Friday, February 3, 2023

Rule of Law - The Return of the Gnome Blacksmith... Wait, WUT?!?!

There are a handful of third-party modules and supplements that feature reprints of some of my work, the third of which I am sharing today. I have been aware of them for a while (as most seem to have been released in 2017), but I recently tracked them all down as best I could to see what was used and if I could obtain a copy. Unfortunately, these particular products do not have physical versions or are no longer available (more on this below). That said, I investigated to see if I could get details and screenshots of my work in the various products. Today I have the third and final of these 5E supplements, Rule of Law. To start things off, here is a look at the cover.  

Rule of Law. It would appear that this, like the supplement I shared last week, is not legit and was created in violation of ownership and copyright.

From what I have learned in the past week, there are individuals out there taking D&D content, grabbing art from wherever they can find it, slapping it all together, and putting the product out there as if it was theirs to do so. This is why, yet again, I have a piece I made for Paizo showing up in what looks to be a third-party D&D product. Which it is not. The Paizo piece in question was from 2010 and created for Pathfinder Companion: Gnomes of Golarion. I made several Gnome-related pieces for this book, with one of them being a blacksmith. Here is that old, old, OLD piece I did for Paizo, Gnome Blacksmith (so many things wrong with it, so many things that could have been done better).

Gnome Blacksmith
4.7 x 7 - Digital
© 2010 Paizo Publishing, LLC

I have no idea how the licensing works with WotC, D&D, and third-party products, but this is NOT it. As mentioned above, this was done in violation of a few copyright holders and is just not cool. My art was likely stolen from DeviantArt before I deleted my account... due to the rampant theft of art on that site. Who knew it was a feature and not a bug. Here is a look at my art on the page of this product.

Gnome Blacksmith hanging out where he does not belong.

Unlike the previous suspect product I shared, this one got my name correct. Which is at least something, I guess. This is all sad to me. Yes, making a book is hard and takes a lot of work, but it is not impossible and has been done by countless people. Go make your own thing. Stop stealing other people's work and passing it off as yours. Here is a look at the credits page - which is a little funny to me as it is all stolen, and yet they took the time to credit those they stole from.

At least they got my name correct in this one.

That is all for another exciting week on the blog. See you back here on Monday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

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