bat
December 12th, 2009, 10:51 PM
Just posting this here in case anyone here has had their work used without permission.
Blog article regarding Outlaw Press (http://mxyzplk.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/outlaw-press-aka-jim-shipman-is-a-big-crook/#comment-2638)
The basics:
Outlaw Press is a small press outfit that publishes for Tunnels & Trolls, run by one Jim Shipman. Late last month, a South American guy noticed that a cover for one of their products was miscredited and posted on RPG.net about it. Innocent mistake? Overreaction? Well, as time wore on, actual RPG artists took note and started noticing work of theirs appearing as covers on Outlaw Press products. A huge list of artists.
In the last month, a staggering 70+ works of art have been identified as having been stolen by Outlaw Press and used in their publications, as well as a large laundry list of other kinds of IP theft. There’s a convenient PDF someone put together showing the various copyrighted works and the products ripping them off. Much of the art isn’t even just copyrighted by a random artist, but was work for hire and actually owned by Games Workshop, Dreamworks, and Blizzard. All their products have been yanked from RPGNow for these shenanigans, and is getting yanked from Amazon and other locations as the wronged parties hunt down everywhere these tainted products are being sold. Apparently and incredibly, Shipman has responded to all this with vague evasions and defiant “I do what I want” declarations, continuing to sell these products despite being notified of the art theft. In fact, Ken St. Andre and Flying Buffalo pulled his Tunnels & Trolls license over it, but that’s not stopping Jim! “I have warehoused products to sell!” he declares.
He is still selling his wares clandestinely on eBay and other places under shifting seller names, including jimship1, Hobbit_King@yahoo.com, and actionseller99.
Do not buy anything from Jim Shipman or Outlaw Press, now or in the future! And feel free and take whatever kind of righteous retribution you see fit upon him, his products, his Web site, and his business. He’s flaunting the law and ripping off legitimate artists and creators trying to make their way generating content for their favorite games.
An RPGNet link (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=483885)
The first post in that thread:
So I was browsing through RPGnow today and I came across something that really pissed me off. The game on called "Hot Pursuit" by Outlaw Press has a cover that uses copyrighted art. The person claimed as the artist on the page is one Kevin Bracey, who is even complimented in the summary for his really cool art.
The ACTUAL artist is a man named Mauricio Herrera, a famous Chilean fantasy artist who works for the chilean equivalent of MtG known as Mitos y Leyendas. In fact, the art used on the cover of Hot Pursuit is from one of those cards, "Selkis" from the Dominios de Ra expansion set.
I could not find any actual contact information for the publisher on their site (not even an email address, wtf?) nor on RPGnow, so I'm getting the word out here instead. Just so anyone who cares about artist integrity, copyright and so on can know what's going on over there. And to let other artists know, you might want to take a look around to see if your art has been used as well.
List of affected artists:
The confirmed list is now:
J. P. Targete
Sylvain Despretz
Simon Dominic
Mauricio Herrera
Jon Hodgson
Daniel Horne
Michal Ivan
John Shannon
Bill Corbett
Martin McKeown
Mats Minnhagen
Ursula Vernon
Jeff Johnson
Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai
Jhoneil Centeno
Johann Valentin Andree
Bera Károly
Alan Lathwell
Ken Jeremiassen
Jan Patrik Kresny
Fredrik Rahmqvist
David Lightfoot
Allan Palmer
Alejandro Guitiérrez
Daniel Falck
Norbert Vakulya
Henning Janssen
If you are on this list and did not give Jim Shipman permission to use your work, please...unleash the hounds.
Blog article regarding Outlaw Press (http://mxyzplk.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/outlaw-press-aka-jim-shipman-is-a-big-crook/#comment-2638)
The basics:
Outlaw Press is a small press outfit that publishes for Tunnels & Trolls, run by one Jim Shipman. Late last month, a South American guy noticed that a cover for one of their products was miscredited and posted on RPG.net about it. Innocent mistake? Overreaction? Well, as time wore on, actual RPG artists took note and started noticing work of theirs appearing as covers on Outlaw Press products. A huge list of artists.
In the last month, a staggering 70+ works of art have been identified as having been stolen by Outlaw Press and used in their publications, as well as a large laundry list of other kinds of IP theft. There’s a convenient PDF someone put together showing the various copyrighted works and the products ripping them off. Much of the art isn’t even just copyrighted by a random artist, but was work for hire and actually owned by Games Workshop, Dreamworks, and Blizzard. All their products have been yanked from RPGNow for these shenanigans, and is getting yanked from Amazon and other locations as the wronged parties hunt down everywhere these tainted products are being sold. Apparently and incredibly, Shipman has responded to all this with vague evasions and defiant “I do what I want” declarations, continuing to sell these products despite being notified of the art theft. In fact, Ken St. Andre and Flying Buffalo pulled his Tunnels & Trolls license over it, but that’s not stopping Jim! “I have warehoused products to sell!” he declares.
He is still selling his wares clandestinely on eBay and other places under shifting seller names, including jimship1, Hobbit_King@yahoo.com, and actionseller99.
Do not buy anything from Jim Shipman or Outlaw Press, now or in the future! And feel free and take whatever kind of righteous retribution you see fit upon him, his products, his Web site, and his business. He’s flaunting the law and ripping off legitimate artists and creators trying to make their way generating content for their favorite games.
An RPGNet link (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=483885)
The first post in that thread:
So I was browsing through RPGnow today and I came across something that really pissed me off. The game on called "Hot Pursuit" by Outlaw Press has a cover that uses copyrighted art. The person claimed as the artist on the page is one Kevin Bracey, who is even complimented in the summary for his really cool art.
The ACTUAL artist is a man named Mauricio Herrera, a famous Chilean fantasy artist who works for the chilean equivalent of MtG known as Mitos y Leyendas. In fact, the art used on the cover of Hot Pursuit is from one of those cards, "Selkis" from the Dominios de Ra expansion set.
I could not find any actual contact information for the publisher on their site (not even an email address, wtf?) nor on RPGnow, so I'm getting the word out here instead. Just so anyone who cares about artist integrity, copyright and so on can know what's going on over there. And to let other artists know, you might want to take a look around to see if your art has been used as well.
List of affected artists:
The confirmed list is now:
J. P. Targete
Sylvain Despretz
Simon Dominic
Mauricio Herrera
Jon Hodgson
Daniel Horne
Michal Ivan
John Shannon
Bill Corbett
Martin McKeown
Mats Minnhagen
Ursula Vernon
Jeff Johnson
Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai
Jhoneil Centeno
Johann Valentin Andree
Bera Károly
Alan Lathwell
Ken Jeremiassen
Jan Patrik Kresny
Fredrik Rahmqvist
David Lightfoot
Allan Palmer
Alejandro Guitiérrez
Daniel Falck
Norbert Vakulya
Henning Janssen
If you are on this list and did not give Jim Shipman permission to use your work, please...unleash the hounds.