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In other news,
A recently debuted vtuber from nijisanji (No not the one from 1 month ago) might have landed himself in stealth suspicion over a nothing burger drama.
How it started:
He revealed his official fan mascot. Creditted an artist named Maerie, who's relatively popular within the scene.
But someone noticed ... it was her design. All she asked for was to be appropriately credited
Instead of just crediting her like a normal human being. Yu Wilson doubled down, went on a sperg in the reply, admitting to "referencing" her design and stating that he can just commision a new one if she have trouble with it.
View attachment 57454
To this moment, 10 hours after his initial reply + 1 hour after the hiatus tweet, she is still not credited.
Archive
It’s not a stealth suspension or anything like that. He said he was going to be showing up in streams, if he was suspended we wouldn’t be hearing anything from him at all. He’s taking a self imposed break to rethink his mascot.
And sure you can think it’s weird to take a break to rethink a mascot, but the dude is the last from his wave to get one and also stressed a lot over it before all of this. He worried a lot about the reception of it and how fans would like it, and so seeing all this probably didn’t do him any favors. This isn’t the first time livers have had to switch up mascots because of things like this, hell I don’t even think Vox has an official mascot because his fans can’t decide on one, so while it’s crazy he decided to stop streaming for a bit I get it. Kind of. Also he straight up said this was the reason lol.
In other news,
A recently debuted vtuber from nijisanji (No not the one from 1 month ago) might have landed himself in stealth suspicion over a nothing burger drama.
How it started:
He revealed his official fan mascot. Creditted an artist named Maerie, who's relatively popular within the scene.
But someone noticed ... it was her design. All she asked for was to be appropriately credited
Instead of just crediting her like a normal human being. Yu Wilson doubled down, went on a sperg in the reply, admitting to "referencing" her design and stating that he can just commision a new one if she have trouble with it.
View attachment 57454
To this moment, 10 hours after his initial reply + 1 hour after the hiatus tweet, she is still not credited.
Archive
I think you mean L in this situation.my nigga in christ just use the design from the artist. Your design is one step away from being a ripoff come the fuck on. Niji taking another massive W
Just crediting wouldn't be enough since the company would (understandably) want firm usage rights written in black and white on a contract, as "credit to the artist" deals are about as legally binding as a cigarette and a handshake.Instead of just crediting her like a normal human being. Yu Wilson doubled down, went on a sperg in the reply, admitting to "referencing" her design and stating that he can just commision a new one if she have trouble with it.
View attachment 57454
To this moment, 10 hours after his initial reply + 1 hour after the hiatus tweet, she is still not credited.
Archive
He also could have ask the original artist if they were okay with him making the mascot an official thing and hiring another artist to modify something. I mean surely a manager could supervise it to make sure everything is done smoothly right?Just crediting wouldn't be enough since the company would (understandably) want firm usage rights written in black and white on a contract, as "credit to the artist" deals are about as legally binding as a cigarette and a handshake.
The dumbest thing he's done is acknowledging it - if he said nothing then at least a handful of people would've shrugged it off as coincidence, but no-one's gonna buy an "um actually I was just INSPIRED to make something almost identical to your work".
Mascots are usually a community made thing that stay within the community. Some of them come in with mascots, like Ver and Maria, but others are made by fans and the livers have just chosen it, like Zali and Doppio. There are a few cases of management obviously helping out with things, but usually they don’t touch mascots unless they plan to make merch of it. For example, the creator of Fulgur’s mascots were not originally contacted when he started using it, but then signed the rights of their work over to Niji when they wanted to include the sheeps in merch.He also could have ask the original artist if they were okay with him making the mascot an official thing and hiring another artist to modify something. I mean surely a manager could supervise it to make sure everything is done smoothly right?
Because it's not about the money, she does it to keep an active status as an artist so she could appear at events to sell her BL doujins. Which she doesn't do for money either, it's purely fujoshi brainrot. If all you do is show up at event once a year to sell things you will stop getting invited and no one will go to your booth because they have no idea who you are. In nicer terms, she has a hobby she doesn't want to abandon and it has requirements she has to meetI really do wonder why she takes on commissions as a side-job
In general, it would depend how cooperative the particular artist wanted to be about it, and whether they've informally "loaned" it out to anyone else prior. It's much safer to just commission something from scratch with work-for-hire and exclusivity terms agreed upon from day one, to avoid inheriting problems from before the contract was signed.He also could have ask the original artist if they were okay with him making the mascot an official thing and hiring another artist to modify something. I mean surely a manager could supervise it to make sure everything is done smoothly right?
Well he just said this, so take it as you will.In general, it would depend how cooperative the particular artist wanted to be about it, and whether they've informally "loaned" it out to anyone else prior. It's much safer to just commission something from scratch with work-for-hire and exclusivity terms agreed upon from day one, to avoid inheriting problems from before the contract was signed.
The thing that muddles this specific situation is that corpos typically have derivative work guidelines that allow third parties to create works based on their intellectual properties under specific terms, which includes the corpo receiving the right to use the derivative work in their own productions. This mostly exists for convenience so the talents can use fanart for their thumbnails and Twitter profiles without having to seek permission every time, but it doubles as one of those intentionally broad clauses that can cover them in cases like this.
Ethically I think trying to handwave just how much of a "reference" the fanartist's work was comes off in bad faith and reflects poorly on him. Legally (if for some reason someone cared enough about the revenue from a Nijimale who'll be completely forgotten about in a wave or two's time to pursue it) it could fall either way - Nijisanji own the Yu Q. Wilson character and not the axolotl character design as it appears in the fanart - but the two are presented together there, so it's /technically/ still derivative work. I'm sure there are lawfags out there who could have a great time fighting over this.
You also have to add to this that apparently that mascot design for his fandom was already finalized and this means that Anycolor was more than likely already getting ready to roll out merchandise plans. The mascot design being official makes it part of Yu Q's branding. The issue he got himself into reflects badly on him and Anycolor, so I wouldn't be surprised if he got slightly reprimanded for it and put into time-out.In general, it would depend how cooperative the particular artist wanted to be about it, and whether they've informally "loaned" it out to anyone else prior. It's much safer to just commission something from scratch with work-for-hire and exclusivity terms agreed upon from day one, to avoid inheriting problems from before the contract was signed.
The thing that muddles this specific situation is that corpos typically have derivative work guidelines that allow third parties to create works based on their intellectual properties under specific terms, which includes the corpo receiving the right to use the derivative work in their own productions. This mostly exists for convenience so the talents can use fanart for their thumbnails and Twitter profiles without having to seek permission every time, but it doubles as one of those intentionally broad clauses that can cover them in cases like this.
Ethically I think trying to handwave just how much of a "reference" the fanartist's work was comes off in bad faith and reflects poorly on him. Legally (if for some reason someone cared enough about the revenue from a Nijimale who'll be completely forgotten about in a wave or two's time to pursue it) it could fall either way - Nijisanji own the Yu Q. Wilson character and not the axolotl character design as it appears in the fanart - but the two are presented together there, so it's /technically/ still derivative work. I'm sure there are lawfags out there who could have a great time fighting over this.
Except he’s not exactly in timeout. He’s still going to be showing up on streams and maybe even tweeting. He’s just dedicating most of his time to fixing the mascot problem. Do I think it’s out of the realm of possibility that they reprimanded him? No, in fact I’m sure they talked to him about it and maybe even scolded him, but this doesn’t seem company mandated, just him trying to get this shit fixed as soon as he can. But maybe Niji did urge him to take a break, and he agreed to it. I don’t know for certain which it is, I just hope this doesn’t blow up in his face any more than it already has.You also have to add to this that apparently that mascot design for his fandom was already finalized and this means that Anycolor was more than likely already getting ready to roll out merchandise plans. The mascot design being official makes it part of Yu Q's branding. The issue he got himself into reflects badly on him and Anycolor, so I wouldn't be surprised if he got slightly reprimanded for it and put into time-out.
History has shown that Anycolor will punish their talents for the slightest of offenses and for them the brand comes first. So I do not believe this mini-hiatus is something he fully decided on his own.