Turning standard licenses into AI License automatically? Really?

The move by CGTrader to foist the "AI friendly" licensing scheme on artists against their will reeks of nefarious intent. The default should have been no AI licensing, thereby giving artists the opportunity to opt in, should they desire to do so. I have gone ahead and changed all my model to the Royalty free no Ai licensing, because I have no desire to participate in any 3d generative AI grift. Talk about willfully stepping on a land mine for a paltry one-time fee.

TurboSquid pulled similar nasty dubious stunt when they automatically opted everyone into some text to 3D AI scheme, before sending out e-mails stating you can opt out by selecting that option in your settings. At least with TurboSquid you are able to opt out by just pressing a button. CGtrader forces you to manually opt out.

Presently I am having second thoughts about publishing new models on CGTrader. With all the nefarious underhanded practices by 3d assets vendors regarding 3D generative AI , It's looking more like I will be going back to creating animated shorts and series, while restricting sale of 3D models to Unreal Marketplace (or FAB when it is ready), Gumroad, Renderhub and Blender Marketplace.

F*ck you CGtrader. I'll not try to change licensing and other shit. I just delete my works at all.

If decisions need to be made to change the licensing terms of the artists, then those artists should ideally be in the loop.
AI train is moving at light speed and it appears leading to hasty decisions?

I'm not one to believe in conspiracy theories, but it seems strange how the first AI change seemed to have affected sales negatively for many artists, then now CGTrader is giving us a magic "opportunity" to somehow make more money, with a scheme that seems just plain wrong.
Create a problem, and then generate a fix that is supposed to be a solution, and have everybody automatically enrolled. Something stinks here.
They automatically change the licensing, to opt in, without giving us a choice. It should be "opt out" unless we chose the opposite.
There is no link in the email to explain what this technology is, how it affects us and how artists will be compensated. They just allude to "future monetization opportunities" which seems rather vague.
I exclusively do STLs so I'm not sure if this new AI play space will affect me. It seems like I'm automatically opted out.

If I put my model on with one license how can you change it without me? I am not sure that it is legal. Because if so, why can't you just make all our models free? Or just declare that you, from now on poses all exclusive rights for our models?

The funny thing is, that the only model which automatically recieved noAi license is a model, which I share for free. I guess they care that nobody will use my free model for AI training ;)

Can anybody tell me I should set my models to "Royalty free, no AI" or "Editorial, no AI"?

In answer to turrogil - from day to day I'm more confident that such a lot of stolen stuff on this site is not just a coincedence. For example - in mid-october I've reported a stolen stuff 4 times and wrote a letter to cgtrader support, here is screenshot with mail:
https://www.imagevenue.com/ME178IRK

here is the link to his account https://www.cgtrader.com/asstudio21

and screenshot:
https://www.imagevenue.com/ME178ITW

And what do you think? It has change something? No, that account continue to sell models even after I report every model in his review section and made his front page screaming - "I'm selling a stolen stuff". And there are millions of similar accounts. So what do you think - If they have a possibility to train the AI with 2$ models - why should they pay you?

I definitely don't blame that assigned agent name Dovydas and as I wrote in the review - it's definitely not his fault, it's the policy of cgtrader. It's the policy of cgtrader - you report one account with the stolen models and day after the same guy open three new acounts with the same models

And these three new accounts will also be banned. Some thieves register new accounts but CGTrader policy is to blame for this. You propose not ban thief but shoot him so that there are no relapses? Оr what?

So, as we all knows that each user setup his payment method, which of course require ID check. Is it difficult to ban that users by that info, so they will not make a new accounts?

Really? They will use friend payout acoount? And if that account also will be banned, how many friends they have, which will aloud to use their private payment account?

During this year me in collaboration with Support Team banned 1262 thieves accounts therefore regarding deletion of thieves accounts you are so wrong.

Hello all, let me clarify some things regarding this “license change”, what it means moving forward and how it compares to our past licensing offerings.

Up until now, all your paid models were under the standard Royalty Free license that was established before AI became a thing in the industry, and it didn’t specifically address AI in its terms. The terms regarding paid content did not explicitly mention AI which led to the interpretation that using models for AI training was already allowed since there was no legal restriction stated. To clarify things, we revised our existing license, including terms related to AI to prevent any ambiguity.

We are totally aware that some of you might be opposed to AI, so we introduced a new license that explicitly forbids using models for any AI training purposes and legally prevents anyone from purchasing and using them for this aim.

Since we totally respect your views on this matter, we will not be doing any deals until everyone has the time to decide. We are always looking for new opportunities for our designers and we were excited to present them to you. We can not take opportunities away from you but we are always giving you the option to opt out if you don’t see value in them.

I really hope this puts things into perspective and I will be here to reply to your questions.

Thanos,

Based on what information we should decide to go for or against A.I.?
You did not give us any!

Answer the questions from the first post, please:
"...-Exactly how and in what "transparent and designer-friendly way " will creators will be compensated for the AI training done using our models? and how will that "maximize the income" I get from my model portfolio?..."

FACTs and DETAILS, without empty, populist "bright future" and "new opportunities" gibberish...
Can you do that?

Let's put it simply, if i would purchase some models from fellow designers here, add some modifications of my own and put the models back on the marketplace as my own, i would be rightfully called a thief and banned forever. When large corporate business want to do essentially the same, cgtrader is more than happy to change their licensing and sell their existing userbase without second thought. And they call this fair compensation. What a jokers!

Absolutely agree ! The next stage in the evolution of theft : Game/Sketchfab -> Ninjaripper -> AI -> Rightholder, bingo !!!

Jaguarbeastproduction - you can visit their site - it says there, that their software is used especially for "level editing". And if you want to blame me in something - I can proove every model which I selling here and people can proove it

Jaguarbeastproduction - you can visit their site - it says there, that their software is used especially for "level editing". And if you want to blame me in something - I can proove every model which I selling here and people can proove it

If I understand the AI platform correctly, it doesn't seem fair that artists get a one-time payment of 1.5 times the cost of their model, to a platform that can use their model a million times. AI is here to stay, and whether we like it or not, we have to live with it whether it be on this site or others. You can leave this site of your own choosing, or you can stay and see what comes of it. I predict there being some big-time changes in the modelling field. This will adversely affect a lot of artists and change what quality is available to consumers. Those artists who flood the market with cheap models will probably initially get a boom with sales but subsequently get less and less as time goes by.

Like any field which has too many people in it, a correction is in order to find a balance. Nobody likes bad news, but covering your ears will not improve your situation. Soon, choices will have to be made.

I predict that the CGDream platform will be successful at first, and the result of that will be other sites developing similar platforms in order to cash in on the 'wave', which will again cause a correction. Some companies will prosper, others will die.

With AI in long-term it will be about the same as with new films, etc. The Lion King 2019 is certainly cool, but the original has not been forgotten and is still better.