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I dunno if any of you guys followed him, but Darren had a really great blog http://razzaminipainting.blogspot.com/ along with his coolminiornot page, each post was basically like something you found in white dwarf, but informal and frequent. It seems to me because of this, he has been asked to remove the blog, a terible shame since we see less and less of the team as it is now, unless we buy WD articles. Granted its not 100 percent clear this is the reason, but the evidence suggests it.

Could they actually do this? it is all his personal work after all, it seems rather harsh.

(also taken down all previous articles, started a tutorial he said he would continue step by step, and even a nice small piece about another eavy metal member all very close to the announcement he would be closing)

Whaa?

I wouldn't be surprised if it was requested it be taken down, but at the same point I'm a little disgusted. It's fairly common for companies in the UK to contractually own all rights to creative work done in similar fields in the period of your employment (so a mini painting blog could be argued as mini painting advice, something that falls in the GW remit).

But yeah, his blog was a great source of tips and tricks. A loss of a cool resource.
If it was GW behind it, that's a hell of a dick move, as the americans say.

winterdyne wrote:Whaa?

It's someone trying to stir up the pot, I think.

From Darren's own posting on his blog:

Darren Latham wrote:Hi all, just a quick post to say that i will be closing this blog over the next week. Due to time constraints etc I will no longer be able to post and update here regularly.
All I can say is thank you for viewing my work and I hope in some way that you found it useful and insightful. I’m also sorry to those people who may be disappointed that the blog will end, sorry again.
Keep painting! All the best, Darren

I don't see any real suggestion that he was "forced" to do it.

Other than the fact that all the content's been pulled down. It's not a 'no longer updating this blog' it's a 'this blog is no longer here'.

I have read that post of course, followed his blog for a long time.

Why would he need to remove all his old posts though? Those blogspots are free IIRC

*shrug* Maybe he didn't want people deeplinking to his blog in case he decides to start a new one at some point with the same content? Maybe he's collecting it all to sell in a .pdf tutorial or something?

There's quite a few scenarios where it's possible that he'd remove the content before deleting the blog, but it's still far too early for my mind to think of them all.

Unfortunately I am a massive pessimist.

Thankfully his coolmini page still exists, with some text on the models he featured on the blog such as
https://www.coolminiornot.com/292211?browseid=530653

A stunning model/conversion.

I imagine if anything, the tips and 'white dwarfy' posts would be the stuff that might cause some gripes with GW, as it is the type of thing they could easily pass off in articles as you suggest, but the fact we haven't had any masterclasses in eons makes me rather curious.

You can be a pessimist all you want, but your original post is pure speculation at this point.

Yeah of course it is, granted my title is a little too presumptuous.

EDIT: Also removed the 'CLEARLY' bit

You can change the title too, y'know. At this point it's simply "Darren Latham closes blog" with the "forced" part being speculation.

As to whether or not they could force it, probably. Might be a bit on the shady side doing it, but who knows. GW might want them for their own website too, given how many of their tutorials are gone.

Ta, was thinking of another forum didnt even look at the title bar

I can't see the blog, but remember that since GW owns the IP on the models, and the IP on the unique paint names, any use of the paints or the minis counts as "Derivative Work." Now if you have a webpage that has an Ad banner on it, weather you put it there or not, there's income being made on IP.

So there's legal grounds for a Cease and Desist order that would force a pulling of all the tutorials from a blog.

Not saying it happened, or that it has happened, but it *COULD* happen, and we need to remember that. The internet is a screwy place, legally speaking.

EDIT: Yes, this means that GW could contact Dakka tomorrow and demand every gallery image of a GW mini pulled. And in 4 years when the court case finishes, if the site isn't closed from crushing legal fees, the pictures would go away. and yes, this will probably never happen, and yes this would be shooting themselves in the foot, and yes, we've seen them shoot themselves in the foot before, and yes, I've been reading FAR to many Dakka threads if I feel the need to auto include the next 5 posts worth of standard commentary.

Life is cruel man :(

grishnaz wrote:Unfortunately I am a massive pessimist.

Thankfully his coolmini page still exists,

That could go too. You should archive the pictures just in case.

From what I understand he shut his blog down after moving from the painting side of the studio to the sculpting side

UNCLEBADTOUCH wrote:From what I understand he shut his blog down after moving from the painting side of the studio to the sculpting side

Incorrect, he did announce his switch a while back and said he might not continue, but there were plenty of blog entires after that (sculpting and painting), his blog literally closed a few days ago.

grishnaz wrote:

UNCLEBADTOUCH wrote:From what I understand he shut his blog down after moving from the painting side of the studio to the sculpting side

Incorrect, he did announce his switch a while back and said he might not continue, but there were plenty of blog entires after that (sculpting and painting), his blog literally closed a few days ago.

Yeah, 2/12 he posted a turtorial, 2/13 he had a goodby notice with all other content gone, 2/15 it's a blank page.