Seems another website lazely ripped my disc scans and screenshots straight from my Saturn Odds & Ends page: X-Cult. The disc scans and screenshots for BETA versions of 3D Baseball, Daytona CCE, Major Damage, Destruction Derby 2, Lunacy, The House of the Dead, Tomb Raider and Ultimate MK3 were all used and without any given credit. Do I seriously have watermark the **** out of everything to stop those lazy bums that cannot create content themselves? See my signature for my Odds & Ends page which contains screenshots and discscans and info that all took hours to perfect (or wait a few months when they'll undoubtly appear on X-Cult ) Man, I'm so tired of this crap :dammit:
Sorry to say it bud, but usually you do when it comes to BETA stuff. People steal a lot of things on the internet.
What's your website? I'll do you a favor and throw that bitch up as a shout out at the end of a Future Episode of Retrocade and put something up saying something along the lines of "If you see beta scans elsewhere those mutha fuckas stole em" or whatever. I like helping people out and get them a few website hits even if it's just 10-15 more people that learn about them.
I've had stuff I've posted to Usenet stolen for web content before, and so have tons of other people. I think the most famous example is James Beradinelli, who had one of his movie reviews stolen for some kid's school assignment. The kid's parents accused the pro reviewer of stealing their kid's work, until he came back with headers that proved he posted the stuff first. This concept comes up occasionally in game development, when one developer steals an idea from another and them implements it. Gameloft is the best example of a thoroughly unoriginal developer in that mold. The argument against getting worked up about intellectual theft is that the best ideas protect themselves. If it's easy for *you* to do, then it's easy for everybody else to do. Something that's unique to you, that only you can do, isn't so readily stolen. I don't know if there's anything on the web that qualifies as 'unique' in that way, but somebody with more spare time than I do can probably come up with an example.
I gave up trying to stop them really. They are all about preservation, but if they really wanted to preserve everything, they would preserve the source so that copies of games could be tracked.
In fairness if you're the only person to own the prototype or beta or whatever then it is going to be hard for the others to reproduce the images. With that said though it isn't so hard for them to give credit where it is due so they should... but they could also think you stole the images too. These things happen though - you may remember I used to watermark my collection pics saying LeGIt in a big fuck off Sega font, though I did take some care not to completely obscure the image, just to make it not worth someones time to crop it. In hindsight it was a bad idea as now I don't even have the images of my own former collection before I was forced to sell it... so in a way I'd be grateful that the images are mirrored!
See sig. Yeah, lets put even MORE work into something because someone can't be bothered creating content for their website, that seems like a really good idea. In which case, yes, those screenshots and scans DO qualify. They're made from the original ALPHA/BETA/PROTOTYPE discs. Yeah, I know what you mean. I just like my images to remain as 'clean' as possible. Finally, at the risk of starting a big youknowhat, don't call me 'he'. Thanks. Oh and it's not even the 'stealing' that bothers me so much. It's the: -'save image as..' -add some random (often faulty) info -repeat first two steps -start FTP -place some nasty ads -'hey presto, I have a website AND making some money' routine. Followed by loads of bragging and spamming their pages all over message boards, complete with obtrusive signature pictures and irrelevant Search engine meta tags. 'Why create your own original content when somebody (that REALLY cared) can do your work for you?' You can go all "Aww don't be such a 'this stuff is mine' saddo" but people have to realize that by doing this they basicly say 'screw your website, we'll just copy everything and claim it ours, anyway' leaving me with the feeling 'why even bother?'.
Who are these X-cult guys? I haven't heard of them, but I'm not as plugged into the scene as most. But it seems like to me this sort of thing is self-correcting. People who have original work to contribute are recognized. People who steal the work of others eventually get a reputation for nothing else. Who would hire Jayson Blair today?
I just wished the world worked like that. See how much money Pajitnov made from Tetris (no Nintendo didn't STEAL it, but you know what I mean).
I like to use other people's content when I do Retrocade, but you know what I like to do more than use the content of other people? Give them the Credit they deserve
I've had loads of stuff stolen from my site by others saying it was theres. i even had a prick saying he was the maker of Retro Core. The solution is to watermark stuff. You don't need to go overboard though. Just a small but noticable mark. Yakumo
Can't be me....I give you TOO much Credit. Actually, though I think the only time I ever borrowed anything from you besides that one time I used part of an F-Zero Review (which was to show how bad my impression of you was) was some of the Shenmue beta footage you had and I recall giving you credit before it even popped up on screen.
The IRC chat gave me a 404, go check it. Anyway, it's not like I said something like they were child molestors.. I just said they ripped my site. If they were sent this content they should do more checking. Anyway, lock 'er up mods. Just wanted to get this off my chest. I made my point. @GodofHardcore Thx
