The World of FFRP and Art Credits Revisited, AGAIN!

Published May 16, 2013 | By Gen

The artist belongs to his work, not the work to the artist.

Novalis

That pesky trend or perhaps lazy behavior is as always returning from my recent perusal of the newest profiles over on Dragonsmark’s Red Dragon Inn. No one should be surprised by my posting about this as it is well known I am a strong advocate for giving artists credit if you use their work. It irks me to no end to see folks failing to do that. If the image is good enough to use for YOUR character then the person that posed for it, snapped the image or spent HOURS to DAYS creating it either by hand or digitally deserve the CREDIT! GIVE IT TO THEM!

Credit: Myself for Whimsical Vision

Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. We have RDI Hosts that can’t be bothered to put credits into their profiles, so why should anyone else right? Honestly? This disgusts me. Hosts are “supposed” to be good examples for the community to follow right? Yet even they break that one simple rule. I don’t think they should be allowed to break this guideline at all, given they are supposed to enforce such things, right?

Oh, I also see several claiming ownership of pictures that they altered in Photoshop, but fail to add WHERE they got the original image. To those that do muck around with the pictures they have selected for their character, changing up eye color, hair color, adding tattoos, or what have you, none of this makes it an ORIGINAL Image. Slapping up “Photoshopped by Me” Or “Photoshopped by so and such” is NOT giving proper credit. Unless the image you are using is out of the public domain or listed as Fair use, using it, changing/altering it, claiming it as your own without credit is STEALING to state it bluntly.

Credit: I can has Cheezburger http://icanhas.cheezburger.com/

Yes, this is one of my major soap boxes. Often it is up there right next to Bullies which I hate just as passionately. This is one area that I am very vocal about and have been for years and I will continue to be such. Stealing art is wrong! This is also disrespectful. IF the image is good enough to use for YOUR beloved character, then you should take the time to find out who crafted it! Failing to do that is theft plain and simple. No clue how to find out? There are tools out there that will help. Try using Tin Eye http://www.tineye.com/. This program works independently, or as an add on in Firefox http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/. (Notice how I did that? I give links because that is a way to display CREDIT!) It’s as easy as adding “Image done by Royo” on a freaking profile!

Should you be unable to find image information(Which can happen and even I recognize that), then state that you couldn’t find it. Make an effort at the very least to put something down regarding an image that isn’t of your own making! Add something like “Image source unknown, if any have information please let me know.” That at the very least is RESPECTFUL!

Why do I hate this behavior? I have been stolen from and I fought back as my rules are simple and easy to follow. Break them and I go all bat guano crazy. I spent weeks battling one who stole many of my old fairy pictures and claimed them as their own on a tub site. Her site was shut down. When I got nowhere with the thief, I went to the hosting service. Never claim an image is yours unless it truly IS your own work!

I simply DO NOT UNDERSTAND how so many creative folks in the gaming world, who are often HIGHLY PROTECTIVE of their own writings and the like, become brain dead and have what seems to be a very dismissive attitude over the visual side of things. They take images from online and have that ever so annoying idea that because it’s online it’s FREE. It’s NOT always free. They use various models, images from google or deviant art without so much as a single credit of said picture, No statement about who the model is if it’s a photo, who created it be that with a camera, by hand, digitally designed , etc. I suspect that they took time finding the “Perfect” picture to convey that character they are playing but for some boneheaded, irritating reason, they “forget” where they got it, who made it, or even who the model they are using is. Or they simply don’t care either way it’s not acceptable.