Robot/droid design plagiarism?

[TREK_GOD_1]

I beg to differ. It is exactly what causes investigations for copyright infringement and for academic or creative plagiarism.

True.

Even National Comics (Superman) won its case against Fawcett (Captain Marvel) when their characters were (arguably) dissimilar; one was an alien from a dead planet, the other a boy who gained powers based on mythological gods. Not exactly twins, but enough for National to ultimately win its case.

Unfortunately, we live in a society where some (calling themselves "artists") are all too eager to swipe from the creative labors of others.

In the robot examples in this thread, one can see a design influence from The Black Hole's VINCENT and The Force Awakens' BB-8, and honestly, the Star Wars films have a long trail of sticky-fingered "influences" from endless sources across the media landscape.

 

[ancient]

Who holds the copyright for spheres?

 

[Silvercrest]

I do.

In fact, I'm proving large brass ones just by making the claim.

 

[UssGlenn]

It wouldn't matter if BB-8 was a direct copy of Vincent anyway, They are both owned by Disney.

 

[Silvercrest]

They're all ripoffs of Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

HERBIE (on right, obviously) from 1978 Fantastic Four animated series:

VINCENT from The Black Hole, 1979:

BB-8 from the Force Awakens, 2015:

The inspiration for BB-8 came directly from Ralph McQuarrie's early sketches for R2-D2 where he rode atop a ball instead of having legs, so they actually predate both Herbie and Vincent by a couple years. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the impetus for creating Herbie was to give the FF show an R2-D2 style character that the kids would like. And The Black Hole is well known for being heavily inspired by the success of Star Wars, and Vincent being inspired by R2-D2. I won't do them the same disservice of calling being inspired by something or paying homage "plagiarism" however, because it's not.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

They're all ripoffs of Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

You're not exaggerating. The squat, walking, service-oriented, game-playing "Drones" from the underrated gem Silent Running (1972) were one of the undeniable influences of the kind of friendly, game playing "Droid" exemplified by R2-D2 in Star Wars.

@1:32:

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[Silvercrest]

I saw that movie for the first time since I was a child and was trying to figure out how they did the robot effects. All I could think was, "It moves like a guy walking on his hands!" Imagine my surprise.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I beg to differ. It is exactly what causes investigations for copyright infringement and for academic or creative plagiarism. It doesn't necessarily mean anything is there, but, in the everyday, real world, strong similarity is absolutely ground for such suspicion, all the time.

It is. Often when the similarity is actually completely coincidental and based on things like the fact that there's only a finite number of note combinations that sound pleasant to people, or subconsciously inspired, like when some people began suggesting that U2's song "The Sweetest Thing" sounded like T'Pau's "China In Your Hand". (I loved the lead singer of T'Pau's response that if someone as clearly talented as Bono was cribbing her work she would consider it a high compliment.) Or by someone using it in a truly transformative way to make their own thing. I'm sorry, but even if he did grab a note progression from them, anyone who would confuse Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" for Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure" is a loon.

Unfortunately, we live in a society where some (calling themselves "artists") are all too eager to swipe from the creative labors of others.

Almost everything you or I, either one, have ever done is inspired by the world we have lived in and derivative in some way of the things we've been exposed to. We ALL stand on the shoulders of giants.

Intellectual Property is an artificial construction granted as a privilege by the state to a content creator (or more often, not even them, but someone who paid them to create for them) for the promotion of business and financial concerns. IP is not a natural right of a content creator. The *natural* course of things is for people to incorporate anything and everything they come across that seems good or useful into whatever they're doing - and to maybe have a bit of esteem for the people who created things they like if they know who they are.

Sorry if I seem off on a rant, but IP has gone waaaay too far in the United States, to the point where we now go whole years without ANYTHING falling out of private control and into the public domain - and people are even forgetting that IP isn't a natural right but that the granting of it is supposed to be a public good. Which is exactly what the giant media conglomerates want.

They're all ripoffs of Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

Strange. They all reminded me of a very young Scrappy-Doo.

I won't do them the same disservice of calling being inspired by something or paying homage "plagiarism" however, because it's not.

BINGO.

 

[sojourner]

Strange. They all reminded me of a very young Scrappy-Doo.

I think you missed the reference there.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I think you missed the reference there.

Ditto.

 

[Awesome Possum]

But seriously no one is ripping off that awful Fantastic Four cartoon or the Black Hole. No one. There are 20 people who are even aware of it and 5 of us have the DVD.

We're the only ones, lost souls in a way.

 

[publiusr]

Now these on the other hand...
https://www.facebook.com/3247920448...24792044875/10154551826819876/?type=3&theater

 

[sojourner]

Now these on the other hand...
https://www.facebook.com/3247920448...24792044875/10154551826819876/?type=3&theater

Are not even robots.

 

[Solid Snack]

Funny thing about HERBIE, Greg Land's version in the Ultimate Fantastic Four comics was pretty much a traced Gundam mecha, the Kapool (From ZZ and Turn A Gundam). Land's kind of notorious for this.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Didn't he trace a bunch of porn models for Sue?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Didn't he trace a bunch of porn models for Sue?

And everyone else

 

[ancient]

Greg Land was a really good artist back in the day, I can only assume they overworked him or he had some sort of workplace feud going on.