Re: Spot the differences or picture plagiarism(?)

[Swift Claw <MissRaptor@deadraccoon.com>]

Hi Steve. Your first link doesn't work. I guess because you took it down 
after Luis's email...

Irregardless that Luis Rey Jr. and Luis Rey Sr. are the same person, 
I've seen it before too. There's an illustration in Dinosaurs of Italy 
identified as "after a drawing by Gregory S. Paul." I was very 
disappointed - mostly with the publisher.

It is NOT legal. Copyright law not only protects artists from 
unauthorized reproductions, but also reserves the right to create 
derivative works - even if they are in different mediums. Giving the 
original creator a credit line does not change anything, and just 
because something is a common practice does not justify the action.

Ideas and facts aren't copyrightable, so it's possible redrawings of 
skeletal diagrams might stand a fighting chance. What's really sad about 
situations like this, though, is that it's a direct competition with the 
original artist. It's Greg Paul's drawings. Greg Paul could have been 
hired by the author/publisher, but he wasn't. Somebody else was paid 
instead.


~Tiffany Miller


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Steve Walsh wrote:
> I have reason to review a lot of dinosaur books. I've often seen 
> illustrations in books of lesser quality that seem to be "inspired" by 
> the work of accomplished artists. In the example I've of put together: 
> http://www.dinosaurcentral.com/pic_comparison/ an illustration by Luis 
> Rey from "A Field Guide to Dinosaurs" seems to have been pretty much 
> duplicated for another much lesser quality book. It has no artist 
> credits but I'm pretty sure Luis had nothing to do this cheapie (in 
> another pic, again very similar to one found in the Field Guide and 
> obviously done by the same artist, Ornitholestes sports a nasal horn). 
> In any regards this kind of thing does seem to happen quite a bit. I'm 
> definitely not a copyright expert and I understand this must be legal 
> but I can't see how this is not a form of plagiarism. Is this not the 
> equivalent of taking a short story or a paper and moving a few sentences 
> about? The newspaper industry certainly have a strict policies about 
> this as this example: 
> http://blog.fotolia.com/us/images/Visual%20Plagiarism_photo.jpg resulted 
> in getting someone fired.
>
> Steve Walsh
> Email: steve.w@c-point.com       |       stevewalsh53@gmail.com
> Home: 8 264 5526                     |              Mobile: 0422088197
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