#starrythroat

POV: you are an unprobed mind a soup can

They act now that your money will flow into certain mentioned organisations (yeah, right !), in return you get some cheap, childish plastic/wooden sh!t in return (yeah, great) they try to make money with copyrighted stuff (the entire DA lore, games, characters, etc. yes it it all copyrighted). The money flows directly into their own pockets and they share it with their scam-"artists".

Do not give these thieves/scammers any of your personal informations nor any money, if you want any DA merch get the official Bioware merch and prints or create these cheap plastic pins, emotes yourself (if you do it just for your own use, without selling it, it is tolerated) -> go to a printshop, at least you know where your money really ends up and it's cheaper.

Behind these zine and merch blogs sit scammers who will keep the money they make, do not let them fool you and here is another "fanzine" that is working the same way and both blogs are very likely connected, the one who sells Leliana (lelianazine) merch:

(you see the blogs always look similar and emphasize "charity")

This individual here wants for a A4 print or a cheap coffee cup with print on a good amount of money for a character he does not even own the rights on. The printing itself is cheap af and you get it for a few euro in any print shop lol (even the reviews are fake, copy pasted). Like most art scammers he sends himself anon asks, too typical for them to have a reason to advertise their stuff further. There are many of such "artists" out there but they all do the same: they sell art/merch/zines that is copyright protected.

he even tries to copy the original artstyle of Zevran drawn by Matt Rhodes here the original:

Here the following art that copies the original by the concept art style (armor, body posture, dagger position, even the window in the background is same), but yeah it's his art....

(shhhh tell nobody I stole Matt Rhodes artstyle and make money out of it)

^ an abandoned scam account, they create regularly new ones

again: Online transactions can be easily tracked, you can get into trouble by law too not only the one who sells the forbidden stuff that is copyrighted. Many of the tumblr "artists" who create art for the fanzines are known donation scam supporters (others do not know it any better but they know they make money with copyrighted characters), they try to make money from different sources and it is at the end the same = scam. Do not let them fool you !

I always wonder why these artists do not do their own very individual art (if they want to sell anything, fanart is fine as long as not sold) that is NOT connected to any existing merch/company/in general copyright protected. Lack of own creativity? They want to surf on the already existing hype wave of what others had built? I would say both, next to scamming people.

If you want DA prints get it from the original DA artists Matt Rhodes for example I mentioned him in another post you get quality there, it's legal and made by the lead concept artist himself, or merch from Biowares offical merch shop.

My other post about merch and zine scam:

I did a similar post before about someone who tries to make money with copyright protected merch, again: creating cosplay props for yourself is ok without selling it. Making a business out of it on ETSY or where ever it is sold, no matter how small the business is, is ILLEGAL (selling and buying it). Online transactions can be easily tracked: Keep your hands off merch that is not original but people use the name of a big brand to make money out of it. That way you do not get into trouble.

Here are some examples how the fake merch looks like: (this applies to all fandoms not only DA, it only serves as an example)

65 USD for some plastic sh** that looks like it's done for 3 year olds? A Leliana plushy for 50 USD that was designed by some random tumblr artist??? Of course the design of Leliana and her clothes is not AT ALL a Bioware thing *cough*. It was created by the DA Origins concept artists (the character, her clothes). The person above works together with several tumblr artists to share the money, the problem is: the idea, design, the character and everything else is not their own to have any right to make money out of it.

here a few more examples of illegal merch:

design stolen from DAI, this cosplay prop was 3D printed and the very "smart" person tries to make a business out of it too (prop won't even survive long by quality). same person tries to sell this too:

"A Cullen Rutherford POTION" with a silicone medallion, using the character's name and the official concept art of the medallion (3D printed).

As if it is not bad enough that it is illegal, what kind of sh** do people try to sell connected to games that are actually based (DAO-DAI) and they make a kids circus out of it with ridiculous looking childish stickers and plushies, cheap bathing gel.... my eyes burn seeing such bullcrap connected to my favourite games.

Someone reacted to my previous post (click here) and that person (a fan zine artist) was surprised that it is illegal to use copyright protected characters (official concept art), the character's name, clothes, story what ever else to sell "own" merch or so called fan zines.

Let me explain it a little bit more detailed: Disney, Bioware, CDPR (and so on) got their own merch, they own the rights on the name and look of the characters which had been created by concept artists who work(ed) for the company, it is their idea, their art and they sell their own merch.

If someone now sells merch for example anything connected to Cullen Rutherford, or a Leliana plushy who wears the clothes Leliana wore in DAO or Cullen's DAI sword or his lucky coin, that person illegally uses the reputation and design of the original character to make profit out of it and this is illegal. There are several cases existing where Disney sued small companies because they used one of their characters for their business (restaurants, bars, a small book store for example). The problem here is as I mentioned before to make profit with the idea, characters that are copy right protected, like in this example:

The core design was not created by some fan artist, it is not a complete own creation but you can identify this plushy as Leliana from DAO even the clothes are recognisable. She is called Leliana and is sold as such: They try to make money with DAO Bioware's Leliana.

Cullen Rutherford, Solas..... inspired candle? yeah right LOL 100% soy..... yeah that I believe at once. Same person asks for donation too, obviously is unable to get a decent education and get a job, begging for money is easier.......

AGAIN: If you create a plushy or what ever for your OWN use WITHOUT selling it, like for your own cosplay props that is tolerated by most, but making an own business with it and making money out of other ppl's ideas, concept art, characters, the entire DA universe, is illegal and can be sued easily and I have seen enough of such cases.

The excuse: but so many others do it, so it's ok right? does not really work, would you jump off a cliff because others do it? yes? then go ahead but the impact will be hard and merciless (and very expensive). That is why I send out this warning because people do not seem to realize what they get into and think it is just some harmless fan-thing.

After researching a little I found out that some of the artists who produce art for the DA zine are well known for supporting gaza scammers and scam spreaders too, that means they use their art in two ways to make illegal money, with the merch and luring people into scam donation for which they get a piece of the cake too as you can imagine.