Geoworld and plagiarism

[Patrx]

I wasn't sure where to place this, so I don't mind it being moved elsewhere. Yesterday, paleoartist Vladimir Nikolov posted the following for public view on Facebook:



"Another day, another blatant rip-off of my work! Just a week after Mark Witton, Darren Naish, and John Conway published their paper on the state of paleoart, big part of which was dealing with the ugly practice of rampant plagiarism and unauthorized use of works of paleoart for various commercial projects, I am reminded once again that as paleoartist I mean nothing, and my work is just there for anyone to use on their whim.

I months ago one of my +watchers on DeviantArt commented under old artwork of mine, saying that she thinks that she has seen this artwork on a card that goes with a dinosaur toy figure from big a toy company, namely Geoworld. Today she send me a scan of the card in question, and yes, it is really my work - http://t-pekc.deviantart.com/art/Mapusaurus-roseae-85148798. Of course no one has contacted me with inquire to get permission to use the artwork, or else. What is really [angering me] is the fact that it is not just a matter of tracing over my drawing, it is a sloppy overpaint with a couple of minor digital alterations in head, neck and pelvis. The torso is absolutely the same, they didn't even bother to hide the pencil texture and scales details. So, someone was paid, or hired to paint over my work? It's maddening!

I guess I will give it a day, or two, so emotions can settle down and then I am going to email Geoworld and demand some kind of explanation. Such attitude to the work of paleoartists, ignoring the fact that this particular artwork of mine is not even good paleoart (it is 6 years old and from the dawn of my "serious paleoart" period), is unacceptable! Such actions of copyrights violations and outright disrespect of artists from companies like Geoworld need to be exposed!"

Anyway, I think it's an important issue, the sort of thing we as dinosaur toy collectors ought to be aware of and concerned about. Geoworld figures often do seem quite familiar to me, I imagine there are a lot that mimic images available online. I think dinosaur collectables ought to be regarded as palaeoart in their own right, and this sort of duplication and lack of originality has been a big problem for palaeoart over the decades. in addition to being ethically dubious at best, copying existing dinosaur art prevents new ideas from getting to people.

[Takama]

Its not the only plagirised Art that appears in Geoworld cards.   Raul Martins Concavenator is ripped off too.    I can try to provide pictures of every Geoworld Card to see how many crimes they committed.

[tyrantqueen]

Happy to see this being pointed out He's definitely not the only artist that Geoworld have plagiarised.

[DinoToyForum]

Its not the only plagirised Art that appears in Geoworld cards.   Raul Martins Concavenator is ripped off too.    I can try to provide pictures of every Geoworld Card to see how many crimes they committed.

That would be really useful.

This topic fits in with the knock-off figure debate currently in swing on the forum.

[stargatedalek]

a few of the toys themselves are also "inspired" without permission

[Roselaar]

Bad GeoWorld!

I would say boycot the company, but since they're not available in my area and I'm not actively searching for them online, I'm sort of doing that already.

GeoWorld really is making all the wrong moves when it comes to its relation with real science and paleontology, isn't it? Guess they just don't really give a damn. Seems the success of Schleich has taught them a thing or two...

[Patrx]

Its not the only plagirised Art that appears in Geoworld cards.   Raul Martins Concavenator is ripped off too.    I can try to provide pictures of every Geoworld Card to see how many crimes they committed.

That would be really useful.

This topic fits in with the knock-off figure debate currently in swing on the forum.

I'd be interested to see that as well, Takama. I wonder if any of their designs aren't lifted from the work of someone else?

[tyrantqueen]

The two that have already been pointed out were the Protoceratops and Therizinosaurus plagiarisms, but they have also heavily swiped poses and colours from some CollectA models.

See their Agustinia.



But since those were probably heavily referenced rather than directly stolen, we can let that one slide. It just goes to show a lack of originality on their part. Maybe Geoworld does have a very large range of obscure species, but it comes at the cost of stealing another person's artwork because they can't think of ideas of their own.

[Patrx]

The Austolovenator bears a striking resemblance to this piece for the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum:


And the Albertosaurus looks like this art by Sergey Krasovskiy:


As you mentioned, for the models to resemble existing art is one thing - not very original, but not outright theft. I'd be interested to see the cards that go with these figures, however. Both of these images came up within the first page of a Google Image Search, by the way, so it really is starting to look like Geoworld's "research" might be lacking.

[tyrantqueen]

Ooh, I know some more.

This Geoworld Brachiosaurus looks similar to Carnegie's jolly green giant





Just look at the feet and the legs, the similarity is there.

And the CollectA Polacanthus





Papo Allosaurus- look at the spines along the back.

[stargatedalek]

Could have also been based on the JP allosaurus

[tyrantqueen]

Could have also been based on the JP allosaurus

Indeed, although the JP Allosaurus was itself based on the Papo Allo.

[Gwangi]

Troodon

[Patrx]

Good catch with the Safari Brachiosaurus! The legs are definitely the smoking gun, there. Also, I knew I'd seen that Troodon before. 

[Gwangi]

I knew a few Geoworld models were plagiarized or "inspired" but I had no idea it went this far. I had seen that Troodon drawing before but forgot about it until this thread came up. I'm willing to bet if you do a Google image search on a lot of their models you'll find a "source of inspiration". I already was not a fan of Geoworld, save for a few models but this really makes me think even less of the company.

[stoneage]

   All Geoworld figures should be thrown into a raging fire until they are nothing but liquid.  Anybody who doesn't do this should be banned from the forum.

[Takama]

  All Geoworld figures should be thrown into a raging fire until they are nothing but liquid.  Anybody who doesn't do this should be banned from the forum.

Well you can kiss my but goodbye then. 

[Dan]

I was very disturbed when I discovered Geoworld has taken this Therizinosaurus illustration by our own DTF friend Sepp:



...And turned it into a figure, without any permission or compensation:



She has discussed it here:

http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/783596.html

[Takama]

Troodon

I never knew that this was based on a painting   the card has a exact copy of it.

No that I say that. im about to photograph each card.

[Gwangi]

Yeah, that painting has been around for years, I don't even know who the original artist was. The funny thing is, I have seen the painting numerous times and then when the Geoworld Troodon came to my attention I considered it one of their better models (I bought one from you after all) and just today reading this thread it clicked that they were one in the same.