DDLC Developer doesn't like Gaia's reference items... At all

[HibiChika]

i find dan salvato's take on the matter hypocritical. first and foremost gaia has made adequate changes that even on the event of a lawsuit they could play it off as a coincidental reference to ddlc. since the creators were smart about it, they initiated adjustments to the items in questions both naming and appearance-wise. true that we can obviously see the origin for the designer's inspiration being that of ddlc characters. however think of the case of cheap lego knockoffs and bootleg anime figurines. such manufacturers make minimal tailoring to avoid legal trouble but more than enough to keep said product as close to the original product as possible at an affordable price for the consumer. at the end of the day everyone is happy. this grey area is truly intriguing tho.

[xukshia]

I don't like anime/pokemon/mlp/digimon/game/whatever references these new 2014 and beyond Gaia artists do, so I understand him.

[Sand Dancer Shaka]

Phanna

Sand Dancer Shaka

aaah but it doesn't need to compete in the same media to infringe. Sadly, even smaller businesses than Gaia have gotten in trouble for transformative works.

Apparently, objects made out of love for the series are treated with disdain but parody items that insult the franchise is a-ok. That's law for you sad

Yeah, doesn't help that I'm not a lawyer...and my last brush with a law course was a 6 week seminar half a lifetime ago circa year 2000. I knowing me, I barely paid attention then. emotion_facepalm

But yeah, I don't see this being an issue ever for Gaia. I'm sure they know exactly what they are doing when they make items like this to cover themselves legally.

I'm not either! So I could be very wrong haha

I'd like to think Gaia is covered legally :S

[Umbrane Purpura]

I figured ddlc was the reference because its all over the internet.

Maybe they could change it a bit and make it a reference to Giffany from gravity falls they'd just have to make the ribbon rainbow colored and change background a bit.

[heavens exiled]

I know nothing about any of the references these items have. It looked like another generic and bland yandere item to me orz Despite it being "well known", I sure as hell never heard of it. @~@ The only thing I regret is not buying them for reselling xD rip.

[MingSao]

Shallotte

MingSao

Oh. This is a thing that's happening again.

I'm just going to hide in Guides & Resources or Lake Kindred when the trolls attack. I'm getting too old for this s**t. emotion_donotwant

Maybe there will be a silver lining to it though. The controversy might bring in a lot more users that didn't know Gaia existed and found out though the controversy.

I guess that's a possibility. Mostly I just think we'll get a small influx of spammy new/super old accounts (mildly annoying). Then either nothing will happen and they'll get bored & go away... or Gaia removes the item and they go away.

At least we can take comfort in knowing it won't be as annoying as when that Long Cat item came out. Not sure if anybody else remembers that, but there were planned spam raids, DDoS attacks and at least for me (I was a Mod at the time) brute force attempts to access my account.

[radish]

ahhh, this is really unfortunate... i really, really hope this blows over and doesn't stir up something big (unlikely, but we shall see). i understand the maker's frustrations, but it isn't as if gaia turned monika's design into a major NPC to market things. it's a single reference item, which i understand from reading this thread is a-okay by the law? i'm not too knowledgeable in this field, but gaia has made blatant reference items in the past without difficulty... ah, well... we'll just have to see!

[egg worm]

i doubt gaia intended any offence, i get the feeling that ref items are made just bc that artists loves that particular piece of media

however! if the creator of said media/character is unhappy with what is essentially fanart of their ip being sold for real money, that is a legit concern and should be dealt with. if it was a free item then whatever there would be no problem, but since gaia is profiting from characters that dont belong to them its an issue.

[Pimpernel Blue]

prince lambchops

i doubt gaia intended any offence, i get the feeling that ref items are made just bc that artists loves that particular piece of media

however! if the creator of said media/character is unhappy with what is essentially fanart of their ip being sold for real money, that is a legit concern and should be dealt with. if it was a free item then whatever there would be no problem, but since gaia is profiting from characters that dont belong to them its an issue.

I agree with you. What I find hypocritical about him is that he singles Gaia out specifically? There's tons of fan merch of this game:

https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirts/doki-doki-literature-club
https://www.redbubble.com/shop/doki+literature+club
https://tictail.com/hanlinchann/ddlc-acrylic-charms-2017
(just as an example, I don't mean to call out any of these specific artists in any way)

Not a peep about any of these fan works making money.

[Auto Vampire Kitten]

Oh boy.

[CHALlCE]

*sigh* Tbh whenever gaia makes a reference item I consider it fanart, like... An artist makes a pixel avi version of a character and sells it... but if its a company that has many artists working for them, it somehow makes it wrong?

[The Immortal Prince]

The irony is delicious. The dude is known for hacking melee and helping with work on Project M, both of which technically infringe on Nintendo's copyrights, but is pissed when someone makes a paid homage to his own original work. Granted, I think it's pretty scummy of Gaia that they charged 10 freaking dollars in gcash for the item just because they knew it would be popular when other LQIs are 799 gcash or less, but that's an entirely different matter. This is an homage item, and dude needs to get off his high horse.

[Goro]

Pimpernel Blue

What I find hypocritical about him is that he singles Gaia out specifically? There's tons of fan merch of this game:

https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirts/doki-doki-literature-club
https://www.redbubble.com/shop/doki+literature+club
https://tictail.com/hanlinchann/ddlc-acrylic-charms-2017
(just as an example, I don't mean to call out any of these specific artists in any way)

Not a peep about any of these fan works making money.

what 's extra ironic about this is on his site
it specifically states

http://teamsalvato.com/ip-guidelines/

Artists may not sell DDLC fan work by uploading the art to mass production websites that sell the art for you (eg. Redbubble).

and redbubble and teepublic are mass production websites
i have yet to see him get mad over either

[Akai-Autumn]

megg m

considering how anti-art theft the internet is these days, i'm surprised the reactions to this are so negative

the creator of the game has every right to be frustrated over this? you can call him hypocritical all you want but the fact of the matter is gaia is profiting off of the success of his IP
which is just extra ironic because the game itself was offered free of charge??
and the item itself is very referential to the game, it's not like some other, sometimes older reference items that are much less direct in their allusion to the original material

for me it's less egregious when gaia rips-off/pays "homage" to much larger/more successful companies like nintendo or whatever
but ripping off independent creators and artists (like that one "r u crazy" item that just rips off piyo's art, pretty sure teddy march was also ripped from someone else's illustration, etc) is just not cool. sad
you may see it, and i reckon it was 100% intended as just a cool homage item, but it was also made and released the way it was because it was definitely going to be popular and make gaia a decent amount of profit


also please don't say he should be "grateful" for the exposure, that's ridiculous and i doubt the exposure he's getting from gaia creating a *paid* item using his IP is worth it
considering this game really gained the most popularity via word of mouth and popular streamers playing it... (also the memes. there were and still are a lot of DDLC memes)

OMG THANK YOU!!
Also guys it does not matter what you think of Monika's design. The fact is is that she is DDLC original character. School uniforms are just that, a uniform students are suppose to wear.
I can't vouch for the actions the creator has done but he does still have a right to be mad. And the "exposure" thing is nonsense because that is like saying interns get paid in experience.That dont pay bills or at the very least credit him.