Speaking as someone who knows someone that worked on SMG4 during the Puzzlevision era, I worry that Mod and JFA’s attempts to talk to Glitch will end up with nothing but continued silence, and depending on how things proceed, more money lost. TPOH is so niche I doubt they even used RGB’s design to lift from, let alone be inspired by.
If Glitch still has his concept art around (and they more than likely do under NDA), the plagiarism accusations hold no water, and given the lack of response from Glitch, it seems likely that they’re aware of that too.
I don’t want to be a downer about the situation, but this genuinely seems like an open and shut case where it’s just two people having the same idea. Even if they could have gotten back to her initially, Glitch wouldn’t respond to a message about a character they didn’t plagiarize.
Hi ! Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me, it's not the first time someone has expressed about this line of inquiry in my inbox though ^^
Maybe you have more of an insight to things due to your connections (won't ask who they are, that's not the point, and I don't wanna fall into that "oh it's a 'source : trust me bro' thing" either), but while TPoH is smaller, it's been here 14 years earlier and RGB still shows up in the results when typing "TV head OC" or just "TV head" in the search bars. The fact that there's no other TV head with an error bar-code for a mouth kinda gives doubts too : else there would be many more running around.
Also, I'm one of the people who found about SMG4 through TPoH actually : I learned about The Property of Hate first (so, the smaller thing) before SMG4 - literally learned Mr Puzzles existed because of Mod's posts 2 years ago.
And I'm not the only one.
Whether it is actual plagiarism (innocent or outright theft), or independent creation (the term for "two people having the same idea"), Glitch/SMG4 could have actually answered ages ago and solved this fairly quickly. After all, if it's a sheer accident, best clear the air immediately, right ? Which they did for the KoG sticker.
Yet they avoided to reply to Mod directly, and we had to made noise to obtain a statement from Cube, and then more noise to make the case progress.
Since you have more insight due to your connections, you're surely no stranger for how SMG4 does things : a lot of their IP is actually based on other IPs (parody, satire : fair use) but even they had to start making original content or turn stuff into their own (Meggy's human form, Peach's Caste destroyed and reworked, hell, even the name SuperMarioGlitchy became SuperMemeGuardian, the logo not having the same font anymore because it was a copyrighted Mario font....), basically being in pretty risky waters themselves since drawing from other IPs is a pretty recurrent thing with them.
They do have original characters ! But, well, given the above ? People can and will start to ask a lot of questions.
Then there's the matter of the CEO and CCO (the Lerdwichagul brothers) mysteriously disappearing whenever there's a problem requiring their attention, or addressing it obliquely and way later. Celeste Notley-Smith ? Poof, no answer, and manager Jasmine suddenly does a 180 (despite not being on the SMG4 side of things in Glitch) and 'admits' it's "all her fault". Artists being mishandled and pushed to crunch constantly ? Poof, Kevin Lerdwichagul spinning it into "lack of experience" and other PR speak that actually does not hold much water or contradicts what a good number of people testimony of.
Mod writing them many times, first non-legally, then legally, then us mass-mailing, to solve a harassment and design similarities problem leading to said harassment ?
Poof, Cube sent to make a statement but no word for the actual directors of Glitch/SMG4 and users of Mr Puzzles.
See the pattern ? Because there's one going on at Glitch and the more we look into it, the less pleasant it becomes.
Also, we don't know what's happening between both parties right now, so I'm waiting until the final line is given to decide what to think and how to act.
And if the "plagiarism accusations hold no water", then how come SMG4 "fans" accused Mod of it, how come people semi-constantly confuse RGB with Mr Puzzles and vice-versa, how come people go harass the "niche" creator over it ?
That one happened a few days ago by the way :
Yep, that's literally a poll not even involving SMG4 or anything to do with it, not on any of this situation, and people STILL get the two confused over the similarities.
I have screenshots of many cases like this. Some dedicate entire Reddit threads to it.
One more thing : the more a side ignores all attempts, especially the legal ones, to communicate, the more the jury can legitimately think that said side has something fishy going on - it's actually in SMG4/Glitch's best interest to answer to Mod (both with legal help on their side of course).
Given that there's a harassment case and a potential loss of livelihood attached to it on this one, and it's the "we help indie artists" studio ignoring an indie artist... yyyeaaaaah not looking good.
For the reminder : Mod was the one accused of plagiarism from the "fans" in the first place, threatened with cancel culture (which is a thing), and suicide-baited. Glitch/SMG4 had all the chances to turn it into a good case for them by helping Mod out (finding an amiable solution together involving a common statement recognizing Mod's IP and rights, that RGB was there first and has nothing to do with Mr Puzzles) to make the haters back off. Literally this could have been solved in 2 weeks tops and both Glitch/SMG4 and Mod could have had a very good outcome !
And more and more people are noticing.
Now we have to wait and see.
In any case, thanks for your ask, and don't worry to be "a downer" : it's not the first time I've got people like that in my inbox expressing that sentiment. Funnily enough they're mostly the ones with the least to lose - nothing will change for them. Outside of, maybe, Mr Puzzles' design, slightly, IF he has to change ?
But I think that's pretty survivable ^^
(They're always anon or almost, too, for some reason.)
On our side we're fighting for a very real person and their well-being. Guess here lies the difference.
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