Destiny 2 Fan Art Provokes Plagiarism Debate Over Witness Cutscene
Destiny 2’s cutscene depicting the Witness’s origin is an important chapter. While its lore-rich video received much acclaim by fans of Destiny, its legality and morality debate remains ongoing. Artist @ELEMENTJ21 took to Twitter with two images: their Destiny fan art from two years prior – originally posted to Instagram and ArtStation — alongside still images from this cutscene video.
“The Veil of Darkness” art features a statue from the Pyramid Fleet covered with darkness amidst a circle and triangle shape with orb sitting at its bottom and several smaller pyramids surrounding its head – although not an exact copy, many Destiny 2 players commenting under this tweet hope the artist receives credit and compensation, while some feel Bungie shouldn’t take responsibility.
Additionally, this artist submitted their fan art to Bungie’s Community Creations digital gallery – when you attempt to submit links in that area it says that there are none left.
By filling out this form, you are submitting content to Bungie for consideration. By doing so, you are accepting our Bungie Services Terms of Use as well as promising us that the upload content has your consent for free use without conditions being attached or restrictions applied based on its subject matter; plus it follows our Code of Conduct.”
Bungie does not own artwork submitted for display on its Creations page (I don’t know if that includes TWID Artist of the Week submissions), yet Bungie may use that art freely within Destiny 2 lore and canon in-game. Unfortunately, its statement fails to inform artists whether their fan art will become canon in-game or whether their art could become canon.
Bungie’s policy on fan-created art outlines that artists may post fan art on social media or the Community Creation page and that commercializing any Destiny IP without permission may violate this section, though little detail on usage was given here; rather it can be found under “Materials Provided or Posted to Bungie Services in Terms of Use.”
Submitters to Bungie retain ownership, but the developer can use those materials royalty-free in derivative works or reproduce submissions without payment; “no compensation will be paid with regard to its use”, states Bungie’s submission policy – although that clause doesn’t explicitly list fan art material like images and videos – yet proper recognition or compensation are achievable should fan art become part of an in-game project.
Destiny 2 artists haven’t always found recognition of their artwork in Bungie games; when watching The Witch Queen promotional clip of Ikora’s evidence board for Ikora from Ikora: The Witch Queen, an artist recognized their fan art of Xivu Arath from their submission for fan art showcase. After initially thinking it to be accidental and reaching out for permission and crediting them as they wanted. Recently @D2Clarity — who works on third-party sites such as DIM — tweeted their visual recoil direction meter would now appear within Destiny 2.
Up until this point, Bungie hasn’t commented publicly about using fan art in the Witness cutscene.
Bungie announced on Twitter that an external vendor made an error by mistaking Faylona’s fan art for official Bungie artwork and will provide credit and compensation. Bungie expressed its regret to Faylona and will provide credit/compensation.
