Importance of Crediting Resources

[idtech1lover]

Hello all,

The longer this community is active, the more sprites, codes, and textures are created and distributed throughout the web. While gathering resources for my own projects, keeping track of who ripped and/or edited the sprites, created the original DECORATE script, especially if multiple people edited a single sprite, can be a chore. What I want to ask is, how important is it to credit the resources you use? This is easy for a small project, say a single texture WAD from Realm667 or a few weapons and monsters used with permission from another WAD, but for those of us who like to collect and organize resources, keeping track of every single credit feels like a waste of time.

As a related question, can resources be credited in bulk? Say one uses a large number of resources from Realm667 or a variety of texture WADS, could Realm667 or the WADS be credited rather than the individuals that worked on each separate resource?

[Vorpal]

idtech1lover said:

but for those of us who like to collect and organize resources, keeping track of every single credit feels like a waste of time.

well which is it? If you like to organize, why is organizing authorship a problem?

The answer to your question is that the importance of credit is directly proportional to your respect of the work and/or author.

[idtech1lover]

Vorpal said:

the importance of credit is directly proportional to your respect of the work and/or author.

Good answer.

[Chezza]

Always be on the safe side. Credit the individual authors and optionally add where you found the resources. Although sometimes there is Realm667 content that has "submitted by" but little information regarding who actually created / worked on the resources which can get a little confusing, but just play it safe and put as much information as you can in those rare circumstances.

I know how much of a pain it can be to find the authors to credit though, believe me. My wad has an abundance of custom monsters, props, textures and music and boy did it take me many hours to track it all down... The music in particular is a pain as random people often do a very poor and inconsiderate job of ripping a range of songs, throwing just a few author names and wrap them up in a wad to submit to moddb.

[HorrorMovieRei]

idtech1lover said:

What I want to ask is, how important is it to credit the resources you use?

This one depends on the author of the resource. Some people are more strict than others, but as a rule of thumb you should always credit them to avoid getting into trouble and, of course, as a form of respect. Crediting is part of the "modding etiquette", so to speak.

idtech1lover said:

As a related question, can resources be credited in bulk? Say one uses a large number of resources from Realm667 or a variety of texture WADS, could Realm667 or the WADS be credited rather than the individuals that worked on each separate resource?

I remember one thread in the ZDoom forums in which WildWeasel said that he prefers that people credit the individuals that worked on it rather than crediting in bulk.

[Vorpal]

HorrorMovieGuy said:

but as a rule of thumb you should always credit them to avoid getting into trouble

Yes, give props to the people's work you use because there might be a penalty for not doing so. That's like saying the reason it's bad to murder people is because you could go to jail. No, it's bad because we should be decent to our fellow humans that we share this planet with lol

[kuchitsu]

Various views on this exist. I like crediting people and I try to list the ones I can remember, but if I can't remember someone or they don't allow reuse, usually that's not gonna stop me. I don't want copyright to limit my creativity. If people always respected copyright, then Eternal Doom, Alien Vendetta, Armadosia and other great wads could have been very different since they reuse stuff from commercial games, for example. Who wants to live in a world where copyright is respected by everyone but Eternal Doom doesn't exist? I feel like I'm a valuable enough artist to allow myself to steal sometimes.

[Maes]

kuchitsu said:

I feel like I'm a valuable enough artist to allow myself to steal sometimes.

In the music industry they call this "sampling" ;-)

[idtech1lover]

Lots of good answers so far, thanks for the discussion.

Something I've seen a lot of on Realm667 is rips from other games that have little/simple DECORATE, mainly props from NecroDome, etc. If the sprites are edited in any way I understand citing the editor's work, but if one takes a sprite rip from say, spriters-resource.com, then only adds simple DECORATE to make it a prop, is that enough work worth citing?

[Tarnsman]

kuchitsu said:

I feel like I'm a valuable enough artist to allow myself to steal sometimes.

Wait, you value your work now? I don't like this new reboot of Memfis. Hollywood needs to leave the classics alone and stop changing them. The character was the way it was for a reason!

[40oz]

Sometimes things aren't always made to freely distribute but rather to ask for feedback. I always advise against taking things that aren't yours and instead ask for assistance on how to make resources yourself.

[scifista42]

idtech1lover said:

if one takes a sprite rip from say, spriters-resource.com, then only adds simple DECORATE to make it a prop, is that enough work worth citing?

If it is worth to credit a person who didn't create any sprites but created a DECORATE script? Yes, sure, that's also a creative work - without which the prop wouldn't exist. The original creator of the sprites should be credited either way too.

[Da Werecat]

kuchitsu said:

Who wants to live in a world where copyright is respected by everyone but Eternal Doom doesn't exist?

Ironically, Eternal Doom has a pretty strict DONUT STEEL somewhere in its documentation.

[printz]

40oz said:

and instead ask for assistance on how to make resources yourself.

Yeah but complex Doom mods also have facets such as sprite drawing and music making, and those can get hopelessly difficult if you're not talented or trained, so it's probably more economical to outsource/use others' art.

[HorrorMovieRei]

Vorpal said:

Yes, give props to the people's work you use because there might be a penalty for not doing so. That's like saying the reason it's bad to murder people is because you could go to jail. No, it's bad because we should be decent to our fellow humans that we share this planet with lol

Heh, yeah, I guess that goes without saying. What I was getting at is that even if you're a scummy fellow(which is not your case), you should know that there will be consequences for not crediting resources.