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Outsourced Artwork through Elance
edekoning:
I think it has more to do with the distinction between 'for personal use' and 'for commercial use'. So the roms are likely to be used purely for personal use (they are not being sold). Whereas, the art in question is being monetized on. Though 'for personal use' is most likely still very much illegal. However, public opinion tends to be ok with it.
Malenko:
--- Quote from: Slugworth on September 19, 2014, 08:23:29 am ---Good to know. Though, I will say it's a little odd hearing so many people in this forum talk about copyright infringement, when I'd bet exactly 0% of the people who build a MAME own the copyrights to all the artwork (especially given how many different versions of cosmic frostbite I've seen floating around!), and all of the games they load up on it. Could be I'm just skeptical.... maybe everyone here actually owns a physical copy of the 4,000+ games they load on to their machines?
--- End quote ---
Let me highlight a few differences:
When I recreated the NHL Open Ice marquee based on the original and put it up for people to use, I didnt make any money based on someone elses work. The art was created for restoration and customization purposes. AFAIK , its totes legal.
When you hired a guy to steal someone else's art and edit it to your liking, he made money on it which is at minimum a legal grey area. If you took the guys art and resized it and redid it for your cab; that's totally different. So you are not comparing apples to apples. Absolute worst case, you should email the artist and ask him for permission, and stress its for personal use. You'd be surprised how flexible people can be if you politely ask.
As for your 0% you are wrong. I have created cabs with custom artwork that I made from scratch and I've paid Opt2Not to design some completely original art for a friends cab. So I own the rights to the hung donkey art, and its one of kind. When I made Bonnie's Pink box, I used some GPL art, and the only games it runs are PopCap PC games I bought and some steam games she bought 100% legal. As for owning all the games, well, my MAME cab isnt up and running Im not in a rush to get it to as I own quite a few real arcade machines. If I were to load up just the games I legally own, I could still have quite the selection of games. Can you say the same?
EDIT: And for the love of Pete, STOP QUOTING X2! You should just ignore him, when you acknowledge him, the terrorists win.
Vigo:
--- Quote from: shponglefan on September 18, 2014, 11:58:28 pm ---So as others have pointed out, you didn't actually outsource the artwork. You outsourced a quick Photoshop job; the artwork is technically stolen.
--- End quote ---
I'm only here to set one record straight. Taking existing art and manipulating it to something new through Photoshop is not necessarily pirating or copyright infringement. There are laws that are much older than photshop, but if you can reasonably create an artwork that is new from existing material, than it can be considered an original art piece. I believe the standard threshold is 20% new, or 5 element changes. It is the reason that Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup cans, or a collage like the cover of the Beatles Sgt. Pepper album is considered original artwork.
Whether you feel it took effort or talent is another issue altogether, but I think the top graphic was altered enough to be considered an original art piece. I can't say for sure on the other two.
Edit: After looking at yotsuya post, those bottom two are waay too close to the original. Those are infringement.
yotsuya:
--- Quote from: Malenko on September 19, 2014, 09:42:04 am ---
--- Quote from: Slugworth on September 19, 2014, 08:23:29 am ---Good to know. Though, I will say it's a little odd hearing so many people in this forum talk about copyright infringement, when I'd bet exactly 0% of the people who build a MAME own the copyrights to all the artwork (especially given how many different versions of cosmic frostbite I've seen floating around!), and all of the games they load up on it. Could be I'm just skeptical.... maybe everyone here actually owns a physical copy of the 4,000+ games they load on to their machines?
--- End quote ---
Let me highlight a few differences:
When I recreated the NHL Open Ice marquee based on the original and put it up for people to use, I didnt make any money based on someone elses work. The art was created for restoration and customization purposes. AFAIK , its totes legal.
When you hired a guy to steal someone else's art and edit it to your liking, he made money on it which is at minimum a legal grey area. If you took the guys art and resized it and redid it for your cab; that's totally different. So you are not comparing apples to apples. Absolute worst case, you should email the artist and ask him for permission, and stress its for personal use. You'd be surprised how flexible people can be if you politely ask.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, that's really the big difference here. I'm sure all of us at some time have taken elements from the web for our cab graphics, or used them in the front end, or whatnot. It's when you bring into account charging people for other's artwork that it starts to get sketchy. I'm curious, Slugworth, did you provide the graphics to the Photoshopper, or did he go out and get them for you? Again, not judging you, just curious about the process.
Slugworth:
--- Quote from: Malenko on September 19, 2014, 09:42:04 am ---
--- Quote from: Slugworth on September 19, 2014, 08:23:29 am ---Good to know. Though, I will say it's a little odd hearing so many people in this forum talk about copyright infringement, when I'd bet exactly 0% of the people who build a MAME own the copyrights to all the artwork (especially given how many different versions of cosmic frostbite I've seen floating around!), and all of the games they load up on it. Could be I'm just skeptical.... maybe everyone here actually owns a physical copy of the 4,000+ games they load on to their machines?
--- End quote ---
Let me highlight a few differences:
When I recreated the NHL Open Ice marquee based on the original and put it up for people to use, I didnt make any money based on someone elses work. The art was created for restoration and customization purposes. AFAIK , its totes legal.
When you hired a guy to steal someone else's art and edit it to your liking, he made money on it which is at minimum a legal grey area. If you took the guys art and resized it and redid it for your cab; that's totally different. So you are not comparing apples to apples. Absolute worst case, you should email the artist and ask him for permission, and stress its for personal use. You'd be surprised how flexible people can be if you politely ask.
EDIT: And for the love of Pete, STOP QUOTING X2! You should just ignore him, when you acknowledge him, the terrorists win.
--- End quote ---
So if you don't have a version of photoshop or similar editing software, your options are to use the original pictures EXACTLY as the creator created them, or to hire someone to create brand new from scratch art for you? But if you have photoshop, you can now alter anyone's work (like your NHL Open Ice cab) as long as it's for personal use?
Seems to be an arbitrary delineation. Can't I pay someone to use photoshop under my direction? I'm not paying for the artwork, necessarily, I'm paying for the hours it takes to manipulate it, as opposed to doing it myself. To make this clear, the Elancer was 100% clear that she was just photoshopping images for me (I actually sent her several images that I liked for her to use as a guide) and was not the creator of any of the art. So, I can do it myself, but if I lack the software I'm out of luck?
As for my 0% comment, I'm glad to hear that some people do own the software licences for all the games they play. I'd have thought that sending a letter to Capcom for their explicit permission would have been a giant pain in the butt (for those using ROMs instead of original PCBs).
Q. Is it legal to download ROMs for a game when I own the PCB?
A. This is unclear and depends on where you live. In most cases you would need to obtain permission from the original manufacturer to do so.
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