Thought you all might be interested to hear that Neopets, now owned by the company Jumpstart, is getting into a huge mess. Earlier in November they were caught stealing fanart. Later it was discovered that a user was suing the site for a lack of upholding California law regarding premium auto renewal service. (Combining these things into a "Neopets Getting in a Mess" thread rather than having multiple threads)

This actually will probably kill neopets, as anyone who bought premium since 2010 (6 whole years) can claim money from the lawsuit.

I mean, it could be a coincidence (the Korbat doesn't exactly have a complex design) but...the body, and head, and ears, and everything is almost exactly the same shape so it probably isn't. It's almost an exact copy.

Suta-Raito though. I don't remember how I found that site but that's where I learned about Subeta. I used to check the artist's deviantArt everyday.

Ah, it most certainly does look like theft, in my opinion. This really doesn't surprise me though. Since JumpStart let go of almost all of the former staff and the entire former creative department, original creativity has been lacking. For months they've been recycling old images and even photoshopping old Neo artwork to appear new. The assertion that one of their crappy new artists stole a fan image is definitely within the realm of possibility.

I don't remember which piece of art it was, but they've stolen from me too, way back in the day. There was an item that looked so incredibly similar to something I'd drawn way before that I was certain they'd taken it. I don't even remember what pet it was now though. It was right after Viacom took over though.

That's a real shocker. Back when I played a very long time ago, someone was bragging about how they stole someone's artwork and used it to win one of the competitions. I reported it and I got a warning for abusing the report system.

That does look like an old korbat though. I had two, a stingray one (whatever that color was called) and a royal one.

Dang, I can't believe that site is still up. Nor Neo, for that matter. How blatant.

Wow that is incredibly blatant. There's no way they didn't take it from Suta-raito, especially since it's really well-known.

Since Jumpstart took over things went from bad to worse. Many things are broken and some things have only just started up again after being down for most of the year. It's pretty depressing but it'll probably be shut down within the next few years. I miss the old Neopets where I made friends with people I still talk to 12 years later.

The art quality took a nosedive when they cleaned house. If anyone's seen any of the new items (especially that one hilariously bad petpet), yeah, it's not surprising that one of their better pieces of art was stolen. Shameful.

I visited neopets a couple days ago out of nostalgia and just recently saw this. I don't usually pay attention to the news posts, for the most part. That said, the fact that they blatantly copied, especially from an artist that well known in the neopets community is pretty sad. I remember looking through suta-raito's artwork in high school and the majority of people from neopets know her artwork.

That said, I'm not surprised. Jumpstart has had a rocky start, to say the least and I wouldn't be surprised if they're currently working with a skeleton crew, staff wise since they fired all their moderators and I wonder if they did the same to some of their other former staff as well.

And here I was hoping JumpStart would make Neopets better :(

Oh well I rarely go on there anymore anyway. I still log on occasionally for nostalgic reasons, but after learning about other pet sites, it's obvious just how poorly run and stuck in the past Neopets is. It could still be viable, but only with a major overhaul that would require lots of time and effort. It doesn't seem like JumpStart is willing to do that though. Such a shame.

I just realized something from this whole debacle. Technically, neopets owns the copyright to neopet images. This is technically a fan art of a neopet image, which does make me wonder if the fan artist actually has any precedent to sue since neopets( Jumpstart) technically has legal copyright of the images themselves. I'm not necessarily sure the fan art artist and the fact that it's her own personal version of a particular neopet would hold up in a court of law due to the fact of it being fanart of what is technically copyrighted work.

Yeah, you're probably right-- it probably has bunch of legal issues. The artist who drew it does have rights to it, but so would Neopets, I wonder if it would sort of balance out in court and thus nothing would happen.

Either way, I think the worst part just is that they claimed it was not related at all to the suta ratio image when it lines up line for line; if they pulled the whole 'we own korbats so its technically ours' the users would be more likely to understand I think.

Not surprised at all. Glad I left that shitshow behind. -.-

It has been over a year since I last visited neopets, but I think I remember the "we can take your artwork, claim it as our own and give you no credit" part actually being in terms and conditions you have to agree on before you can even create account there. Still, I don't think it's nice of them to actually do that.

It's far from the first time they've done it, but it's the first time the theft has been so blatantly obvious. There's a Fire Gelert book in circulation with a once well-known adoptable on it. It's pretty common, but in no way okay.

The terms and conditions state that they can use anything that's submitted to them. I take it that suta-raito's artists never submitted that Korbat to any contests, but that's not necessarily true for the piece itself. Newbie art thieves may have submitted it thinking they could get an easy BC trophy, and then Jumpstart would be able to use it as they please.

It's more the fact that they're denying that it's traced at all. They created a board where they said something along the lines of, that they'd noticed that there were "similarities", but that it was "just a coincidence" that they looked exactly the same. If they just owned up to it and apologized, it would be different.

It's blatantly traced, but it's also neopets artwork. The thing is, fan art by definition exists in a very gray area and this isn't just for neopets; it's for all fan art in general. Any company, artist, etc. could legally go to a court of law and sue a fan art artist for breach of copyright because LEGALLY they're using a copyrighted work without the permission of the artist or the company. It's just that a lot of companies and artists usually don't really care enough to go to that much trouble and fan art is a good promotion tool for artists, and companies so they usually just never bother to do so.

Neopets could legally claim that artwork as their own and it would be allowed in a court of law. It'd be a idiotic move to make and probably anger a bunch of their user base but in all actuality they could do it because legally they own the copyright to neopets images, characters, etc.. and by extension anything based off or using neopets artwork or characters as well.

Yes, the suta-raito design is hers; the artwork and character it's based off is not and therefore, by extension neopets if this ever went to court would likely win.

Wow, surprised to see this. I grew up loving Suta-Raito and the oekakis.

Neopets has turned to a shit hole, but I still find myself going on more often than not. I cling to the idea that one day it'll be what it used to be even though it's clear it never will.

Yea, the terms and conditions do state they can and in some cases will take ideas/art and of the like for their own use without even asking permission.

It just bothers me that when they were called out they lied about it. In the past I had seen them use other people's stuff and never lied in such a way, but allowed people to give a nod to the original person who thought of the idea. Now it appears they want credit for it all.

The fan works thing is a big gray area. You can't really do anything about them stealing your version of their things. It's just most companies and things with a brain won't do it because they know they could lose trust in their fanbase like Neopets has been doing since the switch to Viacom. And if they do, they do it with things that are so lesser-known that the "this originally came from here" becomes nothing more than a rumor started by someone who was "jealous at the success." I've seen it all too many times unfortunately.

lmao i wasnt even surprised when i heard about this tbh, at this point i'm more surprised that neo has managed to consistently mess up as much as they have (and in such a variety of ways!) and still continue to be a functioning website somehow

Wow, that's just messed up.

I understand the legal issues with the stolen work being fanart and all, but the way they handled it just spits in the face of user rights like they've ben doing for years. I've had a Neopets account since I was like seven, active and everything, but not anymore. I'm gonna go self-freeze like right now, draiks and all.

Subeta is better anyway!

neopets sucks