REMINDER: Plagiarism

[Eskii]

I was going to post an example to help people better understand. . . but the hostility is pretty high and I'd rather not become figuratively lynched. It was a great example too.

http://www.umuc.edu/library/libhow/copyright.cfm is an alright place to understand copyright.

Look at everything regarding fair use as well as when you legally need permission to use a work.

Not sure where Eskii is 'borrowing' that info from, but here's a legit source that I hope isn't outdated (it says 2013 on the bottom, so I assumed they updated everything).

http://plagiarism.org/ask-the-experts/faq

Legal Punishments

Most cases of plagiarism are considered misdemeanors, punishable by fines of anywhere between $100 and $50,000 -- and up to one year in jail.

Plagiarism can also be considered a felony under certain state and federal laws. For example, if a plagiarist copies and earns more than $2,500 from copyrighted material, he or she may face up to $250,000 in fines and up to ten years in jail.

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Additionally, unlike what Eskii said, you have a significantly low chance of actually getting sued (in this instance), especially considering no monetary value is being held in the property being plagiarized, and additionally, the person who plagiarized is not gaining money that the original author would otherwise obtain-- to make it clear the purpose is non-profit, and, assuming the content plagiarized is no longer active, the plagiarizer is a) showing it to a new audience and b) not competing with the original work. The RP in question is probably not published, and if it's old than it's out of print and therfore leans towards fair use. These all give ounces of leeway, but they're OUNCES, and that's with the law of the U.S. not the law of RPG!!

I hate it when my information is outdated...
STUPID 2006

[Altered Tundra]

I know plagiarizing is always confused with copyrighting. I know I've always got the two of them confused. So glad that Marrone got them links for me to understand them more. Heck, we all copyright just be using an image, like of Pokemon should we join a rp of said series. But yeah, not the topic, and I shall say no more~

[Photon]

I've had some artwork used without my permission before, it was both cool and annoying at the same time. A fractal I made got used on a prominent Youtube account as a background image for a video thumbnail. Seeing as I wasn't making any money off my work, and I had not been making fractals for over a year when I spotted it, I didn't try as hard as I probably could have to get in contact with the video creator and mention it. The thing I find most annoying is that the person in question would have made money from that video, using my work, seeing as I know that they make their living form those videos.

And the reason that it was cool was that a few million people have now seen my artwork :P. In my particular case I was ok with it. If I had been attempting to make money from the artwork I would have done all I could to get in contact and ask for it to either be credited or removed.

[Ylanne]

Well as you can see from the reactions we don't approve of this ether. It was your work and it should stay that way.

I know, and I'm glad. It's just profoundly sad when people do this and get away with it for a long time before they're caught. I suppose it's about respecting other people and respecting other people's work. Most folks do it. Then there are the few who don't, and they cause a lot of pain and unpleasantness for everyone.

[Altered Tundra]

I've had some artwork used without my permission before, it was both cool and annoying at the same time. A fractal I made got used on a prominent Youtube account as a background image for a video thumbnail. Seeing as I wasn't making any money off my work, and I had not been making fractals for over a year when I spotted it, I didn't try as hard as I probably could have to get in contact with the video creator and mention it. The thing I find most annoying is that the person in question would have made money from that video, using my work, seeing as I know that they make their living form those videos.

And the reason that it was cool was that a few million people have now seen my artwork :P. In my particular case I was ok with it. If I had been attempting to make money from the artwork I would have done all I could to get in contact and ask for it to either be credited or removed.

^I'm the same way with my own artwork(GFX tags and shiz). Like a few people would use my avatars, and like you, I was both flattered and little pissed. Flattered cause they actually like my work enough to use it, but mad cause they didn't ask. It's nothing of importance, but yeah.

[Miku]

Does this plagiarism also count towards people who use profile pictures of other people and claim those pictures to be them? I've encountered this multiple times.

[NarayanK]

Experienced plagiarism from others, but I never thought about the topic deeply. This kinda enlightened me in a way.

I have used others' works without permission before, but at one point, I began to avoid doing this. Since it still tempts me (even as an artist who could just draw a character image out) to use artwork for unpermitted uses, I will start to keep this in mind in RPG. I know what it feels to have no credit for work, so I'll do my best to get permission whenever I use another's work.

[Marrone]

If I can just be frank, we all know the internet isn't public domain, but it's set up so that everything should be. An artist who really doesn't want his work to be copyrighted should liberally watermark or just completely avoid posting the actual artwork onto sites like Deviant Art. To me, they're free pickings, and I'm not about to go out of my way to make a Deviant Art account just so I can ask some dude if I can use his picture in a roleplay or as an avatar. Every single modern artist that is familiar with trending visual arts on the computer should know that their work isn't protected when you say "don't use this". . . chances are that I 'accidently' don't see the disclaimer because I need my ultra-rare perfect picture of something extremely specific. Love the artist to recess pieces, respect the crap of everything the artist does and who the artist is. . .But when push comes to shove, it doesn't hurt to make a single picture mean something much more.

There's an entire difference between using artwork for applicative purposes and not citing the sources because of the marginality (read: unofficial nature) of the situation and claiming a piece of art is your own when it isn't. One is harmlessly finding a use as to enhance the nature of ones project, the other is an attempt to misguide original sources which leads to misunderstanding of the original and intended meaning of the art as well as providing a fabricated source of inspiration (that further misleads and misconstrues from the essense of the art).

I personally try my best to find a specific application of my art into others exploits; and if they can use the same song or one of my solo songs for their own gain, good on them. Even if I'm not cited, I'm still heard. . .And that goes for my poetry/prose as well. I don't really care about the credit, and if I need to get down to $$$ business I'll always have the upper hand because I literally conjured the piece of art if it comes down to the courts. It's like claiming a child without DNA evidence-- people know who's actually created the art, and in the end, it really doesn't matter who did. . .Just that it's there and that people find it important. I never knew why some people didn't think that's enough.

[Maktesh]

Makes me wonder how many people got permission to use or created their own avatar in this thread.

[Aragorn]

Makes me wonder how many people got permission to use or created their own avatar in this thread.

Lol. Probably nobody as far as asking permission.