Ok, so, this troll has been nagging us of late and even though officially we're all just ignoring his nonsense, I still need to rant because it's making me explode with my patented Tomato rage. I'm gonna post the full conversation and such in a sec in spoilers so you can read it(some mild language in there, just fyi), but it's a lot and I'm just going to summarize it below.
Spoiler
About a week ago (this one was edited slightly, but only to put them in a more readable order):
(http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/8026/oneweekago.gif)
Situation resolved, right? Lol, nope. Within the last few days:
(http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/8772/lastfewdays.gif)
Ok, so, as some of you know, I've been working on a project called Ponymon with some of my bronies lately. The thing is, for all our best intentions, it's taken a serious amount of time to transition from alpha version 0.2 to 0.3... a transition that's taken us at least 6 months and we're only just now about to get a release. Our coder is kind of a one man show, and he's got like 20 other things going on and it's tough to nail him down to this one thing. We don't make an issue of it because A. he knows his stuff and B. it's a stupid mod mixing pokemon and ponies.
Because of this, a user I've come to call F.T. (it stands for something, but I won't say it per board rules) took it upon himself to take what we had in 0.2, and put the work into it himself. And by "put work into it" I mean he stole a bunch of vector graphics (vectors, not sprites) stuck them into the game, release it as "Anarchy 0.3," claiming total credit for the work, and calling us slow for taking so long.
Now putting aside that this is pretty close to outright theft, that much of the artwork in the game is new work by either myself or Chaos, that he didn't even bother to change the edits we made preventing the player from going past mt. moon... He was still coming on to our webspace and acting like a jerk about how he did all this stuff and it shouldn't be taking us that long and blah blah blah. Again, over a mod putting Ponies into pokemon.
But whatever. We quickly set FT in his place, he apologized and decided to go out and use Emerald to do his own version (ours is based around FireRed). End of story, right?
Well, no. On top of still making dumb comments on our funnyjunk page about how his game is so gonna be better then ours (I don't see how, he doesn't have any artistic skills at all and we've got two artists on our project), he's still badmouthing our game and claiming we're stealing ideas from him now (like Queen Chrysalis, the final bad guy in S2. Because we never thought to include THE FINAL BAD GUY OF AN ENTIRE SEASON). And I know, I KNOW that when it comes time for him to decide what to do about the icons, he's not going to bother doing his own work. He's a talentless hack, he can't even do a proper sprite. No, he's going to steal from us, just like he did before when we called him on it.
I think his personality can be quickly summed up as "ME ME ME!!! Look what *I* did!", with the typical lack of consideration for others that seems to be way too prevalent in the current generations (at least from my viewpoint) stirred in for good measure. a.k.a., an asshat (as has already been pointed out). I think the best that can be hoped for, short of him just losing interest & going away, is for him to eventually grow up & gain some maturity......but I wouldn't suggest holding your breath.
btw, you might want to make mention of a little bit of salty language within the Spoiler.
Well, it's gotten to the point even random anons are like "dude, stop being a dumb jerk," which I find absolutely hilarious.
Truthfully, this guy only has as many teeth as we give him. He's perpetrating most of his nonsense on funnyjunk (we still check it since that's where the mod originally started, but most of the game discussion is conducted on the wiki or on tumblr) and to date I don't think his "game" has an actual fan... whereas we could probably form a small army with the fans on the wiki.
What's going to be a headache is when/if the new mod goes into art theft. The icons for the game were something I made from scratch... I created a brand new style, put months of work into it, made almost 150 icons, etc. It's unquestionably my work, and even just on principle I'm going to end up having to go through the whole "please remove the artwork you stole from me, k thx" thing with this guy... And given what he's already shown, I doubt he'll do so quietly.
It's always a bummer when people take the enjoyment out of something that you are taking a lot of pride in, sorry 'Mato.
Sorry for your experience 'Mato. Folks like that...I just can't understand them. Why would you want to be ugly and discouraging to people who are giving you entertainment for FREE!
Well at laest you know it isn't me...I wouldn't be caught dead or whatever state of deceased an undead person goes through near anything related to MLP. I say you slap the bastad with a lawsuit...perhaps the old Creative Commons setup or such...not much of a lawyer myself so not sure....
he hasn't released anything yet to jump on, actually. he's restarted with a completely new project, and it's not even in a releasable state yet. he's supposed to be posting a mock fight between the mane 6 and Discord tomorrow to showcase the battle engine (it's pokemon, the battle system is established you moron) which we might be able to get an idea from, but I'd rather wait for him to release something before jumping on it.
Quote from: Deaths Jester on August 08, 2012, 03:16:05 PM
not much of a lawyer myself
Hi. Voice of Reality here.
You're either a lawyer, or you're not. Just sayin'.
(I know it's just an expression you're using, but not good, 'kay?)
Anyhoo... 'Mato, I am NOT a lawyer. What I
do know is that you automatically have a copyright on your own work. What you do not have is a registered copyright, unless you did the paperwork and paid your fees.
If anybody ever took it to court, which is probably unlikely unless somebody tries to sell the assets in some form, I
think the burden of proof is going to rest on the plaintiff to prove infringement. Copyright registration would logically shift the burden of proof to whoever didn't register the art.
So... if it's a big deal, you need to register your copyrights... preferably after consulting a real lawyer. My guess is that if you're creating a game, the best thing to do is to copyright the whole body of work not just itty bitty parts of it.
Otherwise, your option is to ignore the guy and hope he ends up in a dark little corner sucking his thumb.
He's essentially an anon on the internet. Even if I wanted to go the lawsuit route (which I don't much believe in anyway) it'd be more trouble then it's worth.
What we ARE planning to do, however, is make the theft (again, assuming he does do so... we don't know if he is) public. It's hard enough for him to get fans and assistance at this stage without his intended audience (other bronies) being turned off by his antics. And again, we're already seeing even random anons mock him.
Newb question: What's an "anon"?
Anonymous poster, Basically the low end of the internet intelligence food chain.
I find this funny cause you said it started on funnyjunk, a website notorious for using other artists work and passing it off without credit.
Quote from: Tomato on August 09, 2012, 09:44:51 PM
Anonymous poster, Basically the low end of the internet intelligence food chain.
Got it, thanks.
Quote from: detourne_me on August 09, 2012, 11:11:20 PM
I find this funny cause you said it started on funnyjunk, a website notorious for using other artists work and passing it off without credit.
I never did get the straight of why it was there in the first place... the person who started the project (went by the handle Duskshine) kinda dropped off the face of the earth a few months in, and just about as soon as he left the project they moved it to it's own wikia page and set up an official tumblr account (Tumblr is big with bronies). Personally, I'd be happy with never even going to funnyjunk, it's a stupid, stupid website.
Quote from: BlueBard on August 09, 2012, 12:56:06 PM
Quote from: Deaths Jester on August 08, 2012, 03:16:05 PM
not much of a lawyer myself
Hi. Voice of Reality here.
You're either a lawyer, or you're not. Just sayin'.
(I know it's just an expression you're using, but not good, 'kay?)
Voice of Unrealtiy here.
I've gone to some law school and also spent some time studying/working under a lawyer/attorney so I am not much a lawyer. There is such a thing...just not much of one! :P And now back to reality!
So... not a lawyer. A lawyer-not :)
But as a law student, with more knowledge of legal research and process than the average mortal, this I can accept.
Speaking as a lawyer-not, then, what risks are 'Mato and company taking by not pursuing a registered copyright? What evil legal-fu can the other guy get away with if he's got the resources? In your personal opinion, that is.
Quote from: BlueBard on August 13, 2012, 12:45:34 PM
So... not a lawyer. A lawyer-not :)
But as a law student, with more knowledge of legal research and process than the average mortal, this I can accept.
Speaking as a lawyer-not, then, what risks are 'Mato and company taking by not pursuing a registered copyright? What evil legal-fu can the other guy get away with if he's got the resources? In your personal opinion, that is.
Well in this case, seeing as it is mainly fan art and using a pre-existing engine, I personally think he'd have a hard time getting a registered copyright on the pieces even if he did do the work on them. However, after some research, he MIGHT..and this is a a big might...be able to go for a Creative Commons Copyright, though, this type of copyright only requires those using it to give credit to the person who actually created them and also requires them to ask for usage...much like how we skinners work with kitbashing and original characters being used in mods. As for the other guy, he could also claim he did them and force 'Matter to stop usage by quoting he made the pieces and didn't give permission. However, I doubt he could get away with this seening as their is quite a large following to attest to 'Mato creating them before the guy started using them. Personal opinion, of course, though if I was to do more research I could come up with some more...but research costs money that I don't have....:P
Cool, thanks for the law student's perspective, DJ.
*facehoof*
Murs, I actually facehoof all the time, but it's usually because I'm all like:
(http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7fhntGc4z1rqll7yo1_500.png)
So, this guys been all vainly trying to promote his game right now (using this image (http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/3994623/Discord+is+Back+MUTHABUCKAS/), of all things...) but with 0.3 of ours coming out in about a week with new movesets, ponymon types, semi-finished stats, and a shitton more graphical additions... it's gonna be blown out of the water and no one will care. I've been reasonably nice to him lately though, at least to his face. I'm still gonna slam him if he doesn't keep my dren out of it.
Quote from: BlueBard on August 14, 2012, 01:31:30 PM
Cool, thanks for the law student's perspective, DJ.
Ye welcome BB...wish I could be more help with this but like I said my law student days are a bit behind me and my memory is blurry at best...
Quote from: Deaths Jester on August 15, 2012, 05:28:27 PMand my memory is blurry at best...
I would have said pickled. Far more accurate.