PrideI contacted them letting them know if the situation. After several days of no response I sent another e-mail. Then he tells me that they didn't know and that it was removed from everywhere on the internet. I check and it is still on the band's website and I send the picture of it being used publicly. He tells me he has no idea it was printed blah blah blah sorry.
My art has been stolen before and it always makes me angry. Just cause its on the internet, doesn't mean that its not mine. Usually it is for some website and I ask them to take it down and they do. Lots of people contact me asking to use my art for whatever, and as long as it is not for profit I am fine as long as I am asked. So I tell this guy off because he made money off of my art and he just says that they never paid for it in the first place, so basically they aren't going to pay me either.
I work full time and lived on my own since I was 19. I am not rolling in Illustration money and this particular one was something I made in high school for fun in 2005. Is it ok for some company to use my art to promote some band and everyone gets profit but me? He pretty much claims ignorance on the whole thing and says that he did nothing wrong. I threatened legal action and he said go ahead. He even called me greedy (he actually said "you seem rather money oriented for an artist"). I didn't know artists did everything for free these days.
But see, the thing is, its not even about money. Its about pride. I doubt they made much money, but I am just offended at how horribly unfair this is. I don't think its worth it to sue, but I really want to, because I want them to know how wrong they are. They need to know that its not ok, even if they didn't do it on purpose, because its my art and that's all I have.
Mad
Devious Comments
Actually suing may be a bit expensive, but if you have a friend who's a lawyer (or someone who can fake it) I would still send him some sort of scary lawyer letter. Something that should at least for five minutes make him sweat and regret his actions. He probably won't turn around and apologize, but it should at least make him think for a moment.
Unless you've got a lawyer friend actually willing to sue . . . .
--
Don't protrude the tartness and keenness out the staircase.
you could find out who's hosting the website and make a formal complaint with evidence of the infraction and see if they will do anything...
im not sure if there are any organizations online that could help you, but i hope something is done...
you can try the dA forums for help, too, i suppose...
which image did they use, by the by?
--
BANetwork... black artist network: we gotta stick together, yo
--
well do I lie like a loungeroom lizard, or do I sing like a bird released?
I would encourage you to take legal action, but that is kind of expensive. The least you can do, however, is what other people here have said: contact this guy with a legal jargon-filled letter. At least it'll make him sweat a little.
Art theft is such a terrible and rampant thing. It's one thing to steal someone's possessions, but it's something completely different to steal their hard-work and creativity.
--
Some people are like slinkies: worthless, but they can be fun to push down the stairs.
OWL!
{o,o}
|)__)
-"-"-
Hnn...I have no solution. I am sorry.
Except... release the rabid nekofoot fans? >D
--
The Cost of Manga:
390 Yen + YOUR LIFE
Looked like fun: 猿渡 Saruwatari (monkey on a crossing bridge) 希美 Nozomi (beautiful hope)
...
really though, this really sucks...
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Actually, pretty much universally, that is totally going to get someone in trouble, even if they didn't seem to have done anything legally against the law, anyway. It's actually a surefire way to get charged, by saying "I didn't know". (I knew because I studied some amateurish high school level law, and our teacherbrought us on a field trip to court).
Some dude said he didn't have a lawyer to represent him and thus couldn't be judged because he "didn't know" he had to have a lawyer. The judge got all red in the face and yelled at that smartass dude, told him he'd been given 2 months of warning in advance, and that he'd give him one more day. If he couldn't get a lawyer, too bad, he'd judge him anyway. Guess that dude will have no defence. Well, that's a bit of a booster story? Dunno, but still, try a legal-jargon filled letter, and maybe start a group on Facebook? We need to give these corporate asses who think they can just rip us off a good kick.
--
GO to hel---oops, sorry. We're already living in it. My bad.
[link]
"A user who copies text or pictures from one web site and then posts the material among the user's own web pages is generally infringing a copyright. Even if the user makes some changes before posting the material, the act of posting can be copyright infringement, as explained above in the section on plagiarism."
"The law requires that the author of a web site, book, etc. ask permission of the copyright owner before displaying any copyrighted work. The burden is on the copier to ask permission. It is not the duty of the copyright owner to cruise the Internet and ask authors to stop infringing a copyright. In fact, the copyright owner can file copyright infringement litigation immediately on discovering the unauthorized use of copyrighted material."
These are both taken from [link]
A general guideline and explanation to copyright laws in the U.S. I'm from Canada, so I can't really say for the U.S., different systems. However, since this is a civil case, the burden of proof is on the plaintiff (one raising the case).
We'd have to show how this dude's infringing laws, which you have just done with your links, but there needs to be more specification on the image used. That's probably it, the quote from above, some professionally sounding letter, a bit of the evidence, and we're all set to scare the crap out of him. We can also add his "I didn't know" using "As a legal citizen of the United States of America, it is your duty to know the law. As such, we also find you to be in the offence of being a negligent citizen, as ignorance of the law is no excuse. The government supplies sufficient resources for each of its citizens to be constantly updated on the law, thus it is irresponsible and highly ignorant of you."
Bet that will scare him good. He can't go against the government, he wouldn't dare.
--
GO to hel---oops, sorry. We're already living in it. My bad.
[link]
Who knows how much of it out there is shit we haven't even found yet, too.
It's obnoxious and an issue, but bit by bit we'll fight back as we can :/
I can't sound overtly dramatic or give you advice that will make you feel better, but I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Lord knows I've had a spot in my heart for your works, so of course if something goes wrong I get angry -_-;
So yeah.
--
* N-Force High School Football Rules!!! *
Previous PageNext Page