Bioware, art stealers?

[DarkTrinity]

So I'm a member of a group on DeviantArt called Doombringers, which is a group that avidly is on the look out and reports art theft within the site. Well a member of DA noticed something familiar about the background in the promotion of one of their games, Star Wars: Old Republic. It looked an awful lot like his own artwork.
Here's the trailer
http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/space-combat  (at 0:17)

Here's his original work:
http://nameless-designer.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=0#/dzhtel

Here's a comparison of the two:
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/3674/41699972.jpg

It's hard to tell, given that one is high resolution and one is pixelated. It's clear that they are not the exact same(textures on the planets are different). But the flames are in the exact same places, and you can tell some of the space debris is also identical...
Now, he did contact Bioware 2 months ago, but he is not completely active on DeviantArt so we haven't heard anything since January.
Thoughts/feelings on this?

[Scotty]

That's about as shady as them saying they won't put SecuROM DRM on Dragon Age II, then do it anyways.  Not the first time they've done this, and the last time, they got hit REAL hard by the long dick of the law for it.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/03/dragon-age-ii-features-hated-securom-despite-previous-ea-claims.ars

[ARTgames]

I would be flattered. I mean its not nice to take without asking and give no credit. But I don't see too much harm done.

[Delicious]

I would be flattered. I mean its not nice to take without asking and give no credit. But I don't see too much harm done.

No harm done? Think again. Art theft is incredibly stupid, and the fact that this artist is unlikely able to do anything about his work being claimed by an organization makes it all the worse. He gains no credit, nor money while the other "artist" who produced the copy is walking away with hundreds of dollars and the work under his name...

[Scotty]

I would be flattered. I mean its not nice to take without asking and give no credit. But I don't see too much harm done.

No harm done? Think again. Art theft is incredibly stupid, and the fact that this artist is unlikely able to do anything about his work being claimed by an organization makes it all the worse. He gains no credit, nor money while the other "artist" who produced the copy is walking away with hundreds of dollars and the work under his name...

How'd ya like to be sued for your own artwork?  I'd go ape-shit myself.

[ARTgames]

I would be flattered. I mean its not nice to take without asking and give no credit. But I don't see too much harm done.

No harm done? Think again. Art theft is incredibly stupid, and the fact that this artist is unlikely able to do anything about his work being claimed by an organization makes it all the worse. He gains no credit, nor money while the other "artist" who produced the copy is walking away with hundreds of dollars and the work under his name...

What people care about is the money and credit and not the art its self. And I agree from that standpoint that he should get payed for his work if he wanted to and get credit. I said that but I was downplaying it lower than I should have. But I feel like money messes up art also. With those two things out of the equation (But I always know it will be) I would feel flattered that they would use my work in something that big.

[Mr Pwnage]

I would be flattered. I mean its not nice to take without asking and give no credit. But I don't see too much harm done.

No harm done? Think again. Art theft is incredibly stupid, and the fact that this artist is unlikely able to do anything about his work being claimed by an organization makes it all the worse. He gains no credit, nor money while the other "artist" who produced the copy is walking away with hundreds of dollars and the work under his name...

The only you thing you really care about is the money and credit and not the art its self. And I agree from that standpoint that he should get payed for his work if he wanted to and get credit. But I fell like money messes up art also.

...says "art"games...

[ARTgames]

Lol, your going to make me regret that name. :P

[DarkTrinity]

I would be flattered. I mean its not nice to take without asking and give no credit. But I don't see too much harm done.

No harm done? Think again. Art theft is incredibly stupid, and the fact that this artist is unlikely able to do anything about his work being claimed by an organization makes it all the worse. He gains no credit, nor money while the other "artist" who produced the copy is walking away with hundreds of dollars and the work under his name...

What people care about is the money and credit and not the art its self. And I agree from that standpoint that he should get payed for his work if he wanted to and get credit. I said that but I was downplaying it lower than I should have. But I feel like money messes up art also. With those two things out of the equation (But I always know it will be) I would feel flattered that they would use my work in something that big.

It would be more flattering had they actually asked permission... Yeah, maybe then they'd have to pay the original artist, or give him some kinda of recognition. But to me, stealing his artwork, then altering it is just sneaky and lazy.
I guess it depends how it went down. If they hired a professional artist to actually make the artwork for that trailer and paid him in full for his efforts, then proceeded to steal and draw , that I think the son of a bitch should definitely get sued.
If they just decided to have someone already working for bioware chuck together a background (its still lazy and douchey), but I think it would be more flattering in that case...

Because if they hired an artist, why didn't they just hire the guy who made the original??
Sketchy.

[ARTgames]

I don't disagree, they should have asked. I'm just being... optimistic I guess.

[Cactuscat222]

Yeah - I'd rather hear about what Bioware had to say before pointing fingers. It'd be a shame if it was stolen, but it was probably just the work of an employee within the company, and not some evil corporate plot with all of the CEO's and shareholders laughing with their white cats and hands rubbing maniacally.

[Delicious]

I would be flattered. I mean its not nice to take without asking and give no credit. But I don't see too much harm done.

No harm done? Think again. Art theft is incredibly stupid, and the fact that this artist is unlikely able to do anything about his work being claimed by an organization makes it all the worse. He gains no credit, nor money while the other "artist" who produced the copy is walking away with hundreds of dollars and the work under his name...

How'd ya like to be sued for your own artwork?  I'd go ape-shit myself.

Hah, yea I thought about that.. It'll be quite ironic, but it would require the original artist to try and sell them to be sued. Yea, I'd go far beyond ape-shit.

If the original artist had come up with a copyright for his work, he could had sued the people/person that stole it. Assuming he didn't, and Bioware did, it's primarily theirs now.

[ARTgames]

I don't disagree with you all but If this was you Delicious would you sue? I just feel like that would be harder to do than to let it go. Maybe I'm just too soft.

[DarkTrinity]

Yeah - I'd rather hear about what Bioware had to say before pointing fingers. It'd be a shame if it was stolen, but it was probably just the work of an employee within the company, and not some evil corporate plot with all of the CEO's and shareholders laughing with their white cats and hands rubbing maniacally.

Either way, it's still considered art theft though :/

[Delicious]

I don't disagree with you all but If this was you Delicious would you sue? I just feel like that would be harder to do than to let it go. Maybe I'm just too soft.

If I were to make copyrights, yes. Or atleast threaten to do so. It'll depend on how much was stolen and by whom, of course.. It doesn't seem worth it to you, however if I were to pour in hundreds of hours of my time to find out that some trash bag is making money off of it and claiming it as his own, I would find letting it go be incredibly hard to do in comparison to having justice.