PSA Nilthenihilist: Resolved (3.05)

Hello, I don't really know if this belongs on the forums or not but, this is by far the most unpleasant experience I've ever had with a commissioner. This is mostly a design PSA because I don't want this design to be floating around with him claiming it belongs to him when he did not pay for it. The lesson to take away from this is to never sketch anything before payment is confirmed to be cleared, even if they are your friend. (You think I'd know better as an adult but some of us have to learn the hard way.) This is really disheartening as I considered Nil my friend and I don't want to air this out like this, but because he blocked me after telling me I could not sell my own design or I can delete it, I felt this was appropriate because I could not continue to speak with him to tell him he cannot do that to me as I retain rights to my designs.


On the 22nd of February, Nil had ordered a commission from me here: https://toyhou.se/~bulletins/120783.closed-ty-
Just in case it is archived by me in the future: https://sta.sh/01fq4c9utfxp

After a day, I decided to close and accept his slot. Sometime later I asked him on a shared discord server to clarify if he wanted a custom or a regular semi chibi commission.

Archived version in case: https://sta.sh/0vot62b5mq2

After this, I sent the form again in the chat to which I said he could DM it to me if he preferred. He did DM it to me and this is what it looked like.
Archived: https://sta.sh/05jszv5lbkp

The video of Revenant which he is referring to was done in the shared Discord at a much earlier date when he was sharing his ideas for Nil's god form with me. The link to the video he sent me is as follows: https://www.ea.com/games/apex-legends/about/characters/revenant (at the bottom of the page). And so begins where I started to foolishly make the mistake of designing the character based on the form without the payment clearing. I had known Nil for a while now, and once again, considered him a friend. I was really excited to help him bring his idea to life, and the desire to design had my inspiration and I had no doubt in my mind he would pay. Besides that, I knew how enthusiastic he was about commissioning me, so I just wanted to pep him up and make sure the design was to his taste. He said he would pay two days from the 24th.
Archived: https://sta.sh/0irxdennrg7

As I said in the screenshot I was sketching it, and so I sent him a wip early.
Archived: https://sta.sh/0qa75hb8jml
Archived: https://sta.sh/0299d23m18uc
After I sent this, he wanted to see variations of the design with horns and an icicle crown but, I decided to wait for the payment before proceeding to send him those versions.

The next day (February 25th) he had told me that payment was sent. I wasn't on discord that day, so the next day I checked and saw that he told me he sent payment. I logged into Paypal to confirm and did not see the payment. I then told him that I did not get the payment, to which he sent me a screenshot of his own PayPal.

Archive: https://sta.sh/0fni7g4oruArchive: https://sta.sh/04d70b9htq5

I was unfamiliar with this despite doing a few commissions now, I had never seen the commissioner's side of the invoice. When it said -$100 like that, I assumed it actually deducted from his account and asked him if we needed to wait for the bank to clear it or something.  I found it really strange, but decided if that was truly the case the bank should surely clear it within two days (He sent it on the 25th and this was the 26th where I talked to him about it.)

Archive: https://sta.sh/03n67irndii

The 27th came, and there was still no payment to my account. I started to wonder why this was happening, as I've never had an issue like this before with a customer and something felt odd. I asked two of my friends to allow me to send them invoices, which I did not want them to pay because I wanted to see if it looked anything like the screenshot he sent me which was titled hexepaid.png in the discord URL. Much to my disappointment, an unpaid invoice looked exactly as what he had shown me in regards to trying to pass it off as a fact that he sent the money. The following screenshots are directed towards him but I never got to send it because he blocked me after the copyright claim, which we will get to.

Archive: https://sta.sh/01g6s7u2z8q1

I didn't want to make my first friend pay the $10 invoice I sent for testing so I asked a different friend to confirm for me what a paid invoice from the past actually looked like.
Archive: https://sta.sh/01t87t9hcshz

After this, I still wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I was starting to feel uneasy so I called Paypal directly. When I asked them about the invoice in question, they told me that there were no payments made to it and that there was nothing they could do from their end. The customer did not pay me, and to their knowledge, no bank associated with the account was waiting for anything to clear in regards to my invoice. I decided to confront Nil about this and cancel the commission because I didn't feel comfortable working with him anymore. This is where he became incredibly hostile towards me for claiming that he lied to me which, I honestly felt he did. Perhaps it was a mistake on his end regarding the payment but, the way he responded to me made me believe otherwise. Originally, I did not even want to make this public. I thought at the end of the day the worst thing that could happen is that he would unfriend me. It is specifically because he is claiming my design, that he did not pay for, is unsellable because it is copyrighted by him is what led me to make this.

Archive: https://sta.sh/0ker57d0t3m

I tried to answer him with the proof of what I believed to be him lying to me (i;e the screenshots above of what it looks like paid), but after that final message, he had blocked me so I could not continue the conversation with him. I don't think he knew I was typing, as I type on Grammarly rather than discord to help it catch my mistakes. Regardless, this is what I tried to say along with sending the same screenshot above where I told him on the 26th that I didn't get the payment:
Archive: https://sta.sh/0983lhduzsi

Because I have no way to contact him about what he last said, I find it incredibly alarming that he told me to delete my own design and that he had Nil (the character) copyrighted, and that somehow it extended to the custom design he did not pay for from me. Because he did not pay, I retain my rights to the design in question. The character does not resemble his character other than the fact that I kept the same hairstyle which, he cannot claim. I did not heavily reference Nil as he acknowledged that this was a custom. I based the design off the form he gave me along with the Revenant video which only had one second of the character fully burning (which I did not even include in the design.)

His character that he claims to have copyrights on: https://toyhou.se/4555467.nil 
My design of the god form based on the form he sent me. The only thing that he could claim I heavily referenced was the hairstyle but we agreed on the hairstyle remaining the same. Nothing else looks like his character in his current form.

Archive: https://sta.sh/025ycjiyc1yh

Archive: https://sta.sh/0299d23m18uc

I did not follow anything specific to a T and this is my own interpretation based on the form which I will link again:
Archive: https://sta.sh/05jszv5lbkp


Full Archive in stash: https://sta.sh/21qn75h0gzwp?edit=1
Backup Archive courtesy of a friend: https://imgur.com/a/l4yoxm1

Please, if you see this design anywhere inform me as it is stolen. I don't want him to have this design for this character or use it as a reference for other artists because he does not have any ownership of this specific design. Thank you for reading all of this I really appreciate it.
 

                                                                                                                                                                               

On the 29th of February, it was discovered by SquidsInTheAttic that Nil was attempting to resell two designs at quadruple the value they were originally bought for. He also put himself as the creator and artist when, in fact, he was not the creator or the artist of the two designs. Furthermore, the two designs below are not eligible to be resold as stated by the original artist on their DeviantArt page.

Losille + Friend | $50 or offer
Archive: https://sta.sh/0sbl7t9c4oh

Aiolos |  $30 or offer
Archive: https://sta.sh/014jhsou1o2a

With further investigation, Squids was able to find the original artist and designer of the two designs above.
The original posting for Losille who was originally sold for $12: http://fav.me/d50c2j9
The original posting for Aiolos: http://fav.me/d54vuzn

Aiolos is a custom design and was originally bought for $6 by Nil who is discovered to previously be vajayjayluv on DeviantArt.
The original journal along with the price http://fav.me/d545tf5

There are two times in which Endber states that their designs can not be resold.
https://www.deviantart.com/endber ( Front page; second point )
And again on a different account:
http://fav.me/d95j52e ( First rule )

With this information, Squids (Baba) had decided to comment on both of the characters letting him know that they can not be resold as it was against the artist's rules. They also politely redirected them towards the original artist's ( Endber @dA ) toyhou.se account ( Chickolates ) so that Nil could properly update the miscredited information.

Comment on Losille
Archive: https://sta.sh/01swin5rqvq4

Comment on Aiolos
Archive: https://sta.sh/02em47kdkixa



Not long after this, Nil had responded saying that the art for Aiolos was done by a friend and claims that there isn't any TOS in regards to the character.Archive: https://sta.sh/02em47kdkixa


Afterward, Nil continued to engage in a condescending way towards Squids and then proceeded to block them. It is also shown here that Nil was aware that the actual artist was Endber prior to Squid's confrontation, but purposefully had himself listed as the artist and creator of the design.

Archive: https://sta.sh/0ft3gq3qbon
Full Archive: https://sta.sh/216uh0fbai3b

Because of this recent behaviour I would like to caution people about possibly trading with him or checking to make sure if you had bought anything from him in the past that it was true to its original price and did not violate the original artist's rules.

I have contacted the creator of these designs! The characters were reported when they were visible and the situation regarding the two characters has been reported staff.