Let me start by saying that this is just a sideline for me. I’m a senior level creative director in NYC by day. I’m confused by the rampant plagiarism I see on the site. I’ve done a few presentations, and some sell pretty well. In looking at some of the other presentation templates, many of them are taking designs I created from scratch and are using them directly, without even bothering to change them. In other instances where there were changes made, they were made by someone with no apparent education or experience as a designer. If any of my art directors came to me with these kinds of changes, I’d fire them on the spot.
What to do? There is the option of selling without the extended license, but I doubt that would have much of an impact. Should I join the other sheep and just rip off some other designs and put my name on it? It goes against everything I stand for, and I can’t imagine putting my name on materials with this sort of quality. It’s not sour grapes - I’m not complaining; just trying to figure this thing out. I have 25 years of creative leadership experience, and have worked on global campaigns that everyone here has seen. This is just a sideline for me, but the game here eludes me. Does anyone see the deal with ripping off designs as a business model? What’s the smart way to approach this?