Announcement - [NEW ALERT!] Resource Blacklist - The resources you should definitly not use

I have made this list a while ago on a German forum, but I thought it would be useful to have it here as well. If there's any problem with it, please tell me.

I don't want any discussion about using Rips the chance of getting punished for using stolen stuff, this is just to give you the information, so noone can say "I didn't know about this".

You can suggest other stuff to add, but please include links to the original sources or screens of the game where the things are ripped off.


1. The Avadan Ship

This is maybe one of the most famoust ships for RM VX and Ace - and sadly nearly as famous for including ripped parts. Archeia detected this here, but there are still many people using it, some don't know about this fact, some just don't care.





What you could use instead:




2. The "Big Icon Set"

One of the most aweful violations of the terms I ever saw (and a very successful, too -_-)
Here we have: stolen stuff of various RPG-Artists who's terms also tell people not to repost (without any credits, of course) and also ripped stuff. If no credits and the many different styled weren't enough hints, here is a clear: delete it!




Alternative stuff




3. Nightfox' stuff

Nightfox was a German ...artist back then. In fact, he stole parts of the work of other people and used rips. He never made clear what he got where, so just don't use anything that can be found in his thread.




4. VXresourceplanet

A large resource Site... well, they just mostly "forget" to mention, who made the stuff what is posted there. Random things from around the web, violating the terms of different artists and nearly no credits, great.




5. Some statues

There are also some Terranigma statues which are mostly used in some XP-Projects






6. Zanyzora/Teamanti


See the Terranigma statues above? Zanyzora/Teamanti posted them, just for example. This was a site with a lot of cool XP-Edits... mixed up with rips.


Since the site went offline, the stuff is spread all over the web and it's nearly impossible to say where it can be found. But since Zanyzora mostly forgot to tell us about used rips, don't use anything with this name in the credits without beeing very sure that only XP-tiles were the base for that (she had some autotiles for example that can be used without any issues).


An example (thanks to PandaMaru for finding the original sources!):


Second Example:


Third example


and another one






7. Ragnarok


Whenever you read Ragnarok or Ragnarok online anywhere in the credits, be suspicious! This is an online game and guess what - those graphics are not free to use!


The game has a very own graphic style and the rips are mostly labeled as battlers, chars or sometimes there are also icons


Art examples:






8. BenBen/Kaliban and Hanzo Kimura


The BenBen Tiles were released after the game was cancelled and they are very popular. Sadly they contain Rips and they should not be used!




9. Asteria's TIlest (by Hanzo Kimura, going by the pseudonym of Kaus) & Valkyrie Story Tileset


Hanzo Kimura created a tileset for RPG Maker MV, editing a lot of content from the MV RTP, but also sneaking in little bits from various other sources, that he mainly found while googling (in his own words). IT's best to stay far away from this tileset, as it not only contains stolen elements from other artists, but also rips from the game Ni no Kuni. More info here.

Note: Kaus should not be confused with Kauzz, who is a separate resource creator who is in good standing and makes all their own stuff.

Valkyrie Story Tileset


-contains BenBen-Tiles and therefore also the Rips and stolen Tiles those contained anyway


-has no full credits and stolen and ripped artwork, see spoiler






10. Ayaween's Dragon


After all those years, Ayaween is not able to give a full credit list and so he does not want anybody to use it anymore.





11. Everything by Psychronic

Thanks for letting me know, now i can be more careful with my games!

I am really glad I spotted that lamer with the huge iconsheet on my own.

I was SURE there was something wrong with that guy and I will never EVER visit this whole site again.

Once plagiarism, always lamer in my eyes.

Thank you @Avery.

This will help us all avoid people that might put us into trouble.

You are awesome!  B)   :thumbsup-right:

Can you post links to window skins that are not allowed?

Thanks for compiling this, very helpful and it simplifies telling people when they raise queries.  Now they can just be directed here.

Thank you for making this. I think it's great to get people in the know on the topic because most would not want to willingly use stolen art and it also helps us spot stolen art. I think a good piece of advice is, if you aren't sure. Don't use it. Never assume. Ask around.

Yeah, never use a resource which you don't really know of it's usable or not.

Tough, sometimes rips are easy to see and the users are indeed aware of it yet they still use them. And we even have games here that have rips willfully used in them.

I am currently searching for:

a ) More proves that the ZanyZora  stuff is ripped. I have two examples above, but there is a lot of more stuff. done

b ) Certain information about the Kaliban/Benben-tiles (which are also the base for the Hanzo Kimura tiles). It is certain that they contain stuff e.g. by Tana, but I heard that they also include rips. Has anybody a full credit list for those tiles or a prove for ripped things?

We know that there are resources out of the Neophyte games are included. Since the company doesn't exist anymore, does anybody know if they allowed people to use those resources?

There is one proove for ripped material in there, we are still searching for more.

c ) Screens of the games where the icons in the Big Icon Set are ripped of, to proove that. (Yeah, I know for sure that they are ripped, but some pictures are always better)

You are painting with a very broad brush.

IOW, to get a full credit list for some of these large resource sets, one approach would be to go over them with a copy of the VX and XP RTP (and simple edits) and allow all of those materials. "Blacklisting" everything because one tile is a rip might seem intimidating to members who may have accidentally posted inappropriate materials alongside of allowed edits , etc. I totally get being suspicious of things, however. Like you, I have put a lot of work into getting correct credits for things.

For example, thanks for pointing out IceAxe's stuff in those sets. (you call the site Studio Pickle. You are probably right. We called it Ice Axe for a long time.)

However, I always thought Hanzo's stuff used a lot more Mack and XP/VX than BenBen. (He does use BenBen's stuff in part of the CastleInteriror set.) I tried once to go over it for credits and found it to be quite a challenge.

He was wrong about the trees he credited to Alisa Tana, for starters. They aren't hers. (I contacted her about credits.) I ended up dropping the project.

It is easy to forget that many resources have been posted on now-defunct sites with improper credits, and that people were misled by this information. What may seem stolen may have merely been someone who believed what they were told by someone else who had no sense of right and wrong on these matters. I am not excusing, merely explaining how things were some time ago. The higher bar has been set over time, and I am glad for that. I appreciate the hard work you are doing and the detailed work involved in assigning credit and specific links to clarify credits on these resources.

The "bigiconset" always drove me nuts. =]

Good luck.

***********************

BTW, Neophyte was released as a Freeware, Shareware Game. It has been available for about fifteen years without restrictions on terms of use for graphics, as far as I can tell.  The game is available, but the graphics are under copyright protection. http://www.interactivitiesink.com/aliensoft/index.html

Just had another look at the VS Set:

There are tiles (in Town Set 3) that were posted by ZanyZora/Teamanti

Then we have the COAD-Tiles, where I also can't say anything clear about, but there was a thread about them,saying that you must own IG Maker to be allowed to use them.

There are also Neophyte resources out of the BenBen-Set in the VS one - yes the game was freeware, but I'd be careful, just because the company is dead it doens't mean we should use their stuff without credits. I think I've  read somewhere something about the terms of them, but it will take me a while to find that post again.

Those are the things that I can say after the first look, and there are still things left I can't identify.

Another point is that so many people want to commercial with those tiles - and no, just no. For the Hanzo-VS-Set it might be possible to have a full credit list - but as you see, the one by him is incomplete as well (not mentioning ZanyZora) and I wouldn't use the Neophyte tiles either without a clear statement that they are really free to use under this and this conditions.

Deb, those pines are included in the "Most of my old RMXP Stuff"-folder by Tana (Halfkaizer-folder, bottom right corner on the university set), if those were the trees you were talking about?

I think it would be easier to create a similar tileset as the VS one with trusted sources and maybe without the IG Maker content so more people can use it than being sure about all the stuff in the VS-Sets.

For the BenBen-Set I'd stay with no (for commercial), even if we had all the credits (which seems to be impossible with such huge sets), there is stuff included by persons who's  resources and terms are gone for a while e.g. ccoa and there are more rips, we just need a while to find out where they are from.

I know how the things were back then ;3

But it has changed, gladly and I just want to tell the people about those materials. At the end, it's their choice, not mine.

Actually best practice is once you find out someone hosts plagiarized artwork, or rips, or by any means illegal stuff,  

you NEVER EVER visit that site again! That's why this thread is really useful.

We all must respect each other, right?

For instance, @Avery, makes fantastic icons and gives them for free  to use them even in commercial games.

What she asks for is giving her credit for her work and a copy of our game for free.

This is the LEAST you can do.

1] Show the appropriate respect to the original artists, even if he/she doesn't ask for it.

2] Give something back, even if someone doesn't ask for it. Generosity doesn't hurt.

If you fail on both these things, then in my humble opinion, you do not deserve to belong in ANY community. Because you don't respect your own self.

Sour words I know, but it's the truth.

@Avery


Yeah, thanks for trying to sort out the quagmire! You have a good eye for resources that I am not always so familiar with, too.


Thanks for the heads up about the evergreens. I was meaning the deciduous trees. It is a crazy mix-up.


I agree that commercial use is an unrealistic expectation from these folks who post such unreliable sets!


I guess I will never understand why folks who want to go make money don't just go invest in their project just a wee bit, but that's not the point here, I guess.


Anyways, I totally agree that you simply cannot believe what people say when they offer "commercial use" unless they have proven themselves above-board and consistent.


Thanks again.

I have some question regarding BenBen tileset. To start, my game is not for commercial purpose. Normally I used some tiles as base to recreate new one. (Of course I keep track of credits I need to give to.)
I strictly stay away from anything that's ripped. For BenBen case, do I have to stay entirely off the entire tileset or just the rips part? I can see which part is ripped and which is not.

(I intended to use only the some floors, wall, tree and buildings.)

I notice that that the rock and grass aren't rips but I'm not sure about the tree. If tree cannot be used, I'll switch to something else or give credit to the original creator as appropriate.
If trees or any part cannot be used, can you also suggest alternatives?

The problem for BenBen is that we have no clear list what is ripped and what is taken from which artist.

Deb told me that the Neophyte stuff is not free to use, so now I have to search for enough screens and go through all the BenBen sets again to detect those.

I have absolutly no idea where the leaves on the trees come from, and I know that some of the plants in the sets are Neophyte Rips, but I don't have enough references to say which, yet.

I could suggest you my own tiles, XP-Link in my signature; start post isn't up to date so you'd need to check all the posts as well. And I have a list of XP resources here

If even a single piece of any tileset is identified and prooven as ripped, then you have also prooven that the tilesheet creator has not conformed to correct rules and credits.


And that means that you'll never know of any other piece in the same tilesheet had been made by that tilesheet's artist, or if it was simply ripped from an obscure and obsolete game that no one knows any longer - perhaps even a pre-internet one that isn't available any longer.


That's why I personally think that Avery puts too much work in finding secondary or tertiary proofs - if even a single tile from a single tilesheet from anyone can be confirmed as ripped, that voids all those tilesheets in my opinion, even if the tilesheet artist got the tile from somewhere that he believed to be a free resource. Because if it wasn't credited correctly, the other tiles collected might also not have been correctly credited - and that means again that nothing on the sheet can be trusted.

Not to mention that nothing on the whole website can be trusted.

These sites are sites I will never ever visit again.

I never posted before... but this really concern me.

I spent my whole summer(literally) editing some tileset (which everyone belived that it's ok to use) to use on my own game (not commercial)
and then someone point out that some part of those tileset might be based on ripped.

I know by the book I should ditch it... but I spent too much time and love on that work to the point that I cannot.

what should I really do? ditch it and make it from the beginning? cut the part I'm confident that it is ripped out?  or just let it slide?.... since i am not going to monetize it anyway.

Copyright infringment has nothing to do with the question if you get money from the game or not. The only real difference is that if you do sell the game for money, then you'll be guaranteed to get much higher fines to pay.
If you put a game with ripped resources online, then the copyright holder for those resources can require you to take it down and delete it. Wether or not he can ask for payment and misuse really depends on the local laws - in case of simple fan works, a lot of companies don't bother because they'll never get the money for the lawyers back from some kiddies who didn't know laws, so the case is often closed after they delete their work.


However, there are some big companies who have permanent lawyers and therefore no additional cost for them, and some of those really enforce their copyrights.


And the critical point here is: the more successfull your game is, the more it is talked about on the internet, the greater is the chance that the copyright holder detects your game and goes against you.


So the real question is: do you want to hope that your game remains unknown and ignored, or do you want to risk getting sued if your game is better and attracts visitors?


Additionally, there are some players who don't like to play games with ripped resources, and those might warn others away from your game.

Players who made a game, or a music piece, or a picture, or pixel art, or took a photo that was misused, or stolen and plagiarized by a random idiot, TREND to really dislike someone who does plagiarism. It's not only about the plagiarized game. It's also about the creator too.

They have felt how bad it is, someone to steal from their work, so they are somewhat fans of proper credits and licensing, or original art even if it looks lame. Something original is always more welcome than something stolen, except if it is originally stolen... :p