusted party, such as a respected person you know, like a school teacher, or a professional person etc..

Taken from a copyright website - They own the rights to this but I thought it would help you -

"In the UK, as in most countries, a document, work, or creative project is automatically copywritten upon the day of creation by virtue of its creation. By placing the author's name, date and the word 'copyright' or the legally accepted symbol "©" along with date of creation, this is in effect, declaring the copyright of an author's work. It does not protect you in case of litigation. And the old method of posting yourself a copy of your work through registered or recorded delivery is proving less reliable. Written, documentary evidence of date and time of registration is the only full-proof satisfactory way you can be sure your work is ultimately and safely protected. "

Search the net for copyright companies that can provide written registration, as the charges can sometimes be small, but peace of mind is high.

Then hit them with legal action, as you will stand a better chance when you can prove "without" doubt you are the legal owner.

[email protected] ([email protected])


There's the e-mail address. Lets let these people know how the people feel about spending our money with crooks.

Get a laywer. They have money.. This is YOUR work

Fujimi stole my work too!

Their work:
Fujimi 355 Spider (http://www.hlj.com/product/FUJ12230)

My work:
Veyron's 355 conversion (http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=89595&highlight=F355) :icon16:

Fu***** BASTARDS! Why cant they just ask instead of just steal?

It's absolutely not fair they say the builder is some kind of Fujimi employee. At least they should have mentioned you to be the builder. And even then, they definitaly should have asked you.

On the other hand, it maybe could be a missunderstanding. Maybe they really think you're a Fujimi employee. Which isn't an compliment to be honest... You definitely should make work of this situation. This is not right.

This is totaly not fair, its like hurting your own brother. They should pay in full.

Its a war now.

What the fuck is Fujimi thinking i got the same opinion that no fujimi employee ever buildet a kit, and it is a shame that they say it becouse i followed the build of your car steve and you did so many scratchbuild things to this model that you can say just the base of the car is the same.


I wonder if they even know that there 1/24 kits are shitty most of the time ????

Kick there ASSES Steve :evillol:


Even Steve have you read what is standing on the page ??

If you are a member of our Fujimi Kit Club you could win a prize for having your image on Fujimi.co.nz

Tell than that you want a big Price for this shit!


And steve if you are a Fujimi Engineer why didn't you tell us , than we could come with our wishes to you what Fujimi should change at there its !! LOL :lol::lol::lol::rofl::rofl::lol::lol::lol:

And steve if you are a Fujimi Engineer why didn't you tell us , than we could come with our wishes to you what Fujimi should change at there its !! LOL :lol::lol::lol::rofl::rofl::lol::lol::lol:

That's exactly a good reason to not telling it :loser: ,if steeve was a fujimi's employee.

That story is really a copyright violation IMHO :disappoin , even if a good part of the modeling scene can recognize hiro's awesome work.

I am now waiting for a reply from a contact I have in Fujimi in Japan, not NZ, who know about this model and emailed me last year.
I sent him some photos, but he promised to link to my website and to credit me.

Dear Mr. Hiroboy
On this time, we can check your web.
I would like to ask you about our item.
Can you send take picture Original photo?
Or Can you send model for us?
I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank you.
Regards
Fujimi Mokei Co.,Ltd

i don't think it's specifically fujimi who did it.
it looks to me that it's the toymod site's guys who did it.
but yeah, going direct to fujimi japan (before confronting toymod) makes sense.

I am now waiting for a reply from a contact I have in Fujimi in Japan, not NZ, who know about this model and emailed me last year.
I sent him some photos, but he promised to link to my website and to credit me.
Dear Mr. Hiroboy
On this time, we can check your web.
I would like to ask you about our item.
Can you send take picture Original photo?
Or Can you send model for us?
I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank you.
Regards
Fujimi Mokei Co.,Ltd



Oh no, he isn't serious? Is he?? "Dear Mr. Hiroboy" LOL! If you're going to say Mr. it's preffered to use the REAL name instead of the nickname :iceslolan . "we can check your web." correction: we can check your *WEBSITE*. "Can you send model for us?" He (as in Fujumi) isn't satisfied enough with stealing the pictures, now he (as in Fujumi) wants to steal the whole model??? That's one interesting kind of guy. I honestly don't know whether to laugh or cry. I guess I'll laugh.. :lol: I wish you good luck and hope that everything will turn out for good for you. :)

i highly doubt fujimi would rip you off like that. if in fact fujimi did, i would contact every lawyer possible, because you most definetly have a case against them, and their are definetly a large corp which you could sue for a lot of damages.

on the other hand, i highly doubt fujimi stole them.

i think its toycar ltd or whatever the site was. if he thought you were a fujimi employee and he is selling a fujimi product i could see him using your images, BUT

definetly not cropping out your name and giving you no credit at all. i would sue the website they are published on. end of story. get your lawyer to tell him to remove the pictures, and if he does not, have him served with a subpoena to appear in court ;)

jesus christ....

he sent an e-mail to a guy in japan.
any fool can see that it is just a case of bad english.

the site in question on which the pictures appeared are from a place in new zealand and the posting of said images MIGHT NOT have anything to do with fujimi (the company) itself.

added:
not sure what kind of case you have anyway.
the site lists the images as being of someone's work
i.e toymod aren't claiming them to be their own
which doesn't point to them (directly) having breached copyrights or theft of intellectual property: they can always say they were given the images in good faith and do not have details of the person who initially supplied the images.

there's always the possibility that the images were suplied to toymod by someone claiming to be a fujimi employee which would point to them being 'victims' as well.

That is complete and utter bull shit. I too am outraged. You most definately have a case against the publishers and owners of the site.

Complete bullshit.

Hey,

Good luck man. You'd better get godam credit! And they'd better compensate you for all those models you built for them. lol...fujimi engineer...good luck agian.

Frank X.

Hey, Steve just sue Fujimi for a few grand and tell them to make better quality kits or else and to give you a few kits as forgiveness.

Are there any possibilities for you to get legal help( An halfhour describing the situation with a lawyer and discussing with him your possibilities )?
All i think is that there probably isn`t any money in it, but a excuse on the site and a presentation of you and your model is better than nothing.

Well...I just voiced my .02 to gavin.

I'm with Amazon and I think you should seek legal advice to see where you stand. Many countries are not goverend by strict copyright laws etc so help is advised.

My other comment would be to put your watermark in the middle of your pictures in future as the likes of Autoexpress do on their website.

Let us know how it goes.

My other comment would be to put your watermark in the middle of your pictures in future as the likes of Autoexpress do on their website.


I just started doing that again...just in case. (Not that anyone would want my pics anyway :icon16:)

I can't believe they've done that..
and they have the nerve to have copyright toymod on their page..
#@$@#% *$@%!...
good luck!

they shouldnt be doing that

...my point was.....

never be so quick to make rash comments without first asking a few questions.
which is why i said that it was godd to contact fujimi in japan BEFORE contacting the toymod site.

yes, the use of the pics without due credit and lieing about the origins of them is wrong, i don't dispute that.
i would just prefere to know WHO is at fault before shouting about it.

Damn Hiroboy, Id be extra Pissed. Sue! They stole your artwork and said it was theirs! Pleurisy is against the law.

Looks like they have got the message and the pics/text have been removed...

Damn... and I missed it.

do you know how long it had been there before you found it?
I wonder if they'll say it was never there..

>Hiroboy

I understand your rage, but quite frankly, I don't see any connection between the website and the Fujimi company, except for the model being manufactured by Fujimi.

I've never seen any company that shows a detailed or modified model as an example either on the box, instruction sheet or website. And that includes the sales brochures and new kit info that's only been handled by manufacturers and distributors.

Copyright issues are much more strict than what average consumers would think, and companies (but not resin kit industries) are extremely careful about it.

There are many other reasons for me to believe that it's a misconduct of this New Zealand retailer, and I advise you to be careful how to title a thread. Who knows, it could be one of the AF members.

And if you need an English speaking contact, try Bluefin. They're the official destributor in the US, fluent in English and in direct contact with Fujimi.
http://www.bluefincorp.com/

crap, i didnt get to see it either

I got a reply from Fujimi NZ (Toymod.com) :


Thank you for your email.
Sorry for the misunderstanding.
These images were supplied to us from Fujimi and put up on our site.
They did not advise details about who built the model so we assumed it had been built by them.
Please advise whether you would like the images to be still be featured on our website. If so please provide information relating to the building and detailing of the model.
We are happy to feature any other Fujimi model kits you have also.

Weird. :sly: :eek7:

Please advise whether you would like the images to be still be featured on our website. If so please provide information relating to the building and detailing of the model.

What unmitigated gaul to ask if you still want the model 'featured'. Perhaps they did get the pictures from Fujimi but it sounds like they made the rest up, probably cropped the watermark too.

Tell them they can still feature it, and that you will be sending them an invoice soon. :p

Mmmhh, sounds kind of weird, what toymod is aiming at with the reply. They tell you that they actually didn´t have any contribution to your pictures appearing on their websites in terms that they didn´t know that those pictures where provided by you and - unlegally spoken - belong to you. This also claim that they didn´t know that they weren´t allowed to use your pictures on their site due to the fact that they didn´t know that those pictures belong to you instead of the guy, who gave the pictures to them.

Adding to this, I don´t think that you have some sort of copyright - issue here. It´s more an issue of your right of your informational self-determination, saying that it is up to you to decide, whether information of you is published without you knowing about it.

The only thing you can achieve - regarding that you don´t have any fincial loss - is to file for injunctive relief against toymod and - if you can find out - the person from Fujimi, who gave those pictures away.
But that´ll cost some money and you will have law suites in Japan and New Zealand. As I understand you are from the UK, so this will be tough and I doubt, whether it will be worth the effort.
The second downside of a law suite is that toymod will claim that they got the pictures in good faith and you will have to prove that toymod acted in a neglect of duty posting those pictures on their site without your consent.

So I´d say: Forget about legal actions and ask for an apology. Tell them explicitly not to use any of your pictures in the future. You might want to add that you are aware of the possibilities of legal actions against toymod.
Also - in the future - mark your pictures in the middle of the shown objects. I know that this will be hard for all the visitors of our forum because your work deserves to be viewed without any watermarks in front of your - always - exceptional work.

All this talk about Lawyers, not a route I would ever go down, we don't sue everyone in the UK.
But I just found it funny that they did what they did, knowingly or not.
They have apologised, that fine with me.

Sucks when you don't get credit for your work. Rest assured this won't be the last time, you will have to get used to it and unfortunately there is little you can do about it.

Sucks when you don't get credit for your work. Rest assured this won't be the last time, you will have to get used to it and unfortunately there is little you can do about it.
Not the first and as you say not the last :)

All this talk about Lawyers, not a route I would ever go down, we don't sue everyone in the UK.

True, I just thought that since lots of people talked about that on the board, I might add my opinion on that. Also I wanted to give some reasons, why it´s not helpful to think about the "courthouse journey"!

don't worry about that, in the uk, we're more educated/sensible with regards to what deserves legal action and what does not.

don't worry about that, in the uk, we're more educated/sensible with regards to what deserves legal action and what does not.

Hahaha...we Americans just want money. Money... Speaking of which, my very first word when I was little was "Money". :lol:

that's not what i meant....

all too often i hear cries of "lawsuit" when nothing is known of the situation beyond the general.
which, again, is why i applauded hiroboy for contacting fujimi in japan directly first to see what is going on.

what's worse is that i'm going to assume that most of those here who pointed towards legal action don't even know the law behind the situation.
i was always told, "don't talk about things you don't know".

saying "you can sue them" isn't the same as "you have a case to sue them", which in this case is even worse because you don't even know who is at fault.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2583&item=5969488403&rd=1

This guy is using Kunta's photos to sell his kit!

I seem to have my own range for merchandise
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6521715955&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1
and
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4542017917&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1
and
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10400&item=4542653920&rd=1

Contact them all with no replys :) :loser:

Crikey, they even left the watermark on that one Steve! You should contact eBay and let them sort it out (if they will).

Is that Kunta's 934? Never seen it before - totaly awesome. I wonder if there are any eBay rules against using uncredited images to sell a kit?

Feel proud that someone is selling your models as a fridge magnet hiro, PROUD!

*even though none of the crap that bloke is selling looks real*

I seem to have my own range for merchandise
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6521715955&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1
and
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4542017917&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1
and
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10400&item=4542653920&rd=1

Contact them all with no replys :) :loser:

Haha!!! :lol::lol: Ask them for a cut!

I guess I don't understand how they would ever think about doing such a thing. I still can't even beleive it! :rofl::rofl:

Steve, good luck settling this. The principle is obviously not right.