He even cut off the bit of thigh!
Readers, lend poor Nama-ko your aid! Thanks to Chorvaqueen, I was tipped off to someone stealing Nama-ko and using her to acquire phat lewts (see winner #2)! Unfortunately, I can’t seem to register for this board to contact the administrator to tell him that all this guy did was redo the hues and add a crappy background. Even Eiji would know this Amy is identical and fake.
I know this sort of thing happens a lot with DA works, but the thief is using it to win real prizes from an actual company. That’s bogus. So please help contact the admin and expose this fraud!
Update
Thanks to Chorvaqueen for the help with getting TUDZ removed from the winners list! I sent in a letter to Level Up! saying that Nama-ko was solely for SS!AB and not for use by stinky art thieves, and we’ll see if any further punishment is heaped on the thief.
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47 Comments
Seems like that person does acknowledge(that it was a rip-off and) you(and the artist) to some extent although he/she got the details wrong. Not sure if that implies the admin realize it’s not original work but accepted it regardless.
Also
>I almost created my own render
trollface.jpg
Yeah, except I can’t let the game company think they own a piece of ripped off art that I paid for. Plus, the amount of work the thief put in is really minimal.
I dunno, you’re looking too closely. I’m sure there are lots of mascot girls with sea slugs in their hair.
The interesting thing is that he obeyed the “All anime popsicles are blue” rule even though he changed the shade of blue.
It’s totally not an appetizing shade of popsicle blue anymore though.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA
IS THIS FACE SUPPOSED TO INDICATE REMORSE
As for Level-Up Games, well.. I’ll let the Filipinos who’ve had experience with them tell you all about it. I can barely remember myself.
He couldn’t even use Photoshop well enough to edit out the copyright mark skillfully, so he chopped the part of the thigh off and put the game company’s logo there instead
See, this never would’ve happened to Detroit Metal Nama-tan.
I’d like to see them try, haha.
I love palette swaps!
Haha, this is worse than an RPG!
Level Up! continues to Level Down in my eyes. tsk tsk
I’ve never even heard of this site. Also on a side note, why do all those game sites (like aeriagames, nexon, ogplanet, etc) all have the exact same layout? Do they hire the same guy to create the website? =S or MAAYYYBEEE, just MAYBE, they just copied it from one another, and it became an endless cycle of copying each others work! TO MAKE THEM FEEL GOOD ABOUT THEMSELVES!!! =O
Actually, I think that is “allowed” in that competition, because ie seems like a fan art/WALLPAPER contest… Although, of course, it is completely unethical of that contestant to not inform you or the original artist of his/her intentions to re-hue Nama-ko and submit it for a contest where the lazy asshole can get prizes out of yours and the original artist’s hard work. I do hope that company disqualifies the entry, though I’m doubtful, as even winner #3 used other people’s artwork for his/her wallpaper entry
Perhaps, but it’s not even the same character in the wallpaper hahahaha! (Unless Nama is moonlighting without my knowledge.)
That’s just wrong… poor Nama-ko
And the true trials of idol image management begins…
There, I word-swapped, photoshopped, and left my name on your comment. I feel good about myself now
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kick their asses
I wish, but the board is so crappy that I can’t register to post on it.
Uhm…
In that case
HACK THEIR BOARDS.
Sadly, this is one of the side effects of fame. Could have sent a DMCA takedown notice if they were located in the States. Hope you’ll get it sorted out.
STALKER HAT ON!!!
If you try to search for his Level-Up account, you won’t find anything, namely because they misspelled his name in the contest winning (It should be TUDZ) (he even left a copyright on the pic, LOL!), sooooo I found his account, and also a bunch of other links he provided, like his youtube, friendster, and most importantly, his DeviantART account. You’ll notice that he faved the Nama-ko artworks *hyuk-hyuk*… and that’s pretty much it. While we can totally troll those pages like a bunch of high schoolers, I say we keep it clean, in the name of Sea Slugs, right guyz!? (spelt with a Z, FOR EMPHASIS!!!)
Meh, I didn’t even need a stalker hat for that one. He left his real name, location, EVERYTHING for the public eye! NO FUN!!!
. but yea, hopefully we can contact those peeps soon
Edit: Wow, it’s so weird unspaming my own comments…
Edit 2: it seems like he’s on his DA account right now (he just added some more favorites >=3
Your stalker powers are amazing…
Well what can I say? FRIDAY I’M IN LOVE!!!
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Edit: nvm, those favorites are randomly generated. So he’s probably not online now, BUT HE WILL BE @ tick TOCK ONE FIVE NINE O CLOCK >=D
Since you helped root him out, he’s changed his DA tagline to “Banned” and hidden all his comments and updates to make it look like he really was banned. Pretty clever, I wonder if he’s done this before.
I’ll send an army of dangos after these thieves!!
not until I LICKITY-SPLICKITY all over their SNATCHY-PATCHY!!!… I mean… that wasn’t my original comment… It was photoshopped and word-swapped… really badly… yea *runs away*
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Look on the bright side, this guy did you a favor. If you’re ever going to stick Nama-ko in a fighting game, you’ll need an alternate color scheme to make a Nama-ko vs. Nama-ko battle possible.
but if we look at the bright side, we wouldn’t be able to check out the Dark Side (hint: Detroit Metal Nama-tan
)
There is no Nama-ko vs. Nama-ko; there is only Nama-ko vs. Amy. They are two completely different characters, even though they have the same movelist and look like palette swaps.
WAVEDASH-WAVEDASH-WAVEDASH!!!… errr, I mean… nobody ever wants to play Smash Bros anymore
This guy is toast.
And did you know that this guy won back then by doing the same thing?
This time, he ripped megaman off.
The battle is not over. I’ll make sure he’s destroyed. He’s a shame to art!
hmm i’ve uncovered more dirt on this guy…
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j41/vlydz1/Ryan-Wallpaper-Entry.jpg
http://i594.photobucket.com/albums/tt23/hieu1506/MegaManX8.jpg
See? The reason why I want to destroy this guy.
“Destroy?” Don’t be ridiculous! He isn’t even Timbaland or Jay-Z.
IMHO, little fishes like him are more of a scapegoat than delinquents anyway. The concept of copyright is fundamentally challenged by ubiquitous digital technology and internet access for everyone world-wide. People show little respect for copyrights. Look, even this blog is based on copyright infringement namely fan-subbing. Virtually all images on here are used without permission including the avatars – just like mine. The same goes for at least half of all blogs. I find it a bit amusing how
uptight people can get who violate the very same laws or moral standards all the time by consuming illegally copied videos and music, using cracked software, etc. some in extreme dimension and some to a lesser extent. The point is, we all have double-standards and while I don’t argue to ignore if someone does something wrong, it’s important to avoid blowing things out of proportion.
One thing I might never understand is why even digital natives keep using the terms “thief” and “stealing”. That level of thoughtlessness or sheer stupidity worries me more than the lack of respect for copyrights.
Now, you may claim using others work without permission isn’t as bad as publishing it as your own work. It probably is but since the former is completely “normal” now, the latter
doesn’t feel as immoral as it maybe should, even more so if it’s not done for commercial purpose respectively financial gain but just for fun. If it’s done to boost one’s self-esteem or to obtain acceptance, that’s rather sad than anything else.
That said, there are probably few if any artists who didn’t start with using and even copying, the works or at least the style of other artists. In fact, copying is the very concept of life. It’s one of the most natural acts there is. Copyrights and even more so patents are very artificial and young concepts. Just like technology made them possible and commercially useful, technology may kill them in the long run.
By the way, I don’t think the example you show supports your position well. While it’s an obvious trace, there’s a sufficient amount of modifications involved. It isn’t a blatant palette and background swap like the Nama-ko rip-off.
Laws regarding copyright and similar are very complex anyway. For example, playing a melody yourself may not be copyright infringement while copying an existing recording likely is, even if the result sounds exactly the same. Now, when it comes to drawing I don’t know, where the law draws the line and most-likely – no definitely – they differ from country to country even if almost all countries have signed the Berne Convention today.
We continue with the annual debate about fansub ethics after a short commercial break. Stay tuned!
Oh you!
Also, it’s a shame that he’s won other contests by using the same copy-tactics, but what can ya do? =3 I hope he puts his photoshop skills to better use
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At least they changed the color. I once had someone steal a graphical work I made without changing a thing. Which means it was easy to assert that I had created it — the watermark was still there.
How dare they ruin nama-ko
Hi Kabitzin,
I have connections within Level Up! and I’ll help you bring this up to the people who are handling the Grand Chase product.
Thank you! Lires and I appreciate it!
you are… THE GODDESS OF THE DAY (or I guess yesterday…) Thanks a bunch! Me and Kabi tried to register for an account (to contact them), but we never received those confirmation emails… you should tell Level-Up about that.
Woot, the thief has been replaced on the winners list!
Nice to see that justice got served for once.
Justice has been served cold to the offender.
Thanks for putting in a word for us!
Imitation, even ripoff bad ones, is surely the sincerest form of flattery.
We can now say that Nama-ko has truly arrived and will be loved by all!!