And now . . Mello has once again disappeared right in front of me. Once again, i’m stuck here in the dark. .
~Matt
Hi everyone, I haven’t spoken to you in awhile. I’d like to talk about something that has hurt me, and has hurt my trust in the SPG community here. If you’re not aware, I’m the designer of Lil Steve, the doll that Steve Negrete carries around. I know I’ve been on the quiet end of the fandom for awhile now but something has been brought to my attention today which I feel that I need to address. Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that the person in the above screenshot decided to commission someone else to plagiarize my original design. This is likely because I do not make dolls of band members, and that is because they themselves requested of this community that we’re a part of not do commissions of the band/related characters. I’ve had to turn down people in the past who wished for their own Lil bots and Lil Steves but guys, these are not our characters to sell. So this person has hurt me and the community twice- once with plagiarism, and another by going against what the band has laid as fairly simple rules for making fanart.
I just want to let you know that while I enjoy the fact that you all like Lil Steve (after I was done having a little conniption about it), this shit? This shit is not okay.
Lil Steve was created by me with an original design to give to Steve Negrete, a member of Steam Powered Giraffe. Let me repeat that. Lil Steve is made with my original design. A pattern that took me awhile to create. Do you want to have your own crocheted member of SPG? That’s perfectly fine. But you know what you don’t do?
- You don’t try to use my design. Make up your own! I imagine you can probably come up with stuff a lot cuter than mine!
- YOU ALSO DON’T COMMISSION PEOPLE FOR SPG-RELATED ART!
There should be no monetary exchange whatsoever in making a Lil Steve or any Lil SPG member. You do not own the rights to them. Not only that, but the band has said multiple times that this is not okay. They’re a small band and this hurts them.
I am furious that you would do this. Let alone that you would do this to try and recreate a gift I made for the band.
Also, if you really needed “clear still shots” of the doll? You could have traipsed your ass right on over to my blog where I have full reference shots of each doll. But maybe that would have made you a bit uncomfortable. It’s easier to steal when you don’t know the person you’re doing it to right?
These actions are disrespectful to creators, to the community and trust we seek to build here, and most of all to the band.
(And I don’t want to see hate given to the above user on my behalf. I wanted to address this fandom-wide, not only to this user. I’m a big girl, I can stand up for myself.)
