One thing I find inexplicable...
Does anyone have an e-mail address or other contact information for Michael Pook? I would like to contact him about his unauthorized distribution of some of my stuff, but he provides no contact information in his uploads.
To wit:
Personally, I think of myself as a pretty good artist.. actually, I am lying... I think I do superb graphics work... at any rate... I have seen some of my work copied
used, applied, etc. and it never bothered me... a: because I think imitation is the greatest form of praise even though tacit...
b: (and most important) because what I do is for anyone's enjoyment and I do not make a penny through it... (and here is the source of my perplexity... i.e.: copyright laws HAVE A PURPOSE... and that is... to avoid the unauthorized exploitation of someone's intellectual work... and here is the crux of the matter: for copyright laws to apply... one has to register one's intellectual property in some way... NOT JUST PUTTING A LITTLE CIRLE WITH A "c" INSIDE!... Moreover...technically there is no infringement of copyright laws except where the intellectual property is registered... e.g.: [I am a retired physician] many medical textbooks used to be and still are "bootlegged" by China at a fraction of the original's cost... those texts are subject to immediate seizure and destruction in the US (Gray's Anatomy) England (Churchill-Davison Textbook of Anaesthesia, etc. BUT THEY CAN BE SOLD, EXCHANGED, BARTERED, ETC. in places like Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, ad infinutum... because those countries do not really give a hoot... and THE AUTHORS HAVE NO LEGAL RECOURSE there!!!
So, in the end, this fixation with "copyright infringements" seems to be no more than an "ego trip" - this again is only a personal view - which belies one's stated purpose when we "publish" our work in these amateurish circles like SOH, Simviation, etc.. and state its purpose is pleasing our fellow hobbyists...
Again, just from a personal and very subjective point of view, I do not put my stuff on the public domain, but rather make it available via PM and subsequent email.... asking the person requesting my artwork.. NOT TO ALTER IT... PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR ON THE TOP... so to speak..
[mainly because...in my "own ego trip"... I hate to see someone's less artistically gifted changes to my work being assumed as performed by "yours truly"...
So the long and the short of it... I am personally perplexed with this "copyright infringement" of work that is not really legally internationally copyrighted...
If anyone imitates you or impersonates you IT IS BECAUSE YOUR WORK IS SO GOOD their poor image of self improves through emulating you...
Ciao for now,
G.
Postscriptum: I am writing this blurb just to see how folks react to it... sort of a "fly on the wall perplexity" ... no offense to anyone and due
pre-emptive apologies to anyone who disagrees... after this is a DISCUSSION FORUM... where every one has an opinion... and we know about opinions... they are like anal sphincters... everyone has his or her own... (its main purpose: to put out the bad stuff only at the proper time...lol)