Early Access Creators - YOU CANNOT SIT THE FENCE THIS TIME. :|
Look, I love y'all. I know you don’t want to participate in so-called “drama” because you think it’s messy and shit. I get that, I do. But here’s the deal. Cowbuild and her cronies are making the whole patreon method of dealing with the sims look bad, and that affects YOU guys too.
Because of these bad apples, there are some people questioning if patreon is safe. Especially because Anto is involved, and he USED TO BE EARLY ACCESS.
You guys need to join in on calling this out and saying “No. This is not okay. We do not accept it, and we do not want this to be part of our community.”
I and others have tried to explain that these bad apples don’t spoil the whole bunch, but when y'all choose to be silent on the issue, you don’t help your case. So now is the time to speak up. You don’t have to make your own post even. Just REBLOGGING what’s already been shared is enough.
There’s only ONE of you that has spoken out (thank you @1-800-cuupid ) but the rest of y’all are uwu no dramas here’s this months work lmao
It is free 99 to grow a spine and it’s telling how y’all can’t even say “yeah man that’s fucked up and creators shouldn’t do that” is telling lol
I mean, this has already reached the Sims Forums:
You know, that same place where the ORIGINAL two week rule was discussed? Would y'all like EA to take away early access because people can’t handle patreon? Because unless y'all speak up and out, that’s what’s gonna be communicated. That we as a community cannot handle ourselves.
And no, sharing or reblogging the posts is not participating in drama. Drama is alleged behavior or useless shit. THIS is people’s fucking safety.
Here’s how serious it is.
I was given a screenshot copy of the clean list, and was given the tough job of trying to find victims to let people know their info had been leaked.
One young lady had her REAL NAME, HER REAL PHOTO OF HER AND HER (NOW HUSBAND, THEN FIANCE), AND HER REAL EMAIL CONNECTED TO HER PATREON.
With a simple google search I was able to find: - Her wedding website which had - The date of her wedding - Pictures of her friends/family in the bridal party - Pictures from the event - Her facebook, even under her married name (because her maiden name was still connected) - What city she lived in, and what she + her husband do for a living/where they work.
THANKFULLY, I am a good guy. I shot her a message on messenger and let her know that I wasn’t some creep and I was contacting her because her information had been leaked.
She confirmed to me that she had been blocked by @busra-tr.
These are REAL FUCKING PEOPLE. And the sad thing is, we only had one page of the list. And from the screenshot it’s obvious there is more.
I understand wanting to keep your feed and your game peaceful, but if y'all don’t say something people’s safety will be at stake. This is not a petty dispute between creators, this is people KNOWINGLY choosing to GATHER AND SHARE PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT SHOULD NOT BE SHARED. PERIOD.
Please read this, it’s a very important post! I also think it raises a good point, this is the sims. Custom content creators who make early access cc (like myself) do it as a way for our followers to support us, in return getting access two weeks earlier than the public. Why have we gotten to a place of doxxing real people for sharing your content when still behind a paywall? While I do not encourage this behaviour of sharing people’s early access custom content, it absolutely does not warrant such treatment such as sharing personal information. I believe in sharing cc trapped permanently behind a paywall, as it is very much against EA’s explicit TOU.
The sims community is not going to last if all we do if permanently lock content behind a paywall and force people to pay for cc.
The sims used to be a such a collaborative place for creators to share and express their love of the sims, but now feel so commercialised and for the sole purpose to make money.
There’s only so much you can say and people will still repeat their behaviour, but please just be respectful. The main take away is don’t support the creators who use permanent paywalls or any form of ad.fly websites - they do not care about the community, to them it’s purely to make money.
I can’t believe that anyone would do this. To have people reach into their wallets to support their favourite creators only to have those same creators release their supporter’s private information that they have no right to share.
I have no words to describe how angry and disappointed I am.
Or: Let’s Discuss the REAL Issue Here in the Sims Community
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I’ve seen the argument again and again: “You don’t have to support them if you don’t want to. You’re not entitled to someone’s content.”
It’s not about being entitled to content. NO ONE is “owed” content. Period.
It’s about the situation that paywalls put the community in and it is about respect–paywalls foster a division between the people who have money in the community and those who don’t, and it breeds attitudes of undeserved superiority and entitlement on the part of the permapaywall “creators.” It’s not harassment to point out that these people are toxic as hell and it doesn’t help that people keep defending them, but then do nothing for nothing for us early-access and free creators.
This whole fucking mess is REALLY about treating people fairly and having respect for the community and other artists. The fact that permapaywall defenders are so hung up on the materialism of it is proof enough that this community has a serious problem.
I am an artist and a creator and a member of this community too. Do I not matter because I am not ~a brand~, or because I am not ~luxe~ and popular enough? Are the people who download content somehow less deserving of respect than CC creators? Permapaywallers do not deserve to act as though they are above being held to account for how they treat others, for lying about where their CC comes from, and for acting entitled to people’s money. Again, it is about treating people fairly and permanent paywalls will do nothing but divide a community whether or not someone chooses to support them.
God forbid someone shares something with someone who cannot afford it, and then they get doxxed and have their privacy violated as a result. How is that fair or respectful? They PAID for the content. They BOUGHT it. It was a business transaction, end of. So, why is that someone not worth having their privacy respected, but a permapaywaller can get away with such behavior simply because they put items up for download?
I will say it again and again: This is about how we as a community intend to treat each other and permapaywallers are not above being held accountable for their actions, PERIOD.
NO ONE IS ENTITLED TO CONTENT. AND NO ONE IS ENTITLED TO MONEY.
This is an unpopular opinion, I know, but allow me to clarify what I mean by that.
No one is “owed” content. If a creator isn’t feeling up to doing x, y, or z projects, the community should be respectful of that. They should not demand an artist’s time and they should be considerate of an artist and their life outside the computer. Artists SHOULD be compensated for their work. So many people want to take advantage of people offering commissions and freelance work to get something for cheap/free.
HOWEVER.
No one is entitled to someone’s money. Especially not when the product(s) provided is/are derivative. If a friend shares a set on a Discord server because a lot of people can’t afford the permapaywaller’s prices, and that person gets doxxed simply because they shared a product THEY BOUGHT with people who were unable to pay for it themselves… Who is in the wrong, here? The person doing the doxxing, obviously, because it is a direct intent to violate a person’s privacy in retaliation for sharing a product they paid good money for.
Bottom line: People should not be punished for sharing CC they bought with actual money and people should not be punished for not having money to buy it to begin with. Putting a derivative work up for download does not mean you have the legal right to treat people like shit, harass, or violate a person’s privacy, in retaliation for sharing your content.
Now time for some strawmen!
“You don’t have to support those people.” Yep, I sure don’t. And the problem with that statement is the ignorance of the broader culture around permapaywallers and their “brands” and exclusivity.
I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in the Sims community in the last 5-7 years, which is where the most exclusive and popular content becomes the predominant content in builds shared widely across multiple platforms. I see free content creators’ work get sidelined because God forbid the latest felixandre or harrie set not be featured in someone’s build, because we all want to suck up to the big name creators and builders, we all want to be exclusive to get those notes, etc.
It’s become harder and harder to find and promote free content because people seem to just not care if it’s not posted as a CC Kit and if it’s not bougie and exclusive enough. And if you can’t admit or even be bothered to see that non-exclusive creators are getting sidelined by this, then I don’t know what else to tell you. (And before someone says, “you’re just jealous”–I’m really not. I have a day job and I also maintain anywhere between 55-65 patrons and have done since 2020. I don’t have anything to prove to anyone, to the point that I’m willing to give my early access content away if someone is excited enough and is nice enough to ask for it before the 2 weeks are up.)
“Artists should be compensated for their work!” Yes, they should. And don’t you dare act as though that means anyone who monetizes content is suddenly above being held accountable for their actions. Don’t you DARE use the sanctity and respect creators deserve as a platform to gaslight people into thinking toxic and aggressive behavior is OK. Consumers are taken advantage of just as much as freelance creators, usually by the biggest companies or, in this case, the people who make the most money–and usually with meshes that have been proven to be stolen or converted and then lied about.
“I don’t blame people for going after pirates!” No artist worth their salt is going to be okay with violating people’s privacy–ie, breaking the law–simply because someone shared their pixels after purchasing them.
I’m gonna say it louder for the people in the back:
No artist who is actually a real proper creator would be okay with breaking the law simply because someone else shared content that was purchased from them.
“But it’s piracy!!” You don’t seem to care about that when you ask for the game crack to TS4, or literally any other game or free download. Also, it isn’t piracy to copy and paste a file that is based around derivative work that is actually owned by a proper company (in this case, EA). That’s like saying it’s piracy to repost a fanfic you commissioned, with proper credit given to the original writer. You bought it, it’s yours, and just because other people’s eyeballs looked at it doesn’t mean the original creator loses out on traffic or revenue.
As long as credit to the original creator is given, derivative work is not piracy. It is literally just free advertising.
When someone subbed to my Patreon and threatened me with spreading my early access content, I thanked them, and offered to refund them the money. You want to pay me money to spread my content around? Fucking SURE. That is literally advertising and I’ll let you do it for free.
“You’re hurting the artist making their living!” If they’re such a damn good artist and creator, they should join actual communities and websites who make a real living creating 3D models. Plenty of people DO do this as a job and they make actual good money doing it because they’re good at what they do. The reason a lot of these people aren’t doing that is because they use assets and free softwares based around EA’s Sims 4 coding and they take 3D models other people have made and convert them. So, no, it’s not actually hurting anyone for that reason either.
Strawmen are done now.
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At the end of the day, this is about what kind of community we want to build and how we ultimately want to treat each other. The fact is this community DOES need to reckon with how it treats its creators and how the creators treat the community.
Paywalls are dividers between the haves/have nots. Trying to deny that juxtaposition and its cultural/psychological effect just makes people look thoughtless and short-sighted. We need to be more supportive of each other period, and that means not kneecapping or dividing ourselves. It means not cheapening the heart in CC creation by putting more importance on content than on the community itself.
The community has fallen over itself (in large part) for “luxe urban luxury” exclusive CC. But I think it would be silly to just blame that on immature people/kids when it’s really a result of the capitalist nightmare we’re living in. It’s like blaming a fever on wearing too many layers instead of addressing the infection as the source.
As for how to change that… well, I don’t know, honestly. I really don’t know where to go from here. But what’s important now is that we bring these issues out into the air for discussion.
We need to figure out where we’re headed as a community and how we want to treat each other going forward. And we need to figure out how we’re going to deal with the people who don’t want to play nice with the rest of us.
And, to the people who disagree and don’t want to be mature or civil about this: Just like you say we don’t have to buy CC, you don’t have to read this post, or participate. Go run along back to Twitter or wherever it is you want to be rude and snide. I don’t care. I have a life and a full time job and I also know what grass feels like. Take time to pet a cat or dog, touch some grass, tell someone you care about that you love them. It’ll do you some good.
Since apparently reading is a little too much to handle for people who want to take legal action over being held accountable for DOXXING OTHERS???
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CLIFFNOTES VERSION:
1. IT IS NOT ABOUT WANTING FREE CONTENT. IT IS ABOUT TREATING EACH OTHER WITH RESPECT AND PERMANENT PAYWALLS ARE INHERENTLY TOXIC AND HARMFUL TO COMMUNITIES. PAYWALLS ARE DIVISIVE AND HAVE SUPPORTED AN “EXCLUSIVE”, OBSESSIVE COMMUNITY TREND THAT ACTIVELY HARMS FREE AND EARLY ACCESS CREATORS. THIS IS ABOUT COMMUNITY, NOT CONTENT.
2. NO REAL ARTIST WOULD DOX SOMEONE FOR SHARING CONTENT THAT PERSON PAID GOOD MONEY TO RECEIVE.
3. CREATORS DESERVE SUPPORT AND RESPECT. SO DOES THE AVERAGE COMMUNITY MEMBER. IT GOES BOTH WAYS.
4. SHARING CUSTOM CONTENT THAT IS LEGALLY OWNED BY ELECTRONIC ARTS IS NOT PIRACY. GET OVER IT. ACCEPT THE PAID ADVERTISING.
5. WHEN SOMEONE DECIDED TO “””STEAL””” MY EARLY ACCESS CONTENT, I OFFERED TO REFUND THEM. THAT’S BECAUSE I’M NOT DOING THIS FOR THE MONEY. AND IF YOU WANT TO DO THIS FOR A LIVING, THERE ARE LEGITIMATE AVENUES FOR DOING FREELANCE 3D WORK, SO I PAUSE TO WONDER WHY PEOPLE DON’T USE THOSE INSTEAD. ALSO, IT’S NOT THEFT IF IT’S INTENDED TO BE FREE.
6. CUSTOM CONTENT IS NOT MORE IMPORTANT THAN COMMUNITY.
7. NO ONE OWES YOU MONEY FOR SOMETHING YOU DO NOT LEGALLY OWN. IF YOU WANT ENTITLEMENT, LOOK IN A DAMN MIRROR.
8. PERMANENT PAYWALLS ARE POISON ON THIS COMMUNITY AND WE CAN ONLY MOVE FORWARD BY GETTING RID OF THEM AND LEARNING TO RESPECT AND SUPPORT EACH OTHER.
9. STOP TRYING TO ATTACK PEOPLE WHO ARE VICTIMS OF DOXXING. GROW THE FUCK UP AND LEARN NOT TO BE A MONSTER. IF YOU CAN’T TAKE WHAT YOU DISH OUT TO PEOPLE, MAYBE YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN CAUSING HARM TO PEOPLE IN THE FIRST PLACE.
10. WE NEED TO LEARN TO UPLIFT EACH OTHER AND BOYCOTT PERMANENT PAYWALL CREATORS.
This ☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️ ☝️☝️☝️
This speaks VOLUMES as a WHOLE community! It’s not that hard.
Hello and welcome back! Just to recap Part 1,Cowbuildself admittedly downloads 3D models and passes them off as her own, and as recently as the Summer of 2021 was soliciting advice on Blender groups and referring to herself as a very beginner, but by some miracle at the same time was able to release professional-level content. BIG YIKES.
This post will go over how she was able to pull this off and who she’s stealing from. Read til the end you won’t be disappointed.
Due to Tumblr’s photo restrictions, some of these screenshots have been combined using picframe, but they will all be available via our Proton DriveandFlicker.
Now we know Cowbuild has a lot of die-hard fans. It sucks to find out that someone whose work you’ve admired is not all that they seem. You may have in the past wondered, how does she crank out such intricate high-quality content on a monthly basis but given her the benefit of the doubt. You might be saying things like “Well, surely not EVERYTHING she makes is a conversion.” but if Part 1 wasn’t enough for you we have reason to believe Cowbuild isn’t just stealing from 3D modelers, like those on CGtrader or Turbosquid. BUT ACTUAL BRANDS. That’s right. BRANDS.
Now, we’re going to post one picture example and take you through Cowbuild’s M.O. We want you to see how she does her business:
Step 1: Find some luxury item that looks like something her patrons would want. Oh this looks nice!
Step 2: Acquire a model of that item! Notice the little text on the right that says “Download 3D files”. If you are an interior designer or architect, you can request the 3D file of the item. All you have to do is fill out a form. We suspect that this is very easy for Cowbuild to do with her credentials. A lot of luxury furniture distributors offer 3D models free of charge for industry professionals, for example, if you are an interior designer you could download a 3D model put it in a floor planning program, present it to a client, and if they like it they may purchase the furniture from the distributor. When used properly this is a mutually beneficial arrangement for the distributor and the downloader, when used improperly and their models resold it is COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT andILLEGAL.
What is interesting about this is Cowbuild has a background in the industry.
Getting 3D models from a furniture distributor would be 100% in the realm of possibility for her.
Now look at the sheer volume of content that Cowbuild has shilled on her Patreon that also has free 3D models available from brands, that CB could’ve acquired from brands directly for free or found these same pirated models on third party sites :
Important to note she may finds these models elsewhere for free/cheap on 3D model sites by googling/searching up the name.
A common site to find models like these is 3DSky or CGTrader . One issue with this is brands have their models stolen and put on these sites. Some of the models we found on brand websites we also found their 3D models sold on third-party sites too. If someone is to buy a model from that site and resell it even with permission from the modeler via CGTrader, GUESS WHAT. The modeler does not have the right to grant that permission, because the design is still owned by the, What!? You guessed it, THE BRAND. Unless the brand has a very specific usage agreement with whoever was commissioned to create the model the 3D models are not for resale, and we have a hard time believing that they’d make an exception for sale in life simulation games.
Reselling those models is an infringement no matter where or how they were acquired.
Step 3: Make minor textural/other edits so that it doesn’t look exactly the same, and if you get called out you can claim it’s yours and you just got inspiration from the same place. {This works wonders if the other person also is a converter and doesn’t know how to compare meshes since they didn’t make the model either or they pirated it from a brand.}
Now we already know she decimates/lowers polygons of models she obtains elsewhere from the Killer Doll in part one, so it is not far-fetched to assume she does this on a larger scale. Remember as Cowbuild said:
“If Polygon is high game will lag”
She is well aware if the model she downloads is too detailed it will cause major issues for players and attempts to optimize these models for TS4 by lowering the model quality.
Now some of you might say but that’s not possible we’ve seen Cowbuild WIPs. Surely she meshed those, we saw them with our own eyes! Well, today we’ll let you in on a little secret, WIPs are EASY AF TO FAKE! We will prove it to you.
Check out this screenshot, convincing no? Well, we didn’t mesh it, in fact, it only took a few minutes to create. Look familiar? This is Cowbuild’s very own Fantasy Air Bed.
All we did is download the package file, export it in Sims 4 Studio, open it in Blender and screenshot it, that’s it. Easy peasy. Now for the low cost of zero dollars, you too can make impressive Blender WIPs, no Blender skills required.
Here are links to the 3D models that she’s likely using in her content. Please make sure that you CAREFULLY READ OVER THE TERMS OF USE of the sites that she potentially got these models from. The majority of these sites require express permission to use their models for anything else than staging and have clauses that prohibit commercial use.
Commercial use would include the resale of ANY PART of these models for any reason no matter how many adjustments are made. When it comes to making money off of the models and/or redistributing them. Some of these TOS, and there were a lot to read through, even go a step further to include no derivative works clauses, meaning that simply recreating their designs is in violation of their copyright/trademarks.
Note that for several of these you can download 3D models for free, some of these models can be found on multiple sites as well for example the airplane bed:
While we were not able to find everything, we’re sure she probably has Facebook groups, modelers she’s willing to commission privately, and other resources that she uses for her other items. It is doubtful that she makes any of them herself (why would she when she doesn’t have experience and it’s easier to do this?). All she does is edit them, and maybe retexture. As stated earlier, it is not a crime to convert items for the sims. But it IS a problem when doing so could get you in trouble with the companies who actually own the copyright to the item, not to mention the 3D modeler who initially made it.
From our research, we can conclude that at the very least, Covethouse/Circu, Minotti, and Ralph Lawrence could pretty easily make a legal claim.
The real irony here is Cowbuild cries about groups like TS4Rebels who make her content available for free when she is stealing from artists and designers…the audacity. In truth we know she won’t stop, the Patreon shills are shameless they won’t stop unless someone makes them stop but you dear reader have the power to stop financially supporting someone who is quite literally committing Copyright infringement.
The above information, coupled with the information from part one, where Cowbuild repeatedly refers to herself as a beginner while releasing intricate content should be a major red flag, but we want you to make up your own mind about the information we laid before you. At the end of the day what the Cowanon cult thinks is irrelevant, the artists who she stole from agree with us, that these are their models and that’s all that matters.
To Cowbuild, we suggest you do some soul searching and ask yourself if all this is worth it. Yes, you may be doing well on Patreon now, but is that worth the potential legal liabilities?
I dug too deep you guys…..I wasn’ t supposed to know all this!
Ma'am, I’m just here to write my fanfic okay? (which I still need to work on. I have to somehow make Loki and Doctor Strange like each other.) I shouldn’t know all this, but I do. And now you have to too!
As most of you already know, I’m pretty vocal when it comes to people acting like assholes online. I’ve already been dubbed the vigilante of simstagram.
“And with great power, comes great responsibility” - Uncle Ben
In doing that, I find like minded people (or they find me). On more than one occasion I’ve had people ask me if I could dig into[insert creator here]. Sometimes I find stuff, sometimes I don’t. But this here found me!
Before we even get into the tea, let me say this (and I cannot stress it enough): I DO NOT HAVE A LIST! Don’t even ask cause I'mma tell you right now, I ain’t got it! All I have are these screenshots that were presented to me and the power of deduction!
What?! Cowbuild part of a doxxing ring? Noooo wayyyyyyy.
One thing to note is the various ways she cooked up to plant user information into files. On Blender and S4S warehouse, certified weirdo behavior. Someone come get this girl, this is next-level paranoia, and the worst part is she’s getting all worked up about………………..
