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Rumour Smashed: Meizu Didn't Rip Off Artist For Phone Renders
Posted by Jason Chen at 8:00 AM on November 28, 2007
Despite making a Meizu phone that looks way too close to the iPhone to be a coincidence, the latest news about Meizu ripping off an artist to pimp their work is off-base. It's true that someone placed Deviant Art artist Lithium Picnic's photo onto a Meizu M8, but it turns out that the image was actually rendered by a fan on Meizu's forums. Not that it makes things any more legit, but Meizu themselves aren't to blame for this round of appropriating someone else's work and calling it their own. [Meizu]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
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it-hobbit
Posted 4:51 PM 27/11/07
So, they did not rip off an artist, yet the similarities with the iphone are a mere coincidence as well...
Hmmmm how peculiar...
Don't get me wrong, I like the similarities!
it-hobbit
LastVigilante
Posted 4:40 PM 27/11/07
I've been "friends" (quote unquote) with that guy for a long time on DeviantArt, and for the last year or so he's been in a huge legal battle with SuicideGirls, who he previously worked for as a photographer. I'm not sure of the current status, but I know the whole thing left him in a Financial Pit of Dispair, among other things, so I don't blame him for having an itchy trigger-finger when it comes to infringement on his work like this.
On the other hand, he does get to photograph naked hot chicks for a living.
Lucky bastard.
LastVigilante
MINI Driver
Posted 4:15 PM 27/11/07
How convenient!
Wouldn't want Meizu to be accused of actually copying anyone else's work.....
MINI Driver
nakmario
Posted 6:01 PM 27/11/07
I believe there was an LG phone (Prada) that has a similar UI/overall look AND was released before the iPhone.
I think it's unfortunate that Apple gets credit for being the first to come up with this type of UI just because they released the mock-ups before any other company did.
Obviously LG had been working on a similar type of UI and perhaps this type of UI is the natural progression for phones/handsets.
nakmario
ssjmichael
Posted 5:17 PM 27/11/07
Gizmodo, how can you say the rumor is smashed based on one sentence by an admin? Does this person know all that happens inside the company? Is she the official spokesperson, so that anything she says is completely fact, and dismisses (or smashes) any sort of rumors? This is hardly the case at all.
ssjmichael
nobodyzhome
Posted 8:06 PM 27/11/07
But I suppose "Brett-ney Spears" is ok?
[lithiumpicnic.deviantart.com]
nobodyzhome
whiskey
Posted 9:00 PM 27/11/07
ALL LINKS NSFW, Viewer discresion is adivsed...
Well Hello hello, seems to me that maybe (just maybe) I would not be crying foul game. One has to learn not to cry over spilled milk. But this comes from a guy who as an elevated sense of selfsteem.
Oh and lookie look... what do we have here? a convenient way to download said pic to your mobile? I wonder how many people would have noticed it? (Just below the "Buy this Print" red link, here.
My business sense is tingling... Quickly, phone Meizu and get a deal to distribute said image (oh and the one with the purple and black hairdo) with the phone (GLOBAL EXPOSURE ENSUES!!!)... Best of luck, hope he finds who ever used his pic on said forum and the Sanrio megacorporation decides not to sue him...
whiskey
stopcrazypp
Posted 9:27 PM 27/11/07
@ssjmichael:
I will have to defend Jason here. The pictures in question was released by a third party website: cnmo.com. Then Engadget got a hold of it. That was how Philip Warner of Lithium Picnic caught wind of his picture being used.
However, there has been no official press release by Meizu with these pictures. The likelihood that the photos were photoshopped and released by a poster from the Meizu BBS forums is high.
Even assuming Meizu created these photos, any sort of litigation against them would have little basis. As "Intercooler" from engadget mentioned, since the product has not been released, Meizu can argue the pictures were for research purposes. More importantly, since the pictures were not an official press release, and (assuming it was Meizu's creation) was leaked to the public, it qualifies as private study (eg. downloading a picture and using it as your own wallpaper). Both those points apply under the fair use policy under the copyright act.
Automatically assuming that Meizu stole the photo just because their m8 looks like an iphone (which incidentally looks like a prada) was a classic case of "guilty until proven innocent," I expected better of Engadget.
That said, if people are interested, you should wait for Philip to get a response from cnmo.com detailing where they acquired these pictures from, then we can get confirmation if this was really a fanmade photoshop or something official.
stopcrazypp
ssjmichael
Posted 10:56 PM 27/11/07
@stopcrazypp:
You do realize that most of the official pictures posted at Meizu's BBS also don't make it onto Meizu's official page right? I have been keeping watch over the year and basically every now and then J. Wong or someone from Meizu will release a new picture or so inside the forums.
The thing is, why would two of CNMO's 5 pictures be fan made, and the other 3 official photos? Why watermark them and say that they are the latest from Meizu? Additionally, why would a fan go through all the trouble of making a new theme when it doesn't serve any purpose. We have no idea if Meizu is planning an orangish theme, as no other picture has been shown with it before. This fan obviously did a decent amount of work, and for what reason? To show off a new background and a different color theme that no one cares about? That doesn't add up to me.
I've seen plenty of user based mock-ups, but these are probably the best, and the closest I've seen them come to the actual Meizu mock-ups.
Finally, if engadget never made headlines would anyone have assumed the images were fan based, or that Meizu or whoever was ripping off someone's images? I highly doubt it.
ssjmichael
targatop
Posted 1:19 PM 28/11/07
Lithium Picnic Rocks...His SG stuff was the best.
targatop
stopcrazypp
Posted 12:22 AM 30/11/07
@ssjmichael:
SNAP! I was right! I am sure you know this already ssjmichael (same one at meizume?) as da_vinci over at the meizume forums definitively proved it was just a fanmade photoshop (a good one at that, like I said was possible in the Meizu BBS forums).
DA_VINCI at the meizume "We can see that this M8 fan,llsone,posted the thread on '2007-11-14 23:58:00'.And the date on the 'desktop' is 14th too.If we check the EXIF of the image,we can see that this image was made on '2007:11:14 23:55:57'."
Link to DA_VINCI's post:
[www.meizume.com]
Original thread where picture was posed:
[www.meizu.com]
Apparently the picture was then photoshopped into an older mockup of the phone. I knew that mockup looked too similar (and at the same angle!) to one I had seen about a month ago. This case has finally rested. So my comment still applies: Engadget did a "guilty until proven innocent" this time.
I found this out after searching the meizu bbs forums, finding only the picture with "November Rain" on it released by J.Wong and no evidence of the "ripped off" picture and then I found a post of J.Wong replying "that photo was only fanmade" in response to a post about Meizu appearing at Dapreview.net. This led me to finding dapreview.net's newsstory on "Meizu 'Stolen Art' Resolved" posted on Nov 28, 2007.
stopcrazypp