Russian RocketBrush Studio accused GamePack Studio of appropriating other people’s works

The works of RocketBrush artists made for Megarama Games appeared on the GamePack Studio website in the 2D Animation section;

• in the GamePack videos, the copyright of RocketBrush and Megarama was cut off (the necessary instructions are present in the original materials);
• Leftward:

RocketBrush art; on the right: screenshot from the GamePack websitelater it turned out that there are other examples of other people’s work in the portfolio of the Ukrainian company GamePack.

• For example, the art studio Room8 and the image of the samurai authored by the artist Eugene Loop (he confirmed that he did not work with GamePack and did not give permission to use his work);RocketBrush also indicates that all the works on the studio’s website are on the “Our Portfolio” page;
• at the same time, the GamePack website states that these are “examples of quality” that studio employees are able to achieve.
• However, it is not indicated anywhere that other people’s works are used in the portfolio.GamePack Studio Position

On October 7, the situation was made public in the Game Developers – Ukraine group on Facebook.

Soon the founder of the studio Ruslan Zelensky was also noted in the comments.

We work with a very large number of performers on a freelance basis, they can even work for another studio in parallel and have freelance tasks from us, so there was an agreement with each performer, and they gave the go-ahead to show their work to our potential clients. So all the works that are on that link are the works of the guys we worked with.

Ruslan Zelensky

founder of GamePack Studio

The head of RocketBrush, Alex Rublev, commented on Zelensky’s statement: “Customers are aware that these are the works of people we work with” — firstly, you do not indicate this, but, on the contrary, write “check out our portfolio”, secondly, again, these people did not work with you. What the hell is going on?”;

In response, Zelensky wrote simply: “So you don’t know everything about your employees.”

What do other artists say?”Why logos were cut out and works on the site were used is a good question,” writes 3D animator Tanya Apasova, who gave GamePack permission to show only personal works, and not those belonging to another studio;

• Skymoons Interactive employee recalled his experience working with a Ukrainian company:
• “A year ago, we tried to sell our outsourcing services, supporting the offer with examples of works from the portfolio of OUR studio”;in a conversation with RocketBrush, several artists confirmed that GamePack often turns to a freelancer with a request to show the work to customers, after which it simply cuts out the copyright and adds them to its portfolio.
• RocketBrush Conclusions

The company believes that GamePack intentionally uses other people’s work to fill the portfolio, sometimes without even asking permission from the authors.

“It is obvious that this is happening systematically, and Ruslan Zelensky has written to dozens of artists with a similar request, including those who have never worked with GamePack studio,” RocketBrush said in a statement.

Apart from the discussion on Facebook and apologies to several artists, Zelensky did not additionally comment on the situation. In turn, RocketBrush calls this practice “dishonest and unacceptable.” More details about their investigation and the necessary screenshots can be found here.

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