EA carpet bombs Etsy fan art
- Thread starter Paladin Anderson
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Sounds like EA Fox and CBS don't value giving away money. Etsy should sue the pants off of these companies for harassment and attempts at public defacement.
Ya gotta stand up to bullies, to show 'em they can't always push the little guys around. Power gone to their heads, ya see.
Ya gotta stand up to bullies, to show 'em they can't always push the little guys around. Power gone to their heads, ya see.
Just another instance where fans of products get screwed by the corporate tools behind them and have us wind up saying "screw those guys". Problem is, we keep going back to the well for their products every time something like this happens. We should do a carpet bomb of our own and email every executive in each one of these companies and tell them we don't approve of this practice. With enough voices, they may reconsider how they go about protecting their IP in the future. They should have been way more selective with their targets and this kind of behaviour should not be tolerated by those that use their products.
Etsy should sue. It'd be fun to watch people get eaten alive over unauthorised use of others' trademarks.michael87cn said:
It's nice to call them "bullies" and all, but this is pretty much a case of Etsy sellers being in the wrong.
Hmm I dunno, I kinda see where EA and other companies are coming from on this. I mean it sucks but it is their IP that others are making money from. Maybe there should be a way to give a percentage of the revenue to EA and other companies. The creation of fan art is one thing, it's the selling it that is not kosher.
Heh. After I read your first sentence I immediately thought you were going to set up a company which goes around suing anyone who makes fan art for thousands of dollars. It might be sad that that's the first thing I thought of.evilneko said:
Well, in order to do that effectively you've got to have the financial resources and willpower to go toe-to-toe with all these media corporations in court, probably simultaneously, over some sketches and the odd t-shirt.evilneko said:
The media companies know that what they're doing is illegal, but they don't care because they know their targets do not have the resources to survive in court.
Most of the people selling fan work could probably also make good original work. Fan work is an easy way to get people to then see your original work, and also is very fun to many people.Sober Thal said:
Problem here is, you *are* selling someone else's ideas for your own money. I always wondered when anime cons would get hammered for how much fan work is sold at their art galleries. I also wonder when commissions for fan art on DevART are going to get smacked down.
Can they? Can you argue that it's the labor you're paying for, not the character on the piece of paper? "I paid him to draw me a picture of Garrus. I didn't pay for a picture of Garrus." Can you do that?
If this is true, this would be the sign telling everyone it's time to get off the bus. No point in hosting anything on a service that doesn't stand-up for it's users.Paladin Anderson said:
also, i sincerely doubt that NBC could legally defend a claim on the expression "that's what she said".
This is an example of why I'm seriously starting to go from "in favor of limited IP protections" to "in favor of the abolition of intellectual property." I understand that people should have a right to earn money from their work. But if you come up with an idea and share it, especially if you release it to the general public, it's no longer yours. Copyrights should last 20 years max with no way to renew, and even then, if the original owner is unwilling or unable to keep it in publication after initially releasing it to the public (looking at you, George Lucas), it should go into the public domain. What's more, derivative works should belong to the copyright holder, but if someone else makes a derivative work, they should have to be capable of proving they actually meant to make something like that. Something tells me EA never intended to make a plate with Garrus on it. We've got Star Trek style replicators here: it's time to move past a scarcity model.
That I agree with you and should be fought, however what I looked up for mass effect are not phrases. However there is a grey area I think when it comes to a pin that says "I am cmdr shepard and this is the best pin on the citadel".RaikuFA said:
I find all of the people raging in this thread humorous. If you're taking what someone else has made and selling your derivative work of it without their prior consent, they have every right to slap your shit. Most fan art websites operate because they don't sell their products. This isn't an example of the "NEW WAVE OF COPYRIGHT NAZIS", it's an example of copyright law that's existed for years and years and years.
While it's mean, I suppose, it's also perfectly legal. If you're selling Mass Effect stuff and EA hasn't given you the green light, you're infringing on their copyrights. The key point there is 'selling'. EA isn't just smacking perfectly innocent little artists in the face with their cocks here, they're smacking people who are making a profit via derivative works in the face with their - metaphorical, I hope - cocks.
While it's mean, I suppose, it's also perfectly legal. If you're selling Mass Effect stuff and EA hasn't given you the green light, you're infringing on their copyrights. The key point there is 'selling'. EA isn't just smacking perfectly innocent little artists in the face with their cocks here, they're smacking people who are making a profit via derivative works in the face with their - metaphorical, I hope - cocks.
Which is why you see posts like mine. Copyright in the US is ridiculous, because every time Mickey Mouse comes up on the built in limits, Disney swoops in and gets a law passed to extend it. The original law was something like 15 years, non-renewable. It's now 70 years after the author's death, renewable almost indefinitely. How can one own an idea? Especially for that long after releasing it to the general public.MurderousToaster said:
Edit: Not to mention for that long after your own death.
Personally I think that the NFL, BCS, MLB, NHL, NBA, and all other sports associations should sue EA for blatantly ripping them off and making tons of money off their crap! (Obviously I'm being facetious here, I do know about a little thing called "contracts")
As for the topic at hand, yeah, I've gotta go with those that are agreeing with EA on this one. We ALL hate when the big-bad-corporation comes out and crushes something that the little guy made. It reminds us all of the jackass walking down the beach kicking of sandcastles. But by definition of the copyright laws, you cannot make money off of someone else's ideas. As numerous other people have pointed out: the reason fan-art sites aren't shut down and sued is because they're just displaying art, not selling it. Does EA honestly NEED the money that is otherwise made via the sale of fan-art? Of course not, such chump-change is a drop in the bucket compared to what EA brings in. But they are well within their right to demand that people stop making money off of their property. Really poor comparison here, but it's like taking lemons out of your neighbor's garden to make lemonade and sell it on the street corner. Sure you're only taking a few lemons, and they're making plenty of money with their own lemonade, but the fact remains that you're profiting off their lemons. So now they have to invent a lemon that'll burn your house down.
That said however, I completely disagree with the bastards trying to stake claim over "That's what she said!" The ONLY reason that joke is even in that show is because it's a pop-culture joke in general! As has been pointed out before, "That's what she said!" was going around lllooonnnggg before the Office ever came around, so long that you can't even prove that having a button that says "That's what she said!" was based of The Office at all unless it's got a picture of an office character saying it on the button. But hey, if George Lucas is getting a HUGE paycheck from the Droid phone company because he literally owns the word "Droid", apparently we're all wrong on the above mentioned matter about owning a word.
In summation, EA is ruining Bioware and should stick with remaking the same crappy sports games every year.
As for the topic at hand, yeah, I've gotta go with those that are agreeing with EA on this one. We ALL hate when the big-bad-corporation comes out and crushes something that the little guy made. It reminds us all of the jackass walking down the beach kicking of sandcastles. But by definition of the copyright laws, you cannot make money off of someone else's ideas. As numerous other people have pointed out: the reason fan-art sites aren't shut down and sued is because they're just displaying art, not selling it. Does EA honestly NEED the money that is otherwise made via the sale of fan-art? Of course not, such chump-change is a drop in the bucket compared to what EA brings in. But they are well within their right to demand that people stop making money off of their property. Really poor comparison here, but it's like taking lemons out of your neighbor's garden to make lemonade and sell it on the street corner. Sure you're only taking a few lemons, and they're making plenty of money with their own lemonade, but the fact remains that you're profiting off their lemons. So now they have to invent a lemon that'll burn your house down.
That said however, I completely disagree with the bastards trying to stake claim over "That's what she said!" The ONLY reason that joke is even in that show is because it's a pop-culture joke in general! As has been pointed out before, "That's what she said!" was going around lllooonnnggg before the Office ever came around, so long that you can't even prove that having a button that says "That's what she said!" was based of The Office at all unless it's got a picture of an office character saying it on the button. But hey, if George Lucas is getting a HUGE paycheck from the Droid phone company because he literally owns the word "Droid", apparently we're all wrong on the above mentioned matter about owning a word.
In summation, EA is ruining Bioware and should stick with remaking the same crappy sports games every year.
Those are all items put up afterward. Anyone who's items were taken down were sent a letter from Etsy saying that reactivating the items would result in banning of your account. Either they're risking the ban or created them as new items unaware that the companies are monitoring Etsy now.danyy2009 said:
My dyslexia had me fearing "the copyright tranny" until I read it a few more times.Rodrigo Girao said:
As I understand if, you can sell fan art provided you aren't mass producing it. Artist Alleys at anime conventions are wall to wall copyrighted characters for sale. The best example I know of would be Otakon in Maryland. They have a decent legal team and I'm pretty sure they've been advised on how an Artist Alley is allowed to go.