Disturbing Findings...

[joão paulo]

He is just a naive kid.

[Gamerprinter]

Look the photobucket site is down and his problem posts were removed, so no one is P***ed anymore. It was just worrisome when copyright written is freely posted without regard to our protected rights that's all.

Tell him, just to learn what he can and can't do and be more careful.

Being he was a 14 year old and had done this - its a misunderstanding on his part. So tell him to join the CG and we'll teach him how to map, so he can post his own maps and be proud of it (and completely legal too.)

We aren't upset with him anymore. Our fear was that some adult had completely disregard our protected rights and were distributing our work without consideraton of what a license is. Knowing it was the misunderstanding of a 14 year old, and the content is down. No reason to be upset.

OK?

GP

[Redrobes]

Firstly, I know the guy... etc

I kinda expect my art work to be nabbed and reposted - its the modern way. I know it wasn't my maps actually posted but I would have been ok with it. It would have been better if he had posted the credits to them but I mentioned before he did credit the guild for them all as a whole. I kinda think that if anyone was impressed enough to repost my map that I make for people to reuse for free then Id be pleased at the thought he liked it. Still it was wrong of him not to credit it and there's a little lesson there but he doesn't have to feel devastated over it.

Oh and IngIngsvar, we all don't have a (normal) life over here. heh heh. Yay for nerdism, go geek etc

[IngIngsvar]

Thanks for the information. Most of us here are fine with someone using our work in SOME cases. The big thing is that most people allow use IF for personal/non commercial use AND giving attribution(the photobucket account makes it seem as if he was the one doing the work)

Some of the maps posted here are actually not allowed to be redistributed as the artist has sold the rights. In those cases, some of the maps the fellow linked to could put him (his parents actually) into serious legal trouble as a few of those maps are owned by corporations(who gave permission for the artist to post to a specific site, here for example) and those corporations may end up contacting him. In general, if you find anything on the internet that you want to use, make sure who your getting it from has the legal ability to pass it on and you have the legal ability to use said stuff.

Now, with that said, if the kid (or you for that matter) wish to post up some work you did yourself and ask for help, feel free.

Ill tell him that, and hopeflly he wont get sued.

He was really scared about what might happen to him.

[NeonKnight]

Not too many folks here gonna grab up a pitchfork and lynch him, so no worries there.

As to my map (only one?......), I had no qualms about it being there as I have posted it to a great many sites for view. I do though appreciate the little pat on the back and the warm kudos it gives me to know people like my stuff (see the Penny Arcade accolades for me Miniature friendly maps for WotC's Thunderspire).

So, no worries.

[Redrobes]

Y'see theres a point there. If someone posts up stuff without asking we might have used art within the map and got permission to use it as long as we only posted it up here. That's particularly true for commissions where the person who paid for the map has an interest in keeping hold of it. So the fact is that *we* might get into hot water over it too and I think that's probably the crux of the problem. That sounds like a contrived example but recently I found out that the textures I have been using cannot be used in a CC work so suddenly some of my maps cannot be CC any more and therefore shouldn't be re-posted. So we don't want to be sued either.

Reality is, nobody is suing anybody though TSR who used to make D&D before Wizards / Hasbro used to be known as "They Sue Regularly".

[Midgardsormr]

I wasn't angry, either. I just wanted to make sure that my name went along with the map that I had made available. I should have put it on the image itself, so there's a lesson for me in this, too. As for the other one, Imperial Vendria, I'll probably go ahead and release that one under a CC license as well. I'm not sure now if I'll ever get around to publishing anything with it, and I am pretty sure I could make a better map now, anyway.

Anyway, I doubt anybody here's going to sue, although I wouldn't put it past Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro, if any of that other artwork belonged to them. Their artwork is a real asset to them, from which they make real money, and they are quite justifiably jealous of it.

[torstan]

The issue I had was that some of the maps posted had been created for a commission. The company I created them for might be a little miffed at them appearing elsewhere. Now that they have disappeared there is no problem at all. Definitely no harm done, and I hope he continues to use others art in his game! We post things here because we like others to use our art.

[Hoel]

Personally I wouldn't be surprised to find other collections like this...
Putting things on the internet has a way of spreading them around, and I'm ok wit that. I'm all for fair use. I think nothing should be copyrighted except for commercial use (I won't discuss or argue this subject here) That's my personal opinion, but hey I'm swedish, look at what we have going on in our court right now.
Taking credit for someone elses work is another thing thou. Always credit the author.
Invite the poor kid to the guild and make him collect all the maps in the finished map forum in an on site gallery with proper credits as a way of making amends!

[Gamerprinter]

I posted a "we're not upset anymore" post on the Map thread on Gleemax. The kid responded with a "thank god". But I did make sure he understand pretty much what Torstan, just stated.

Not ever map on the Guild is CC, and I mentioned how Publishers will call with attorneys and not upset CGers on a forum, so to insure he read the threads a given map originates, as it would be stated there if you cannot do so.

I didn't want anyone (at least the younger folk) at Gleemax to think we were too "stuffy" or anything. I wanted them to understand our rights and publisher rights. I still welcomed them to download our CC licensed maps for their games - a little PR goes a long way, as they say.

GP