Plagiarism on CS:GO's Workshop

[@McSqueezy]

the thing is, until a skin gets accepted into the game, it stays rather unknown on the workshop, outside of, let's say, 200 people that saw it and *did not* see a similarity to an existing piece of art. when a skin gets added into the game, it gets spotlight. more people are looking at it and begin to find similarities if any. that's why original artists can't file a dmca for a workshop skin that may use their artwork because they simply have no idea about it.

[@grogcito]

Valve just needs to hire Danidem and clone them a few thousand times to check all the skins beforehand to make sure no one's copying anything

[@serch3ster]

I agree way less people see the skins on the workshop and even fewer look at them in detail past a few screenshots. Most of the interest for those skins picks up once they are added to the game, at that point more people would see and write their suspicion to the artists. Especially because a lot of money could be tied to the suspicion that a skin could be plagiarized.

[@xSimbe]

I feel like releasing the list of skins coming in next case week before the case actually drops would be beneficial at this point. That would give some time for people to go through what is included and like with the doodle lore now have it replaced before anyone can buy it.

[@serch3ster]

@@xSimbe Yes that sounds like a good idea. The bigger problem in my opinion is honestly the monetary value behind stolen skins then the fact that they are actually stolen to begin with.

[@AethenTheProotTheSecond]

Yo cute pfp

[@SirPembertonS.Crevalius]

2:14 Nothing screams innocence like blocking and dissappearing after asking about the gun skins.

[@spletski8057]

peak pfp

[@AmelpsXett]

@@spletski8057 why did you say it I actually focused to look at it

[@SirPembertonS.Crevalius]

@@spletski8057 More of a round pfp, I'd say.

[@spletski8057]

i need full pic

[@kinezyr]

@@spletski8057 reverse image search?

[@TheDanidem]

I appreciate you reaching out to me about this and keeping it informative and neutral, Phillip. Awesome video, cheers!

[@Eagle_of_Liberty]

[@LeIronwood]

great detective work, Dan!

[@K1R_U]

thankyou dani for spending your time to investigate those skins ☺️

[@FedePohl]

Dani sos un capo

[@babybel7924]

I dont like you after reading the twitter thread ,

[@paulbuerger1792]

I love that no matter the subject, every 3kliks video has that simular charm.

[@Vigilant69]

I didnt watch the video at first and was confused about the simular word in your comment Heck I'm laughing now 😂

[@eliasroflchopper3006]

The secret lies within his voice and editing I think

[@SlenderSmurf]

I have a hellalalot of appreciation for this comment

[@XanderNiles]

Philip got a point, some skin artists have attempted to use stolen art in order to reach their goal to get a contraband skin which will never happen again. Valve has stayed true to their word and it should be kept in that way. However, this will create more drama within the market and the choosing of skins from now on will be more cautious on the csgo department.

[@Tuppence442]

I once had a map that I made for CS:GO plagiarised and reuploaded on the Steam Workshop. It was all very strange with the guy using my own screenshots to promote it and claiming that he'd ripped textures from the game that inspired it (when it actually used only default CS:GO assets). And then there was the weird, broken cubemap he'd added and how he'd removed the character models for each team... Even stranger though was the way it was resolved - I contacted Valve using the form they provide, then heard nothing back from anyone. The plagiarised map was taken down so I guess it worked, but it was really odd to not know what was going on.

[@davidchu2001]

bad actors or just that, bad and no way they can get undetected stealing assets

[@gelu_4499]

Valve is infamous for their bad communication. It is rather frustrating for anyone who has to deal with them.

[@SlenderSmurf]

@@gelu_4499 I think a big part of it is how small the company is, relative to the wide influence they have.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

it is pretty common to not disclose the result of a report. especially with cheating reports the most you can hope for is a message saying that they received your report and will look into it, but that you won't get told what happens.

[@dracoTrue]

That point on the doodle lore is spot on. I do prefer the doodle lore a lot, not sure if that snake-worm god effect just looks too common. We have the Worm god, Mortis, Desert hydra, Medusa, Atheris, and other snake-textured skins. Not enough dragons. The Waves or clouds of the Duality fits well with a "leviathan" sea Dragon, not sure with a serpent, The gold would go well with a mythical beast, not a snake.

[@hotmailcompany52]

i like the pattern on the scope and barrel of the doodle lore. Makes it stand a bit more. Makes me hope something comes from the original artists :eyes:

[@user-ue6iv2rd1n]

@@hotmailcompany52 It's looks a missing texture, I think it's just objectively bad.

[@thekamotodragon]

Duality is objectively better, sorry but this opinion is factual lol. doodle lore is less detailed and less consistent design wise, artwork is lower quality, etc, also we have too many "street-art" themed skins and not enough ornate, beautiful arts, like the duality.

[@Malxer]

2:18 Man... I miss CSGO's old inventory and menus, this is giving me nostalgia!

[@navodar5174]

yes, and the old main menu. I get a boner when i see the old menus

[@NowBearInMind]

Synchobonk begins playing

[@XanderNiles]

Pre-Panorama UI was truly a great era for the game.

[@IAm-zo1bo]

@@XanderNiles you're just nostalgic

[@navodar5174]

@@IAm-zo1bo it was in general better. More organized, not stupidly simplified. It had cool touches

[@CabbageGod]

Vexx getting to remake the doodle lore would be so awesome, though unfortunately I don't see it as likely. But I really liked the doodle lore and one that's even better than the original sounds great so I'll keep huffing copium and hoping that it will come in the next case.

[@spooky2466]

For the part about the anime skin having identical hair or pose or facial expression gets debatable if its stolen or not since the majority of them are generic and done by other artist many times. You can make an argument that X artist stole X hairstyle/pose/composition but how original is that piece to begin with. Saw multiple times over the years artist calling each other out for stealing for the accused one to pull out artworks from 5 other artists who have the composition which the whole argument goes no where, I believe there's the true essence of the saying "steal like an artist" I think we're getting into a situation where this will be happening more frequently especially with AI art pumping out works at fast speed where people will argue on how much the stolen pose or what else was transformed enough to be deemed original. Its a real conundrum

[@VADemon]

All work is derivative work. The question is to what extent do we want to allow "lazy" tracing. In that case every single line seemed to match.

[@VValkyr]

@@VADemon Not everything is tracing though. In the case of hairs, one might use them as a reference if they aren't good at drawing hairs

[@stevelarry3870]

@@VValkyr Unless you are superhuman, I don't think it's possible to make every line match in the way shown just with a reference.

[@VValkyr]

@@stevelarry3870 Maybe its a matter of me watching it on phone, but it didn't look like it was 1 to 1

[@stevelarry3870]

@@VValkyr It definitely is a matter of watching it on a phone, because it's definitely 1 to 1.

[@aqop5548]

4:33 this thing is also happening on tf2 cases recently too, most of the new skins are just flashy colored and eye burning quality

[@dubbernaut69epicstyle]

I love stock photo skins

[@baatargb7099]

Really loved the doodle lore and wanted to cop one when the prices drop 😥 Hey atleast the new skins are straight fire too.

[@Kirboru]

Trust me the prices of the doodle would’ve just went higher. It’s a colourful skin, pink and desireable. Expect it to be worth asiimovs if not more current price

[@yaboyroy2714]

Dude it would be so cool in vexx could redo the doodle lore. I love the original.

[@Kat-no]

@@amigobatata9014 Vexx is the original artist (of the dragon.)

[@yaboyroy2714]

@@amigobatata9014 buddy vexx is the creator of the artwork that was stolen. Phillip even showed a tweet saying he wanted to be involved with skins in the future.

[@amigobatata9014]

@@yaboyroy2714 O yeah right, my brother just came to my room to warn me i confused the thing hehe My apologies for the nonsense hate comment 😅

[@yaboyroy2714]

@@amigobatata9014 lmao no worries man. It happens to the best of us

[@D3nn1s]

@@yaboyroy2714 its a bit late for that though, since theres another skin featured already. If he would have said leave the skin be as long until i got the new design thatd be smth different

[@hellraizers2]

there is a lot of this happening in tf2. multiple skins in game feature plagiarized art

[@MichaelAverage]

As an original creator of Simple Radar, i can say my work was plagiarised by Valve Major, V4 and a lot more :D There have been countless times of them taking Simple Radar, deleting our logos and recolouring it. DMCA of Starladder stream due to this was "lost" by twitch :D

[@artless3438]

Holy shit, that's awful. You should (if you haven't) make a centralized resource documenting this plagiarism. That's unacceptable.

[@WayStedYou]

Bruh

[@Jam_1e]

Isn't you making a simple radar plagiarism as in you take valves map layout and copy it 1:1?

[@tarkitarker0815]

@@Jam_1e hes also using sourcecode of the sourceengine to create it, also i really dont get how valve using sourceengine features to improve the map counts as plagatizing you, who just did the same.

[@mrhat1073]

this has been an issue with the TF2 workshop for a while. not as egregious as Doodle Lore, but lots clip art just straight up being copied.

[@Quzga]

yup I think most skin creators agree that the quality in skins have gone downhill the past 2 years... Many of us are confused by some of the skins they accept, it is not always easy to keep up with what whoever is picking likes. I'm curious how the community side feels tho. Have you guys noticed a change in quality? For me it's the small things, just more low effort skins and sloppy designs. The creativity has gone up though imo, just seems they focus more on the idea rather than the execution.

[@dubl33_27]

oh boi you should see tf2's cases, csgo cases might be going that route as well

[@UserOfTheName]

I think they've decided to add a lot more colourful skins then they did before

[@Quzga]

@@UserOfTheName yup for sure, revolution case must be the most colorful ever. I'm just sad they've pretty much given up on adding patterns to the cases. I used to mostly make patterns before which I enjoyed but they went from like 3-4 patterns a case to 0 so that became pointless. I'm also pretty certain they changed whoever was in charge of picking, maybe around snakebite. That's when I became more confused about it.

[@Quzga]

@@dubl33_27 is tf2 bad? I'm only familiar with war paints so not sure. I know dota 2 got kinda ruined with the battle pass, many artists complained.

[@ND-er1bo]

Whats even the point of voting in the workshop. I dont understand how they chose their stuff. After the Recoil case released I went through the entire workshop for AWP skins because the one they just added was a garbage massproduced one where the creater hopes to get a random blue spot just to make money but instead it's a red skin somehow (that skin had like 3 awards probably 0 before if was added, whereas stuff like AWP Empress has hundreds of awards). I went through the entire workshop and bookmarked like 50 awp skins to see if any will be added and ofcourse none of them did. Now they added 2 awp skins and I have never even seen either of them before.

[@rokka7188]

I think some of the examples with the anime girl you brought up aren't exactly plagiarism and there are many similar poses or tropes in styles or drawing that are commonly used with artists. Just because they are similar, as the artist pointed out, it isn't the same. In-case of the AWP skins that have been contraband, it is clearly more clear-cut copying. Artists do like when you take inspiration from them and maybe draw something similar, or of the same drawing, but your own style. They however, do not like when you basically copy-paste their work into your own, there is a difference and those distinctions have been made a loong time ago.

[@raphielle.]

no, that a4 is just plagiarism. Literally spend 4 seconds scrolling through the dude's twitter. Nothing he makes is original. And the sketch is not proof. Looks like something he made in ~30 seconds after he got called out.

[@alphagamma1289]

Maybe... But it is kind of lazy imo and not a good look

[@rokka7188]

@@alphagamma1289 That 'ahoge' hair on the supposedly 'original' art has been used like probably thousands of times in various anime or manga at this point. And I can probably find dozens of examples of similar hair. The problem with anime and it's art style (besides the very tropey, bland writing), it is that the industry has become somewhat uncreative in that front, in my opinion. So I would be able to accuse the same on similar tropes/lines for most of the modern anime all copying each other/one super popular one, *especially* isekais.

[@janispapewalis6635]

@ordinary name Exactly! Many people shout out their philistine views. What is "making it from scratch" even supposed to mean. Art consists to a large extend of references, quotations and so on - no one can claim to have made a piece of art nowadays without any inspiration at all..

[@DuskNeverEnds]

@@ordinaryname6665 People have been fooled into thinking that current copyright laws are fine and dandy

[@Veptis]

The question is "how" can valve check for plagiarism in weapon skins. And where will 'ai generated' skins/textures come in here?

[@HentaiSpirit]

Well the AI can't sue, so...

[@xolotltolox7626]

Considering AI generation has nothing to do with copyright infrigement

[@itsukarine]

@@xolotltolox7626 It has a lot to do with it, and it'd be in Valve's best interest not to tolerate it.

[@ng.tr.s.p.1254]

@@xolotltolox7626 Oh we don't even have to worry about copyright yet. I'm looking forwards more to people spamming samey AI skins, claiming them to be "totally" original.

[@cheddar2k586]

@@xolotltolox7626 At the moment, if you read TOS of any AI art generator, you'll notice that the company who created the AI, owns all the rights to the content that's produced from it. Other thing is Valves' TOS about creating patterns/artwork from scratch, since AI is merely trained on EXISTING artwork, that's just how AI works, the artwork produced by AI can't be called original, since it's more like collage of pre-existing assets more than original creation.

[@WBRI_Brianless]

I appreciate how plagiarism has been handled in CSGO. The Howl is a legendary skin, and keeping it as the only one of its kind makes it feel that much more special, despite the fact that otherwise it would be any other red, and that its history outside of skin trading isn't particularly unique.

[@Sk1vo]

In reference to the artistic rules section, this sounds very familiar to those that play TF2. For years now, TF2’s weapon skins have had a ton of issues (yes, part of the reason for it is bc of seasonal events and such but that’s not the point). Valve has consistently put in terrible and potentially copyrighted skins into the game, with no consideration of TF2’s style rules. Yes, rules can be broken, of course, but having neon green in a more muted blue and red team shooter is an eye sore. It doesn’t surprise me that CS:GO might start having this issue soon. Thankfully, the skins in CS seem to be taken more care of and more thoughtfully picked than TF2’s (look up health and hell warpaint and glacial glaze for examples of how bad it can get), but having something like this happen brings a lot of doubt to me personally on the future of CS:GO skins

[@relaxinghip-hoplofivibes8625]

Very relaxing to hear you talk

[@BanjoTownFan]

loved 3:18 big lebowski reference

[@Veggum]

I really hope they take up the offer and let them redesign the doodle lore, it was such a dope skin imo.

[@tumblewed538]

It was my favorite skin to be released in a really long while. So disheartening. Welp, time to wait for another 200 days and pray x)

[@Jackikins]

There's a pretty similar situation when it comes to warpaints in TF2. People using stock images and taking other people's work. I'm not entirely surprised the same thing is happening in CS. Whenever there's a monetary incentive, there'll be people who'll do this.

[@VideoklipBG]

The top one at 5:55 I'm not perfectly sure about, but the bottom clearly seems intentionally drawn in the same art style, color scheme, pose, face expression and everything. As others have said, anime art styles can overlap a lot and because it's very stylized and non-realistic (the opposite of say 3D CGI photorealism) there are going to be some very similar looking artworks whos artists have nothing to do with one another. This specific art style by the artist ebiblue (海老ブルー) featured in the "U Got That" music video has been "copied" and transformed a ton in fan illustrations, animations, memes, etc. and that seems fine to some extent, but we're talking about official game skins that are being dropped, bought and sold, which constitutes as commercial use. The most obvious solution as of now is if you're an artist and you see your artwork wrongfully used outside of your permitted use cases, and especially commercially, file a claim and wait to see if the platform follows through. But the bigger issue to me is that since we can't figure out exactly what constitutes as plagarism when it comes to transformative works and inspiration right now, what will happen if people abuse AI to generate variations of existing skins and artworks for commercial use? Doesn't that seem to you awfully similar to something? Hint: NFTs.

[@ipaqmaster]

I've been thinking about this for a long while with the workshop. And with TF2's recently announced major update featuring primarily workshop content... I wonder if Valve intentionally try to curate all these as well to try and avoid this exact situation

[@TheGodlike300]

One thing not many people talk about: There have been people who put exoensive stickers on their doodle lore that fit the design. For example some person on twitter put 4x Liquid Cologne 2016 Holos on it with comes out to 100$ total. Now with the new design these stickers don't fit anymore. Same thing happened to a guy who put a Cologne 2014 LDLC Holo on the scope which is currently worth 85$. It's a purple/blue sticker and it doesn't really fit the red color scheme of the AWP Duality. I think they should have given the people the option to remove the stickers. Or automatically remove them for them and put them back in their inventory.

[@TheGodlike300]

@Official3Kliksphilip man this sucks, I got really happy for a second thinking that Philip replied..

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

they should just do a rollback on everything that happened to the skins.

[@fishincheap1102]

I only liked the doodle lore because of barrel and scope lol. Actual body art is much better on duality imo.

[@ububububububububub1667]

yeah i liked the checkered pattern a lot it reminded me of the missing texture pattern lol

[@TheItchyDani3l]

Hey Phil, As someone who has uploaded lots of content to the steam workshop and is intimately familiar with how 3D models and textures are made... The entire workshop is plagiarized content. All of the wood grain textures, or stone textures, or grass textures floating around the workshop have all been recycled ad infinitum. It's just more noticeable when it occurs with a recognizable graphic, like a dragon or a wolf. When it's a wood grain or a steel grating, nobody notices, and everyone gets away with it. I suppose the community believes that hand drawn art is more protected than photographers who create textures, but that's not technically true. Those photographs belong to the photographers. If one is transformative work, then both are. Just in case you're curious what's going on in the mind of a workshop creator. They just see art as another texture, for them to mess with in Photoshop. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say more than 50% of the official skins in the game contain plagiarized content of one kind of another. My guess is valve knows this and it'd be in their interest to not dig too far into plagiarism on the work shop because that would become a class action kind of problem.

[@liaven_]

Duality looks cooler but doodle lore has a nicer scope and barrel

[@ItzRetz]

I much preferred the Doodlelore, and whilst I didn't buy or unbox one, I'm still sad to see it go. I think Valve should have done what they did with the Howl and Gryffin and redesigned it themselves. I love skins that are 'cheaper' versions of really expensive skins, like how they have the Baby Howl sticker. It gives people who aren't rich a taste of what it'd be like to own those skins/stickers.

[@Nate_the_Nobody]

1:27 My confusion with taking down such an awesome skin is why they didn't just swap payments to the actual author? Keep the awesome skin and pay the actual author, seems like a win/win to me, it also takes care of the issue of "contraband hoarding"

[@SrMadru]

Even if it is plagiarized there is the possibility that the ""original"" author could take issue and sue valve, so they dont want to risk it

[@Lakius]

It's not just the issue of contraband hoarding. By changing the rarity, they are increasing its value, which would encourage slipping "contraband" through. They want less legal exposure, so anything that might increase the demand for it is undesirable.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Sometimes a takedown is the only option when the original creator isn't interested in making cs skins or getting money for them. Usually contracts like these get sorted out beforehand.

[@LoriChii]

I find it rather sad that people here think that all anime art in general is being traced and copied so that makes it okay for this one skin maker to trace it as well? First of all, NO, when you’re a legit anime/manga artist, you don’t trace or copy others work, you can get inspired by certain styles but that’s basically it. Everyone that thinks that all anime is the same anyways just doesn’t have the eye for art, sorry to break it to you but that’s how it is. Every animestyle artist has their own style which made it even more obvious that this forbez guy traced, because he didn’t have a consistent style. Another obvious indication is that he never drew anime before making his skins. “His” anime drawing skills are anatomy wise, way too advanced but all the other aspects like: shading, line steadiness, highlights and of course the anatomy that he didn’t trace (hands/body) are very very beginner which doesn’t make sense if he would have made it from scratch. All his other art that he made before is also just traced. Who at valve thought this was a good idea?? Did they not check his socials? I don’t get it. And just because the hair was from a tutorial doesn’t mean it’s okay to trace it. A tutorial is supposed to be a guide for the eye, not for you to trace the lines. it’s that simple. That the Temakau skin got approved and is still in the game is a massive slap to all the skin artists that try their best to come up with original artworks. Just because it’s anime doesn’t make it okay that this person traced it. Anyone that says otherwise is an idiot, sorry.

[@magnificentbuzz]

I do prefer the Doodle Lore - and that's just, like, my opinion, man. (shout-out to the artists of the Duality though, it's stellar as well)

[@greenlemon9155]

I remember a quote somewhere on some MSDN programming guide ; "do not ever trust any kind of user generated data"

[@thecollectorsinged113]

Vexx is down on redesigning the skin sadly we still have no info on what Valve thinks. Been following his art on YT since 2020 and I think Valve should let him redesign it, his skills are high tier

[@jonas440]

I would love some vexx skins. His art style just looks so great

[@atrombonist]

Hey do you plan on making more skin history videos for the newer cases? I really liked those!

[@Bujintei]

I think he once said he abandoned the project when youtube removed the annotations feature for new videos because then his idea with a "hub" with all the skins from that case didn't work anymore. Maybe you can still find the old video when you search "annotations" on either 3kliks or 2kliks.

[@atrombonist]

@@Bujintei Oh yeah i faintly remember. Maybe the added timestamps feature could be useful enough to make the idea work again?

[@bruschetta7711]

This is a common problem for tf2 weapon skin cases, many skin creators just straight up don't care if they use stolen art or stock images leading up to a pretty skummy race against others inside the workshop to get money and your skin out in the next weapon case

[@Nacalal]

I had an epiphany while watching this. Skins were just hyper speculative NFTs before monkey jpgs were popular.

[@ImWoolly]

Except these have some point and kinda make sense

[@Tub-Nub]

​@@ImWoollylol no

[@ImWoolly]

@punishedtubnub4762 the difference is that you can actually use a csgo skin in game what the hell are you going to do with a link to a image

[@MrKnoxaim]

There is also an issue with sticker crafts. Swapping a skin for a different one with a different color palette might ruin someone's day

[@_Z0T4R_]

Regarding your point at 2:37 I‘d like to add that it might also be legally problematic to just change one item to another, rather than changing the item one has bought in the first place to something Valve-made or even a redesign by vexx who‘d be down to have a go at a proper Doodle Lore. I do not condone copyright infringement - as should anyone, but still wanted to express this view. Image having bought a red fake jumper/shirt/whatever on Amazon, then a friend notices and you inform Amazon, but instead of getting the proper red jumper, you‘d receive a green one. There not the same thing and you‘d want the company to rectify their mistake or get your money back, which at least in Europe would be your right by law. Not every player has probably heard of the art theft and might have liked the Doodle Lore a lot more than the Duality. Valve should have let the owners decide to get a refund, which would have meant that the item will be removed) or to keep it. That‘s at least one idea that came to my mind. Perhaps other possibilities could have been explored.

[@cookiebot]

I am in the process of trying to do this, I heavily dislike the duality skin. So far steam support has been a black hole, replies are "no refunds possible -> closing ticket". Hopefully I get through sometime

[@lumensmith9787]

The anime skins are 100% traced. I'm an artist who has sourced unknown references for gore graphics in the classic doom community to confirm a rumor that certain graphics modified in later releases were created using photos of the execution of Musolloni and his followers. The way I found the reference images was by painstakingly going through dozens of photos taken at the time and counting the number of folds in certain positions on different articles of clothing until I found matches that were so similar in count that it was mathematically impossible for the images not to be the references. All though the graphics in Doom weren't traced, they heavily relied on their reference material to the point it started becoming a copy instead of independent work. The exact same technique can be applied to traced images with far greater success because details match far closer. Despite the rather simple style used in the anime skins, there are too many exact matches in the designs when compared to already existing work such as the number of eyelashes, the strands of hair, or positions and number of times the hair parts for the art to not be plagerized. It's basically undeniable at this point to anyone even somewhat competent at detecting art plagerism. It's really a shame because the skin creator is a talented artist, but that doesn't mean they didn't steal their work. There are plenty of reasons an artist might feel pressured to cheat in such a competitive environment as skin designing, and unfortunately however understandable the reason is doesn't make it okay.

[@Chuiiken]

The thing with anime faces is that the creation steps are basically all the same, because the artists probably all watched the same tutorials, read the same artbook or manga, watched the same anime, etc. so there is no wonder if there might be a similarity in the artwork as this artstlye has been the same for a few years now and most people learn from each others art. That is probably also why there was no DMCA, that would be like those weird DMCA Strikes on KZbin where some random person claims to have made it first, but most likely didnt.

[@winterwyvern4993]

There is a Dragon Lore knock off in the Workshop who is drawn poorly by intent. The skin has a lot of upvotes, would be cool if valve replaced the Doodle Lore whit this skin instead.

[@xxNEWBSLAYERxx]

I actually liked the doodle lore. Was gonna get someday.

[@DarchrowTheEnigma]

Plagiarism is actually becoming somewhat normal on Steam and its ridiculous that it went overlooked. It happened recently with Dota 2 as well where there were (I believe) 2 Night Stalker (NS) sets that are identical yet Valve somehow releases them again and again in 3 different treasure. Instead of removing the extra 2 NS set, they just added some "extra style" to it and leave it. So basically players would be scam 2 spots of the treasure that they opened because it was the same NS set in the other treasure as well. I really do hope Valve do something about plagiarism. It has potential to ruin their platform and I don't like the sound of that.

[@lunatiic97]

Loved the The Big Lebowski nod. :)

[@Surepeacooler]

Your videos and music are great and you are an inspiration to me

[@xFeldy]

I wish they could've struck up a deal with the original artist and given them the royalties instead just cutting out the plagiarist? I'm not sure about the legalities of it and the way the steam workshop contract is signed once your skin is to be accepted, but that sounds like a cool way to do it?

[@Hexinvir]

You never fail to make quality videos, thanks Phil.

[@IsahaTx]

they should have made it like the M4 Griffin. The Original artist was even down to redesign the doodlelore by him self

[@MrDeltoric]

Now that vexx is interested in making CSGO skins, he should rerelease the AWP | Doodle Lore as his own 🤷‍♂️

[@Allodder]

Personal im not happy with the replacement skin. The main thing I look for in CSGO skins are the colors. And the replacement is entirely missing the neon cyan from the original. In that way it looks very different, and worse to me.

[@БарыгаСкинЧенджеров]

Awp duality legit looks amazing.

[@juni0r427]

damn I really want a skin like the doodle lore with those colors to come back in some capacity. something to look nice with the vice gloves

[@JordanMcCaughey]

As an artist, I think it's totally valid to sample other artists, but there is a definite line that has to be drawn between plagiarism and inspiration thta I don't think Valve has really given any threatening reprocussions. For example, the anime hair on that M4 is clearly traced; however, would you all rally together as much against music artists who sample sounds off other tracks? That was Daft Punks entire act. It's the same thing in essence, and the skin in the end turned out awesome and I dont think anyone was harmed (in the case of Vexx, I wouldn't have deemed it an original enough composition). Sometimes an artists vision just can't be fulfilled without a little copying (which may be harder than you think), and often without that you can't really grow into a style. Nothing is totally original like. Who ever is in charge of reviewing workshop submissions just needs time to adjust (they're clearly new).

[@sykrotima9528]

Holy fuck I thought I was on crack, I saw the doodle lore and was like damn that’s sick. Log in three weeks later and I don’t see that skin anywhere and I thought I conjured it up in my mind. Good to know it was removed and not me hallucinating.

[@maverick_ii746]

Temukau is an interesting case, because there are so much anime fan-art/drawing tutorials/artworks in general with similar hairstyles to the point where just stretching it/compressing it could get you the same outlines as you can find on the internet, and I do genuinely belive that his sketch on his piece of paper is credible (unless its a stolen image from the internet), and I think he is clean at the moment until the valve decides to strike it down

[@celestialcolosseum]

It is definitely traced artwork. You can even tell by the drawing on the paper that he is NOT good at lineart in general and does the same thing every beginner does, the zigzaggy lines that repeat instead of trying to do one line, especiakly at the curves and overall having individual short lines as outlines which is a big no when you're drawing literally anything. It looks like he drew that after his tracing came under spotlight but you can definitely tell that the hair was traced down to the angle, thickness, length and curves. I don't know how you don't see it. You could look at that hair and draw it for 10 years non stop, when you put the original on top of it, it will never match 1:1 as it does here. Length, curves, thickness literally everything will vary.

[@mfinn981998]

@@celestialcolosseum So the hair and part of the... right side of the face was traced? Outside of the that, isn't the rest of the skin original? It's one attribute of a much larger transformative work. I'm not saying that it's in line with Valve's rules, but it's in no way a violation of copyright.

[@celestialcolosseum]

@@mfinn981998 It's theft, end of story. And discussing the percentage stolen is just wrong... The fact is that the skin would not have existed without the stolen work being in it, especially since it's the highlight of the skin. "Oh he just stole a little" mentality is what makes the situation worse, please just appreciate original work of a talented artist and call the scummy ones out. I've dealt with people who stole my art before and it's just disgusting behavior that should not be appreciated. He's currently being paid by using someone else's work.

[@orionfell]

@@mfinn981998 it is a violation of copyright. theres a reason why if you get caught sampling a melody without clearance, even if your work is largely transformative, youll still get taken to court. whether anything gets done about it is another question.

[@maverick_ii746]

@@celestialcolosseum good argument, king I do agree his art on paper looks really suspiciously traced, with no given marks of line art or constructive buildup leading to his artwork, the more you look at it the more it looks like its traced and its suspiciously done on paper instead of an art book, he did release a video of him putting the artwork with colouring and shading. Upon further review when I am writing this comment: - there is some evidence of a different hairstyle being rubbed off that is swayed towards the bottom left instead of perpendicular to the right on the paper edition. But again, it could just be a bit of tracing rubbed off if he needs to "steal" another art piece - Ah, the fingers, every artist nightmare, as you can see the fingers feels kinda thick on paper, but looks like its fixed and thinner on the other one? That is suspicious unless he is able to explain himself fixing the fingers with no evidence of him fixing the fingers, which adds to the suspicion point of it. - On the digital version, The hair on swaying to the right is certainly suspicious, but if you keep playing the video comparing the two hairs together, you can see some parts match the hairstyle and some doesn't? Looks pretty sketchy and not sketchy at the same time, unless he added the few strokes himself. (Conspiracy theory - It is highly unlikely, but he might be the same artist as the artist on the drawing tutorial on Pinterest)

[@djvidual8288]

They should be able to sell the plaguarized skin with no Valve tax and buy another awp skin without valve tax as well. Since I feel like Valve has to make up for it.

[@vedecs]

They should have let him make the doodle lore

[@Stoicbirch]

1:24 Looks like phil missed a censor on the Jimmba name.

[@drane10]

3:16 nice reference, Man

[@WizardBrandon]

I feel that if the original artist agrees and strikes a deal, they become the ones that own the skin and get everything related to that

[@electrode8239]

REAL, GENUINE Doodle lore by original artist vexx?Can't wait to see!

[@cyjanek7818]

That last guy is very suspicious, "I studid something so I know you can't steal" is very weak response and doesn't prove anything. Having literally the same lines proves a lot

[@ilikemusic5440]

Maybe Vexx will make some CSGO skins in the future since he has already had a piece of his artwork accepted.

[@kadenbell7953]

Hey Philip, now that cs2 has been announced and has updates to lighting and shininess, do you think that the artistic guidelines have been changed with the new skins in order to make the difference in lighting pop?

[@ladyvampire4979]

exactly what i was thinking too

[@diavolo5421]

I personally don’t think this is plagiarism, everything is derivative and there is enough that is different in that artwork for it to be considered transformative.

[@spyczech]

Based, intellectual property laws stifle creativity

[@wotwott2319]

Transformative work only counts if it's for parody, review, or educational media made without profit motives. If you trace someone else's work, change it's color a bit, and claim it as your own, that's the same thing as ripping another artist's music then putting a random beat into it to claim it as your own. It would be a different story if you were to make an artwork completely from scratch, inspired by another person's work because by then, you have completed the necessary steps to claim said artwork as your own. It's like drawing a picture of a Porsche while looking at a Porsche.

[@spyczech]

@@wotwott2319 I never get why people assume what the law is = what is right in the situation. Why are we repping for DISNEY and MICKEY MOUSE so hard protecting the copyright laws that benefit them

[@Metal_Tao]

2:45, I don't know, it's not like they purchased the item directly but through a random loot system.

[@Omega900]

Well, they have to check and confirm their chosen skins. We should get refunds if you paid for something you want and got something else now. Its like getting a Mercedes and 1 week later you wake up and see Ford instead cuz during night they swapped your car because they shouldnt sell the one you already got

[@Mistereee]

feels weird for the video to have no music

[@tomsgrins]

Yay new video!

[@snorpus]

I love duality sm, this is my first time seeing it

[@TfromO]

Are you gonna make more skin creations videos though?

[@VADemon]

nice thumbnail reference :) (it's tineye)

[@itsukarine]

Cases like this really make me feel like I'm wasting my time drawing for Twitter and not Valve or something. I'd probably make way more money just for drawing from imagination naturally like I always have.

[@raizenxdd]

Cry about it. You will never be able to make money out of drawing

[@itsukarine]

@@raizenxdd Who are you?

[@JimmyShrimps]

@@itsukarine He's mad you're better than him. You get kids like that all the time. Instead of improving themselves, they throw a temper tantrum at people who are better.

[@tteqhu]

Bet you could get into some professional environments, but it could be harder now with nsfw art

[@raizenxdd]

@@JimmyShrimps sory but developers are more valuable than someone who can draw lines

[@Shiruvan]

Danidem... sounds familiar... were they DeviantART gallery mod? like about 10 years back

[@DREFT_]

I think that the accepted skins violating guidelines comes from the fact that the case is named Revolution.

[@darknessdash1853]

I feel like the last one where "it has some similarities in design but overall it is different" would be a little choking as some artists use a similar style of drawing that would lead to similar looking art work.

[@Xezian]

the rush collection could just be because the drawings and the supposed originals they copied from all use very popular tropes in anime art right now. Girl pointing with waving hair behind her is such a standard idea for anime art that inevitably 2 were gonna look that similar, but also how well that hair overlays over the one we see in game is incredibly suspicious. For something like that to occur by coincidence has to be a 1 in a million chance but that does mean there is still a chance. Given the fact he supplied paper sketches this immediately becomes much less likely unless he went out of his way to painstakingly recreate the image he copied from by hand, which as an artist I can say still takes skill since copying something on a physical medium is so much more difficult than on digital. So that begs the question, why not just make an original one if you have that skill?

[@inj3ktorofdust293]

That's the overall problem with CSGO, too much reliance on the community, I know its a good thing that community is what made the game good, but as the devs they have should take more ownership to the content that gets shipped out, maybe do something like put 50% community items and 50% inhouse made ones. That will add more value to the cases, if you have a look at the past few ones there was been abominations in the red/purple categories. Valve should definitely do something about it.

[@mota478]

Doodle lore looks vibrant I like it

[@KebabsRock1997]

I wonder what m4 would we get in case of the current one being proven to be just copy and paste. It goes to show how these people are unable to even draw a face. The Temukau guy could have drawn his own character in a similar fashion...Who am I kidding, he couldn't have🤣

[@tilled6695]

i dont think art issues at this poit are a fair thing, if someone takes the time to take designs and add their own flare, its different so its not the same. In this day and age, there shouldnt be ANY copy right issues with anything art related, with how many people and how much is out there, nothing is truly 100% original, so stop caring. Ask if the piece is different enough to warrent its own level of work involved. In this case, in the howls case, in many of these case its enough to make it different and appeal to different people. If you think art should have this level of care put into the authenticity of it, then keep that same energy for everything else art related, meaning videos, movies, tv shows, logos, slogans, jingles, EVERYTHING. but just like music was forced to evolve and accept that if someone takes your original song and mixes it, adds their own lyrics, its different enough to warrent it being its own version of it. edm covers of famous songs that have paid millions of dolalrs to mixers. This is no different and its not the same thing, the doodle lore took something basic and added its own touches to it making it a seperate redintion of the piece.

[@kennyk8257]

Life is about working smart, not hard. Hard work should be appreciated, but it should not be the ultimatum. Creating a beautiful art piece from scratch by yourself is great, wonderful and majestic. Taking that beautiful art piece and changing even just a percent of it to make it more beautiful, is mind opening, since it shows what the original artist is lacking to make it even more beautiful. Now for a scenario that is more in line with the current situation. We or at least I myself don't know for sure if the original artist has any intent of monetizing this particular piece of art work in the form of CSGO skins, this matter because if the original artist had none of that intent, he really isn't losing anything. But if he had the intention to do it, then of course we can say this is a huge loss for him. This is pretty much a gatekeeping scenario where if I don't get it, you can't have it, even though I'm not even thinking about it getting it. Now it could also be argued that the original artist is losing the opportunity of a potential investor who would collaborate with him to monetize it through CSGO skins, but that argument is weak as it highlights the potential fallacy, where you basically destroy every possibility to protect those few practically possible possibilities. So long story short, morally this is a problem, logically it really isn't that big of a problem, unless the original artist does actually have the intention to use it for CSGO skins. Remember, we are living in an age where we, including myself, overreact to a lot of things, and this could be one of those, not saying this is definitely one of those.

[@0lionheart]

Valve are looking for unique artwork make specifically for CS:GO, that's the point. Otherwise it just opens the floodgates for any and all artists with a library to wrap existing work around an AWP and cash out. Or, people to raid those libraries and attempt to cash out before anyone notices. Intention to monetise is always irrelevant, if you create art, no-one is entitled to it but you. It's _your_ creation. If you try and take that away, you destroy the very idea of art. It's (your) personal, human expression. It's not a clip art pack for the world to raid for parts.

[@nicolau2]

This hurts the community so much. Imagine being valve, had to take so much preassure and flak for this case. It took a long time to release a case so it was probably very stressfull and a lot of work to do it. Now, when released, you have all these serious problems you have to deal with because of this. Damn, its just sad

[@RadicalRaymondd]

Art is transformative like sampling in music. Taking a 1-2 second sample very few people will consider plagiarizing. Remixes and mashups exist too which are *usually* deemed ok as well. In the world of drawing, some of those anime drawings are pretty blatant trace jobs imo. HOWEVER the one that got accepted I believe is different enough to count as transformative work ironically enough.

[@TheInfamousCloaker]

That will be a curious thing if it ever happens. What if a "AI" generated weapon skin gets accepted into CS:GO then who is the actual owner of the copyright of the skin?

[@Chadison]

oh my god lmao

[@CurePikachu]

i say the AI. the "artist" didn't do much other than set parameters and getting them off the starting line of "coming up with a design" and if looking thru some of those on pixiv showed anything, it's that their art style is consistent regardless of uploader

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

@@CurePikachu so the company/group that programmed the ai? Al right, I know what to do next. I hope everyone uses mine over any other ai

[@Megaranator]

depends purely on the terms of the ai generator. Assuming the ai was made legaly, then if the ai makers say that you own all the art you generate then there is no issue.

[@YoutubeAccount0434]

Very interesting situation

[@thebombsauce]

I'll be honest this is the second time Ive seen the comparison and while the doodle lore is inspired it doesnt look traced or anything. I dont see how this was so easy for valve, esp when the m4 is still up with actual traced elements

[@drd1449]

Doodle lore has a lot of fine detail 1:1 parts in different angle etc. pretty clear case especially as it has been copied from one author that made dmca claim.

[@MaximillionBucks]

Gotta agree, not really any one part that is exactly the same. Just seems like the same kinda vibe. Way too much of an over reaction from Vexx here, and I'm certain he wouldn't have a viable case if this actually went to trial.

[@PeanutButtr]

I still think it's kinda sad to see these get removed from the game. I personally loved the doodle lore, but now, I guess I'll never own one :( . It'd be interesting if the two could come to an agreement since they both have partial rights to it. They both have partial rights since the original artist made the art, and the plagurizer turned it into a skin. This would get them both profits from the skin, and keep the skin that valve chose over others in the game. The issue this brings up is that you could plagurize work and still expect to get a cut, but t if deals like this became a thing, I see no reason that a would-be plagurizers wouldn't just go to the original artist and strike that deal up ahead of time and do a collaboration.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

It will set a precedence. If they would have to split the revenue it would mean that you could just take someone else's work, make it into a skin, and be guaranteed money.

[@edd.5169]

Valve should develop their own content to avoid this in the future

[@charuseTV]

I dont think the anime skin is plagiarism even at a stretch, it’s only the hair its not even exactly the same and its not like hes the first person to draw an anime girl

I wonder, couldn't Valve talk with Vexx, leave Doodle Lore as is (but redirect revenue to him) then redesign It and replace with simillar skin? Based on Vexx post I guess He would cooperate with this idea. Why such drastic measure and replacing It completely?

[@DaRealBruner]

I like to think of it as "inspiration." Anyway, **completely traces over someones art**

[@Holoflux]

So what about Artists making skins that look very similar to other art and could be plagiarised, but they are actually completely original? How do you tell the difference and judge whether or not it has been copied?

[@Alphaey]

I imagine some of the super colourful skins might be an answer to Valorants skin design

[@ncls9475]

the guy who told valve about the 0.7 and 0.8 float is the guy who reminds the teacher about homework