Hi Walter,
I totally agree with you!
We want everyone to make whatever they like, and upon joining Shapeways, everyone agrees to the Terms and Conditions, in which we do warn people to make sure they have the rights to the models they upload;
https://www.shapeways.com/terms_and_conditions
This includes that users are responsible for making sure their content complies with our Content Policy, not Shapeways.
Logistically, we put the onus on you because there is no way we can possibly know all the copyrights that exist!
I don't like receiving DMCA take down notices any more than you do, but in this case we are merely the messengers.
I do want to thank you for raising this topic, it is prompting me to make this clearer on our site, for all our users!
Because this conversation is relating to your specific case, if you want to discuss it further, as I mentioned earlier, feel free to contact me directly via email. I am closing this thread for now as it has become a conversation between us, which I am more than happy to continue via email. There is a copyright discussion happening in this thread already:
https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=rview&goto=52 290#msg_52290
Thank you,
Natalia