When is it your design??
I’ve been doing 3d printing for 1-1/2 years and like most have printed many things from the various libraries. Lately most of my prints are shop tools/jigs I’ve drawn in CAD.
If I look at someone’s design, then draw my own version that is functionally identical and may look very similar, is it my design that I could legitimately post on Printables?
RE: When is it your design??
If you have to ask yourself that question then its not your design.
You may have modelled it etc but if YOU can't decide if its your design then YOU don't think it is. Coming on forums and asking someone else to validate if it is or not is pointless. Only you can know.
RE: When is it your design??
If you have to ask yourself that question then its not your design.
BINGO!
However, I can see many perfectly legitimate situations in which I would consider posting such a design as still acceptable — as long as the original idea is properly attributed, and there are meaningful modifications. For example, you can mark it as a remix — even though technically it's not but it's about acknowledging the underlying design. Or at minimum, clearly indicate in the description that your design was inspired by and guided by xxx's design.
But simply reverse engineering a design and posting it to look exactly like someone else's, that I consider unacceptable.
Formerly known on this forum as @fuchsr -- until all hell broke loose with the forum software...
RE: When is it your design??
It all depends on what type of design you are referring to?
If a car maker decides to invent their own model of "car" does that mean they are stealing some other manufacturers design because it has four wheels and a body and performs functionally equivalent to every other car maker in the world, absolutely not.
But if they make an exact copy of a Mercedes AMG63 and badge it an effort to profit and deceive people then absolutely it is stealing someone else's design. It might not be illegal in some countries but it would be immoral and just lazy.
Let us use a vice for example, there are plenty of iterations of a vice to choose from on Printables and other 3d printing repositories. Your design among others may have a functional likeness in operation to every other vice out there, does that mean you have stolen someone else's design, absolutely not, so long as you have modelled your design with your own interpretation of what a vice should perform, ie, open, close and clamp something.