Sketchfab, Is it safe

code7

Hello,
         Is it safe to upload models to sketchfab? I have seen some forum threads which have information about ripping models. Is there are any functions to protect models? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Magihat

If you just don't allow downloads it is probably as safe anything on the rest of the internet. Just triangulate and don't upload the highest quality textures if you are that concerned about it. 

ZacD

It's possible to rip models from any 3d viewport/player/game. There's no way to prevent it, the model data has to be sent to the GPU where it can be ripped out. 

Tits

I've unfortunatly always refused to use any viewer because of this, 
Back when I was doing 3d printing I could see so many models on 3d printing websites (sometimes to sell!!). I've checked many time and the people selling them weren't the original creator for said models, they had ripped the models out of sketchfab.
I found forums where people were sharing knowledge about how to extract the models etc.
I guess that as long as you upload your model somewhere, you need to accept the risk that people will get their hands on it.

Joopson

Honestly, as artists, we're selling our skills. From this perspective, having a model stolen through an online viewer shouldn't be much of a concern. Even if they decide to sell it, it's really not effecting you (beyond the "they're selling something they didn't make, that's not fair" aspect of it). Because it's unlikely they can go and get a job using someone else's models as their portfolio; they'd be found out fast.

However, if you make a living or partial living through selling those models (Say you have them available through some asset store, but allow people to view them in toolbag or sketchfab on your website), then it's, in my opinion, a much more reasonable thing to be concerned about. Because they may well just rip them instead of paying whatever you charge.

ZacD

If you are selling asset packs, it's still probably worth it to have a 3d preview of one of the assets. But artists having been dealing with stolen art since the 2D days. It's just something you have to accept and move on from. 

Zack Maxwell

Not like that type of person would have actually bought it without the opportunity to steal it, anyway. The real problem is when they try selling it themselves elsewhere, or give it away.

fdfxd2

I'll just copy and paste what I said in the other thread

"Well... not 100% as it uses webgl and you can infact rip webgl models(i tried at one point, but not for illegal reasons, I wanted to rip an old game model so I could have nice reference to remaster it in HD)

But I've also seen the ceo actively search for these forums and shut them down(Not in a scummy DMCA war but asking them to stop)/reverse engineer them

So I have faith in sketchfab


But I got a few ideas on protection
make the sketchfab version of the model, so broken(add a bunch of non manifold edges, add a bunch of inconsistent tris turn edges that shouldn't be ngons into ngons,etc) that it's more efficient for the theif to just buy the model than try to fix it,

just don't break it to the extent that it makes the model look bad."

JordanN

You should do what those anti-piracy techniques in games do and make secret changes to the model. So if you see a stolen one, you can tell it's not using the original.

code7

Thanks for the reply guys. Actually I'm going to use sketchfab for my online stores(cgtrader,3dexport) since they have implement the sketchfab previews into their product pages.

Sketchfab

Hey guys, as others have pointed out, nothing is 100% secure anywhere on the internet. That said, we take the security of your work on Sketchfab very seriously:

1. PRO and Business users can upload work privately (unlisted) and optionally add password protection.
2. Data served from our site is compressed via a lossy algorithm and original files are never publicly exposed.
3. Our team actively monitors and invalidates any unauthorized attempts to access 3D data.
3. Our terms of service strictly forbids any attempt to reverse-engineer Sketchfab content.

Paul
Artist Evangelist
Sketchfab.com