# Fraud: Publication of products that already exist!
**URL:** https://forum.opendesktop.org/t/fraud-publication-of-products-that-already-exist/20606
**Category:** Issues
**Created:** [April 15, 2023, 10:38am UTC](https://forum.opendesktop.org/t/fraud-publication-of-products-that-already-exist/20606 "2023-04-15T10:38:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@l4k1](https://forum.opendesktop.org/u/l4k1)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2023, 10:38am UTC](https://forum.opendesktop.org/t/fraud-publication-of-products-that-already-exist/20606/1 "2023-04-15T10:38:38Z")
How it is possible that “Vlogpixer” publishes my “Aura-Dark-Icons” icons: [Aura-Dark-Icons - pling.com](https://www.pling.com/p/1898626/)
He has published them as original, here: [Aura-Dark-Icons... - KDE Store](https://store.kde.org/p/2015379)
Is that all right?
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### Author:  [@rjungman](https://forum.opendesktop.org/u/rjungman)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2023, 10:52am UTC](https://forum.opendesktop.org/t/fraud-publication-of-products-that-already-exist/20606/2 "2023-04-15T10:52:01Z")
Amazing!
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### Author:  [@dschinn-de](https://forum.opendesktop.org/u/dschinn-de)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2023, 11:58am UTC](https://forum.opendesktop.org/t/fraud-publication-of-products-that-already-exist/20606/3 "2023-04-15T11:58:45Z")
Yes, and the user is also publicly linking to your repository as the source. These are exactly the things that cause us problems and effort. And we also take a very critical view of these clones, and we don’t want to see them here. But from the beginning.
1. we think the copyright is clearly owned by you @l4k1. So you can decide what happens with your work.
2. now the other side. You released it under a GPL licence. And as far as my understanding is, the licence allows what is happening. I am not an expert. Perhaps there is someone in the community who can explain this in more detail. Maybe I’m wrong.
1. From a platform operator perspective, we have no interest in encouraging or supporting free riding. I would take a look at our terms and conditions to see if we have a paragraph about this. If not, maybe it’s time to add one. But this can take a while …
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### Author:  [@l4k1](https://forum.opendesktop.org/u/l4k1)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2023, 12:43pm UTC](https://forum.opendesktop.org/t/fraud-publication-of-products-that-already-exist/20606/4 "2023-04-15T12:43:35Z")
Thanks for your reply, dschinn-de
However, it’s not just about my themes:
1. “Apple Ventura”: [Apple Ventura - KDE Store](https://store.kde.org/p/2017990) (Author: zayronxio)
2. “Whitesur Dark”: [WhiteSur Dark - KDE Store](https://store.kde.org/p/2017950) (Author: vinceliuice)
3. “Catalina Dark”: [Catalina Dark - KDE Store](https://store.kde.org/p/2016018) (Author: zayronxio)
I am not an expert either, I would understand that the modification of Themes and stated the source, but to mark that these are “original” Themes, I don’t understand.
Secondly, if that would become a practice, and be allowed, then the work of all other authors would be meaningless.
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### Author:  [@charlie-henson](https://forum.opendesktop.org/u/charlie-henson)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2023, 1:43pm UTC](https://forum.opendesktop.org/t/fraud-publication-of-products-that-already-exist/20606/5 "2023-04-15T13:43:33Z")
What about what’s “Ethical”. Taking the “Ethical” route changes the narrative, but it seems that “Ethical” is a lost art.
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### Author:  [@zayronXIO](https://forum.opendesktop.org/u/zayronXIO)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2023, 3:24am UTC](https://forum.opendesktop.org/t/fraud-publication-of-products-that-already-exist/20606/6 "2023-04-18T03:24:54Z")
This situation has gotten out of control, the fraudulent user is now copying everything, with the same github repository, same captures and even the same product, I propose that literal copies do not generate payment, maybe that discourages this unethical user
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### Author:  [@jomada](https://forum.opendesktop.org/u/jomada)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2023, 3:32am UTC](https://forum.opendesktop.org/t/fraud-publication-of-products-that-already-exist/20606/7 "2023-04-18T03:32:45Z")
Now Freepixa is doing the same with multiple themes, it must be the same user.
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### Author:  [@dschinn-de](https://forum.opendesktop.org/u/dschinn-de)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2023, 5:00am UTC](https://forum.opendesktop.org/t/fraud-publication-of-products-that-already-exist/20606/8 "2023-04-18T05:00:31Z")
@zayronXIO : Yes, we discussed something like that in the team as well. What we all didn’t like was that such a user could still fish off the downloads. But as a first step we will implement something like that.