Concept Stolen?

A while ago, in mid 2006, I did a drawing for someone and it featured a sword that many people liked (along with the armor). Fast forward to Nightfall and there is a sword at the end which many are now familiar with, the Forgotten Sword. These two swords look incredibly similar as shown below. This has happened once before with another game. So what's going on? Are they stealing my ideas, or is it just pure coincidence? I know that I'm not going to put anything on the web I don't want the possibility of being filched from now on.

wow, if you actually DID draw that a year ago....then gg

i believe the forgotten sword was from a design-a-weapon contest.... maybe the person you did the drawing for submitted it? not sure if the results of that contest are still around, i'll look around

Yeah, I thought that it was a design contest. If that's true then the guy you did the drawing for is a jerk...

Same I thought someone submit the concept when they had that contest awhile back.

Well, it could have been anyone, seeing as i posted it under an armor concept design thread...I can assure you, the recipient was not a jerk.

If you did post it online thread then I believes knowing people they will quickly take advantage of anything. So if someone stole the concept from you it won’t be a total shock. You can pursue it legally against the infringer, if you copyrighted the concept art.

Damn...That sucks, dude.

Shafted

1234

omg I remember looking at your picture well over a year ago!

thats a terrible same that people have to steal ideas off of great artists.

There was a thread with the guys guru name who actually designed the "forgotten sword" it might have been in the nolani forum or riverside. Still unsure about the correct form.

imo thats a straight copy

if not, then your SOL

The bottom line is that while your drawing is *similar* to what they implemented, I doubt that it is a copyright violation. It's a curved sword with a hook at the top and such. Frankly, it's nice that you can draw so well, but.. it is hardly "theft" in any way shape or manner. Furthermore, there are 100's of real swords in museum collections with all sorts of shapes and sizes, hooks, curls, crevices, etc. -- we're not even talking about the thousands upon thousands of sword drawings people have done over the years. There is just a ton of prior art in this field, even if the drawings are similar, unless you can show that they are almost identical, there is little you can do.

Fainally, if you stop posting your drawings, you only punish yourself.

If it make you feel better I think the sword looks better in your drawing then it does ingame lol.

As an aside, the drawing is nicer than the actual sword in the game, imho. The blade shape in the drawing is more elegant with the angles on the cutting side of the blade. Good job on that.

Edit: Ah, lol. Issac beat me to it. ^^

Contact Gaile. Ask if she can fish out the winning contest entry and compare it with your artwork.

You need a tinfoil hat as well.

If it's 90% or more like the drawing it is copyright infringement as you do not need any formal document saying it is copyrighted by you.

Guys,

Please let me offer a little voice of reason here. There are many traditional sword designs, and there's really nothing terrifically unique about either the Forgotten Sword or the drawing that the OP posted. No offense intended -- it's a very nice drawing and the sword in the game is lovely! However, you're reading the words of the person who looked at every single drawing for every single Design-A-Weapon Contest, and I could go through the entries right now and find you a dozen swords that look like either the game sword or the sketch.

There's a blade, a hilt, and some ornamentation. Differences in size, of course, and in the shape of the elements, but there's only so much you can do before it becomes a dagger. Or a spork.

Anyway, we get more sword entries than anything else, and when you look at this year's winner you're going to see similarities to both the posted images, too. In all honesty, I don't think anyone stole anything.

you could draw similarities to all the images to loads of swords.
Go and google "hadhafang sword" in images and you have a similarity already.
And the makers of that sword could go around saying exactly what you are too i believe.

IMO if you are that serious about copyrighting ( and for the un-knowing copyright is automatic as long as you can prove it legally) maybe try investing in digital watermarking of your images, such as digimarc (if im not allowed to post company names like that can the mods please edit)
Design patent would wash as its not for something that would be made essentially. Worldwide copyright filed is the only way you could do it.
And in a legal case, I may be wrong here, someone maybe able to put me right, unless you filed copies with lawyers etc then you wont have much chance of a case holding....and i gather from your post thats something that could have sprung to mind, why post it otherwise?

If ANET were in anyway stepping on any copyright boundaries, their lawyers would kick things into next week, and most companies involved in artwork know copyright law and where the lines are drawn, intimately. I doubt VERY much they would cross the line in lieu of a law suit over the sake of one image, especially if they could take concepts from 1000's of swords and designs and make one.

Im sorry but the only similarity is the wave to the blade, which is not enough to claim copying. The pommel and hilt are different as well as that the blade spikes up on the forgotten sword near the base. That is more then enough to make them different ideas.

There are only so many variations before similarities seem to appear all over the place.

I don’t think you really can understand this, because you have not had something you designed ripped off and past as someone else’s work. Imo walk into any school now, read the rules about stealing works, you'll see there are HUGE penalties for doing this.

Traditional sword designs? Please show me a sword that looks similar to this? Name any katana, Dao, scimitars, rapiers, sabers... etc

The problem is this isn’t just a "similar" design as you bluntly put it. This is a FULL BLOWN rip-off, I’ll bold it just for you.

You can clearly see the hilt, guard, the very small cross, and even the fuller is ripped off. You can see the hamon is also the same in both swords. Well I guess it doesnt hurt to put a small change to the hilt when rippin off peoples work now does it?

As with the not much you can do with it statement.... have you seen every single part that makes up a sword? Doesn’t seem like it.

IMO that winner sword is another cheap take off this sword. It's hard to believe someone can win a contest by just redesigning a sword and changing the blade. Yay for creativity?

it would be different if this design wasnt seen in a large thread for over a year.