Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Outlaw Press uses Stolen Art and Content

Normally I try not get involved in issues online that are not directly involved with myself.  Past events aside, I just really don't have the passion or realy the time anymore.


 
But this is something that I can't ignore.

 
Outlaw Press, inc., run by James Shipman, has been using art he has stolen from the web. He claims he bought it from an "art broker" but too many people have since come out to claim they have never been paid. So his claims are likely another lie on his part.

 
The list of art verified stolen is staggering.

 
You can see a PDF listing it all here: http://stardust-publications.com/outlaw-press/OutlawPressCoversComparisonList.pdf

 
It is 30 pages of stolen art!


Now taking my word for it is not, and should not be, enough. So here is a stack of links of other discussing the issue, supporting the artists and otherwise providing evidence.

 
The RPG.Net thread that found the evidence, http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=483885

 
TrollBridge discussion forum, http://trollbridge.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1163&page=1

 
EN World’s post on the subject, http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/269217-outlaw-press-stolen-artwork-accusations.html

 
Dragonsfoot. This one is interesting since it deals with Shipman and Outlaw Press stealing Mazes & Minotaurs a few months back, http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=31923

 
Concept Art forum, interesting because these are the artists themselves, http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=176392

 

A list of supporting Blog posts.

This is staggering. I am not sure what James Shipman thinks he is doing here? But this is unconscionable. The RPG community is small, the profits to be had are even smaller. Many of us do this for the love of the game, not for money. Then to have someone steal material so he can profit. Well it is certainly against every reason why I am in this business.

If you read this post, please re-post this posting or post your own somewhere else to let everyone know.

 

4 comments:

Siskoid said...

Well... The company name is kind of a giveaway.

Tim Snider said...

What I'm trying to fathom is how did it go on this long undiscovered? The amount of lifted artwork is staggering, but it just seems that all of this was found out this week. This had to have been going on for years considering the sheer number of products produced...

Jon Towers said...

Hello all,
I am not a part of the Tunnels and Trolls community so this is all new and mystifying to me. I am a comic book artist and I have recently been jacked by this clown. It seems like he has been doing this for so long, I am trying to figure out why he is able to get away with this? I have done a video talking about the actions I have taken to sort of try to fight him http://youtu.be/yZyVyLnAphY does anyone know of anyone who has taken these actions or have succeeded in getting their art work taken down from his site? I am looking for anyone else he has done this to, since it seems to be a crime of monolithic proportions. My story was recently on Bleeding Cool News http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/09/19/scamwatch-james-l-shipman-ii-and-outlaw-press my email address is towers113@gmail.com

Jon Towers said...

Hello all,
I am not a part of the RPG community so this is all new and mystifying to me. I am a comic book artist and I have recently been jacked by this clown. It seems like he has been doing this for so long, I am trying to figure out why he is able to get away with this? I have done a video talking about the actions I have taken to sort of try to fight him http://youtu.be/yZyVyLnAphY does anyone know of anyone who has taken these actions or have succeeded in getting their art work taken down from his site? I am looking for anyone else he has done this to, since it seems to be a crime of monolithic proportions. My story was recently on Bleeding Cool News http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/09/19/scamwatch-james-l-shipman-ii-and-outlaw-press my email address is towers113@gmail.com