Equine Transformation Project - VOTING CLOSED

[Doodles]

This is a very obvious case and I'm honestly surprised it's being debated.
If a user was selling adoptables and they were as obviously and proven traced as Equimagine's lines were, they would be immediately removed. The fact we are even having this discussion proves staff gets special treatment when it comes to art theft.

No. The staff as have been said before are just users whom volunteer to keep CS a healthy and friendly site. Without the "colored" name they're just like the rest of. The name just makes them stand out in a crowd. They do NOT get special treatment. The discussion isn't up for "Because she stole it, take it down" it was a simple - "Should we remove these seeing as there are old copyright issues" yes or no? .-. staff is no different from the rest of us except the fact they help users and have a fancy name (Unless of course your Tess, Nick, or and Assistant Admin - and even then not really Assistant Admins.)

Except that doesn't matter? Actions speak louder than words. There are 191 pages on this thread and we're debating whether or not to remove stolen work from the site. Has ANY OTHER USER ever received such treatment? No. I rest my case.

But the point is it was brought up BEFORE - and seeing as this is a SPECIAL case as it deals with the matters of pets that where given out to NUMEROUS users people would have a right to say weather it stays or go's. Im sure if there where serious violations or trouble CS would have IMMIDENTLY removed or edited the art - obviously most of this issue has been resolved on an earlier note like was said if you had bothered to read into the entire story.

[cautiousculpeo]

I love having to find something diffrent, like a likeart change. And the older pets have more character in my opinion. So I believe that we shouldn't change the linearts.

[Shian]

You would be losing the pet, because it would be a completely different pet. It's not like turning the pet to a different angle. It's a new line-art, new textures, new positions of the markings. It's more like trading in an old car for a new one of the same make and model. Some things are similar, but overall it's massively different, and definitely not the same thing you used to have.

You wouldn't be loosing the pet. When Malk changed her wolf lines waaaaaay way back, people didn't suddenly log on one day to find that their wolves had been deleted, or had been taken from them. They still had the same pet, with the same design, just with a lineart revamp.
I'm still just as attached to my fireback wolves now as I was before they had a lineart change

Thank you for this post because yes the change in the Malk linearts was enormous. It wasn't put to a vote, it just changed one day. And guess what? People were fine with it. Those who were upset got over it quickly.
(Also, don't post on the thread I linked to, it's been dead since like, 2010.

Some of us LIKED the old lines and would still prefer the old ones back, so no. Not all of us were perfectly fine with it.

[wibeke]

The only reason I can think of for not wanting the lines to be changes is that I've been using all my equi horses as trading fodder. If they get changed over to the current lines I'll have to make an attempt at collecting them again!
Laziness aside, the new draft lines are absolutely perfect and I definitely prefer the updated designs! I hoard donkies, too, so I'm really excited to see how they turn out.

About the whole tracing issue-
It doesn't matter if you liked the look of the old, copied lines more than the current ones. Tracing is stealing (not to mention incredibly lazy) and the fact that a drawing is "pretty" doesn't change the fact that it's still stolen. Even if the photographer is somehow okay with it, which is doubtful, the fact that the images are traced reflects badly on CS as a whole.
Ordinary users who try to display/sell traced art on the forums have their threads locked and are warned. The mods do their best to get rid of art theft on the boards, but it's hard to convince people not to use pictures that do not belong to them when an (ex)official artist isn't held to the same standard and there are still blatantly traced adoptables floating around the site.
Equimagine retired and her horses are no longer being released, but I think it would be a much better decision for CS to go ahead and change the lines regardless of personal preferences. You might like the old lines better, but the fact still remains that they were traced and "but I like them better" is simply not a valid argument.
If this was an ordinary CS user, we wouldn't even be discussing this.

Besides, look how cute and prancy these little buggers are! Part of the reason I've always loved the Yulynh ponies so much is that they remind me of pretty much every single pony I've ever met. She captured the cheeky, bouncy, and insanely curious personality perfectly.

And look at all that fluff!

[akebai]

The image owners have already been contacted by some members apparently, so the option of letting Tess do it nicely and explain is out. But we'll find out how they feel soon enough.

Hmm, that's interesting. To be honest, if it was me, I think I'd just let it go? CS isn't making money off them or anything so it seems silly to make an issue of things. Hopefully they'll come by and post their side of things.

Ah, but they are - when the store sells things (such as the items for the horses, not all of which have been updated for the new horses?), they get money. So, technically, they are profiting off those lines.

And for the record - I love the new malk firebacks way more then the old ones. The detail is so much nicer ^_^

[Metallic Dragon]

The image owners have already been contacted by some members apparently, so the option of letting Tess do it nicely and explain is out. But we'll find out how they feel soon enough.

Hmm, that's interesting. To be honest, if it was me, I think I'd just let it go? CS isn't making money off them or anything so it seems silly to make an issue of things. Hopefully they'll come by and post their side of things.

Ah, but they are - when the store sells things (such as the items for the horses, not all of which have been updated for the new horses?), they get money. So, technically, they are profiting off those lines.

And for the record - I love the new malk firebacks way more then the old ones. The detail is so much nicer ^_^

I do too, now. Though I was pretty sad when they first changed. I missed my old guys. But within a few weeks I was over the loss and realized that the change was awesome. More detail, crisper and more professional lines, change is good.

[soupalicious]

I can't wait for them to switch the line-arts over, which is happening no matter how much people cry about it. I doubt 200+ users are going to vote no and catch up. I also can't wait for this topic to be locked. The new colors look wonderful and the designs are sharper on Yu's lines, I can't wait to see my Indian ponies switched over!

I'm really excited to see how the designs look when they're on the new lines as well! *is really excited about seeing the April 2010 bird horses being redone*

The kingfishers? Yeah, I'm very keen on seeing those ones updated, too. ^^ I like the old ones, but the new horses would probably suit the birdy design even better.

Those were kingfishers? My bird-fu has failed me for once xD

[idleRAT]

Actually, CS is making money off them.

CS is supported by people buying chickendollars. People use these chickendollars to trade - equimagine lineart horses included.

This is aside from the substantial income generated by the advertisements that are on every single page.

It's not terribly much money, mind you - I don't think Tess and Nick are exactly rolling in lucre like Scrooge McDuck - but it's enough to keep CS going. I'd rather not see CS involved in any nastiness or lawsuits.

Additionally, if you would like to contact the photographers yourselves, I posted all the contact information I could find, traced back from the original images. If you search this thread for my posts it should be in there.

While I totally understand your point, I'm neither an owner of the company or a representative, me contacting them is an annoyance and nothing more.

As they are not charging for those linearts(or ever have as far as I know), they're not making money off them. It gets a bit sketchy as people can trade purchased currency for them, but as they're not outright charging IRL currency for those linearts, they're not directly profiting from them as far as the legal definition goes.

Edit: Also thanks for posting the comparison images on tumblr, I hadn't seen those before.

[Muggafinn]

Oh also you guys CS makes money from ads?
So technically anything on the website that makes people click and look at pages (like the traced horses) are getting the website cash that goes straight to the admins or whoever is in charge.
--Removed--

[Solfeggio]

Since we're talking about Malk's lineart changes, I actually missed the old version of my Mister Poofles:



Though less realistic than the new lines, I felt it looked cuter and, well, derpier, for lack of a better word XD But he grew on me <3
CS never 'downgrades' on lineart but constantly tries to raise its standard. (Not to say the old lineart was ugly, but perhaps no longer suited for the times) Maybe not everyone likes the newer lineart, but there are many who do; it's difficult to please everyone on a website which is has a ton of members with their own artistic preference.