Defiance wikia - a veritable cornucopia of THEFT!

[Escyos]

Neither Defiance Wiki nor Defiance Wikia do accurate citations. This leads me to view both sides as copying from others. Plagiarism is plagiarism if the sources aren't fully cited out no matter where they come from, thus DMCA take down would likely not be granted and if granted, force both sites to go down. Thus, argument can't be won either way in my opinion and based on my experience doing research papers, projects, and thesis papers.

Maybe consider starting a blog or journal about the game or doing something other than worrying over a wiki/wikia.

I do properly cite everything but instead of ugly number thrown through the pages and a mass of links at the bottom, we have nice clean links at the end of paragraphs. Don't assume just because wikipedia uses that outdated citation method that that is the standard.

I worry because I put hours of work into the site and then I get no recognition if they steal because they do not provide any links back whatsoever. Stealing is stealing plain and simple and they are thieves.

Also whos to say that this is my job and maybe I make millions off the content...well I do because as far as I am concerned that would be illegal as I am using copyrighted content for money, wikia gets away with it because they are so large and plaster their sites with ads.

I did not start the Defiance Wiki for money, I have spent more money on the site than I would have made with advertising, I started it because Defiance is AWESOME! Wikia users, based on their actions, do not see Defiance in that way.

[FriendlyStranger]

You altering images does not give you any form of copyright.

How much do I have to change in order to claim copyright in someone else's work?
Only the owner of copyright in a work has the right to prepare, or to authorize someone else to create, a new version of that work. Accordingly, you cannot claim copyright to another's work, no matter how much you change it, unless you have the owner's consent. See Circular 14, Copyright Registration for Derivative Works.

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/fa...se.html#change

Also, putting hours of work into something and getting paid for it does not grant you some sort of copyright protection. Now, if they ripped the style in which you presented it, and had a clear copyright ownership, that would be something to fight about. Seeing as it's a, collaboration between community members for a game, I'm guessing it would fall somewhere around creative commons licensing, unless you have somewhere on your website a stated license in which you released the content.

I get that you're all, hurt and stuff, you have every right to be, but the truth is it doesn't look like you have much of a legal leg to stand on. Now, the thought of legal action might cause them to be proactive just, because, but that doesn't mean you have a right to bring it against them, or that it would hold up in court.

[Nyako]

You altering images does not give you any form of copyright.

How much do I have to change in order to claim copyright in someone else's work?
Only the owner of copyright in a work has the right to prepare, or to authorize someone else to create, a new version of that work. Accordingly, you cannot claim copyright to another's work, no matter how much you change it, unless you have the owner's consent. See Circular 14, Copyright Registration for Derivative Works.

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/fa...se.html#change

Also, putting hours of work into something and getting paid for it does not grant you some sort of copyright protection. Now, if they ripped the style in which you presented it, and had a clear copyright ownership, that would be something to fight about. Seeing as it's a, collaboration between community members for a game, I'm guessing it would fall somewhere around creative commons licensing, unless you have somewhere on your website a stated license in which you released the content.

I get that you're all, hurt and stuff, you have every right to be, but the truth is it doesn't look like you have much of a legal leg to stand on. Now, the thought of legal action might cause them to be proactive just, because, but that doesn't mean you have a right to bring it against them, or that it would hold up in court.

Well said. This is why you fully cite out your sources and not just post links and not say what lines came from where. This is why people even in businesses and corporations use Chicago, APA, or MLA citation styles, which this person doesn't even cite things properly. Example: http://en.defiance-wiki.com/wiki/Irathient

As my instructors and people I've volunteered to help in the past will tell you, you cite everything you use no matter what it is if you weren't the original creator. That means the images, the source code even if the code is your design but you got the idea of how to work out bugs some place else, conversations with people, videos no matter what type of format they are on, etc. Defiance wiki and most wikis out there do not do this. With that being said, no matter if you put 30 years of your life into it, you can't claim the work is yours since the work still belongs to the people that own the work originally, in this case SyFy and TRION Worlds as they own the rights to Defiance.

This regard the OPer doesn't have much of a legal standing since he's in the same boat. While I could be wrong, I'm pretty sure he didn't get his Defiance wiki authorized by SyFy nor TRION Worlds. This then would make any action done to one affect the other or be null and void because both are using stuff illegally. Even in derivate works that take information from other sources and in the use of the name Defiance which is a trademark owned by TRION Worlds and SyFy, they're many issues I see in both wikis which I know of no one that would likely say either has a legal case in the matter. And personally since wikia does say the source in a link at the bottom for certain pages, may side with the opposition and not his wiki. Example: http://defiance.wikia.com/wiki/Irathients

The thing about fan made stuff you have shaky legal ground to walk on at times. Yet another reason to cite things properly.