We had every right to try and warn people of the site. Notice that in most of it we aren't saying that the site is evil and it should be shut down. We are generally saying that we really like the idea of the site, but the art referencing bothered us very much. As did the use of stock photos when there was no proof that you bought them, no credits on your site that mentioned you purchased them etc.

If you have people sign a contract, there will be no issues. It's like on aywas. When everyone joins, it's actually included in the TOS that anything made on aywas pets or submitted to aywas becomes aywas property.

Most of what was posted on tumblr was just getting people aware of the situation. I guarantee that if there was any malicious intent behind the concern things would not be worded nicely against the site.

The vast majority of us just wanted to see something done since the site itself seems very well made, we all wanted to be able to enjoy the site. 

...I'd have to say I'm still not satisfied with the attitude towards the Griffin. Angel, you still refuse to admit that you copied it, even though it is blatent. You're acting like a toddler who got caught doing something wrong, going "I'll say sorry, but it wasnt my fault!"

I mean... there are a million and one ways to draw griffins. Heck, there are a million and one ways to draw wings! Yet the wings on the baby grffin look almost exactly the same as the stylized wings on the aywas griffon, heck, they're even in the same pose!

I'm glad you're re-doing it, but you're still acting like a child over this.

I really like this site, it's addicting and I could easily see myself wasting hours of my time with this thing. But honestly, your attitude makes me think that this could happen again in the future, in which case I'm not comfortable at all with staying here.

Springdragon and all who offered to use user-created images: let's talk frankly, it's only a trust issue. We can't trust an artist who tried to turn people away from our project because of one single image which is very doubtful. And even after our official announcement and the fact that we concerned the Aywas community request, this artist didn't change anything in the accusations in his newsfeed, not saying about apologies.

 

Oh, I missed this somehow.  You should be the one apologizing to them for copying the image! Is it honestly that hard to own up to what you did? Even after so many people, even me, are prepared to forgive you! And can you really blame Slash for taking that sort of action? As I said, the image is blatantly copied, there's no two ways about it.

This is extremely unprofessional, you are running a business here, act like it. Own up to your mistakes like an adult.

RyuArashi, giving credits to Shutterstock, are you kidding? o_O There's a link in the first post, please read it once more and get familiar with Royalty-free licence please. Selling the images that are used mostly for advertising and print media is nonsense if you want to see a credit on any of these images. And what proofs should we give you about purchasing of these images? Our credit card numbers and PINs so you could check the transactions? This all is simply ridiculous.

"Most of what was posted on tumblr was just getting people aware of the situation. I guarantee that if there was any malicious intent behind the concern things would not be worded nicely against the site."

It's a lie. The following quote is a direct slander and accusation having purpose to blacken our reputation. It's late to talk about good intentions.

I should add that all civilized society accepts presumption of innocence. We don't have to prove that we didn't steal anything. It's you who should prove that we did. I'm not going to apologize for something that I didn't do.

Once more I'm offering to involve the third-party expertize. If any of you knows such third-party expertize (which will be public and really third-party), we are waiting for your offers.

Yes it's called researching the site. Many many -many- petsites simply rip images off the web and post them on a site. We wanted to go through, research as much of the site as we could and see if there were any problems with other images as well. How can we talk to you about our concerns if we don't have proof like with the griffin, the dragon and the stock images?

There are a lot of inconsistancies with the art on the site, which is also usually a big indication that references are being used too heavily. It is only natural for people to want to investigate a situation.

When there are two obvious counts of things being very heavily referenced on a site, yes the users have every right to question the others.

There is a link in the first post now. But before this there wasn't. Everyone joining the site was under the impression that a site artist did all the items aka that they weren't just stock images. And unless you add credits elsewhere, most other new members will be too!

I'm not going to apologize for something that I didn't do.
Once more I'm offering to involve the third-party expertize. If any of you knows such third-party expertize (which will be public and really third-party), we are waiting for your offers.

 

....Are you joking? I may be able to chalk it up to "it's a common pose" or "5000 coincidences" but YOU PLAY ON AYWAS. YOU HAVE SEEN THE AYWAS GRIFFON BEFORE. Did you really not once while you were drawing it go "Oh! This looks an awful lot like the griffon on Aywas, I should probably change it!". I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt for the things you say you purchased the rights to, but there is no possible way you could convince me that you did not copy the griffon, there are just way too many things that you could have done differently, but didn't.

Springdragon, I glad you are so professional and ethical. Just answer one question please, why are you trying to advertise your services on the website you accusing in theft?

Rika, that accussion is euqally ridiculous like blaming beastkeepers that they stole Aywas code because they use same html tags somewhere.
Lets count the insults you made to devs within just one your last message:
>>blatantly copied,
>>extremely unprofessional
>>Own up to your mistakes like an adult.
Check out this link: Presumption of Innocence.
Imagine some unknown rude person comes to your workplace (if you have one) and starts insulting you and telling you what you should do. Just because this person thinks that you made something wrong.
At the place of devs I would go further and make an example of you by suing you for damages to reputation.

Yes it's called researching the site.

No, it's called a slander. Researching doesn't include accusations.

YOU PLAY ON AYWAS. YOU HAVE SEEN THE AYWAS GRIFFON BEFORE.

I never declined this. And I posted this when these dispute appeared first time.

All the further accusations will be considered a slander until you will have some proofs from a third-party digital media lawyer. I'm not going to waste my time proving that I didn't do something that I didn't do.

-shrugs-

I was willing to give the site a second chance, but after your replies...well it just isn't worth it for me. I -will- be warning friends I see that this site is not very good at conducting itself professionally and they would be better off going somewhere else.

Hopefully things improve for your site, and hopefully you will at least learn the dangers of referencing images for business use and improve the site in the future.

It really is a shame because you had a good structure for the site.

Hold on, I seem to have misread something in the first post, so you're not going to re-do the griffon image? That was honestly the only thing keeping me from leaving this site.

I'm sorry, but this just plain isn't right. You seem to have no qualms about stealing the intellectual property of others, and I'm under the impression that you will continue to do so.

I do not want to be associated with such a site in any way shape or form, despite how much fun the mechanics are. Sorry.

Also SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN EXTENSIVELY STUDYING COPYRIGHT LAW POSTED IN THIS TOPIC SAYING THAT THEY WERE SIMILAR ENOUGH FOR THERE TO BE A CASE.

Do you want me to make a DIAGRAM or something as to why the two griffons are too similar?!  And slander, really?! Is this how you treat your customers when they have a complaint?!

Ah, I see you changed the baby griffon image! That's one step in the right direction at least.

Rika, I think you are rude and unstable person and I will not miss you, but perhaps, you could gift me your pets?

I beg your pardon?! How on earth did you come to that conclusion? I'm angry that there has been a blatant art theft and that the person responsible keeps dodging responsibility. I'm an artist myself, so things of this nature do tend to get me riled up, especially when people act so callous about it!

I've had my work stolen, copied, and edited, and it's not a nice feeling to have!

I apologize if I came off as rude, I'm just trying to look out for my fellow artists.

Well I see you continue with slander. Please hurry with gifting pets ;)

????

I'm just confused now, I'm just going to assume you're not an artist. If that's the case, than I guess it's understandable that you wouldn't be able to see the difference in them (I'm not trying to be patronizing, I just showed the two images to my father and he couldn't see a difference either)

Listen, I'm not trying to be rude or "slandering" it is a valid complaint, and I don't see any possible way that it was a coincidence.

But hey, they DID change the image, so that's good! Yay!!