NOT Cancelling Someone's Career (Article) (Patreon)

I almost witnessed someone's career coming to an abrupt end on Monday. I saw many people ready to support a fellow artist by calling out a potential plagiarist and a thief.  I observed preparations to spread the word all along social media to terminate a reputation of someone who by all evidence deserved it. The pitchforks were out, ban-hammers held high... 

First the backstory. It started when it came to the attention on Slack that some of RaidZer0's Octane 4 Auto Shaders might be getting copied and soon to be sold by Spastic Mouse (Important to note here that 'spastic' has very different connotations in the US than the UK). Some visual comparisons and even underlying structures were pretty similar. Conversations started taking place on several Slacks. 

Soon the plot then thickened. The same username had been posting on a torrent site. RaidZer0's shaders had been posted and illegally downloaded 23 times already in the past few days. During that same time, he had seen sales decrease a noticeable amount. We work in a small industry and this was a tantalizing little story unfolding before our eyes. Spastic Mouse had his real name attached to his social media posts too. People were ready to help RaidZer0. The evidence is clear. Reputation is everything. The mob was at the ready to strike.

That would have been it for Spastic Mouse right there. It terrifies me to think of what a knife's edge this actually was. 

To everyone witnessing these events in real-time I want to say thank you for holding back and waiting to hear from Phil Roberts (RaidZer0) first. It would have been simple to look at the zero piracy policies and immediately throw out a ban. It would have been easy to toss up the info on social media, fighting for a just cause. To the credit of everyone involved, it was decided to wait for Phil.

There are many ways Phil could have reacted. He would have been justified in whatever he decided. What Phil DID decide to do was contact Cody (Spastic Mouse) and ask for the torrent to be taken down. Phil also politely asked about the similarities between his shader pack and Cody's pack.

Cody Setchfield (Spastic Mouse) soon publicly posted this: 

Since this morning, I've requested for the leak to be taken down, and have been discussing things over with Raidzer0.

I'm so very thankful that he has given me the chance to reflect on my mistakes, and handle things in very calm environment. I gave him no reason to, and he has every right to have me banned.

What I did was a severe lapse in my judgment, as I failed to think about the person I was affecting, on a personal and financial level.

I have been listening to the wrong crowd in regards to ethics of piracy, especially on an individual level, as sites like the one I uploaded it to make you feel like you are doing a good thing by giving back to them. However with piracy, you can not give without having taken, but they make your forget that.

However regardless, that is no excuse. I should have known better, and should have realized what I was doing.

I've since reimbursed Raidzer0 with what I can, and I plan on supporting him in the future.

Regarding the claims of me ripping his materials for my own pack, that fortunately is not the case. However I can totally understand how you may think that, because I put myself in a really bad position. Serves me right tbh.

I did use his materials though, along side Silvewings and PixelLabs shaders, as a reference to what my final result should look like, which is probably why they look so similar. I didn't want to release anything unless it could stand on it's own, which is why I have spent months testing my materials. It doesn't take months to rip some one off, I would have released them a long long time ago if that was the case.

I have spoken to both Phil and Cody in the aftermath. Both to get permission to write about this, and to get further details.

I believe Phil had the power to end Cody's career in the motion graphics field. Instead, he decided to reach out and communicate directly with the offending party. He gave Cody a chance to see the situation from a new perspective and to try and make amends.  

From Phil to Cody:

Because of Phil’s openness, Cody saw the mistakes he was making, it was not just that he was caught, but he also saw the ramifications of his actions. Phil later informed me that Cody also volunteered to pay as much of lost revenue as he could afford.

Cody got the torrent taken down as fast as possible. He explains that he was inspired by RaidZer0's shaders and even looked at them as a reference, but was trying to improve on the idea. Imitation and flattery and all that.

For some extra context, Cody is 21 years old. I don't know about the rest of you but at 21 I was using quite a bit of pirated software. I didn't even download anything myself, other students were passing it around on burned CDs. With the swath of different software packages we all have to learn, even the educational versions, a lot of programs are prohibitively expensive for a student who is paying their own way. It was only once I started making some money that I felt guilty and purchased everything. I even got my first real copy of Cinema 4D used from eBay (in retrospect that was probably ALSO against terms of service). There is an entire debate to be had about the ethics of pirating from large faceless corporations. I am not interested in that debate for this particular article. 

I asked Cody about the mindset of pirated software. I'll just post his entire answer here as it's good to remember of the bubble we can find ourselves in:

So the vibe in there is pretty similar to most piracy forums, where they all say like "please seed", "it'd be amazing if can you add this", "been waiting for ages for this, thank you", "so happy I can finally try this thank you!"

...it's a pretty appreciative place really, and they groom you to make you feel better about the whole thing. Granted, there are real people who this can benefit, but equally the amount of thieves. That's what they make you forget. It's taboo. No one talks about the effects this is having on creators. They remove the person from the product. 

In CG forums, piracy is taboo. In piracy forums, the person and the human element is taboo. Don't say "support the creator if you're going to pirate this"

You'll just get flamed super hard, and get everyone swearing you out.

Hopefully, you see this the same way I do and why I wanted to share it. Something right came from something wrong. A person was allowed to change for the better. So rarely do we get to see a branching point in someone's life so clearly. So rarely these days do we see a genuine act of goodwill. I'm proud to be part of this community. Thanks Phil.

I hope we get to see a long and prosperous career from Cody. I'll end with one last quote from him:

I'm so happy he [Phil] was so cool and mature with me, and allowed me to turn it into a learning experience, rather than resentment. I may have kept pirating if he acted differently. Hopefully maybe someday, I can return the favor to someone else, and help them like you and he are helping me :)