General Note: The GitHub Discussion and Issues sections generally have more activity, and I've generally preserved this Hackaday Project Log for the major updates. Ouch, sorry for nearly a year gap, but as promised, the MiniHawk design is stable, and I'm just holding on to some improvements such as a nicer FPV lid and such. But that isn't what I'm posting about here. 

The MiniHawk got copied by China.

Naming the company and the illegitimate and unsanctioned copy of my work does not seem necessary here; perhaps as a kind of reverse-SEO measure, I bet that repeating the names here might only promote the popularity of the rip-off more than it would help to inform. Ok, lets try this: J-u-m-p-e-r is the company, and their rip-off is called the X-i-a-k-e-8-0-0. (Oh whatever, non-obfuscated names occur below.) My thoughts and requests to the community are detailed in my Discussion Post on the GitHub page here: GitHub Discussion .

The short version is that this Chinese company is mass-producing their own implementation of the MiniHawk-VTOL, reusing a substantial amount of the STLs that I released there on GitHub and which are mirrored here, which is against the Creative Commons License that the project is released under. This company only reached out to me after commenters and reviewers on YouTube called them out on their inappropriate reuse, and I probably could have done a better job and quickly and decisively getting ahead of it all, but I'm doing what I can when I have the time and energy for it. This company admitted to me that they "perfected" the MiniHawk, and that they are "sorry that it happened this way", ..... but mercy cannot rob justice, and being sorry about it does not make it ok.

Repeated here are the main points from the GitHub post here, and which I request that members of the community should observe:

1. I'm sorry that I've taken so long to address this. Many have probably purchased the Xiake800 thinking that Jumper had reconciled with me. If you bought one without knowledge of the drama and issues, have fun with it; I want to share VTOL with everyone, even if this is a illegitimate product of my efforts. But now that you do know, if you have not purchased one, please don't, it is only enabling Jumper and others like them to get away with IP theft.
2. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to "beat Jumper to market" so to speak; I know lots of people want to have a cool foam VTOL and skip the 3D printing stage, I sure want to! If you or someone you know has the expertise to do a foam-molded R/C plane kit, please get in contact with me, I'm still looking for and trying to figure out how to partner with someone one that can "do it right".
3. Pressure Jumper to release all the Xiake800 manufacturing artwork, so as to at least satisfy the Share-Alike clause of the Creative Commons License that the MiniHawk is released under. That means at least the STLs for everything, but also possibly X_T and/or STEP versions of at least the canopy and nacelles. They actually have satisfied this so far as the canopy is concerned ArduPilot Discuss Thread, lets see them release all of it.
4. Like, Share and Subscribe to my YouTube channel? I can't believe I just said that. Whatever, I'm just curious if my 300k subscriber statement in my response email might one day be realized? Share the MiniHawk-VTOL, try printing it, keep me stimulated with feedback and I will try to improve it.
5. Make it known that Jumper reused my design without my consent and against the rules. Best analogy: Imagine that you are an artist, and you draw a really cool airplane drawing and post it to ArtStation or Instagram. Then one day you see your drawing on a kid's lunch box, and come to find out that someone in China saw your picture and decided to use it without telling you and is currently selling lots of lunch boxes with your drawing. That is my life right now.

-Steve