Inktober Book Plagerism Accusations

[NessIllustration]

I've attempted to counter some of the comments on Dunn's video to offer a different perspective, but there's way too many to address and it's so saddening to see some of the replies I just read one that said :

"Seems like Parker lawyered up hard and fast, and I’m sure his legal team will do everything in their power to contest and maybe even counter-sue for defamation and reasonable loss. (Probably on the basis that you can’t claim copyright over a “format or teaching flow”, and that there’s a long history of these kinds of basic fundamentals already published.)
But regardless of what Parker’s lawyers finagle for him, thanks to this video, everyone will know that Parker’s a plagiarist, and an asshole to boot. Hope he gets what he deserves"

It's like no matter what defense case Jake presents and no matter if it's legally settled in his favor, for some of these people Jake's reputation is forever ruined. It's absolutely heartbreaking. I can't believe Dunn did this. Of all ways, professional ways to address something like this he chose the nuclear option, and possibly blew up both himself and Jake at the same time. What a mess.

[Carmanda]

@NessIllustration My hope is that if this was in fact an emotional reactionary video that reached what ends up being an incorrect conclusion of plagiarism, Alphonso would address his viewers himself with an explanation and apology. It still might not convince everyone, but it could undo damage that another lawyer situation wouldn't. People are still salty about trademarking Inktober, even though a) he explained and apologized for the unintended effects and b) you KNOW you take a risk if you use someone else's IP, especially a logo.

[korilynneillo]

@NessIllustration I've been seeing that particular opinion a LOT the past few days! I've been very vocal in a few artist discord groups over the past few days and that seems to be the prevailing opinion (aside from a small island of artists that take a similar view to the recent youtube vids posted and think it's monstrously unfair that everyone's jumping to conclusions without seeing both sides). It saddens me that no matter what comes to light, they'll just spin it to Jake being the bad guy.

[NessIllustration]

@Carmanda At this point I'm not sure Dunn would ever retract himself. Even after seeing the mob descend on Jake, he has done nothing to discourage his fans from the hate and the video is still up, even know it's really risky because he's solidly opening himself up for a lawsuit. He has proven himself to be emotional and reckless. Not only that, in his video it's like he's straining so hard to see similarities yet he's dismissing every difference as Jake attempting to hide the plagiarism. He's descended really far into a confirmation bias whirlpool and has convinced himself very thoroughly. Sending out his impressionable students who do not know better to mob lynch Jake was absolutely reprehensible, and I don't know what we can reasonably expect from someone who'd do that.

[MattBaker]

This is the "KILL THE BEAST" scene from Beauty and the Beast. Townspeople just wanna poke something with their proverbial pitchforks.

Don't confuse me with facts, my minds already made up.

I hope the truth prevails this time.

[George Broussard]

@Carmanda said in Inktober Book Plagerism Accusations:

People are still salty about trademarking Inktober

Yes, and this was always insane. A lot of artists, particularly amateur, young, or leaning heavily left, don't understand matters of trademarks, etc. They just see it as being mean. There's 100% nothing wrong with trademarking Inktober and protecting that name and logo mark. Try explaining that to people that are anti capitalism, though. They would understand if they were to ever create or own something valuable.

[Coley]

@MattBaker you nailed it

[Coreyartus]

@George-Broussard Youth and the simple lack of experience and worldliness, I get. But I'm not sure it has to do with a political stance or one's embrace of the legalities of capitalism... I think that's a stretch. I, myself am just about as far left as a person can get and I understand the complexities of what's happening. I think we start down a dangerous path when we bring politics into the conversation, as cancel culture exists on both sides of the aisle in its own ways. As a moderator, I'd personally like to avoid opening up that particular can of worms on these forums as it seems this tiny oasis has managed to blissfully sidestep it for a good many years...

[jsnzart]

@Coreyartus I think I agree with that.

I'm nearly 50,...and I still don't understand politics.
Especially in the US!!! Left and right?
Sorry, I have no idea!

And, I wanted to be a political cartoonist. Lol

[pixel.dsp]

@NessIllustration With the current events, I highly doubt anybody would sue AD. With the way his fans have injected racial arguments, pitting this as a “white vs black” issue, it would look really bad on a corporation like Chronicles to sue an independent artist like AD.

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@NessIllustration Jake can’t win no matter what. these people of little minds will always think he plagiarized Dunn. If it will be proven that no plagiarism happened, I want Dunn to make a public apology.

[xin li]

@pixel-dsp It is such a mess. Highly respect Jake and the whole team at SVS: everyone dealt this matter in such a professional and calm way - the way a true art sensei would do.

@Nyrryl-Cadiz In my opinion, Jake already won.

As an old saying goes - "And this, too, shall pass away."

I look forward to this year's inktober, and can not wait to see all the beautiful art that will come out from the svs family.

[Julia]

I also think it is not fair to assume the commenters are young and inexperienced : first it is unkind to the youth. I know bright youngs whose opinions are balanced. Saying this, without real study or statistics to back it up, tends to generalise the profil of the commenters and to create a generation gap.

Second, I feel it exonarates the commenters or at least diminish their responsability.

When someone makes a comment on social media (or, as a matter of fact, any forums, blogs, etc. Anywhere public), there is an individual responsability going along as well as a moral commitment. This is even truer for hateful or racist comments.

Going back to the comments below Alphonso's video, yes, most of them show an immediate, emmotional reaction of support and sympathy towards Alphonso, and plenty of them carry a bias and sharp judgement against Jake. Finally another substential percentage include some racist or hateful statement. This is very shocking and very sad, unfortunately Internet allows behaviours that would be sanctionned "in real life" in democratic countries. Internet is also real life but didn't seem to have solve this yet... maybe Youtube should be the one looking at the hateful and racist comments and take appropriate action?

[Coreyartus]

@Julia You're right, I was overgeneralizing.

Just an FYI, during my own blocking/muting/restricting efforts to save my sanity on Instagram and Twitter, I visited a lot of those accounts. I have absolutely no statistical evidence other than my own personal anecdotal observation, and I am sure I looked at things with my own biases. I discovered about a third of them were new, with 0-10 postings and 0-10 followers, implying to me they may have been made specifically to post with anonymity as "stab accounts". Another third seemed to be accounts that had under 100 followers. Generally, of all of those, the profiles that most commonly had ages listed were on Twitter, and usually those ages were under 25 years. I didn't see any ages listed older than that.

That probably gave me bias confirmation and led me to overgeneralize. Apologies. And also the fact that I teach students of that age at university means I see a lot of really immature stuff, but I have to remember that I also see awesome, integrity driven young people I'm now proud to call peers and colleagues.

Interestingly another thing I noticed was that about half of the accounts I visited were not illustrators or even artists of any kind. Which was really curious. About half the number of accounts I visited on Instagram were Private, and I couldn't see anything they posted.

All told, I have blocked/restricted about 100 accounts on Instagram slowly over the last 3 days so as not to pop the algorithm or flag my account, and about 75 on Twitter.

Of course, I opened tabs in my browser for each account on Saturday and slowly addressed them as I worked, so who knows who is posting now. A lot can happen in 72 hours.

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@xin-li This whole thing is stressing me out i just want it to be over

[hakepe]

@jsnzart there's your angle of approach then, politics is nuts.... now start drawing

[xin li]

@Nyrryl-Cadiz just keep drawing, just keep drawing...

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@xin-li haha thanks

[StudioHannah]

I came here looking for some sane conversation, and found it! Thank you! I've been upset about this whole thing, because I really like Jake, and I respect Alphonso, so it's sad seeing these accusations unfold and cause so much anger in the art community. It will end eventually - everything does - and I hope it ends well. I hope. Still, there are going to be people who irrevocably dislike Jake and boycott Inktober no matter what happens. Alphonso probably did more damage than he realized.

I also made a video about this that I hope is ok to share here. I want to be fair to both artists, though I do have a definite bias toward Jake because of how long I've been lurking around YouTube and SVS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GCWSBuTKPs&lc=Ugz3ffqfJk67EKJMTkJ4AaABAg

Thanks for making this thread, Lee. I hope Jake sees all the love he's getting in here.

[carrieannebrown]

@Nyrryl-Cadiz it's genuinely stressing me out too! I'm worried about being in the public eye in the future now. I tried deleting my social media apps to stay out of it but it didn't last long . I don't want to argue with strangers on Instagram but some of the comments really wind me up!