Topic: Lame Jerks Rip Off Awesome NWR Member.

[UncleBob]

Just pathetic.

http://vgmaps.com/Reviews/Editorial-DidFlipIndustriesReallyCreateSuperKidIcarus.htm

[Caliban]

What a bunch of douchebags, and they think they can get away with it because of online anonymity or something.

I didn't notice if Jon mentioned which websites weren't sure of his validity, but I would like to know which sites were being douchy too.

[Ceric]

I wonder if they have any recourse, I skimmed the article, if they producer isn't making any money.

[ejamer]

Two key things that deserve to be said first, and nothing said afterwards changes or discounts them:

1. Yes, credit should always be given where due.  Failing to do so clearly makes certain parties involved here look bad.
2. Also, the "original" art (which is really just stolen artwork being altered slightly and rearranged) done was pretty awesome.


That said, I can't see this being a big deal.


As far as I can tell, there is no money involved outside of possible advertising revenues.  The offenders took a couple of mocked-up screenshots and turned them into a functional game - which likely requires more effort than altering and arranging some existing sprites to create the original mock images.  So there are no actual losses involved, and most people probably wouldn't know or care about the flash game until hearing there is some controversy attached.


The only harm done seems to be on principle - a matter of personal pride about doing a good job with the original screenshot hoax. Now that the truth is out there, that seems pretty minor and not unlike millions of instances of artwork being "borrowed" without permission on the web (and elsewhere) every day. 


Are sensationalist subject lines like this just a tempest in a teapot, or am I missing something?

[UncleBob]

Are sensationalist subject lines like this just a tempest in a teapot, or am I missing something?

You're missing something...

The offenders took a couple of mocked-up screenshots and turned them into a functional game -

We're not talking about a "couple of screenshots".

Jon remade the ENTIRE GAME maps.

http://www.vgmaps.com/NewsArchives/April2007/index.htm#SuperKidIcarus



We're talking every single level.

There was a lot of work put into that.

[ejamer]

Oh, I misunderstood.


There is still meaningful effort involved turning those maps into a working flash game... but re-skinning all of the levels is a huge effort and knowing that some people essentially stole that work changes my opinion.  (Still no money involved and no actual losses, but that is a huge effort to just misappropriate.  I'd feel put out if someone took advantage of my work this way and claimed it as their own.)

[MegaByte]

I wonder if they have any recourse, I skimmed the article, if they producer isn't making any money.

It's tricky when it's an unauthorized derivative work in the first place.

[Louieturkey]

Well, glad I never played Super Kid Icarus and now will never do it if I come across it.  I also will remember Flip Industries and make sure to never support their games unless they change their ways.

[oohhboy]

I am 100% behind you guys on this, but there is a very simple question I must ask.

What do you want us to do?

E-mail, firebombs? What? You have more then done your homework. You know who the artists are. You have the contacts. At this point you only real option is to ruin the reputations of the people behind Flip Industries.

[JonLeung]

Hi, guys.  Wow, I haven't been here in forever.

Thanks for drawing attention to this matter, UncleBob.

While some may question how much work it takes to "reskin" Kid Icarus, what I think is particularly wrong is that Flip Industries has now taken artwork from deviantART (and elsewhere on the Internet), such as Kid Icarus fan art - and without credit.  This was added to their site sometime after I initially raised a stink about just my maps this back in January, so it's clear they haven't learned and they think they can continue to pilfer more things from other people over the Internet.

And what is extremely irksome is that if you were to contact Flip Industries directly, just to ask why their maps and artwork more than resemble work that is not their own, you will not get a response.  At least, not an official response.  Instead, if you happen to question them openly, such as on forums, you'll get trolls that pop out of the woodwork, always brand new users, vehemently defending Flip Industries.  So much so, more than any Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft fanboy ever would defend their favourite company, which is disproportionate considering Flip Industries has made two fan games, which is next to nothing and obviously not deserving of such intense praise, so obviously these defendants (who are typically very immature and offer no decent counter to any allegation) are just Flip Industries themselves.

Rather than admit any wrongdoing, or counter my claims (perhaps because they can't), it appears they would instead look for ways to discredit me.  For instance, there is suddenly recent activity including Wikipedia edits (again, by new users) on the VGMaps article, questions asked on Yahoo! Answers about the legality of screenshot maps (particularly on VGMaps by JonLeung of Canada - obviously loaded when the questions are that specific), and there is now a YouTube channel (and soon, probably videos) that claims to "alert the public" of the "catastrophe" that is me and my web site.

Look at the crap I now have to go through, just for speaking up against what's obviously wrong.

Flip Industries, and/or their associates, are trying to make this personal.  Even if I don't let that bother me in that way, it's still aggravating that they are getting away with taking other people's work without credit.  Not that I would want to be credited now, I certainly don't want to be associated with such people that are so callous and disrespectful.

Such immaturity is ridiculous, I'm not really sure what can be done about it though.  You'd think Flip Industries would find a better hobby, because their smear campaign against me can easily be turned back against them, but I'm not sure if they're using any kind of publicity - good OR bad - as a way to get more attention to their game.  So do I stop feeding the trolls, or do I continue bringing to light their artwork-stealing ways?

[Louieturkey]

I'd look into suing them in some way.  Work with the people on deviantART that have also been plagiarized and see if there is any way to take this company off the internet completely.

[TJ Spyke]

I'd look into suing them in some way.  Work with the people on deviantART that have also been plagiarized and see if there is any way to take this company off the internet completely.

Not sure they can since neither company actually owns the rights to the source material. If Company A uses copyrighted content under the fair use doctrine, I am not sure they could have any legal recourse if Company B uses it.