Plagiarism - Status of Original By as of the 3/22/16 Patch (see pg. 19) «1234567…17...Next Go

BryonyRae

I sure am seeing a lot of it in the Gallery, but when you report an item, there is no "plagiarism" option. In TS3, it was a definite no-no, and we reported people for it (and EA removed offending items). However, things seem fuzzier in TS4, since in many cases, the "Original By" tag makes it clear that the lot is indeed a re-upload. People can easily get around that if they want to though. I was wondering if anyone knows if EA's taken an official stance on this? I'm about to complete a lot, but I'm hesitant to upload it without being clear on the policy.

Edit: and just a quick note that I am still testing after each patch to see if there are any changes to functionality of the original by for households and rooms. If those loopholes ever do get fixed, I'll create a fresh post, but there's no real point in posting "no news."

procon

Seriously? If a lot is in the gallery isn't it available for anyone to use? If you upload something you're inviting everyone to use it "as is" or remodel it to suit their own tastes. If this is a worrisome issue for you then just keep your lots isolated in your private library rather than use community option so no one can "plagiarize" from you.

Sparkle

I agree with you to a degree @procon but there is a point where it is just downright plagarism - people take popular well downloaded/favourited lots and reupload them 'as is' with no changes. They aren't even attempting to use the houses for their own sims/game/use, they are just trying to gain followers and downloads by claiming something popular as their own. If someone takes something for their own use, modifies it and reuploads, where's the harm in adding the original creator with a thanks (which I have also seen done and am perfectly ok with)?

BryonyRae

Procon, it's certainly available for anyone to use and remodel, just not generally to then re-upload and claim as their own. Or at least, that was the case with TS3, and that's why I'm asking regarding TS4. It's not clear to me if the perspective has changed.

Ash072

I take it this is a big deal due to the fact that people have monetized blogs/YouTube Channels/etc. and may be making a profit off of someone else's work?

BryonyRae

Not really, Ash072, or at least that is not my concern, although I'm sure it would be a valid one. My concern is more along the lines of what Sparkle said. As a builder, I put a ton of effort/time into my creations. It's painful to later see someone re-upload one of them and take credit for it. I don't see any motive for doing something like that other than an easy way to get acclaim/popularity/etc. from the many unsuspecting people who will never question where it came from. In my view, it's wrong and not ever something I would do to someone else's creation.

joancrawford

I understand where your coming from. I spent hours making my celebrity sims and I saw them on the Gallery showing created by someone else! It sort of plums you off!

mooredt21

I also noticed this when I searched a celebrity Sim yesterday. The same one was uploaded multiple times with no changes. If you don't bother to check the origin, you assume the person who re-uploads it is the creator. That was disheartening because I like to give feedback and was saying great job to some people who basically took someone else's creation before I even realized they were only re-sharing someone else's work.

Veriona

I haven't see this, but then again my gallery has been nothing but laggy the past few days I completely understand your concern and feel the same way. Not sure what can be done unfortunately as everything off the net can be taken and reclaimed by another. Seen it happen on pinterest, youtube etc. Like I always say, karma is a beep.

BryonyRae

Veriona, the one thing we used to be able to do on the TS3 forums was to report the item/user for plagiarism, and oftentimes, if enough people did so, the plagiarized version was removed. However, plagiarism is no longer an option when you report an item, so I'm trying to clarify if that means EA will no longer take action on such things. They may feel that now that the item states "Original By" they've got it covered, but because people can save new instead of overwriting, they can easily bypass that safeguard as the system now regards it as a new item. I can certainly understand EA not wanting to police this stuff anymore, and I think if they just made that "Original By" stick regardless of how the item is saved, they could do just that.

Veriona

BryonyRae wrote: »

Veriona, the one thing we used to be able to do on the TS3 forums was to report the item/user for plagiarism, and oftentimes, if enough people did so, the plagiarized version was removed. However, plagiarism is no longer an option when you report an item, so I'm trying to clarify if that means EA will no longer take action on such things. They may feel that now that the item states "Original By" they've got it covered, but because people can save new instead of overwriting, they can easily bypass that safeguard as the system now regards it as a new item. I can certainly understand EA not wanting to police this stuff anymore, and I think if they just made that "Original By" stick regardless of how the item is saved, they could do just that.

Totally agree, maybe with enough people voicing this out they can code it in a permanent type solution. I do wish however that if I'm the original creator for example it doesn't say originally by me, lol. I wanted to change my kids outfits, I saved them and didn't realize it said that Awkward.

Ash072

Veriona wrote: »

. Like I always say, karma is a beep.

I think this would needs to be edited to read, "Like I always say, karma is a plum!"

simsinmysleep

BryonyRae wrote: »

I can certainly understand EA not wanting to police this stuff anymore, and I think if they just made that "Original By" stick regardless of how the item is saved, they could do just that.

I like that idea and really hope they'll consider doing that. I know that if I downloaded something and altered it, I would want to give the original creator credit and that makes it just that much easier to do that. Likewise, I have no problem whatsoever with people downloading my stuff and changing it and reuploading it -- it's kind of fun to see other people's variations and edits -- but yeah, if I've worked for two days on something, creating multiple split levels and tricky roofing, and someone changes the color scheme or rearranges the furniture a little I would appreciate a little nod to the original creator.

yanti68

I totally agree with you Bry! There should be a report option when someone's hard work is stolen! If they are making changes to the lot then they should give credit to the builder who created the house in the first place. That seems only fair to me!

lym81

I've been noticing this happening to my downloads this week since Maxis favorited a few of them. None of them have given me credit for the original house. If this wasn't allowed in TS3 then it shouldn't be allowed in TS4 too, would be nice to have a report feature. The "Original By" line was missing in almost all of them so that feature seems easy to get around.

Shadecaster101

I noticed from the demo that if you just "edit in CAS" something straight from the gallery, it doesn't the credit the original owner. It seems incredibly easy to get around.

justdancerebecca

That keeps me from wanting to share my creations at all (not that they are popular or good by any means, but you never know).

BryonyRae

Yes, it can be a tough decision, Becca. There has always been a chance that your Sims creation will get plagiarized, but being unable to take action on that is new with TS4.

lovelylyssia095

I really wanted to get into building and sharing my lots with this Sims 4 and this kind of worries me. Hopefully, it will be corrected sometime soon though.

ENolan

I think something like that happened to me. I recreated the Tenderlove household from Bridgeport and someone commented on it, saying they'd download and try to fix them up. (Ok?) Turned out they did nothing. Their version still linked to me, however, so it's curious to me what happened there. Now that another recreation is getting big, I'm getting a tad bit worried again.

I knew I was annoyed for a reason when I'd see people's demo uploads being just Bella Goth or Babs L'Amour with another name.

JBEAR1

I've spent a lot of time on the gallery and a ton of this is going on whilst my creations have a 30 second window to get noticed and get zero downloads, sigh. Worst still is when my uploads were said to be created by someone else which seemed to be happeneng to others too. Its a mess so puts me off. Downloading a lot seems to fill your cache and slow your game right down eventually too, so what's the point?

mrsmariateetee

I will add to all of the above with, I added a creators house into my game.... Then i decided to use that same lot for my own fresh build, and just bulldozed the creators house. Finished my build and didn't bother to change the generic sims "lot name" and uploaded my house to the gallery. I noticed it was still linked to the original creators name of the lot i had downloaded, placed, then bulldozed... which i immediately was confused by. Since I had bulldozed that lot and started fresh with nothing used from the downloaded lot. However, just like others have said as soon as the "lot name" was changed the link was gone. Which for me was good since it had nothing to do with the downloaded lot that I bulldozed.
I know that "copying" has been an issue since we have been able to share our creations with the community. And I agree that someone trying to pass off your work as their own is pretty lame. I think the idea of giving an "original by", in theory, is a good idea but if that is easily changed then whats the point?

Hopefully the bugs will be worked out soon and I agree that the amount of downloads for creations that most spend hours on is also disheartening. unless you are being followed by other simmers it seems pretty impossible for your creations to be liked, downloaded, or even "just seen" by the community. Boils down to I enjoy building and will most likely continue to add lots for others to either enjoy and download.... or they will be just enjoyed by myself
happy simming!

Joolster

There should definitely be a way to report for plagiarism. I've already found 2 reuploaded sims and one lot that were originally created by me, and the game is barely out.

In the case of the first sim, the person applied minor changes to the makeup and removed my hashtag while keeping the first line of my description, and also by-passed the "original/edited" system and is listed as the primary creator of the item. In the case of the second sim, a witch, the "editor" edited nothing but is trying to pass the sim as an "ugly to beauty" challenge base. That was not my intent with the sim and I find it quite insulting. In the case of the lot, nothing was changed again, everything remained the same down to the last simoleon in the lot price.

Yes, when you share something with the public it is fair game for others to use it, but there's a difference between someone using something, and someone trying to pass it as their own. If someone wants to burn down my chapel or give my female sim huge ears, they're more than welcome to do so. They don't have to upload them, or if they want to, they're free to ask for my permission as the original creator. Or at the very least give me actual written credit. And there are no excuses for someone who flat out denies the original creator by taking the time to remove the hashtags.

Veriona

How are you all finding your builds in the gallery being reuploaded by another user? I was trying to see if I can find any replicates of mine with no luck... but my gallery also likes to give me awesome no found errors. Is there a clever way you guys were able to target these thievin'? TIA!

Bcsurvivor01

> @Sparkle said:
> I agree with you to a degree procon but there is a point where it is just downright plagarism - people take popular well downloaded/favourited lots and reupload them 'as is' with no changes. They aren't even attempting to use the houses for their own sims/game/use, they are just trying to gain followers and downloads by claiming something popular as their own. If someone takes something for their own use, modifies it and reuploads, where's the harm in adding the original creator with a thanks (which I have also seen done and am perfectly ok with)?

I was an avid builder in TS2 and this was always a big issue back then also. Stopped playing in TS3 but now came back. It's a shame that people want to simply steal and take credit for others hard work. But unfortunately that's the world we live in. The community usually can figure out the "imposters" since they usually steal the best builders work, which usually is obvious. Hopefully this doesn't keep those who love to build - from building

KaylyRed

Like the rest of you, I've noticed this, too. I'm also a writer (video game media), and I can say that plagiarism is rampant in that arena, too. I've had my articles and guides reprinted word-for-word without any attribution whatsoever, and it happens all the time. It's disheartening and frustrating. And what's worse... there's almost nothing I can do about it. When a North American site steals content, we have legal recourse. It gets more difficult when dealing with Eastern countries.

I will say that it seems, oddly enough, like a cultural thing. I've noticed that a lot of the folks who blatantly steal articles from sites like the one I write for are in China or other Asian countries, which makes me wonder if they lack the same sort of filter we have in the Western world that says, "It's not cool to take other people's stuff and use it as your own." Who knows? Maybe in other cultures it's considered flattering to use and share someone else's creation. I tend to give people the benefit of a doubt, even when experience should make me cynical.

Until TS4 has functionality where there is no work-around for removing the originator of a creation (be it house or sim), I have a feeling we're out of luck as far as protecting our creations goes. And that's sad because, as @JBEAR1 just pointed out, sharing becomes almost pointless. I think the thing is to just create for the fun of creating, share for the fun of sharing, and let the rest go. If you want to get your builds noticed, try posting here on the forums like some of us do. I haven't seen tons of downloads as a result, but... that's not why I share my stuff. I share because I'm proud of what I've made.