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Why Plagiarism Matters
comment=38582
And Fair Use does not cover something just because it is not being sold.
I never said Fair Use covers noncommercial usage but I did say that whatever we make is liable to be stolen. If people make things and post them on the internet, chances are that people will steal things in part or in whole from what we make--that's the nature of the internet. It pisses people off but that's what we get for putting our stuff up on the world wide web.
Now that's not to say that I'm justifying those people's actions because like I said, it pisses people off, me included. For that reason, people need to become more aware of these kinds of things. But back to my original point, there's a statement that says "There is nothing original under the sun" and that might be true. That's why Fair Use is there and that's why we also have to be aware of our own rights as well as the rights of others and how to not step on toes.
Why Plagiarism Matters
A lot of this article seems to deal with the issue of cliches as well as the issue of plagiarism. When it comes to ripping stuff from other professional games, that is a matter that is in a legal realm all on its own; however, there is a little something called fair use which applies to everything and anything created by everyone.
It basically says that as long as you don't make any money off the property being used or pass it off as your own without altering it more than 20% then it is okay to use copyrighted works without the permission of the copyright owner. So it's basically alright for us to use ripped graphics from old SNES games because we're not making any money off the games we make and unless someone is passing off old graphics as their own then it's not a problem.
Because we as amateurs don't have the means nor the resources to copyright these kinds of things without getting into legal ramifications of our own, anything and everything that we make is liable to be used as well. People are free to use the things we create without our permission so long as we are credited for it as long as they won't be making money off it.
Now all this legal mumbo jumbo may seem unfair but to protect our rights as creative people, these clauses are put into action otherwise, someone could legally justify the use of the sleepyhead boy saves the world as being stolen intellectual property and sue for that. If we didn't have these sorts of fair use laws then we would be hurting because so many disputes over originality may arise from them.
The way I see it, we can't stop people from using graphics legally but if someone isn't getting credit where credit is due or if we don't come out and say "Hey, I was inspired by such and such and such games or movies or whatever," then it is our responsibility as civil people and as a forum/community of creative, and logical people to say something about it.
In laymen's terms, the ability to use the words "fair use" to justify using someone else's graphics or stories prevents someone else from calling you out on plagiarism because your idea is this much similar to theirs.
It basically says that as long as you don't make any money off the property being used or pass it off as your own without altering it more than 20% then it is okay to use copyrighted works without the permission of the copyright owner. So it's basically alright for us to use ripped graphics from old SNES games because we're not making any money off the games we make and unless someone is passing off old graphics as their own then it's not a problem.
Because we as amateurs don't have the means nor the resources to copyright these kinds of things without getting into legal ramifications of our own, anything and everything that we make is liable to be used as well. People are free to use the things we create without our permission so long as we are credited for it as long as they won't be making money off it.
Now all this legal mumbo jumbo may seem unfair but to protect our rights as creative people, these clauses are put into action otherwise, someone could legally justify the use of the sleepyhead boy saves the world as being stolen intellectual property and sue for that. If we didn't have these sorts of fair use laws then we would be hurting because so many disputes over originality may arise from them.
The way I see it, we can't stop people from using graphics legally but if someone isn't getting credit where credit is due or if we don't come out and say "Hey, I was inspired by such and such and such games or movies or whatever," then it is our responsibility as civil people and as a forum/community of creative, and logical people to say something about it.
In laymen's terms, the ability to use the words "fair use" to justify using someone else's graphics or stories prevents someone else from calling you out on plagiarism because your idea is this much similar to theirs.
The Frozen World
Games - Tester
Games - Other
