56 replies to this topic

[Turnip]

There's a lawsuit?

 
Yup!! Things don't seem to be going all that well for them :V
 
Back on topic though someone elsewhere did bring up a good point, even if the art team did just Google Korbat and used whatever they found, it's still a little hard to believe that they would think it's an official image. The proportions (look at the faces) and artstyles don't match up at all, you can clearly tell it's some fanart.
 

[Guppie]

 
Yup!! Things don't seem to be going all that well for them :V
 
Back on topic though someone elsewhere did bring up a good point, even if the art team did just Google Korbat and used whatever they found, it's still a little hard to believe that they would think it's an official image. The proportions (look at the faces) and artstyles don't match up at all, you can clearly tell it's some fanart.
 

I would argue that official Neo art has had such a wide range of styles that it could be mistaken for official art.

 
Yup!! Things don't seem to be going all that well for them :V
 
 

Hmmm, it's only a civil matter, though. They'll probably lose and just have to refund CA players who were charged without consent.

[Waser Lave]

I would argue that official Neo art has had such a wide range of styles that it could be mistaken for official art.

 

I would have assumed it was official art if I saw that image. Given that even I probably know more about Neopets than most (if not all) of their new staff I doubt they would be able to tell the difference either. I wonder if the old artists used to keep images like that around the office for inspiration (or just because they liked them) and the new artists just saw it and assumed it was their own. Something like that happening wouldn't surprise me given the scale of the changes they've had in staffing and probably offices.

[Chappy]

I believe this person was super famous (like for 7-8 years) and people would constantly steal from her.
This is why people are bringing it up. 

[Turnip]

I would argue that official Neo art has had such a wide range of styles that it could be mistaken for official art.

 

Mmmnn... Kuitsuku's image is still in an artstyle you wouldn't find onsite. Like it's very clearly fanart. Look at the weight of the lineart, the size of the eyes, how it's shaded, how those eyes are drawn, mouth size, ear size, tail tip shape, etc. Usually when it comes to drawing characters for companies you usually have to follow a set of guidelines so the artstyles are consistent. Let's take cartoons as an example, if the artstyle unintentionally changed multiple times during the episode then it would of course make the animation look incredibly unprofessional and be clearly noticeable to some viewers. Even in items featuring Korbats which are drawn in a different style you can see that (nearly all) of them follow a similar sort of "pattern". Eye placement is nearly always in the same place, ears are nearly always the same size, etc. Of course some items switch it up a little. Changing your artstyle can be hard shit and if the item looks good then I'm sure they thought "oh man whatever this is good enough", but the changes are never as drastic as the ones between the official Korbat image and Kuitsuku's image.

 

Maybe they also thought it looked official enough to pass as their own creation meaning they could get away with it. Since if it looked official enough then surely other people would think the same, right? There are plenty of people who have an untrained eye when to comes to art, who lack the "ability" to tell the difference between artstyles as they aren't as familiar with art as others. There are plenty of people who have never seen Kuitsuku's art too so they wouldn't think that it was stolen. But.... when you're provided proof that it's a stolen image then you don't just cover up your ears and cry saying that your in-house team created it!! You don't just lie and say they would ask the original creator for permission to use the image when they didn't. Even just a halfhearted apology like "haha oh oops looks like that certainly is someone else's creation sorry lol we'll remove it/give credit in the item's description" would have been good enough.

 

For varying styles used in items though... It makes me wonder if they've stolen art in the past, and just how much if they have. Someone on deviantArt is saying that they stolen an adoptable she created and put it on a book item, but she hasn't said which adoptable/book it is yet so we'll have to wait and see if this is true. But if they have then that would definitely explain the inconsistent artstyles used.

 

I believe this person was super famous (like for 7-8 years) and people would constantly steal from her.
This is why people are bringing it up. 

 

Heh, she's still popular ^^ She's the one who drew these popular Disney/Pokemon images and does a lot of Aywas art. I'm guessing people don't steal her Neopets art as regularly as they did back in the day because she just... doesn't really draw Neopets art anymore hehehe

[Katya]

 
 

 

 

Some dweeb in a thread at the neoboards last night said the new item's image is based on that last one (image on the right), but it's impossible, just by the face proportions alone lol. Why are people so blind omfg.

[GetJinxed]

Coincidence guys!    When you think TNT can't go any lower they can always prove you wrong   

[Ka1]

Heh, she's still popular ^^ She's the one who drew these popular Disney/Pokemon images and does a lot of Aywas art. I'm guessing people don't steal her Neopets art as regularly as they did back in the day because she just... doesn't really draw Neopets art anymore hehehe

 

Those art are very nice. Did not know it existed

This is a publicity for her in a way.

[Coops]

Those art are very nice. Did not know it existed

This is a publicity for her in a way.

I hardly think publicity by theft is something any artist, creator, inventor or whoever would appreciate. I don't think people realize what a fucking crime this is (not anyone here specifically, just in general). Imagine you're trying to breakout as an artist, writer, whatever and someone just comes along and scoops up a project/skill you've put years of effort into developing (in this case, the skill of drawing). Bam, stolen. No amount of publicity makes up for the shittiness that is theft.

[neopetsexploded]

 

lol did you made this or is it re-uploaded? Since we are on this thread, I must applaud the original creator of this image because it's genius. First thing about Neo that made me laugh in years. LOVE the neo-character expression. So subtle but so expressive.

Edited by neopetsexploded, 10 November 2015 - 06:16 PM.

[Swar]

lol did you made this or is it re-uploaded? Since we are on this thread, I must applaud the original creator of this image because it's genius. First thing about Neo that made me laugh in years. LOVE the neo-character expression. So small but so expressive.

I found it on reddit hahah the orignal is just the two guys with the ball thing. I lol'd when I saw it

[neopetsexploded]

I found it on reddit hahah the orignal is just the two guys with the ball thing. I lol'd when I saw it

 

Hahaha.. I laughed out as well. The image is so genius.

[Lollita]

Hahaha.. I laughed out as well. The image is so genius.

 

Same here 

[IamDaniel]

Wow dramas all over TNT 

[Guppie]

I'm surprised by the vitriol TNT is getting over this. Yeah, it's bad, but TNT does a lot of bad things. I remember when I used to look at the neoboards people would defend TNT to a fault "They work so hard on this game for us to enjoy! How dare you say anything bad about TNT! So disrespectful!!!" etc.

 

Did the fanatically dedicated people leave, or is art theft something that even they will not abide?

[Blanc]

I found it on reddit hahah the orignal is just the two guys with the ball thing. I lol'd when I saw it

I'm still laughing hard about it, since I've saw that xD

[Tailwind]

Did the fanatically dedicated people leave, or is art theft something that even they will not abide?

 

The TNT defenders are still around. It's just hard to defend something so blatant.

[Butterball]

I've gotten a lot of dark humor out of this one since it's such a deviantart drama down to the "lol it's a coincidence exdee" excuse. Unfortunately the legal department recommendation is to always deny wrongdoing to avoid exposing themselves to a lawsuit, but that usually just pisses people off (see the artist going from amused to annoyed, and rightly so).

 

Unfortunately I think there's a line in the Neopets TOS about how they own any art that depicts their copyrighted characters or something.

 

Anyway, JS should really just stop making shitty pointless items anyway, they're a cancer on the site and always have been. Let the artists put their time into items that actually have a function (e.g. wearables).

[kadoatie]

There's fewer TNT defenders left and they're mainly on Charter. 

Edited by kadoatie, 11 November 2015 - 05:11 PM.

[SnowfaLL]

Anyway, JS should really just stop making shitty pointless items anyway, they're a cancer on the site and always have been. Let the artists put their time into items that actually have a function (e.g. wearables).

 

Damn right. When Jumpstart fired all the creative staff I was expecting a massive reduction in useless items and more streamlined content - focusing on the bug fixes, the events, and the few items that people actually want. Quality over quantity. Instead they've released all this garbage that will forever be associated with their name, and the art theft is just the cherry on top.

 

The Viacom era was buggy and they left the site in a gigantic mess, but at least they never tolerated art theft, let alone partook in it.

(I used to log in to find tons of neomails about people stealing my BC art, only to find that whoever it was had already gotten frozen overnight. Srsbsns lol)

[AllTheWayToVictory]

Why are we blaming TNT/JS for their shits though? Aren't we all have been shitting around in Neopets for so long? Yay for more shits! lol

[kadoatie]

Why are we blaming TNT/JS for their shits though? Aren't we all have been shitting around in Neopets for so long? Yay for more shits! lol

The old TNT artists were too damn talented to ever succumb to stealing art.

[Guppie]

Unfortunately I think there's a line in the Neopets TOS about how they own any art that depicts their copyrighted characters or something.

 

Anyway, JS should really just stop making shitty pointless items anyway, they're a cancer on the site and always have been. Let the artists put their time into items that actually have a function (e.g. wearables).

I don't think it matters that much what's in your ToS if there's a law that you're breaking. It might deter the mildly motivated from suing you, but they can still win a law suit against you for doing something illegal.

 

I have always felt that there should be fewer pointless items. If it's not something that is wearable, goes in a collection (e. g. stamps), consumable, or equipable what's the point? Even most of the items that can be consumed or equipped are rendered pointless by how bad they are. I've heard the argument from gallery collectors that they have a collection of pink calendars or whatever, but that seems like an empty excuse. You could just collect useful items instead of useless items if there were fewer of the latter.

[Alexiel]

Seems Neo deactivated the item. Can't search for it in the left search box, shops, galleries, or trades anymore.
No longer restocks.

 

 

As of 11/18/15 06:26 AM NST their original response remains the same:

 

Edited by Alexiel, 18 November 2015 - 06:26 AM.

[Guppie]

Thanks for the update, @Alexiel

 

At least they know they're wrong enough to deactivate it, but they really should have issued a new statement with an apology.