It might be copyright infringement...but who cares? The more people get the see this babe, the better! Isn't more exposure what models need in their business?

Did anyone buy/play this game? Can it really be as bad as it looks/sounds?

Because its looks and sounds so bad (title, screens, content, etc), that it might go all the way around and cross into awesome.

But probably not. So I'm curious.

"OMIGAWD THEY STOL MAI PICHUR OF GRRL IN BAKINEEZ" I have a strange feeling "Hot Import Nights" (awful,awful name) have their asses covered, and probably made her sign something she wasnt entirely aware of. if not, good luck you suers! This is America, we get rich from lawsuits!

@neko613:
As a budding photographer, I've been following similar stories elsewhere. The point isn't about "exposure". The point is that someone STOLE the photograph.

If I copy your song and put it on my album and sell a million copies, that's cool because you're getting "exposure" right?

The photo was used without permission, and is being used in a commercial product that is making money for THQ. The photog and the model are not being compensated for this. This is against the law.

@DaiMacculate: Just a tad mediocre.

Love the last post on that thread, "what is a kotaku?".

That message post reads like it came from a 13 year old teen with the writing skills of a 1st grader.

Good lord, you would think that most adults would (and SHOULD) have better writing skills than that.

@pandafresh: The guy says the model and he both did not give permission for the photo to be used.

@PissedPS3Fan:
What this guy said.

You can't dismiss it because the game isn't great or if it doesn't break the 1M sales mark.

@DaiMacculate: The first one on original Xbox was decent, but seemed much like a cash-in on the NFSU/F&tF craze. It was decent, but nothing special.

@PissedPS3Fan: More exposure? Did you miss the joke there?

I wouldn't want anyone to know anything I did was of Juiced caliber. =D

Zing!

I'm sure THQ would be fine with give him royalties from all 5 copies of Juiced 2 they sold

Only thing I know about the game was one of my friends was a VA for one of the drivers in the game.

How much damages could he realistically claim? I doubt his art raised sales any.

@MrStabby6: Yeah that made me smile

Sadly, incidents like this happen because companies have been known to get away with it. A few of my animation friends from Sheridan College worked on car models for Need For Speed: Prostreet, but to this day they have yet to be paid as was promised. Where is justice when wealthy, big shot companies are reduced to ripping off starving college kids? It's not like they can afford to sue.

TV and newspapers have to buy or clear each and every still they use and so do games. You can't just 'borrow' somebodies work without express permission from the copyright holder. The question is, who is the copyright holder?

There's no real money in it, but it's poor form.

@neko613: If that was your work you'd fucking care quite a bit.

@arstal:

It's not that the picture raised sales it's that he and she weren't paid the amount they should have been.

I wouldn't like if someone stole my work, made money off of it, and proclaim it was theirs or put false words in my mouth saying I allowed it.

I hope he does get some sort of payment if it is his work.

@Morberis: I don't think this is the case, but it may not be just about the money (even if payment had been offered) - maybe she didn't want her image in the game at all for some reason. I've worked with modeling stuff before and sometimes models specifically do not want their image used in certain media for whatever personal reason.

@Idontloveyou:

True, but in any case this is not for the most part about the success of the game but about the (possibly) illegal use of the image.

One interesting thing I picked up from that forum is that apparently he signed nothing when he handed the image away.

I was over at fred miranda when he posted that picture I remember it vividly because of the shockingly beautiful girl in it. I hope he gets what he deserves.

@neko613: Im going to assume that the guy who took the photo and isnt making any money from its use which IS making money....

@June: A few of my animation friends from Sheridan College worked on car models for Need For Speed: Prostreet, but to this day they have yet to be paid as was promised.

You know they call it "contract" work for a reason, right? So... ?

@PissedPS3Fan: Funny how people care when it's the "little guy" getting ripped off. There are plenty of "little guys" operating the boom mics and the cameras and the recording equipment on those movies and songs that people pirate left and right. There are plenty of "little guys" working on games for EA and Sony and Epic that are torrented day and night.

"What is a kotaku?" quote from there forum. I loled.

@neko613: This 'good exposure' you mention is essentially working for free. The photographer and the model have invested time and money into this photo, so unless they're paid for it they're essentially working at a loss. Not a great idea if you want it to be your main source of income.

Moreover, if the photographer wishes to license this image for use elsewhere, his bargaining power might be reduced if the prospective client finds out its being used elsewhere for free. Along a similar vein, if he doesn't follow this up and other prospective clients find out, why wouldn't they just go ahead and use whatever images they wanted without permission or payment?

@Re:Loaded: Juiced 2 (however sucky it is) has made it into the top 10 and top 20 weekly sales in at least the Australia and the UK respectively, with circulation like that there is enough to be made to make it worth the photographers efforts to follow this up.

@Morberis: The photographer shouldn't have to sign something to protect his rights, this should be as standard - a contract is bought into the equation when the photographer wishes to license some of those rights for a specific use. THQ has no link to this photographer, and while yes the model did provide them with a copy of the image, they should have known better than to use it without the permission of the photographer, who by default retains all rights to any image he has created. In most situations like this, the image would only be accepted from a third party if they can provide a written document showing that they are in a position to relicense the image for the new usage.

@Detre:

hahahaha me too, I was just about to post it here

Oh come on guys it was a joke. Models in swimsuits are supposed to like "more exposure".

@emag:

Those little guyes are paid, their also usually in a thing I like to call, a Union.

Those people are paid no matter what, if the movie sucked, they still work for the same amount, if it was a blast, their still getting paid the same amount.

@neko613: I thought it was pretty obvious. Best just to move on and forget about a messed up joke. Just look what happened to John Kerry.

@emag:
Comment on Photog Claims Juiced 2 Swiped His Work Well hell, I didn't want to have to bother replying but here I go... Piracy is not theft. Piracy is the duplication and sharing of data. This was not sharing, it was duplication and sale of data. THQ made (a little) money off of this game, and the photographer deserves a part of that money since he was the one that snapped that shot.

@emag:

Piracy isn't theft. Piracy is the duplication and sharing of data. Juice Games didn't share this picture, they sold it. And the photographer deserves a cut for his work.

@Erwin:

"Just look what happened to John Kerry"

Sorry for the double post but I had to let you know that I just lol'ed.

You're welcome Kotaku. I love u guys.

@Lunisneko: Uh, I'm pretty sure pirating games is theft.

Regardless. Using someone elses copyrighted material without permission is fail.

@OneFreeMan: So now that the project's done and the game has been released, where's their money? I bet you'd care if you worked hard on something and didn't get your dues. It's not right.

I don't see how any of this has anything to do with piracy. What they allegedly did wasn't piracy, it was theft.

Kinky, let's just leave it at that.

tamato tomato theft has so many subcatagories that piracy also falls in to theft.

using copyrighted matieral without permission can also fall under the catagory of theft.

do we have to split hairs?

@PissedPS3Fan: Hell yes! I'm a photographer too! :D

Yeah neko, stuff like this is NOT cool. I've gone through this process where one of my photos won a contest and was then used in ANOTHER contest by some twat.

Needless to say. His face got creamed on by me and the justice system.

Although... the red tape IS a bitch, it's useful and a very big thing to keep in your files.

@pandafresh: They made HER sign something, but it's still the picture-taker's photo to sell or not sell.

He 99% won't be getting anything. From reading the forum topic, the guy hadn't even copyrighted the image. It's been almost 6 months since Juiced 2 has come out, and the window for the copyright I believe is 90 days. While it sucks that the image was used, the circumstances aren't in their favor. The model submitted this pic with her portfolio when she became a model for Hot Import Nights, and at the time, it was not copyrighted. Though it is slightly underhanded, there was nothing wrong with THQ using the image in the game, and I'm sure there's a clause in the contract she was under with HIN that allows them to use her pictures for the game.

Basically this guy went: "Oh I took some pictures that someone didn't use, no use putting a copyright on them. What? Someone used one in a game 6 months ago? Time to cash in!"

/endthread

@Nowell:
Photographers automatically own the copyright to their work the second the shutter clicks. I work in the photo business; the photographer doesn't need to do anything special to reinforce his copyright - he has it, guaranteed. The only exception is if he was employed by a studio at the time, in which case the studio would own the copyright.

Whenever I as an artist see large company's pull shit like this Iget angered, at the same time, accidents do happen, and long Thq is cool about it and maybe throws the guy a bone this will lot of free publicity for both model and photographer.
bonus for him

@emag:

Where did he advocate piracy? Do you just assume everyone on the internet apart from yourself is constantly downloading torrents of games/movies/albums? I suppose that you are above reproach though?

How about nobody steal from anybody. As it is, THQ is reminding me of Eliot Spritzer (who wanted stiffer and stiffer fines for Johns and turned out to be one himself), complaining against losses due to theft and then turn around and save money on producing crappy games by stealing resources. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

wowwewewa! hubba hubba

After reader the forum post I'm calling 'Shenanigan's' on this.

In the post the guy says he's a photographer and worked on what I would presume is a fairly well-known chain, since we have a couple here in New Hampshire, Beach Planet.

He then goes on to say that he did this work for them but he only saved his digital images to ONE hard drive, and that drive has *unfortunately* crashed so he can't prove that image is his.

Having worked in traditional and digital photography studios I know that you just don't do this. As soon as you're done shooting the images you immediately burn the RAW's to a DVD. After that you save them out on multiple drives. And then any retouching is saved on on other multiple hard drives.

This professional photographer only saved his commercial clients work onto one hard drive in his computer? Doesn't