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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Stealing DP Credits - AGAIN! Someone DO Something!

Demo reels & credits they are just another form of business card. As a Producer if you like what you see ......you do background checks.

If you don't.......... you deserve everything you get .
 
This whole situation reminds of a disturbing, and sad NPR story about the growth in plagiarism in American higher education. Lemme explain. Cuz I think it may have a lot to bear on this Alex thing.

As the story went, America's universities and colleges are noticing a massive uptick of students simply quoting massive CHUNKS of wikipedia in their essays, w/out any compulsion to ATTRIBUTE IT to Wikipedia. They just COPY AND PASTE it as their own. When confronted by this ethical lapse, these students actually get CONFUSED.

And now we get to the HEART of the story. Because these kids have grown up in an age where information is SHARED an UN-ATRRIBUTED (Wikipedia is like a massive catch all)...some of these kids have struggled with the concept that they CAN'T just take others work. They've been doing it their whole lives...stealing music, sampling movie clips, bending the concept of "ownership" in new, and un-charted ways.

Alex seems pretty young, so I immediately thought of that. I'm NOT excusing his behavior: IT'S INEXCUSABLE. But I do wonder if he's part of this sub-culture, one where creation and re-pasting are one in the same.

Either way, it's f*cked up. But the thought that Alex is part of a larger problem is even more sobering.
 
As a member of Alex's generation I find that offensive. There is a difference between being asked to regurgitate facts and simply regurgitating someone else's representation of the facts. Which while unethical is kind of a backlash against stupid assignments. Piecing together information to create a coherent answer is a valuable skill. In fact it's generally how the real world works. When someone asks me something, I usually give them a list of sources and quotes from said sources. I don't bother rewriting it. Why? Someone else already said it perfectly succinctly.

Stealing *credit* though is entirely different. The thing being asked isn't "What was the cause of World War II?" It's "how well can you light and frame a picture." By using someone else's work as your own you're lying and stealing. That's a whole different beast. Don't smear my whole generation for a bad apple. There are plenty of production companies out there stealing footage and representing it as their own who are being run by Gen-X and babyboomers.
 
Gavin Greenwalt said:
As a member of Alex's generation I find that offensive. There is a difference between being asked to regurgitate facts and simply regurgitating someone else's representation of the facts. Which while unethical is kind of a backlash against stupid assignments. Piecing together information to create a coherent answer is a valuable skill. In fact it's generally how the real world works. When someone asks me something, I usually give them a list of sources and quotes from said sources. I don't bother rewriting it. Why? Someone else already said it perfectly succinctly.

Stealing *credit* though is entirely different. The thing being asked isn't "What was the cause of World War II?" It's "how well can you light and frame a picture." By using someone else's work as your own you're lying and stealing. That's a whole different beast. Don't smear my whole generation for a bad apple. There are plenty of production companies out there stealing footage and representing it as their own who are being run by Gen-X and babyboomers.
Click to expand...

Gavin, I didn't mean to offend anyone. And, I may have been hasty. I'm not that much older than you are probably. I guess I'm just venting. I'm sick and tired of kids who steal music, steal software, don't want to pay for anything, crib off Wikipedia, and I guess I lump Alex's behavior in with this. And I DO see it as generational. I'm 36, but I have friends in their 20's who literally REFUSE to pay for anything they can easily steal on the internet, and are pretty upfront about it. They say, "why would I buy it if I can just get it".

Something has happened generationally. I have WAY more colleagues my age that PAY FOR EVERYTHING. But my younger friends are more likely NOT TO. Not all of them, obviously. And I hate that I'm being slightly sweeping here. But, it's a trend, like it or not.

Obv this guy Alex is a total asshole, and what he's doing is MUCH WORSE. It's not in the same league, and I shouldn't paint him as a poster boy for a generation, you are right, that's offensive. But...it just reminds me of a trend I'm NOT OK with.

Either way this guy is a dick and legal action should be taken.
 
Some of my work has found its way into other peoples showreels. But ironically these people are the sort that aren't likely to get work anyway, so i don't much care.. A solicitors letter usually sorts that out.

For better or worse, this is why much of the industry is based on personal relationships - working with people you trust, off the basis of things they've done with you in the past. Crappy for people (like me) trying to advance, but totally understandable in a world where credit is stolen from me and gets sandwiched in a show reel full of stuff so low in quality that I'd be ashamed to be associated with.

I think it's very hard to 'accidentally' credit yourself with someone elses work - the moment its typed out and posted to facebook etc its clearly theft.

But then... for all the blag, stealing, bravado (whatever you want to call it) anyone know if this guy is getting hired as a DP?
 
Nick Morrison said:
Gavin, I didn't mean to offend anyone. And, I may have been hasty. I'm not that much older than you are probably. I guess I'm just venting. I'm sick and tired of kids who steal music, steal software, don't want to pay for anything, crib off Wikipedia, and I guess I lump Alex's behavior in with this. And I DO see it as generational. I'm 36, but I have friends in their 20's who literally REFUSE to pay for anything they can easily steal on the internet, and are pretty upfront about it. They say, "why would I buy it if I can just get it".

Something has happened generationally. I have WAY more colleagues my age that PAY FOR EVERYTHING. But my younger friends are more likely NOT TO. Not all of them, obviously. And I hate that I'm being slightly sweeping here. But, it's a trend, like it or not.

Obv this guy Alex is a total asshole, and what he's doing is MUCH WORSE. It's not in the same league, and I shouldn't paint him as a poster boy for a generation, you are right, that's offensive. But...it just reminds me of a trend I'm NOT OK with.

Either way this guy is a dick and legal action should be taken.
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sorry...but maybe the problem is your friends? i am older then you and obviously work with plenty of younger people and i do not see this as a generation issue....
back in the day, we used to sit down with books and piece our papers together....it's called research...obviously it was much harder to check with books....the people quoting wikipedia are just plain dumb....sorry...
any one get the situation in germany where a representative had to resign because he ripped off papers? and yes, he is older then even me....
i am sure there are still plenty of people paying their way through school with writing other people's papers (maybe your doctor's...ouch...)...this has always happened and it always will....
digital form simply made things more accessible....so it is easier to rip it off.....we used to make mix tapes, now kids copy playlists with a click....we copied 20 songs, they copy 200....they probably would not have bought those 200 songs any more likely then we did the 20....
i remember 15 years ago, when copying software was almost a game....who would have more...did anyone actually use it? no....
but the digital revolution also opened up doors...nobody could shoot, produce, write and distribute a movie or documentary for less money then it have cost to develop the film 15 years ago...
anyway...there is a big difference between copying someone's work or claiming it as yours....

i have a story that looks at this from a different angle: a friend of mine was shown an image by a new client and asked if he could replicate it.....happened to be an image copied form my website....this happens all the time....we were laughing about it but as my friend said: why didn't they just call you?...there was no existing working relationship with him or with me.....
 
paul schefz said:
sorry...but maybe the problem is your friends? i am older then you and obviously work with plenty of younger people and i do not see this as a generation issue....
back in the day, we used to sit down with books and piece our papers together....it's called research...obviously it was much harder to check with books....the people quoting wikipedia are just plain dumb....sorry...
any one get the situation in germany where a representative had to resign because he ripped off papers? and yes, he is older then even me....
i am sure there are still plenty of people paying their way through school with writing other people's papers (maybe your doctor's...ouch...)...this has always happened and it always will....
digital form simply made things more accessible....so it is easier to rip it off.....we used to make mix tapes, now kids copy playlists with a click....we copied 20 songs, they copy 200....they probably would not have bought those 200 songs any more likely then we did the 20....
i remember 15 years ago, when copying software was almost a game....who would have more...did anyone actually use it? no....
but the digital revolution also opened up doors...nobody could shoot, produce, write and distribute a movie or documentary for less money then it have cost to develop the film 15 years ago...
anyway...there is a big difference between copying someone's work or claiming it as yours....

i have a story that looks at this from a different angle: a friend of mine was shown an image by a new client and asked if he could replicate it.....happened to be an image copied form my website....this happens all the time....we were laughing about it but as my friend said: why didn't they just call you?...there was no existing working relationship with him or with me.....
Click to expand...

OK, OK. Do we have to bring my "friends" into this? I still think you're missing my point about that original NPR Wikipedia story I mentioned . You are right: plagiarism has always happened. But the difference is, some kids (NOT ALL) in college are no longer aware that it's wrong. They've grown up, as Millenials, in an age where information is so freely shared...that it feels normal to copy and paste w/out attribution, and w/out a value on what they think

That's it. That's my lame point. I'll let it go, cuz obviously I'm coming off like an assole, which wasn't the idea.

Besides this is hijacking this thread, which is really about this asshole who's stealing people's work, which I agree, is a whole different animal, and totally sucks.
 
Nick Morrison said:
This whole situation reminds of a disturbing, and sad NPR story about the growth in plagiarism in American higher education. Lemme explain. Cuz I think it may have a lot to bear on this Alex thing.

As the story went, America's universities and colleges are noticing a massive uptick of students simply quoting massive CHUNKS of wikipedia in their essays, w/out any compulsion to ATTRIBUTE IT to Wikipedia. They just COPY AND PASTE it as their own. When confronted by this ethical lapse, these students actually get CONFUSED.

And now we get to the HEART of the story. Because these kids have grown up in an age where information is SHARED an UN-ATRRIBUTED (Wikipedia is like a massive catch all)...some of these kids have struggled with the concept that they CAN'T just take others work. They've been doing it their whole lives...stealing music, sampling movie clips, bending the concept of "ownership" in new, and un-charted ways.

Alex seems pretty young, so I immediately thought of that. I'm NOT excusing his behavior: IT'S INEXCUSABLE. But I do wonder if he's part of this sub-culture, one where creation and re-pasting are one in the same.

Either way, it's f*cked up. But the thought that Alex is part of a larger problem is even more sobering.
Click to expand...

Okay dude, I'm gonna have to argue against this because that is simply not true, at least in the UC's...every class has extensive plagairism education, it's in every syllabus, and the school has a zero tolerance for that kind of thing. Also, every essay gets uploaded online into a program called SafeAssign that scans for matching content. Most of the time, its not them copy pasting wikipedia, its them copy pasting from other academic articles that pertain to their essay, unknowingly, but again there is a strong emphasis on citing and how to proeprly use information to support your arguments in an essay or paper.

I dont know what school that article got their story from, but its probably some shitty inner city community college.
 
Weird thing is: He doesn't seem to own either an Epic or a Scarlet. So what does he think he's gaining through that?
All Scarlet pics on Facebook but on his site he's talking about the EPIC-M package.

A lot - if not all - of the pics are Tonaci's Scarlet.
 
Josh Mitchell said:
He is going by Alex Sasaki now. Check out his website - www.alexsasakidp.com - and email - alexsasakidp@gmail.com I can't believe he stole this high-profile vimeo video - https://vimeo.com/58375780
Click to expand...

And this guy is an Epic M owner?
What a little smart ass, changing the shorts tittle and hiding the vimeo roots.
Something I don't understand, what's going on in the brain of that young mythomane?
What will hapend to him the day of his first real gig?
Poor bastard, I'm feeling sorry for him.
When he will realise he's lying to himself, I can see a bad ending to all that shit.
Me think this young beetle is affected by a serious mental desease.
B.
 
As a business model, it probably works for him well enough to pay the rent and maybe put a motorcar under him. Who knows, he may even be able to pull the birds with his chameleon games. Like Mortein, if it works, don't change it - his apparent ethos, not mine. I would not expect he will change his spots anytime soon. What he is doing is harmfully re-inforcing popular negative ethnic stereotypes. A client may one day catch him out with a defective job and bus him. On the other hand he may just become competent enough to hold his own or even excel. - I don't like his personal ethos though.
 
Jason Comparetto said:
What country is he based in? Perhaps a class action lawsuit will make him change his ways.
Click to expand...

He's in the US, Los Angeles, according to his posts and all available information. Judging by his posts, he hasn't quite mastered the English language, though his websites look a bit too polished to be the work of someone who can't speak the English language well.
 
Dying laughing at Will screwing with Richie... Richie is one of the most talented, creative and hardworking guys that I know. :D

Forums=Rorschach test. The intent is in the mind of the beholder most times...
 
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