"Artist" Steals Game Art, Tries to Sell It

[The Wooster]

"Artist" Steals Game Art, Tries to Sell It

"Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal."

And by that definition Romanian , Iani Papadopol, is the greatest artist who ever lived. His recent exhibition, "UpDae 3D loading" is a master class in fantasy landscape design. Or, more accurately, it's a master class in stealing concept art from popular videogames like Guild Wars 2 and World of Warcraft, printing it off, claiming it as your own and attempting to sell it.

Papadopol's plagiarism went unnoticed until a local news crew, impressed by his masterful work, decided to broadcast the "artist" and his "art" on TV. Online fans promptly recognized artwork from top-tier industry illustrators like Arena Net's, Daniel Dociu and Blizzard's, Mathias Verhasselt.

"I found out from my friends," said Dociu, a fellow Romanian, on a local news channel. "I recognized four pieces of my work immediately. What upsets me is that he's also Romanian with an artistic background. I will not take legal action if he admits what he did."

Papadopol's father, who is apparently an acclaimed artist in his own right, claims the whole affair is a "misunderstanding." Unfortunately, his son seems to have a long history of knocking off other people's work. A blog he opened in 2009 [http://ianiconcepts.blogspot.com.au/2009/02/conceptual-art-by-iani-papadopol.html] contains a number of pilfered concept pieces which Iani fraudulently takes credit for.

Source: NTV [http://www.reporterntv.ro/stire/update-3-d-loading-accusation-of-plagiarism] via Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5907581/famed-artist-actually-just-stole-video-game-images-printed-them-off]

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[CleverCover]

Well, was he punished before? Because if he wasn't, it shows that he's just going to keep doing this until he gets caught...again.

I wonder how much money he's made so far...

Captcha: Umbrella Corporation

Nope...not creepy in the slightest. 'looks over shoulder and under bed'

 

[Lancer873]

I'm not sure if the fact that he kept it off the internet means he has more or less brains than the "Art4Love" guy who had a site selling thousands of pieces of artwork from places like DeviantArt. On the one hand, he was less likely to get noticed, on the other hand, he was showing his own face and his own name next to these things so he's screwed now that they've figured it out.

Also, CleverGonzo, if anyone presses charges it looks like the guy's doomed. Serious cases of straight-up plagiarism like this can call for huge amounts of cash if he's been doing any serious monetizing with it, which it sounds like he has.

 

[wgar]

Couldn't find any actual comparisons, all I have is hearsay.

It just says he printed it off, but how would he get the resolution high enough?

I need further proof.

Captchas with a sense of humour: You First

 

[Andronicus]

Surely it was all in the name of "research".

(cookie for reference)

 

[Terminate421]

I want the job to create concept art. This man makes me ashamed to do want to do that job.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

I find it amazing how many people actually try to do what this guy did, even on a non-monetary stand point.

I see it at least a couple times a month on Deviant Art. Some person makes a copy of somebody's work and then posts in on their DA profile, and then actually say they did it. What is really stupid is many times it is a smaller size or resolution picture of the original or it looks like they took a picture of their computer screen, cropped out the non-art part and posted the picture.

I guess these people are so starved for attention, they are willing to get in big trouble for it, which is sad.

 

[Abedeus]

Couldn't find any actual comparisons, all I have is hearsay.

It just says he printed it off, but how would he get the resolution high enough?

I need further proof.

Captchas with a sense of humour: You First

Look at his blog. I played Guild Wars a lot, and those are simply rip-offs of loading screens and concept art.

 

[Busard]

Am I the only one thinking that but putting these two pictures next to each other and mirrored, it looks like a big alien head ?

Also

What do you people expect, he is Romanian after all.

Huh ? So ? It's funny though, because Daniel Dociu is also Romanian.

 

[Evilsanta]

Wow, That just low. But how come that this guy got away with it untill a tv crew showed it on TV? Did he live in some backwater village/town where barely no one has an internet connection?

I wonder if the guy will admit to the plagiarism or deny it.

 

[putowtin]

Who's a naughty boy!?!

I mean seriously, nick from a game no one gives a damn about, you know Kane and Lynch or Fable!
(jk!)

 

[Li Mu]

I hope he's taken to court and gets his ass sued. He is in clear breach of intellectual property laws if he hasn't even attempted to change the images and has just printed them out.

The father says that it's a "misunderstanding". Right. He 'accidentally' copied the images, printed them out and they just somehow fell into a gallery and magically created an exhibition in his name. Yeah, that must be what happened.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

When I was going through art college, there was a student who applied with a completely plagiarized portfolio.

Unlucky for him, the portfolio was plagiarized from a student at that school who'd graduated the year before...

 

[Fightgarr]

The concept art world tends to be pretty active about blacklisting those that plagiarize. I suspect this guy will have a significantly harder time in the future, regardless of whether or not Dociu presses charges.

 

[Formica Archonis]

I'm having a genuinely hard time deciding if I should make an Incarnate joke (famous father defends indefensible plagiarist son) or a Limbo of the Lost joke (stolen game art) here.

 

[Spitfire]

Papadopol's father, who is apparently an acclaimed artist in his own right, claims the whole affair is a "misunderstanding."

Sounds legit. I mean, why else would you try to sell someone else's artwork?

What do you people expect, he is Romanian after all.

Aaaand reported.

 

[Danzavare]

Funny, you'd think he'd at least try to steal some more obscure art. (Particularly art that didn't have massive online communities surrounding it) I hope he gets punished for it in some way. Both for the plagiarism and his lazy way of going about it.