Ohhhhh, the hypocrisy!

[Radegast74]

I just was over at the SC forums at reddit (why? not quite sure).

One of the top posts there is of a comic, NerfNow, that apparently is poking fun at having expensive tiers of membership in SC (like the Legatus pack) while offering a "free to play" option where the "player" is washing the car, supposedly the rich backers car. Here is a thumbnail:


So, then I started wondering...I thought, I bet this person has a Patreon account, or something equivalent. Sure enough, I go to their website and find that not only do they have a Patreon account, but, they are collecting over $2800 a month, and that (get this) they have different tiers of membership, which entitles you to different levels of drawings and posts and other perks.

Oh, the hypocrisy! Doing the math, this one person is collecting $2800 a month for drawing shitty comics. If CIG collected that amount for each of their 500 staff, that would be...uh...500 times 2800... uh...A LOT!

Check out the website, here are photos, I'm not making this shit up:

I'm not knocking the person for making comics and asking people to support them. What "chaps my hide" is them utilizing something so they can be creative, and then turning around and criticizing somebody else for doing the exact same thing.

 

[Injustice]

The world mentality: "Do as I say, not as I do"

 

[Printimus]

Monkey see, monkey do, monkey dont see.....monkey step in doo doo.

 

[Mich Angel]

Well isn't this breaking some copyrights and since there is money involved and the new EULA ( END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT )

if he wasn't making money on it it would been different, but since he's getting rich on a product he does not own and EULA say..

in this parts...

• Exploit the Game or any of its parts, including without limitation the Game Client, for any commercial purpose, including without limitation (a) use at a cyber cafe, computer gaming center or any other location-based site; (b) for gathering in-game virtual, items or resources for sale outside the Game; or © performing in-game services in exchange for payment outside the Game, e.g., power-leveling;

You agree not to remove, obscure, or alter any copyright, patent, trademark, or other proprietary rights notices affixed to any RSII Content. You may not to sell, license, distribute, copy, modify, publicly perform or display, transmit, publish, edit, adapt, create derivative works from, or otherwise make unauthorized use of any of the RSII Content. RSII reserves all rights in the RSII Content that are not expressly granted to you under the RSII Terms. You acknowledge that RSIIand/or our third party licensors remain the owners of all of the RSII Content included on the RSII Services, and that you do not acquire any of those ownership rights by downloading any of the RSII Content or accessing any of the RSII Services.

He is using patent copyright trademark of the SC logo in his drawings for one thing...

That is okay with EULA as long as you do not get payed for doing so.

Edit: I'm all good for patreons and making both cool and fun content regarding Star Citizen since that is what Youtubers use to fund there online activity but this I found to be in a grey area.
:thinking:

 

[Goose]

While CIG retains rights, in the US there are exceptions to copyrights called fair use, one of those exceptions is the parody exception where you poke fun at a copyrighted work in this case Star Citizen. Almost certainly this comic would be covered under the parody exception, and parody's are allowed to make money from their parody work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use#Parody

Well isn't this breaking some copyrights and since there is money involved and the new EULA ( END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT )

if he wasn't making money on it it would been different, but since he's getting rich on a product he does not own and EULA say..

in this parts...

• Exploit the Game or any of its parts, including without limitation the Game Client, for any commercial purpose, including without limitation (a) use at a cyber cafe, computer gaming center or any other location-based site; (b) for gathering in-game virtual, items or resources for sale outside the Game; or © performing in-game services in exchange for payment outside the Game, e.g., power-leveling;

You agree not to remove, obscure, or alter any copyright, patent, trademark, or other proprietary rights notices affixed to any RSII Content. You may not to sell, license, distribute, copy, modify, publicly perform or display, transmit, publish, edit, adapt, create derivative works from, or otherwise make unauthorized use of any of the RSII Content. RSII reserves all rights in the RSII Content that are not expressly granted to you under the RSII Terms. You acknowledge that RSIIand/or our third party licensors remain the owners of all of the RSII Content included on the RSII Services, and that you do not acquire any of those ownership rights by downloading any of the RSII Content or accessing any of the RSII Services.

He is using patent copyright trademark of the SC logo in his drawings for one thing...

That is okay with EULA as long as you do not get payed for doing so.

 

[Mich Angel]

While CIG retains rights, in the US there are exceptions to copyrights called fair use, one of those exceptions is the parody exception where you poke fun at a copyrighted work in this case Star Citizen. Almost certainly this comic would be covered under the parody exception, and parody's are allowed to make money from their parody work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use#Parody

Yeah probably, but it's in a very grey area ha ha ha... :beers::beers::beers:

 

[MegaMonkey]

Monkey see, monkey do, monkey dont see.....monkey step in doo doo.

Does this mean I walked into a shitpost?

 

[Printimus]

Does this mean I walked into a shitpost?

Now you did.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

He is using patent copyright trademark of the SC logo in his drawings for one thing...

These are three different things and have different protections, but in general, anything that is written by anyone is protected from that instance as "copyrighted" whether a person files for protection or not. Using a logo is a violation of Trademark. I don't know if there is any fair use case for trademark infringement, but certainly any time you use someone's intellectual property to generate profit, you are in violation of law. There are no "fair use" cases that apply when making money with someone else's property.

While CIG retains rights, in the US there are exceptions to copyrights called fair use, one of those exceptions is the parody exception where you poke fun at a copyrighted work in this case Star Citizen. Almost certainly this comic would be covered under the parody exception, and parody's are allowed to make money from their parody work.

Parody is covered when it doesn't generate income. This person is earning a living with someone else's intellectual properties, and if SC decides to sue, they will win. While they would likely not do this for the sake of someone earning $2,800 a month, since they could never recover their legal costs; they could sue just to stop the trend, and they might.

BTW, this is why in any commercial endeavor, you need to file for protection as an LLC, because if CIG sues this guy and he is not so protected, he can lose every penny and possession for what he is doing. I'm not saying he would or he should, but he could. If you start any business venture, from TEST to Rice Maden's models, you should always file for LLC protection. The moment money changes hands you need protection.

 

[Bambooza]

Am I the only one who chuckled at the comic itself?

 

[CosmicTrader]

Money, Money, Money............
Got to make a living.

 

[Radegast74]

Am I the only one who chuckled at the comic itself?

I got a good laugh out of the comic!

I mean, c'mon, the Concierge don't shovel money into a fire wearing a 3-piece suit.

We actually all wear our red, silk smoking jackets, with a brandy in one hand and a cigar in another. And we have the poor peasant Star Citizen player do all the shoveling for us! Why should we get our hands dirty? lol

 

[Bambooza]

Which reminds me. My brandy pouch made from the finest baby seal skin is getting low.

 

[Tealwraith]

I expect CIG to make f2p in SC and you will get to make a character, and one only at a time, and you get a choice of starting locations and some clothes. No gun, no ship, no undersuit and you WOULD have to wash backer's cars until you made enough money to buy an undersuit and helmet and can get work on a cargo ship. I guess you could detail 100's of vehicles and buy your own Mustang or beg for credits, too. Also, no citizenship in the UEE.

 

[Talonsbane]

I could be WAY OFF, but given his already clear levels of hypocrisy, I'd bet that this Josue Pereira might barely be a Concierge backer of Star Citizen who is secretly wanting for CIG to turn it into how his comic displays so that he can try to act superior to other players once the game goes live. If so, he hates the various tiers of status because he's too cheap to donate more than the $1k to reach Concierge while many others far surpass his simply because we believe that this will be a game we will be proud to play long term.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Personally, I'm just going to wait for the game to come out before making a judgment. Might have a free access no-starting-ship option - probably won't because whats to stop a swarm of greifers coming in and making it GTA Olisar?

One thing is becoming more and more clear, though: The time for making the tools to make the game has well and truly passed. Seems the "making the game" is now finally a priority over making more systems they can use to build it with, as it seemed to be previously.

 

[Bambooza]

whats to stop a swarm of greifers coming in and making it GTA Olisar

Not having guns. They need to earn enough credits first washing and detailing ships.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Not having guns. They need to earn enough credits first washing and detailing ships.

Or someone gives them 5k UEC. It's not much. Or they rob one off someone by mobbing them.

 

[ThomSirveaux]

Alright, for everyone saying "HE'S VIOLATING COPYWRITE/TRADEMARK!!!!"

Fair use is applicable to both, for the purpose of "Education, critique, and satire." Since this is both a "Critique" and "Satire" the comic artist is fine.

Now, if he started using the logos as either a derivative work or claiming to be an "Official" Star Citizen webcomic, then he'd be in legal trouble.

 

[BUTUZ]

It made me chuckle so I don't really see the problem.

There's kinda a truth in it though isn't there? - I really can not fathom how CIG expect to honour their promise of it's not pay to win? How do we balance a newbie starting with 5k and the shirt on their back vs someone who spent 25k on all the ships in the game? I don't see how you avoid "winning" when you pay like that?

And as pointed out the funniest thing of all is that his whole lifestyle is crowd funded. Oh the irony.