Um... Look inside, DnD image theft...

[Tsyr]

Has anyone thought to also report this to the knife company?

Nope. Not my place to do so. I don't own the copyright to that image, or have any connection with it. Furthermore, Bud-K is just a reseller... They don't make it, and wouldn't be able to tell me anything anyhow.

How can we, simple fans of a game, make judgements about who is in the right and who is in the wrong?

I may not be a lawyer, but last I checked, using an image for profit without permission is theft, and theft is, last I checked, still wrong. That judgement I can make quite easily, thank you very much, "simple" or not.

Now, if you are trying to say something like "How dare I accuse them of theft when I'm not 100% sure", that's a different answer. Quite simply, track record. A lot of these chinese and pakistan knife makers (which is what Bud K gets most of it's stuff from) rip off anything and everything, copyrighted or not. Gil Hibben knife designs, Lord of the Ring sword knockoffs (Look 'similar', and by similar I mean identical, just of a poorer quality), movie, comic, and television designs, and other artwork. They don't deserve the benfit of the doubt anymore.

I personally think that you are being biased and unfair if you do not contact both concerned parties.

Life isn't fair, and every person is biased to one extent or another about most everything. That's life.

 

[TiQuinn]

All you can do is contact the company that can actually look into the problem and resolve it, which is WotC. I don't see how anyone is obligated to contact Bud K.

 

[LightPhoenix]

A lot of these chinese and pakistan knife makers (which is what Bud K gets most of it's stuff from) rip off anything and everything, copyrighted or not. Gil Hibben knife designs, Lord of the Ring sword knockoffs (Look 'similar', and by similar I mean identical, just of a poorer quality), movie, comic, and television designs, and other artwork. They don't deserve the benfit of the doubt anymore.

Especially out of Hong Kong, there's a lot of piracy. I believe it's because Hong Kong doesn't recognize international copyright law or something like that. Please correct me if I'm wrong. It's not limited to just knives either - movies and CDs are pirated and resold in rediculous quantity there. I'm a big VGM (video game music) fan, and anytime I order stuff from overseas, I have to be really careful about not getting a pirated copy. Some of them are really good at making them not look like copies.

 

[hellbender]

Now that there has been response from the artist, I say, good job, Tsyr. I hope something comes of it, but I doubt the real perpetrator will get in any trouble, however, I hope so.


hellbender