Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Should Riot Artwork "Touch-ups" be Allowed on the Boards?

JetstreamXT·10/25/2014, 11:07:59 AM·7 votes·3,147 views

Over the past few days, I’ve noticed a trend on the Story & Art boards. Some members of the community(myself included) are modifying Riot artwork, specifically the new splash arts that are currently on the PBE. I cannot speak for all of these threads, but when I posted my thread on Wukong, I used Photoshop to modify his new splash to illustrate the point of my thread (that his fur should be darker, and that his expression is too serious). I did not attempt to lay claim to any of the artwork used in the thread, Riot’s or the version that I modified.

A week or so after I posted this thread, I noticed several comments pop up on my thread and others like it, saying that modifying the artwork was not only unethical, but against the Terms of Service, specifically Section IV. Ownership, Part A, which states “You agree that you will not create any work of authorship based on the Properties except as expressly permitted by Riot Games (http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/legal/termsofuse)". However, it is my belief that most of the artwork on the boards was not created with this express permission. It is improbable that every artist on the boards wrote to Riot asking for permission before beginning their work, nor does there appear to be a “blanket” permission given by Riot Games regarding fan art and fan fiction.

I believe that Riot and the League of Legends community need to further discuss this issue, and that Riot Games should create more clearly defined guidelines on how its intellectual property should and should not be used. I apologize if any of Riot’s artists were offended by my post or any post like it.

There is a poll below regarding the question of whether or not modified Riot artwork should be allowed on the boards. If you can spare the time, please share your opinion.

Thank you for reading, and please feel free to join in the discussion.

9 Comments

RiotIronStylus10/28/2014, 5:05:01 AM10 votes

So long as your modifying work to point out issues or deliver feedback, there shouldn't be a problem. Let's say you have an idea how a piece of splash art could be adjusted to be better and you make said adjustments. Cool. Maybe title your thread "[ART FEEDBACK] Leona needs more armor." or something like that. (I'm totally cool with giving her more armor, btw..)

Posting adjusted artwork, examples, modifications to models, paint-overs of splash art, critiquing the design of an environment by doing a red-line draw-over, are dandy. That's all feedback we'd love to see.

Indeed, you wouldn't want to go too overboard and be like.. photoshop color/value slider, "HEY RIOT I MADE THIS SPLASH 10000% BETTER!!11", you would want to put it forward as thought-out critique, just just jam up the contrast and call it done. If it takes you less than 5 minutes to adjust, chances are it's minutia which might not be the biggest bang for the buck in terms of getting your point across.

Deep Terror Nami10/25/2014, 11:13:43 AM3 votes

I don't think anybody is confused about where the original art came from when you touch up a champion splash. Getting something like concept art from elsewhere, I strongly believe should always have a note citing the source; but posting a Riot splash on the Riot board, nobody is going to think you're making a claim to it unless you literally say it.

Criomhthann10/25/2014, 4:11:08 PM3 votes

We get feedback, even if we don't know about it.

Hello? Riven splash alteration anyone? Riot reworked the new Riven splash based directly on the feedback they recieved from the forums as well as numerous player edits.

MrBuffington10/25/2014, 6:56:30 PM3 votes

Section IV. Ownership, Part A, which states “You agree that you will not create any work of authorship based on the Properties except as expressly permitted by Riot Games (http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/legal/termsofuse )"

I was skimming through the EULA and the ToS, to me, this sounds like you cannot claim ownership/rights for fan-made work. My assumption is that it is fair to create fan-work with the understanding that you cannot claim to have ownership of the property, and can't monetize it, etc. Otherwise, stuff like cosplay would be prohibited. I don't think Riot wants to prevent the community from providing feedback, creating cool stuff based on the game, etc, I think it just has to be with the understanding that all our base belongs to Rito.

Basically, in a strictly legal sense, it can be considered illegal to create fan-made work, but I think in all practicality, it's perfectly fine unless the creator is claiming ownership of the work, where, again, it depends on the context. I'm assuming that if IronStylus draws some Leona art, he can claim it as his in some off-the-record way; it's his work. But, if he starts to say that he has rights to Leona as a character and proceeds to start selling that work outside of Riot, they could probably sue him for that, even though he works there, because it isn't he who owns Leona; it's Riot as a company. I'd say the same applies to community creators.

EDIT: as far as art touch-ups on Boards, I'd say it's okay; Board's is Riot's ecosystem anyways. If they were going on, say, Reddit, posting this stuff in somewhere other than r/LeagueofLegends (thereby saying that that work is not related to LoL even though it is), and claiming exclusive rights to it or something, I'd say that would be a problem.

Gapybo10/25/2014, 11:46:23 AM1 votes

The problem is that we never get any feedback on these threads from Riot and artists themselves. Would be nice to know if they even check it out or if they appreciate this kind of feedback .

Duke Anax10/25/2014, 7:20:39 PM1 votes

Ok, im not too familiar with it, but doesn't this fall under your first amendment anyway?

You are just refferencing/quoting a certain piece of work and adding your comment to it.

Putting a graphic comment on a graphic, can be considered analogue to putting a text comment on a text.

The context makes it obvious that you are just commenting/criticising/suggesting changes to Riot Artwork,not claiming it as your own.