Well. . . hmm. I feel like I should talk about this as an artist, because, quite frankly, this topic is rather near and dear to me.
Firstly, just so it's clear- this is
not intended as a flame of any sort. Deathstalker did the right thing, once he discovered that someone was unhappy with the use of their work.
At the same time, this post contains some helpful hints on using an artist's work, and some pretty harsh ranting about the current state of things, so be aware that I have a strong opinion about this and it doesn't match most of the posters'.
I'm a semi-professional artist who's worked on a number of freeware games over the Last 4 years- Mythos and The Xenology Crisis being the best examples. I've never gotten paid a dime for any of my game work, but I've enjoyed it, and I've been sharpening my skills in the process, so it's been a fair trade.
I'm now at a point in my skills where I can make professional-quality works in 3D, and well. . . I don't put stuff on the Net unless I expect it to get stolen. That's right. . . not "borrowed", "used as fan art" or other phrases. . . it's
theft. If I create it, and you like it- buy it! Or view it on a website I designed to get hits, so that I get paid. . . anything else is theft, imho.
But the Internet is no respecter of my rights. If I mainly worked in physical mediums, such as painting or sculpture. . . well, people can forge my works, sure. . . but I'm not famous, and nobody will ever bother. But on the Internet, it's easy to steal the work, and very difficult to track down thieves. After all, they're usually kids who threw up a Tripod site, and they're long gone before I find out that my work's being used elsewhere, so I'm screwed.
Art is the single most commonly-stolen item on the Internet. As a result, I and other artists like me have had to go and dig up crusty legal material specifying the license under which we're distributing our work, because otherwise we're barely covered under copyright law- since we didn't give due notice, the law assumes we don't care about our rights to have our works disseminated in the manner in which we choose. So people have to hit "I agree" before they can access our sites, or. . . we just have to assume that it's going bye-bye, and hope that this will bring more people to our sites. That's a totally BS way of doing things.
As a result of all of the above, many artists have taken their sites down, because the "free publicity" is worthless, if no-one ever buys your current works or commissions new ones. It's a waste of bandwidth, time and energy, not to mention the cost, if it's a privately-owned site.
Big companies can afford the effort to track down thieves, and gently remind them that they aren't allowed to steal from their expensive talent pool. I hate to put it this way, but a "cease and desist" order from a lawyer is a
very gentle way of shutting you down. They can do a *lot* worse, and will if they have to, although usually your ISP will shut you down asap if they even ask.
But for those of us who aren't working for corporations. . . well, we're stuck, aren't we? We don't want to put our art on the Web, because it will get stolen. On the other hand, if we *don't* put it up, nobody knows we're artists, and we'll have to troll around for clients or teams to work with. Having been down this road with game teams multiple times, I've had different results depending on the people involved. I turned down a recent project offer, for example, because the 17-year-old "project coodinator" didn't understand that while the team can commision my work, and I will work for free on small stuff, any major project requires very strict controls on who gets to use my work, and how. He simply couldn't get it through his skull that he would have to have someone over the age of 18 sign an actual physical document and send it back to my home
gee, how. . .
ancient! How quaint! Someone won't work without knowing their content won't get used for other projects that are commercial in nature. . . <lol>
Anyhow, I'm done ranting now. . . here are my hints for dealing with all of the semi-pro folks out there:
1.
Always find out who created what you're going to use. Ignorance is
not an excuse, under the law. And you should be crediting the artist or owners of that art always in derivative work, if you're going to make the "free publicity" argument work. Always include the trademark or trade name of whatever you're using, as well, and make it clear that the original conception was
not your idea.
2.
Always ask before you use someone's work, even if the topic is derivative. If you're making a "fan" work, you should ask permission of the legal owners of the material before building anything. "Fan" stuff falls into a very big gray area. . . but basically unless you're distributing it using your own bandwidth, and have no banner ads or other revenue-generating material, you are violating the law's rather vague protection for derivative works. In other words, most folks do
not qualify to produce fan works. Making, for example, a Marvel game, and then distributing it via iDrive would be illegal.
3.
If it's a semi-pro artist, work out a deal. People like me will often work with you for free, if we trust you. We'll improve the original art, for example, or change it around to suit your needs. In order to build that trust, express your willingness to enter into formal legal agreements(i.e., physical signed documents) that protect the artist from having their work used improperly. Make sure that the artist understands
how you intend to use the work- if you're going to take an illustration of a face, for example, and have it associated with evil actions, the artist may object to its use. Be prepared to work
with the artist, and don't simply regard them as a tool you need to complete your game idea.
4. Lastly,
If in doubt, don't use it. If you have any doubts as to who produced a piece of art, and in what context, don't use it unless you can be sure that it was released under some sort of agreement. "Free" does
NOT mean that the artist has said, "gee, do whatever you want with this". The artist, when asked, is probably going to say, "You can use my art on your website, but a game is probably not an acceptable use." Or they may say, "Cool! A game! Just make sure I'm given credit, ok?" If you don't *know*, and you do it anyway, don't be surprised if you get bit, like Deathstalker was :P
[This message has been edited by Argh (edited 09 June 2001).]
Re: COPYRIGHT ISSUES, RICHARD/ALL READ PLEASE!!
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