Comments on: A Sad Story [continued] plus leave your copyright questions here

By: Gary Barker

Gary Barker — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:08:40 +0000

People trace others work for the same reason they ’sample’ others music – because they have no talent. When we buy into this we make it seemingly acceptable and the norm.

By: Slinky

Slinky — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:12:12 +0000

I witnessed so much copying and disquising when i did my degree recently. Glad I never fell into the habit. I used to say to people ‘why are you tracing’ they thought it ok as long as colour/scale was changed. So glad I stuck to my own iffy stlye of drawing. I even had some work sort of copied in that it was a further development to some samples i did but ive never said anything to the person because of the fuss it might cause. They now have the work in some galleries and web sites. I see it now and again and could spit!

Expose these thieves for what they are trampling over people like me to win fancy prizes. A lot of good will come out of this if only people end up being able to spell plagiarism which many degree students cant.

By: James

James — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:27:34 +0000

Re: using photos for reference / possibly infringing on the photographer’s copyright

I feel for Lauren. What a nightmare. While browsing through her portfolio, though, I found a drawing that looked familiar.

One of Lauren’s drawings — http://www.laurennassef.com/winner

Where I recognized it from — http://www.shorpy.com/beauty-prize-winners-1922

???

By: MsUnreliable

MsUnreliable — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:04:36 +0000

The issue with copyright and intellectual property laws is that the grey area is expansive when it comes to design even in a local setting, so when a design is available globally, the rights of the designer become even more tangled.

In the architecture industry, it’s been a shock to see -entire buildings- reproduced in various corners of China, yet as the IP laws are so undefined internationally, there is very little recourse for the original architect/s unless they’re willing to risk hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees that will most likely result in an unacceptable outcome (according to a friend/Intellectual Property lawyer at least!)

Just because a building is ‘in the public domain’ so to speak, that by no means equates to the fact that the design, which would have taken hundreds, if not thousands of hours to design and document, can simply be reproduced. The same can be said of graphic design, illustration, even web design. Though the lines of copyright may be blurred in the online realm, that is absolutely no excuse for the complete lack of ethics and morals it takes to execute such a blatant infringement as this case.

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:25:17 +0000

Again i ask you to stop posting comments about my daughter the mater has been resolved now leave us alone and DO NOT call my daughter a Disgusting little criminal

By: Von Glitschka

Von Glitschka — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:29:43 +0000

This is a subject I’ve been dealing with on a greater degree each year for the past five years. This year being the worst year ever in that I have already had “50″ cases of people, businesses and companies infringing upon my copyrighted artwork, stealing my art, or using it without proper permission.

Two cases I’ve had to hire a copyright lawyer but most the infringers have hid behind the DMCA here in the states with little to no repercussions.

Just today I had to publically call out another designer who had taken my art and had it posted on his site, even selling it as a product.

So a question I’d have would be: Is there a cost effective way to legally respond to such cases so we can not only stop the usage but recoup a fee for such usage?

The few times I’ve hired a copyright lawyer only made sense because it was a business or company who was infringing not an isolated single person.

I’ve spent well over 100 hrs to date this year just responding to copyright infringers. Figuring out who it is, how to contact them, sending a letter etc. It’s costing me money to protect myself with no way to get anything back?

It’s a growing problem and I place a lot of the blame on design and art schools that no longer teach core drawing skills but push learning how to use a computer or program.

Sadly the end result is creativity that is no longer facilitated by image creation on ones own but on “finding” the idea outside their own ability.

Thank you for posting about this I appreciate it.

Von

By: Gladys

Gladys — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:15:18 +0000

Oh, sorry to sound horrid, but I would just LOVE to see that Beeston woman behind bars! Disgusting little criminal!

By: Gemma Correll

Gemma Correll — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:28:01 +0000

I think the problem is that the internet makes it too easy for students to steal/copy work. While the internet is a great tool for self-promotion, it can also be a curse in this sense. (Although it is also easier for the copy-cats to be found out).
Whereas a few years ago, students who had no real talent/imagination just produced crappy work or no work at all, nowadays it seems they just copy/trace/take very strong “inspiration” from other people’s images.
It has happened to me a few times (one girl was directly copying my drawings, she got found out. Now she’s just, er, taking inspiration from my work but there’s not much I can do about that!) and I know it’s happened to a lot of my illustrator-friends too. It’s incredibly annoying but good to know that there’s such a strong online design/illustration community backing you up.

By: “Plagiarists at least have the quality of preservation.” Benjamin Disraeli « love and bandwidth

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:39:44 +0000

[...] – the plot thickens … Since the original post on Books by its Cover, there has been an additional response in light of some readers comments which make the case even worse. As well as ripping off Lauren [...]

By: monkeypuzzle

monkeypuzzle — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 15:25:53 +0000

My sympathies go out to Lauren and the other artist as well. This is such a shame and I’m sure a source of much stress. Lauren has always been so generous sharing all her work as she creates it on her blog and her etsy store. I’ve enjoyed following her work for since I stumbled upon it almost 2 years ago.
Though I’m sure she must feel guarded after this event , I hope she continues to share so generously her images and ideas which are such a source of inspiration.
Thank you for bringing this to light, and I look forward to seeing what important lessons regarding copyright that result from the discourse.