Post by Goldash on Oct 30, 2014 8:50:11 GMT -5
Recent events around the community force us to take action against something we need to address in the CAW world: the issue of plagiarism --- not only of logos but also of characters, concepts or shows as a whole.
To avoid any confusion, I'm going to write this out as clearly and as simply as I can. Please read each section carefully.
The Rantboard Network has a ZERO-TOLERANCE Policy on Plagiarism.
If you feel a member on this forum plagiarized you, PM one of our mods with CLEAR EVIDENCE and we will take the appropriate action against the perpetrator. This will be judged by our entire group, so no favorites will be played and will be conducted without bias. Plagiarism on RBN will result in discipline ranging from a long suspension to an outright IP ban as decided by our admin team (Network Affiliate league owners). We'll make every effort to ensure you do not get the attention you seek.
There is a difference between inspiration and plagiarism.
The phrases "idea theft" or "ripoff" get thrown around the CAW community quite a bit, and it often leads to some nasty fights. While this may be negative for many CAW producers, there IS a difference between inspiration and outright theft.
Many times this can be avoided by simply talking to the person you're looking to borrow an idea/character/graphic from and telling him/her about your goals for what you aim to create.
Believe me, communication helps --- even if it fails, it's better than doing nothing at all.
If the person isn't willing to listen, acts immaturely or thinks you've gone too far in your goals, drop the issue entirely and focus on doing something else with your time.
Either you overstepped or the person you're willing to borrow from isn't worth talking to anyway.
If you get a "no" answer but the person still seems willing to talk, ask for suggestions on what to do next. This goes for characters, graphics, ideas, shows, whatever. It can't hurt to ask for ideas. Again, if the person isn't willing to cooperate, just move on with other things, and especially don't be an asshole and seek "revenge". That's not how it works in real life and it will only cause more problems for you and anyone else involved.
Examples:
DON'T: Sam likes a character ("Steve Blaze") on Matt's show and would like to have him on his own. He creates his own version of "Steve Blaze" the next day.
DO: Sam likes a character ("Steve Blaze") on Matt's show. He wants to use Blaze in his own league and messages Matt to ask permission. Matt says no. After asking Matt for help with creating someone similar, Sam decides to create a character similar to Blaze using Matt's suggestions and his own ideas, making sure he isn't totally ripping off Blaze in the process.
This, again, is a tough call. You may like another character and even get approval to use that character on your show, but please be aware that not every character, graphic, show or concept is free for the taking. ASKING is always your best option when dealing with stuff like this and it will make you look less like an outright thief.
---
Coincidences
We all have times when we have an idea of something we think no one else has done, only to find someone's already done it.
Coincidences are tough to deal with because it happens in real life all the time --- take music, for example. No one knows if Led Zeppelin plagiarized Willie Dixon or found great inspiration in him. Talk to the band members, though, and they'll say something like "we were listening to a lot of blues music and made something similar." Innocent until proven guilty, of course, but in most cases this would be an unfortunate coincidence.
In that case, your best bet is, once again, COMMUNICATION.
No one should live with the fear of being "ripped off" or "ripping someone off". It causes a ton of unneeded stress. If you feel you may have unintentionally done something someone already did, talk to them about it. Go on social media and say it wasn't intentional. Most of all, BE HONEST.
You don't know how the other person will act, but at least you'll have a legitimate reason to defend yourself if it does happen. Again, just don't lie about it. You'll just make even more trouble for yourself, unless you're a compulsive liar. And if you are a compulsive liar, stay away from RBN.
----
Theme Music, Mass-Produced Content, Community Creations Material
It's up to you about how you feel about this issue but in my opinion, these don't constitute plagiarism unless they're made uniquely for the character.
For example, I know of a few characters that used Gob's "Underground" and Sixx:AM's "Life is Beautiful" after I used them for Stern and Emo. I didn't care, because they're not my songs. I didn't record them so I have no right to get bent out of shape about it.
On the other hand, I created the RBN signature music (albeit with Apple Loops). If anyone were to use that without my permission, that would be indeed be plagiarizing my own work.
What I said about previously-recorded theme music is also true for mass-produced motion graphics or royalty-free templates anyone can download online. Those are available for everyone's use and therefore don't constitute plagiarism. Someone else made it for the masses so it belongs to the masses.
However, this does not apply to custom-made graphics another may have made for their show. It's still considered plagiarism if something someone made especially for their show is used without modification on another, especially if the similarities are obvious.
For stuff posted on WWE Community Creations, the assumption is that if it's on the server, it can be used by everyone --- in some cases, that will happen with content you create. If a stolen CAW or logo downloaded off of CC is negatively used on these forums, please bring it to our attention. Otherwise, it will be the creator's responsibility to handle the matter off the forums.
The one exception to that rule is Community Creations content meant to be shared privately between users. In that case it is on both the sender and receiver to make sure the content is deleted before anyone else finds it.
And as always, if you don't know --- ASK!
---
This is an extremely tough topic to discuss but we all feel this must be addressed for the sake of the medium. Part of the "respect" we have around here involves this as well. We can borrow from one-another all we want, especially if we talk about it.
If you choose not to follow these suggestions, you're on your own. Regardless of if you do or don't, you'll have to deal with all that follows.
Hopefully this clears up many of the concerns we have about this issue. We do not condone this type of behavior and will not hesitate to speak up about it should it happen here or anywhere else. Plagiarism does NOT belong on RBN, and if you're willing to go to those lengths to promote your wrestler or show, we'd rather not have you around.
As always, feel free to reply or ask questions.
To avoid any confusion, I'm going to write this out as clearly and as simply as I can. Please read each section carefully.
The Rantboard Network has a ZERO-TOLERANCE Policy on Plagiarism.
If you feel a member on this forum plagiarized you, PM one of our mods with CLEAR EVIDENCE and we will take the appropriate action against the perpetrator. This will be judged by our entire group, so no favorites will be played and will be conducted without bias. Plagiarism on RBN will result in discipline ranging from a long suspension to an outright IP ban as decided by our admin team (Network Affiliate league owners). We'll make every effort to ensure you do not get the attention you seek.
There is a difference between inspiration and plagiarism.
The phrases "idea theft" or "ripoff" get thrown around the CAW community quite a bit, and it often leads to some nasty fights. While this may be negative for many CAW producers, there IS a difference between inspiration and outright theft.
Many times this can be avoided by simply talking to the person you're looking to borrow an idea/character/graphic from and telling him/her about your goals for what you aim to create.
Believe me, communication helps --- even if it fails, it's better than doing nothing at all.
If the person isn't willing to listen, acts immaturely or thinks you've gone too far in your goals, drop the issue entirely and focus on doing something else with your time.
Either you overstepped or the person you're willing to borrow from isn't worth talking to anyway.
If you get a "no" answer but the person still seems willing to talk, ask for suggestions on what to do next. This goes for characters, graphics, ideas, shows, whatever. It can't hurt to ask for ideas. Again, if the person isn't willing to cooperate, just move on with other things, and especially don't be an asshole and seek "revenge". That's not how it works in real life and it will only cause more problems for you and anyone else involved.
Examples:
DON'T: Sam likes a character ("Steve Blaze") on Matt's show and would like to have him on his own. He creates his own version of "Steve Blaze" the next day.
DO: Sam likes a character ("Steve Blaze") on Matt's show. He wants to use Blaze in his own league and messages Matt to ask permission. Matt says no. After asking Matt for help with creating someone similar, Sam decides to create a character similar to Blaze using Matt's suggestions and his own ideas, making sure he isn't totally ripping off Blaze in the process.
This, again, is a tough call. You may like another character and even get approval to use that character on your show, but please be aware that not every character, graphic, show or concept is free for the taking. ASKING is always your best option when dealing with stuff like this and it will make you look less like an outright thief.
---
Coincidences
We all have times when we have an idea of something we think no one else has done, only to find someone's already done it.
Coincidences are tough to deal with because it happens in real life all the time --- take music, for example. No one knows if Led Zeppelin plagiarized Willie Dixon or found great inspiration in him. Talk to the band members, though, and they'll say something like "we were listening to a lot of blues music and made something similar." Innocent until proven guilty, of course, but in most cases this would be an unfortunate coincidence.
In that case, your best bet is, once again, COMMUNICATION.
No one should live with the fear of being "ripped off" or "ripping someone off". It causes a ton of unneeded stress. If you feel you may have unintentionally done something someone already did, talk to them about it. Go on social media and say it wasn't intentional. Most of all, BE HONEST.
You don't know how the other person will act, but at least you'll have a legitimate reason to defend yourself if it does happen. Again, just don't lie about it. You'll just make even more trouble for yourself, unless you're a compulsive liar. And if you are a compulsive liar, stay away from RBN.
----
Theme Music, Mass-Produced Content, Community Creations Material
It's up to you about how you feel about this issue but in my opinion, these don't constitute plagiarism unless they're made uniquely for the character.
For example, I know of a few characters that used Gob's "Underground" and Sixx:AM's "Life is Beautiful" after I used them for Stern and Emo. I didn't care, because they're not my songs. I didn't record them so I have no right to get bent out of shape about it.
On the other hand, I created the RBN signature music (albeit with Apple Loops). If anyone were to use that without my permission, that would be indeed be plagiarizing my own work.
What I said about previously-recorded theme music is also true for mass-produced motion graphics or royalty-free templates anyone can download online. Those are available for everyone's use and therefore don't constitute plagiarism. Someone else made it for the masses so it belongs to the masses.
However, this does not apply to custom-made graphics another may have made for their show. It's still considered plagiarism if something someone made especially for their show is used without modification on another, especially if the similarities are obvious.
For stuff posted on WWE Community Creations, the assumption is that if it's on the server, it can be used by everyone --- in some cases, that will happen with content you create. If a stolen CAW or logo downloaded off of CC is negatively used on these forums, please bring it to our attention. Otherwise, it will be the creator's responsibility to handle the matter off the forums.
The one exception to that rule is Community Creations content meant to be shared privately between users. In that case it is on both the sender and receiver to make sure the content is deleted before anyone else finds it.
And as always, if you don't know --- ASK!
---
This is an extremely tough topic to discuss but we all feel this must be addressed for the sake of the medium. Part of the "respect" we have around here involves this as well. We can borrow from one-another all we want, especially if we talk about it.
If you choose not to follow these suggestions, you're on your own. Regardless of if you do or don't, you'll have to deal with all that follows.
Hopefully this clears up many of the concerns we have about this issue. We do not condone this type of behavior and will not hesitate to speak up about it should it happen here or anywhere else. Plagiarism does NOT belong on RBN, and if you're willing to go to those lengths to promote your wrestler or show, we'd rather not have you around.
As always, feel free to reply or ask questions.
