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[Atlanta]

I don't know if anyone has heard about this (or if this is the right place for the topic, lol) but the manga fandom at large has been in an uproar for the last week over Nick Simmons, Gene Simmons' son, and his comic "Incarnate." He's ripped off Bleach, Hellsing, FMA, and even fanart for this shit.

And by ripped off, I mean he's traced the goddamn things. There's a LJ post dedicated to all the comparisons between Bleach and the comic, adding a few of the fanart rips and some Hellsing as well. Just look at them and you'll see what I mean. Gene Simmons' son Plagiarizing Bleach?

I, for one, am pissed off, obvious reasons aside. It's so bad, it's not even funny. I'm still trying to figure out how no one noticed until just recently; the comic started back in August. It reminds me way back when we found out some guy (can't recall the name) traced his ReBoot fanart.

There's a petition floating around about possible legal action. Granted, it's a snowball's chance in hell because of who he is and who his father is, but there at least needs to be some show from the fans that we aren't going to have this shit.

Calling for Legal Action to be Taken on Nick Simmons for Plagarism

Carry on.

[Mayhem]

Its interesting to read the various comments over on the Robot6/CBR website and the reaction from various people, including some comments relating to copyright infringement and trademark laws. While it seems to be a split between various groups, something sprang to mind about something that happened recently (not related but to do with copyright laws). I found it to be a rather outrageous accusation, but a minor music publishing company sued Aussie group Men at Work regarding the "flute riff" in their 1982 hit song "Down Under". The company claimed the riff was a direct copy of the traditional "Kookaburra" song. The person who wrote that song died in 1988 but the rights to that song were bought prior to her death, by said music publishing company. Despite most Aussie's (and myself) protesting over what seems such a trivial matter considering most of us believed it was a traditional song, therefore it belonged to the public not to a company; - Men At Work were found guilty of a breach in copyright laws and will possibly have to hand over a fair sum of money to this rather small music publishing firm.

My point to this being that it doesn't matter who you are, who's son you are or how far back you did your work. If you're in breach of copyright laws then you'll be found guilty as such. Of course, with so much talk over this I would highly doubt Nick Simmons has a future in comic books anymore. And, even if Kubo doesn't take legal action over it, the publishers of Bleach and other manga have every right to sue the publishing company (Radical) as well as Simmons, so for their best bet, I'd say it would be a good idea for Radical to drop further production/release and start putting up a "We didn't realise" defense while suing Simmons for pretending to be a comic book artist.

[Zilly]

The whole thing with Men At Work just seems to be a case of greed, especially for such an old song. But this manga... wow... how did he not think he wouldn't get caught? I've seen similar art styles, but not pose for pose where you can overlay the image and they match up.

A big internet LOL to this guy.

[Atlanta]

Want more lawltastic reading? This is Simmons' response. What a prat.

-EDIT- Out of the article, this is my favorite piece, quoted from Simmons himself:

"There are certain similarities between some of my work and the work of others."

Similarities. I'm sorry, what? This kid is completely out of touch between "similarities" and "tracing so much that you don't even need the overlays to see how you traced it."

[Rogue of B3K]

Wow, thisguy is an idiot. Did he actually think he could straight up trace licensed material and not get busted for it? His career in art is obviously over. Way to go!

[AvA]

Heard about this on Deviant Art group i follow...  there is a lot of anger in the community over it.  Similar style is one thing ... obvious trace is just dumb...