Quote:
Originally Posted by sarah_hornik
What I would do, is purchase the existing tuts on goddesses for research purposes. That's the only way for you to know for sure if your technique is substantially different. If it is, I don't think there would be a problem.
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Sort of a catch-22, though. In the current climate here on LE, it would scare me terribly to take this approach (purchasing others tutorials for research purposes). I'd be afraid someone might second guess or question my integrity (about using already published materials) if I were to purchase one or more goddess tutorials right before writing and offering one for sale myself.
I don't think it matters whether it's slightly or completely different; in recent threads, people's integrity and ethics have been called into question for all sorts of "perceived" infringements and copyright violations. Those policing other's actions and intentions seem (to me, at least) to have a "shoot first and ask questions later" sort of mentality, only I haven't seen too much of the "ask questions later".
From my perspective, once someone decides you've done something morally bankrupt, and a second person agrees with that statement publicly, from then on, posters seem to feel okay stating their opinion as accepted fact, i.e., "We all agree that what she did was WRONG". In fact, here on LE, there are far too many people reading threads and NOT posting, and just because the active posters taking a particular position in a thread are in agreement, that does not make it so for the rest of the community.
I have strongly disagreed with a number of the opinions stated as "FACT" recently, but like many others (based on conversations I've had with many others, not just my supposition) I don't wish to put myself in the cross-hairs. I suppose that's what I'm doing now, and I apologize to Pyro Beads if this seems to derail her thread. However, I think it's pertinent to the discussion, and I suspect that this fear is exactly why she is raising the question right now.
It's very clear to me, that even if you get a lot of positive reinforcement in this thread for going ahead with the project (which I also feel you should, from my personal standpoint, in a perfect world) you need to factor in that at some later point in time, once you offer something for sale, your intentions and integrity as an artist and as a person could be subject to very public scrutiny and judgment on this forum. How I wish that weren't the case, but sadly, at the moment, it seems to be.
Good luck with whatever you decide. Your gods and goddess beads are really lovely representations of an ancient form.
Schermo