That sprite theft though

[AthenaWyrm]

I'd be flattered even if they didn't give me credit

WAZOW

[Sovereign]

Just getting rid of this theft on the forum is nothing though. It's stealing creative property and nobody is going to be punished for taking what isn't theirs and claiming it to be? That's just inhumane on so many levels.

[Tryhard]

Just getting rid of this theft on the forum is nothing though. It's stealing creative property and nobody is going to be punished for taking what isn't theirs and claiming it to be? That's just inhumane on so many levels.

We (well, you guys) can't force anyone to comply with requests not to use work without permission or credit or to take down ones that have already been posted when it's off-site. All you can do is (politely) ask and hope they're reasonable. This is basically a losing battle of an overall process (kinda like the whole campaign to end bullying - sorry folks, you gotta do something about the bullies instead of just the activity) - not necessarily for this specific situation, just in general. Individuals will do whatever they want so long as they can't be held accountable. And given that there's no real "internet police" that can actually enforce universal rules, this is an issue that isn't going to magically go away.

Pretty much this. Unfortunately, some people just won't care. It looks as though there will be a tidy conclusion in this case though, at least partially, which is nice.

Edited July 9, 2014 by Tryhard

[Siuloir]

And what, praytell, is this different approach? We (well, you guys) can't force anyone to comply with requests not to use work without permission or credit or to take down ones that have already been posted when it's off-site. All you can do is (politely) ask and hope they're reasonable. This is basically a losing battle of an overall process (kinda like the whole campaign to end bullying - sorry folks, you gotta do something about the bullies instead of just the activity) - not necessarily for this specific situation, just in general. Individuals will do whatever they want so long as they can't be held accountable. And given that there's no real "internet police" that can actually enforce universal rules, this is an issue that isn't going to magically go away.

Plus, this just popped up today. Relax and give it time.

If you hit these kind of people with a Cease and Desist letter, it usually terrifies them enough that this sort of thing gets resolved. If not, you can keep pushing it. There are numerous ways to pursue the protection of one's intellectual copyright, and one should never say 'Oh, I can't do anything about it'. Know the options available to you as an artist.

Edited July 9, 2014 by Siuloir

[HalKailas]

Hello, this is the admin at Way of the Warrior, I've been trying my best to get things resolved but I was at work when all of this started so I placed Richter in charge of handling the removal process. We had also put it in our rules that they are to credit any sprite they use or even edit themselves.

I understand it's frustrating to have your work stolen, but our main focus isn't sprinting, our medium of displaying our creativity is our writing. We have a single, ever growing story that we have building on for the past 8 years. You think it's horrible to have somebody to steal your work? Try having somebody suggesting to shut down something you've been working on for 8 years. As Richter said, we're working on correcting the wrongs that have been done but we will not ban somebody from a role-playing forum over sprites.

I admit, I may have been hasty on Klop's ban(sorry if I got your name wrong, on my phone) but that was because he came off as a troll, which is how I would handle any troll in general. The invitation to message me there was for those who actually wanted to act civil to help me do my job.

[Tryhard]

I understand it's frustrating to have your work stolen, but our main focus isn't sprinting, our medium of displaying our creativity is our writing. We have a single, ever growing story that we have building on for the past 8 years. You think it's horrible to have somebody to steal your work? Try having somebody suggesting to shut down something you've been working on for 8 years. As Richter said, we're working on correcting the wrongs that have been done but we will not ban somebody from a role-playing forum over sprites.

I don't think anyone is trying to shut down what you're doing. As long as you're working on getting this issue fixed, nobody will have a problem and we will thank you for being reasonable for doing so.

[Richter Abend]

I would like to think we have gotten the issue fixed, but my offer still stands: If you find something questionable, please let me know and I will remove it post-haste.

That is unless I'm sleeping of course. Then you'll have to wait until I wake up.

[HalKailas]

I would like to think we have gotten the issue fixed, but my offer still stands: If you find something questionable, please let me know and I will remove it post-haste.

That is unless I'm sleeping of course. Then you'll have to wait until I wake up.

Better yet, send a PM to all staff members on the rules section to ensure its handled asap.

[Teapot]

We had also put it in our rules that they are to credit any sprite they use or even edit themselves.

Asking permission from the person they borrow from notwithstanding? This is an issue of consent; not just credit. A lot of artists aren't entirely keen on having their work taken and (often poorly) modified without their permission. It's a violation of their work. However, by the same token, they're also just as willing to lend as long as they're asked, first. It's really not much to ask.

I understand it's frustrating to have your work stolen, but our main focus isn't sprinting, our medium of displaying our creativity is our writing. We have a single, ever growing story that we have building on for the past 8 years. You think it's horrible to have somebody to steal your work? Try having somebody suggesting to shut down something you've been working on for 8 years. As Richter said, we're working on correcting the wrongs that have been done but we will not ban somebody from a role-playing forum over sprites.

Regardless of your forum's focus, we'd appreciate it if you and your members would have a little more consideration for others' property. Your story and roleplay is your business, just as spriting is ours. However, the difference here is that the majority of stolen work is entirely original work, and is thus protected as intellectual property. We aren't ragging on you because you spliced pieces from vanilla IS games; we're talking about artwork that may or may not have actually been paid for, or may see use in for-profit games in the near future. You could very well be stepping on a potential legal landmine.

I admit, I may have been hasty on Klop's ban(sorry if I got your name wrong, on my phone) but that was because he came off as a troll, which is how I would handle any troll in general. The invitation to message me there was for those who actually wanted to act civil to help me do my job.

Personally, I was aiming for a polite and diplomatic approach to the subject, but I'm afraid Klok preemptively decided to jump the gun and post. I apologize for his behavior, as his rudeness didn't set the best of examples. Unfortunately, his individual actions weren't something within our realm of control. His rudeness clearly didn't set the best of examples.

EDIT -- So as to not seem ungrateful for your efforts to curb the theft and remove instances of plagiarized artwork, I would like to thank you for your understanding and willingness to negotiate. I really do appreciate it.

Edited July 9, 2014 by Aeothos

[Tryhard]

If you hit these kind of people with a Cease and Desist letter, it usually terrifies them enough that this sort of thing gets resolved. If not, you can keep pushing it. There are numerous ways to pursue the protection of one's intellectual copyright, and one should never say 'Oh, I can't do anything about it'. Know the options available to you as an artist.

I hate to be pessimistic, but have Cease & Desists ever been successful for online art thefts? Maybe I'm ignorant, but I don't think there's really much you can do.

[Lord Glenn]

I hate to be pessimistic, but have Cease & Desists ever been successful for online art thefts? Maybe I'm ignorant, but I don't think there's really much you can do.

Added to this, I highly doubt anyone here could afford an attorney to actively draft and enforce a C&D, especially when said costs would probably dwarf the actual value of the infringed works to begin with. (Making it mostly a pointless endeavor, seeing as even if you would win, what kind of a settlement do you think you would end up with? Some of the thieves might not have a dime to their names!)

Plus, there is also the veil of anonymity to consider, too. Certain sites might make it difficult to obtain even so much as the IP logs in order to ascertain who violated the property rights, let alone actually matching those logs to a person or persons (the obvious case of a single user on a connection notwithstanding). The best you might hope for in some scenarios would be for the domain to be taken down or the offending content removed, but that doesn't scrub that data off of the person's computer, either. Outside of potential further penalties if they're caught again, this doesn't prevent them from simply continuing what they're doing somewhere else.

tl;dr this works for actual game developers and publishers because they have the finances and clout to accomplish it (instead of bluffing it) and probably isn't a feasible scenario for most.

(Okay, I'm done being off-topic since it seems like everything's mostly wrapped up here.)

Edited July 9, 2014 by Lord Glenn

[Siuloir]

Added to this, I highly doubt anyone here could afford an attorney to actively draft and enforce a C&D, especially when said costs would probably dwarf the actual value of the infringed works to begin with. (Making it mostly a pointless endeavor, seeing as even if you would win, what kind of a settlement do you think you would end up with? Some of the thieves might not have a dime to their names!)

Plus, there is also the veil of anonymity to consider, too. Certain sites might make it difficult to obtain even so much as the IP logs in order to ascertain who violated the property rights, let alone actually matching those logs to a person or persons (the obvious case of a single user on a connection notwithstanding). The best you might hope for in some scenarios would be for the domain to be taken down or the offending content removed, but that doesn't scrub that data off of the person's computer, either. Outside of potential further penalties if they're caught again, this doesn't prevent them from simply continuing what they're doing somewhere else.

tl;dr this works for actual game developers and publishers because they have the finances and clout to accomplish it (instead of bluffing it) and probably isn't a feasible scenario for most.

(Okay, I'm done being off-topic since it seems like everything's mostly wrapped up here.)

You don't need to hire an attorney to draft a Cease and Desist.

And yes, you can most certainly terminate a domain or remove the offending content. I have been involved in this before with individual entities (ie. not game development companies and publishers) and it is most certainly feasible. I'm speaking from a measure of experience.

But as this is drifting from topic, I too will cease. It looks like it actually may have a somewhat equitable end.

Edited July 9, 2014 by Siuloir

[Book of Ereshkigal]

I love L95's sprites, she's one of my favorite spriters, but I would also say she's a lower tier than them as well. And Vamp/aeo/merc all were low tier spriters at one point too, everyone starts somewhere.

BRB crying 5ever

So, it seems to have gone relatively well...

[Klokinator]

I hate to be pessimistic, but have Cease & Desists ever been successful for online art thefts? Maybe I'm ignorant, but I don't think there's really much you can do.

Someone doesn't know about the Tactics Universe suit.

[Tryhard]

Someone doesn't know about the Tactics Universe suit.

I guess I don't. Enlighten me.

[Book of Ereshkigal]

I don't either, kinda interested :0

[shadowofchaos]

I don't either, kinda interested :0

Make that a third curious mind.

[Klokinator]

Long story short, way back in the day, Blazer sort of stole sprites (The details aren't exactly fresh in my mind here, this is over 7 years ago) for the then-called FEU Forum hack, he was sued by the admins of FEU, and he had to replace the sprites and rename the hack. He renamed it to Tactics Universe, the rest is history.

That's a major TL:DR and frankly it's been so long the only thing I really remember is "Blazer was sued successfully" and "He had to rename the hack". So basically, if you have the will, there is a way to protect your copyrighted sprites.

[NICKT™]

Was it stolen sprites? Or was it the whole douchebaggery thing where Blazer and a couple writers believed they had the right to modify the graphics, backstories and details of user-submitted characters?

I don't know, I don't really remember any graphic stealing and I was on FEU when the project first came in, Gordon and Roman were amongst the first few characters submitted.

[Siuloir]

Long story short, way back in the day, Blazer sort of stole sprites (The details aren't exactly fresh in my mind here, this is over 7 years ago) for the then-called FEU Forum hack, he was sued by the admins of FEU, and he had to replace the sprites and rename the hack. He renamed it to Tactics Universe, the rest is history.

That's a major TL:DR and frankly it's been so long the only thing I really remember is "Blazer was sued successfully" and "He had to rename the hack". So basically, if you have the will, there is a way to protect your copyrighted sprites.

They sued a (then) minor in court over a Fire Emblem hack?

I feel like there's something missing here.

But Klok is right in this much - If you have the will, you can protect your artistic endeavors.

Edited July 9, 2014 by Siuloir

[Alabaster]

y is this still active ide

enough of dis bbs CLAM DOWN and SHIT UP

Edited July 9, 2014 by D'Artagnih

[NICKT™]

y is this still active ide

enough of dis bbs CLAM DOWN

Point of conversation has shifted from the sprite theft in the OP to the current discussion in relation to cease and desists and a supposed case against a ROM hack titled Tactics Universe.

So, that's why this topic is still active.

Also, the issue is still present at hand, it's still open to conversation and frankly, there's not much fucking else going on in the spriting board to warrant this topic to just stop because you don't like it.

[Tryhard]

y is this still active ide

enough of dis bbs CLAM DOWN and SHIT UP

muh bad

Still, it is somewhat relevant discussion. We could open another topic to talk about it if people still wanted to talk about it.

I'm not sure if what Klok says is true, like Siuloir said.

Edited July 9, 2014 by Tryhard

[Klokinator]

Frankly I regretted having brought it up almost immediately, as it's extremely old news and even I, as the ultimate asshole troll, don't like to do some things like ripping off old scabs.

[Kyyneltya]

Hello, I am the member in the OP and I would like to apologize for splicing up other people's works. I got most of the images off of google and wasn't sure of the artists. In hindsight I should've taken the time to dig into who the sprites belonged to and PM'd them to ask if I could use their material.

I'll be the first to admit I am not a very good spriter, and the first ones I made were abominations - mainly because I didn't know my left from my right in regards to spriting and I wanted to have a sprite I could call my own in the RP. I've gradually gotten better, but have certainly made splices. Everything quoted in the concerned list were compiled from other people's work, some default assets, and my own custom tweaking.

I was not aware of this site until recently when the mods asked me to take my stuff down. Anyone of y'all could've joined the site and PM'd me instead of getting into a fit with the whole board. I'm sure the moderation will now have stricter rules regarding custom sprites to ensure there isn't any stolen material. If not, then I'll PM the mods myself and request it's put into place.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.