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Post by sb on Mar 2, 2011 18:42:52 GMT -5
I'm not sure if this is appropriate, or where it belongs, but I have had serious guilt spasms and I would like some feedback.
I have over 40,000 files of CC. It's impossible to thank everyone individually for every wonderful lamp. I don't create anything and throw it back and snake someone else's creation. However, I do study how other people set up their shots, how they use light and materials and CC, and once in a while something is so incredible, I try to reproduce it, changing it to fit our world and conditions but still, I do use the idea. I don't download a lot and claim it's mine, but I am really worrying about not saying something about the idea.
I know this is a writer's forum and nobody here would copy someone's story, and my issue is not about a story but about a visual idea, but when does inspiration become theft?
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Post by Velvet on Mar 2, 2011 19:20:54 GMT -5
You have no need for guilt hon; sorry but it just does not apply to you or me for that matter. Inspiration is just that. Ever notice in Hollywood when a movie comes out that's really successful all of a sudden you see a hundred more just like it for the next five years? The Matrix, LOTR comes to mind. I can't even list how many knock-offs came out after that. Just because something is ground breaking - a technique, a dance step, a skirt or top design - it doesn't mean that no one else in the world can use it or build on it. Ever hear the old saying, mimicry is the best form of flattery? It's true, at least to me. Stephen King said in his book, On Writing, that as a writer if you've read something, have a favorite author or whatever, use what you've learned from them. Copy what they do! Like simon says. You are not a bad person. If you'd like to say thanks to someone for inspiring you, fine but don't feel like you're stealing - you're not, unless you claim to have come up with whatever it is first and even then, who can tell. Two gifted people very well may come up with the same idea.
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pinkfiend1
Full Member
Missing everyone
Posts: 467
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Post by pinkfiend1 on Mar 2, 2011 19:49:37 GMT -5
People are always so obsessed about crediting things if they've inspired them in the slightest way now, it's like everyone's scared to be accused of stealing something. I mean if we credtited everybody who remotly inspired us in any way it would be a nightmare. I mean being inspired by something is completly different to directly copying it. It would be like saying that if you ever wanted to write a sonnet you'd need to credit Shakespeare as he made them popular. And I really shouldn't have used that as an example as anytime anybody mentions sonnets or I read them I get inspired to write one, which in turn makes me want to murder the person involved. Next it will be if someone says something to a police officer they'll need to be credited if that off-hand comment helps solve a crime. Countless painters throughout history have painted the madonna and child, amd they didn't get into trouble for copying because although it was the same subject it was different. All those people who painted in the dotted effect, they were using the asme effect but with results. Or nobody else could make films with plastecine models because Wallace and Gromit did it, althogh I think that may have been based on a character called Morph used for somehting else. Direct copying is wrong, but because you are taking an idea and adapting it and changing it it no longer is the same idea as such.
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Post by laura on Mar 2, 2011 20:06:53 GMT -5
That's inspiration, not copying. Like, for example, today I went browsing through Flickr, and found about three or four different photos that I want to mish-mash with some of my own ideas for one of my book covers. I went to Flickr *specifically* to see what other people have done, and to be inspired. Now if I was planning to point-by-point recreate one specific photo, I would feel uncomfortable about that. But being inspired by an idea and folding it into your own work is not something to feel guilty for. It's the natural process of creativity. It's how we learn and grow as artists!
You're fine! Don't worry!
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Post by sb on Mar 2, 2011 20:13:25 GMT -5
Pink, I adore you! After a long day you are like BLAST there's a thing right there! I wish I could move to England, I wish I lived there. I've never written a sonnet but I have written poetry I would never share, partly because it might be like somebody else's thing. The painting is just beyond me. Everybody does paint Madonna and child, but they do it a different way. I guess. I'm not that into art. But I do understand why people get freaked about it, because who wants to be called out on something like that?
Velvet yes BUT. I really did use Yuxi's idea. The way I did it looks awful but I'm sure if anyone looks at both of them (hope that never happens, doubt it will) someone would say, get an idea of your own. Writing though, I grab it all. I have a few writers I really admire, and if I get too far into the bush I will reread them and try to find the balance again.
Thank you.
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Post by mdpthatsme on Mar 2, 2011 23:40:31 GMT -5
We go through this a lot on BlackPearlSims for the contests there. Sometimes in the contests when we build things, they look alike. Sometimes it's made through inspiration of those who you've studied. Other times it's just a chance that two great designers/decoraters grasp the same concept even if they hadn't looked at each other's work. It's one of those shrug moments. sb: If you feel that you must credit someone for inspiration then why not? The only time that you have to credit someone is if you used their materials. I personally don't create CC, but I do have a FAQ page on each of my Sim sites to direct people to where I got my CC and such and that in itself is crediting the site/owner of the CC.
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Post by speechless on Mar 3, 2011 4:49:50 GMT -5
I also agree that it would be impossible to credit each person for each bit of inspiration we all have. I mean every day something inspires something else you do. It might be something simple like seeing something in the magazine, reading a news inspires you do something much bigger with it. Maybe it directed you in right direction to build, paint or create...maybe it just gave you that very first thought what to write about. As long as you don't copy, I find its ok - after all what you end up with, is your own.
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Post by rad on Mar 3, 2011 6:19:21 GMT -5
As for using other people's CC in our stories etc, even that would be too difficult to list everything. I try and link to all the sites I use for CC on my blog (though I'm sure I've missed some) but I couldn't do that for every chapter or whatever.
As the others say, inspiration is not the same as copying, though I think it's nice sometimes to give some kid of shout out to those who inspire you,particularly if they're in the community and they'll read your stuff, so linking to them or something similar as a courtesy is always nice.
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somuchsong
Full Member
...certainement disaster
Posts: 197
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Post by somuchsong on Mar 3, 2011 8:01:06 GMT -5
For CC, I have a fairly long list of creators I have downloaded from but it's by no means complete. With over 10GB of CC, a complete list would be near impossible. I guess I have quite a relaxed attitude when I'm inspired by a picture. If I remember whose picture it was that inspired me, I might give a shout-out to that person in Notes at the end of the update. Sometimes I can't remember where I got the idea from though or the idea has been buried in the back of my mind for so long that I've forgotten it wasn't originally mine. In those cases, I guess I just have to hope the person thinks imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I have zero problem with people taking inspiration from my pictures. I've had people ask me specific questions about how I did this or that and I am happy to give them a long (and probably boring!) explanation. I wouldn't do that and then be bothered when someone has the audacity to try it out for themselves. When people ask for advice, I assume they're going to try to recreate the picture (or part of the picture) themselves and that's totally cool with me. Generally, I think no matter how closely you try to copy a picture, you end up putting a lot of yourself into it anyway, if only due to the Sims you're using or the different setting or the different methods of Photoshopping you might use after the fact. Any number of things. I don't know if that made any sense at all. It's just turned midnight here and it's been a long day!
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Post by sb on Mar 3, 2011 8:58:02 GMT -5
Thanks everybody.
I don't think I've ever recreated a Sims set exactly as I saw someone else do it. I never have the same CC, or I don't want to use it the same way, or the place is different (a city or not a city). Even when I download a lot, I usually change it so significantly it isn't recognizable. I do try to credit when I've used a lot (particularly when it was created by someone I know). I have far too much CC to list it, nor do I know where I got most of it.
I'll continue to post the way we've been posting, crediting when I've used something special, but I do think I'll add a note if a specific idea really inspired me.
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Post by thelunarfox on Mar 3, 2011 10:05:43 GMT -5
This is a hard question when I think about it and I know people are rather all over the place on the subject.
Probably the thing to do is put yourself in the shoes of the person who inspired you. If they saw your work, could they tell that their work inspired it? Would they think you were copying their idea? If the answer is yes, then I would definitely note what inspired the shot.
There are all sorts of degrees to this, so that is my best solution.
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Post by sb on Mar 3, 2011 10:57:30 GMT -5
Lunar, I didn't think about it that way, but that makes perfect sense. If I inspired someone to try to recreate something I'd done, and they were able to do it so that I recognized it, it would be nice to have that acknowledged. I'll definitely do that.
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Post by muzegoddess on Mar 11, 2011 10:33:05 GMT -5
I agree with what everyone else has said. It is impossible to credit for every single thing you have in the game that shows up in a story, but you and Gayl have a great list of cc creators so I'm sure you have inadvertantly thanked every one of them in that way.
What I learned a long time ago is that there is no such thing as original thought, everyone has shared at least a similar idea with someone else and using something you've seen and making it your own is not copying or theft, just good sense to expand on a creative muse.
Of course there is a difference between inspiration and out right theft. At the end of the day, in terms of sims, there is only so much that's going to be "one of a kind". The game was packaged and sold to millions of people after all.
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