“I can’t say I’m thrilled, I can’t say I’m angry”
The artist known now as RianaLD has confirmed via her DeviantART journal work she created may have been used without her permission in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.
“I find the situation is very funny,” she wrote on her DeviantART journal. “I can’t say I’m thrilled, I can’t say I’m angry. This is just really funny to me.”
We reported earlier this evening that artwork of Sonia from Sonic Underground was spotted in-game by those at Spanish forum Sonic Reikai. The artwork bears a striking resemblance to a 2007 piece of artwork RianaLD posted as Lightning-Duchess, with the headshot flipped.
“I’m really not sure how to react or if any sort of action could be taken,” she continued. “I’ll have to look into it.”
RianaLD first learned of the prospect through multiple calls placed by her boyfriend, who is Sonic scener Tirann0. While she is unsure how to digest the news, he has made clear his perception, making known in a YouTube video that he is “upset” and called whomever is responsible for the lift–presumably someone at Sumo Digital–an “idiot.”
So far, the DeviantART community is meeting this with mixed reactions. Some feel RianaLD ought to feel proud to have her work featured, while others feel, after the problems with plagiarism surrounding the Sonic and the Black Knight fan art competition, that this is another stab in the back.
We will try to reach out to RianaLD for further comment. As of the time of this article’s publication, the only other word we have on this is from Sega Europe community manager Kevin Eva, who doesn’t want the community to jump so quick to conclusions:
Much as this “Sonia cameo / some SUMO designer has snuck them in” discussion is fun and whilst you wait for the official word from S0L (I’m looking forward to this one mate) how about another theory that doesn’t involve “they’ve put in a reference to Underground OMFG” and “BOO SEGA ARE STEALING ARTZ!” eh, and lets think about whats more likely.
For no reason whatsoever we get a Sonic Underground reference.
orrrrr
SUMO designer mocks up some images as the characters as playing cards for review with them in game early on in development cycle, mistakingly using the wrong pink hedgehog through some google image search or something and end up using Sonia instead – and one of the instances of the work in progress card gets missed when replacing them for the final article?
That would be my theory, but lets wait for the main man himself to wake up and give us a full and proper answer which I guess will involve “Er, who is Sonia?”
Please feel free to twist anything I say to fit your own ideas about what is right as befits any comments I seemingly make nowadays.
We will continue to give you updates on the situation.
Loading ...
I say, let her handle it
yeah she gets supporters and such but it’s really up to her.
Artwork of copyrighted characters is the property of the owner of the copyright and they may use it however they wish.
SEGA is legally entitled to do this unless they made a contract with RianaLD explicitly giving her the rights to that specific image. Somehow, I really doubt they did. I do agree with RianaLD in that it is pretty funny. Still though, by creating fan work of a copyrighted character she gave up her intellectual rights to her artwork.
FAKE!!
isn’t Sonic property of DiC?
err…sorry I mean Sonia
I hope no one forgets this isn’t the first time a TV Series character had a cameo.
Sonic Spinball had the Freedom Fighters, and Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine was basically a AoStH game, which featured characters from the cartoon.
Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if a Sumo employee just f’d up, and in the editing they forgot to replace the render of Sonia with Amy in the Wii version. No big deal.
As for the artwork… Yeah, it was something an artist did, but remember it is still FAN art. Ultimately, I think that legally, Sega could really do anything they want with it. If they really wanted they could send emails to all Sonic fanartists and tell them to stop making fanart of Sonic characters because they are copyrighted material. And Sonia is copyright to Sega, even if Sega did not create the character nor do they use the character.
@Mighty: Those games were created here in the U.S. since the cartoons were popular. The funny thing is no one in Japan knew who the heck they were XDDDD
Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine was known to be “Eggman’s whatever the heck in Japanese”.
Scratch and Grounder were like unknown until they do some research.
@Ultima
You have a point….
The fan art belongs to the artist but the character belongs to Sega. So they have rights. Although it was Sumo Digital who did this..which wouldn’t matter anyway.
Some what related – Anything you post on DA is property of DA, and they have the right to use any image in any way they see fit, which is why you shouldn’t post stuff there.
@Golden:
Yeah…I figured, but still, they were from a cartoon show just like Sonia is.
Couldn’t it be a coincidance they look similar? I mean, it is the same character and these things happen.
Axi-Fox : Is DIC even around anymore ?
@Edwin Shy:
No, DIC was absorbed into Cookie Jar Entertainment by Summer 2008.
Isn´t funny that the only versions with this image are those that aren´t going to be patched???
That could mean somebody on Sumo was upset about not giving support to Wii or PC, so he put an image that couldn´t be removed afterwards. That would be silly in Xbox360 or PS3 versions, as it could be patched easily. Or maybe just how other people are explaining it: they just were overlooked in those versions.
This is Art theft gone mad. Even if SEGA does own the character. They still took that artwork that someone else made.
There is no excuse for plagiarism.
I have a perfect way to solve this, do what I’m doing right now.
Not caring.
Oh, no! Your artwork is featured in a game thousands of people will play. Poor you!
I hope Steve’s answer is “we did it for the lulz”
tisk tisk, TSSZ.
Plagiarism: use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.
So really, RianaLD plagiarized Sonic Underground and in turn Sega used something they owned as a mock-up that accidentally made it through to final product. No biggie.
Sega owns the character, but she drew this pic. This is her call entirely. I’d find it funny as well. Anyone getting upset over this needs to chill out and laugh. She has rights to be credited for this in the game, so they’d better make a patch for this or something. But knowing them, instead of crediting her, they’ll probably just replace that texture with something else.
All right by sega
Sorry,but games are capitalism.
Sega win