Membership Agreements Updated + New Designs and Website Progress

As a follow-up to my recent post, the updated membership agreements are now live in the tier descriptions.

There are no price changes, and the overall structure remains the same:

• The $5 tier provides commercial rights to sell physical prints.

• The $25 Creator/Remixer tier includes those rights, plus permission to create and sell permitted digital remixes of animuL67 designs.

The most significant changes address the parts of the previous system that were creating unintended problems:

1. Creators are no longer required to provide every remix to animuL67 members at no additional cost. They may release a remix publicly for free or sell it as an individual one-time purchase. Remixes may not be placed behind another paid membership or subscription, which keeps access straightforward and avoids requiring members to join multiple competing subscriptions for files based on animuL67 designs.

2. animuL67 may purchase select remixes directly from creators and make those files available to existing members at no additional cost. These purchases will be agreed upon individually between animuL67 and the creator.

I believe this will result in more remixes, better organization, and a healthier system for everyone involved. We are building something between traditional companies that completely close off their intellectual property and a free-for-all system where creators’ work is not respected. One leaves very little room for community creativity, while the other gives creators very little incentive to participate.

This new structure is intended to protect original work, allow independent creativity and competition, support remix creators, and provide more options for members and small businesses. It is part of an ongoing process of reviewing what works, correcting what does not, and continuing to build a space where all of us can benefit.

This leads me to a point that I've been wanting to address for a while:

A Shared Standard for 3D-Print Design

The updated remix agreements establish the boundaries within the animuL67 ecosystem, but the same question applies to the broader 3D-print design community: What is fair game, and what is not?

I think our community would benefit from a shared understanding, so I put together the following statement in hopes that it provides a clear standard that creators, members, and small businesses can get behind:

We respect legally protected intellectual property and the original work of other creators. We do not knowingly infringe protected rights, copy or redistribute another creator’s files, or present someone else’s exact work as our own. At the same time, broad product ideas and categories should remain open to independent design, iteration, and fair competition.

Patents, trademarks, copyrights, and other legally protected rights must be respected. However, many independent 3D-print designers release their work without extensive formal protections and may not have the resources to pursue legal action. That does not make their actual files or exact work fair game to copy or redistribute; however,

Creating your own product within the same general category is different from copying someone else’s work. Being the first person to design one version of a product does not create ownership of every future version of that idea. When a space is legally open to competition, others should be free to identify the same need and develop their own independently designed solutions.

The standard I hope we can follow is straightforward: respect protected rights, respect the actual work of other creators, do your own design work, and compete fairly.


Now for the more fun stuff:

New Designs

I know the operational updates are not the most exciting part of what we are doing here, so I also wanted to talk about what we are all really here for: new designs.

I have a new glass-bottle holder (beer / soda bottles) that I am hoping to release later today if I can finish the last few tweaks. I really think this one could be a hit, here's a sneak peek preview:

The bottle loads through the bottom, and an adjustable twist plate accommodates different bottle heights. It also has a screw-on cap (I hear you even if I don't respond) and a separately printed handle that can be customized or replaced.

The design works as it is, but I am looking at one final improvement: making the cap double as a tool for turning the adjustment plate. That should make adjusting it easier and give the cap an additional purpose. This will make more sense once you see the complete design.

I also have another product in development that is different from just a can/bottle holder. I am not ready to show that one yet, but I am planning to release it in collaboration with several creators/remixers within the week or so.

The agreements, website, request system, and other operational work are important, but they also take a significant amount of time—plus I still have a day job. I am doing my best to protect design time and hire help where it makes sense. I feel like there is a substantial setup and organizational hump to get over, but the work happening now should ultimately allow me to spend much more time back in the CAD seat creating new products.

Website and Design Requests

I am also making progress toward expanding the animuL67 website, including a centralized design-request form.

One of my biggest challenges has been keeping up with requests scattered across Patreon, Discord, Facebook, email, and private messages. The new form will give everyone one clear place to submit ideas while making requests easier for me to organize, compare, and prioritize.

The form will ask for enough information to make sure I understand the request and how the product would be used. That small amount of structure is intentional—it should help identify the ideas people are genuinely interested in while giving me better information to decide where my design time will have the greatest impact.

Thank you all for being part of this and for continuing to help shape what animuL67 is becoming.