pretending plaigerised art work is done by your character.

[Taralyn]

This might be a little rant-ish. But I have recently come across a character who is supposed to have drawn something that I later came across on the internet. It annoyed me enough that I checked the rules and couldn't find anything that said it wasn't allowed. It's not the first time I've come across it in-game either. Even if it is not against the rules, surely it's questionable? Players behind characters most likely assume that the work is done by the characters player, at least that is the assumption I would make, and I really have a problem with passing off another artists work as your own. Is this something that is considered ok?

[SekoETC]

I don't think it should be allowed. At least the work should be edited to make it personal, like by applying artistic filters. If you just take a picture and pass it off as your own, that's wrong.

[CrashBlizz]

I personally don't see it as a problem. It doesn't make any difference to my characters if the work is done by another characters player or not (they don't even know there's such a thing as players) - so it shouldn't be effecting gameplay at all.

I think it can actually help players too:
Say I wanted to play a character aspiring to be a famous artist - I cant draw at all so unless I copy something someone else has done I'm never going to be able to play this character type.

That being said, copyrighted work shouldn't be used.

[Snickie]

All of my characters' artwork is done by me and me alone.
I may have used preexisting images as references, but the artwork itself is mine.

[Chris]

That being said, copyrighted work shouldn't be used.

Copyright is automatic. There is no requirement to register anything formally. So everything (created recently) is copyrighted, unless the creator specifies some other license like public domain.

[CrashBlizz]

Depends on what country you are in. Its only automatic in countries that agree to the Berne Convention and even then its normally only for a limited period of time. After that period is up its fair game.

[Chris]

Depends on what country you are in. Its only automatic in countries that agree to the Berne Convention and even then its normally only for a limited period of time. After that period is up its fair game.

Which gray country has a lot of creative works to be ripped off?

And regardless of the laws, passing off other people's work as your own is wrong.

[SumBum]

It's always been frowned upon for musicians to use real life songs/lyrics within the game. A melody could be used within emotes so that other players can get the tune in their head, but lyrics should be changed. I see no reason why visual artwork should be any different. Do something to make the artwork specific to Cantr. There are no cameras and I'm really not sure what items are truly available in-game to make dyes/pigments for paints beyond some very basic colors so I would think a vividly colored image would be OOC. There are paintbrushes, but again, how many colors would be available based on in-game resources? I'd expect most artwork in Cantr to be done in charcoal or paintings to be done with rudimentary colors.

Either way, I think it's just lazy. Do something to make it your char's work, even if it's just adding a filter or changing a color pic to black and white.

[Doug R.]

I'm fairly sure that if an artist found their work being used illegally in the game (i.e. without their consent), they could demand it be removed and sue if it was not.

Therefore, it's in Cantr's best interests to remove such works as soon as they are found. My wife works in international copyright law, and I can check with her if the Admins would like a definitive statement on the matter.

There should also be statement placed in the image uploader regarding the use of copyrighted material.