julia, this is such a great post – not just because you’ve shared lauren’s irrefutable case (and awesome work) but your questions at the end. i think when work is online, especially with things like ‘google image search’ integrated into everyday use, everything is seen as accessible & ready to be appropriated. it is frustrating & upsetting as an artist, yet also the more control you try to have over your work and how it’s shown lessens your exposure and/or people’s abilities to share in GOOD ways. there’s no easy solution to it in my opinion, but i think what you said about let it go when you can, sue when appropriate, keep making original work is the way to move along. but it does hurt, especially when it happens time and time again, quite exhausting. hard to move forward. anyway, awesome post.

It really boggles my mind what in a person’s brain goes off to make them think that taking someone else’s work, as directly as Samantha did Lauren’s, and passing it off as their own is an acceptable thing to do. I have been seeing more and more artists being ripped off–none as blatantly as this incident–and it just begs the question: WHY? With everything online for the whole world to see, do people think they won’t be caught? And how satisfying can it possibly be to win acclaim for work that is not your own?
I think that we live in a world that has a lot of problems and a lot of ugliness. We need artists and designers and thinkers who are making positive ORIGINAL contributions to make our world better, more progressive, and more beautiful. Lauren’s work is incredible. I will say one thing for Samantha–she has good taste. I just wish she had used that good taste to create something that would have contributed, (if she had a vision for turning Lauren’s drawings into textiles–she might have contacted her to see if Lauren would be interested in a collaboration), rather than this fiasco. We have politicians to create fiascos. We need artists & designers to create solutions. I hope that people learn from this, and if anything positive is to come of it I hope it is more exposure for Lauren’s beautiful work.

I agree with all of your suggestions and I repeat here to my disgust for this sad story and all my support for Lauren great work. It’s incredible that this girl thought her plagiarism wouldn’t be discovered!
This sad story remember to my self other sad ones:
1. some month ago the lovely toy artist Rosa Pomar had discovered that an Olland brand (Oilily )had copied her toy designs to sell them around the world (with a bad manifacturing) without her permission. You can find it more about this here: http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/?p=2681
2. around two years ago I’ve personally discovered a girl that won in a threadless competition with a design “too much” inspired by Anke Weckmann work, I informed her to the fact and when threadless discovered the whole story asked back the won moneys to the other artist and asked a t-shirt design to Anke.

Those are just two examples, I think that internet is very important to expose our works, to meet other great illustrators and sharing our interests. Yes, it could be dangerous but I think that it’s simply impossible to copy an artist and to don’t be discovered, I hope so. Thank you julia for your good work, I’ll re-blog about this, I think it is the unique way we have to defend ourselves and to give some ethics about this kind of job.

Julia thank you for this thoughtful post and for alerting your readership about this blatant theft. How someone can think that they would get away with something like this in this incredibly digital age—news travels faster than light speed—simply floors me. The fact that Samantha took the time and effort to create a fake sketch book is astounding and also quite sad. As a designer and artist, I know that it is sometimes difficult to trust in one’s own capabilities and talents. But to steal someone else’s work like she has done (and submit it to contests) is beyond belief! I hope that your friend Lauren is fairly compensated and recognized for her amazing work.

This is SO shocking! Kudos to you for helping to spread the word. Wow! I can’t believe anyone would think this was OK to do to another artist. Totally pathetic.

The depth and breadth of this plagiarism, not to mention how it has been unknowingly rewarded, is seriously disturbing. Thankfully, there are plenty of friends of online artists such as yourself (and the readers of Lauren’s blog) that will help bring these issues to light. I hope you will keep us up to date about how the situation is resolved.

Julia

You said it all, beautifully. I think the only thing you can do is try your best to take the minor cases as flattery and take action when the offense is major.

In Lauren’s case I’d want to hire a whole army of lawyers to take this artist to task- that sort of behavior, and brazen lack of respect, makes me sick to my stomach.

I hope Lauren is able to right this wrong and, perhaps this is a bit vindictive of me, I hope she is compensated handsomely for any profits made by the other artist on prints sold and awards. It’s just shameful what that girl did. Ick!

Grace

This makes me sad. I wish she would have just contacted Lauren to see if she would license her designs. It would have been a win-win for both instead of this travesty.

I wonder if she plagarized someone else too.

Good Karma will come to Lauren. I foresee a beautiful line of fabrics coming her way! Keep on creating Lauren! You are a truly talented artist.
All my best,
MB

It’s scary.. thankfully there are artists looking out for other artists and letting people like, Lauren, know when their work is clearly copied.

I had the unfortunate opportunity to work for a company that walked the fine line and sometimes crossed over to the point of being sued. In their eyes, it was part of the cost of doing business. Disgusting.

Let’s keep making art though.. and continue looking out for each other.

sandy

Julia— Thanks for drawing attention to this. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen such a blatant rip-off of one’s hard work before, and in this case, I’m so saddened that this gal is a graduate student.

It’s one thing to borrow someone’s images to make a quick buck, but it’s quite another to fashion your entire future after someone’s past.

My heart goes out to Lauren.

it’s completely outrageous how outright of a copy (or copies) this is! she made no attempt to even cover it up and literally took lauren’s drawings and shuffled them around in photoshop. it’s horrible and terrible and jaw-dropping. i feel sad for lauren who doesn’t deserve this and especially for this girl who sadly is either living in fantasy land or doesn’t have her own talent to stand by.

Wow. I’m floored. There has been so much of this going on lately with many fellow artists I know and it never ceases to amaze me. Because of that, part of me gets all possessive and wants to hide my work in a dark closest where something like this can never happen…but obviously, the benefits far outweigh the risks so I keep truckin’ and thrust it out there anyway.

What’s really scary is that so many people (including Samantha) are either completely oblivious to the notion of copyright (and how, yes, it DOES extend to online usage)…or they frankly just don’t care. Since Samantha went out of her way to create a fake sketchbook of Lauren’s work (wow!), I’m guessing that she’s in the “don’t care” crowd. How sad.

Lauren’s work is completely *awesome*, by the way. I really hope this all works out for her in the end.

Great post!

More importantly though, what next? A lawsuit? What are Lauren’s options exactly? If she comes in contact with a lawyer, is it possible to post some legal lingo in regards to this case?

Seems like there will be plenty more cases like this in the future. Perhaps we should all become well-versed in intellectual property and copyright laws.

Here’s to Lauren kicking Samantha Beeston’s ass!

Wow. She didn’t even have the imagination to change the drawings even one little bit. What must she have been thinking?

As an artist who regularly puts work online, this kind of plagiarism has been a concern of mine since the start. Like many on here I am thankful for the good eggs like you Julia who look out for their artist friends and help expose the culprits. It is a difficult problem to think of solutions to, but I believe that the only thing we can do is to be aware that this kind of thing does happen and to forge on ahead with our own work knowing that whatever we are putting out there is honest, whatever we are making.

My heart goes out to Lauren, it must be awful knowing that someone else has profited from her hard work. Her work is wonderful and I hope she gets the recognition she deserves.

As a former foundation student of Famouth art school and with friends who attended the degree courses there this all feels horribly close to home!

I will definitely be re-blogging this to help raise awareness…

as a fellow illustrator and one who licenses her work, I am amazed at how brazen this artist was. Most of the time you can expect someone to look at your work take it and try to change it by the 30% rule but this is a carbon copy. I have many retailers and other artists copy my work but never to this extent.. yes action should be taken place and this girl should consider a career working for Disney where you are required to copy the work of the illustrators for product since she obviously doesn’t have a talented bone in her body!!

Great post. Too many artists get destroyed and bitter in their minds about this sort of theft or worse yet they use “possible theft” as an excuse to not ever move forward and publish anything ever. You have to protect yourself as much as you can but remember people that steal and copy will never be leaders because they do not have the endless well of ideas that true creatives have. Oh and just as easy as it is to steal on-line it is also twice as easy to be “outted”, and this post shows that very well.

WHOA. I am blown away that she could (almost) get away with this. I wonder how she feels now, knowing she is busted. I worry about this myself, and have seen work lately that is irksomely similar to mine, but as the saying goes “there is nothing new under the sun.” Yikes. I am just glad that she was alerted to this and is able to take action.

It’s so sad to see this happening so much at the moment. The only positive thing is that I hadn’t heard of Lauren Nassef before and now I have and I think her work is amazing. I hope that this situation only serves to increase appreciation of Lauren’s work in order to scrape back some silver-lining from such an unpleasant problem.

This a pretty clear and shameful instance, especially since the work is used so directly, is so deliberately passed off as her own (the sketchbook), and has been used for her commercial gain. Awful.

I’d really like to hear your thoughts on use of photo reference, though, which is much more ambiguous and is a common practice. Steven Heller addresses the issue in ‘The Education of an Illustrator”, I think, but even then it’s pretty vague. I’ve also heard it described as a matter of percentages. The whole thing terrifies me!

Horrible.

Wow! I can’t believe this happened, how awful. I’m very familiar with Lauren’s work and I consider her work to be a shining example of a hard-working artist who is on the rise. Her style is timeless and classic and yet always somehow manages to interpret itself in a contemporary and fresh way. I hope this can get cleared up and that maybe she will receive proper credit for all of her hard work. She has done an amazing job working on covers with her husband Isaac Tobin. I admire their work greatly and wish Lauren the best with this situation. I hope it doesn’t stop her from continuing to produce amazing illustrations. I’ll be re-aposting this on my blog as well.

Interesting how the internet works both ways here: it makes it easy for the thief to steal, and it makes it easy for the thief to be identified and tried…

Also, a fine example of designing evidence: show comparisons by juxtapositioning images together in space (Tufte).

Great post, Julia — hope Lauren gets her due, and Samantha gets what’s coming to her.

wow. i am almost lost for words that someone could so blatantly steal her work and pass it off as their own creation. good thing lauren has such dedicated blog readers :) good luck lauren, your work is so beautiful!

This is terrible-good job bringing it to other people’s attention. This site has a collection of artist’s work that has been stolen or copied. Lauren’s story is their latest entry right now. http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/ So disheartening that things like this happen again and again.

that is so sad. and that definitely goes beyond inspiration to plain plagiarism. Lauren, I hope that you win hundreds of awards to make up for it.

it is scary that someone can get so much recognition for stealing someone’s work online, but i love looking at people’s art on the internet. it inspires me to keep creating when i see beautiful things. it would be so sad to not be able to do that.

What a shame…this level of deceit seems almost pathological.

I’ve seen lots of fine art blatantly uses appropriation…and I always believe artists have the right to appropriate in order to further dialog about art itself. But somehow, this strikes me as completely corrupt.

It’s one of those “I know it when I see it” things, I guess. Thanks for a thought-provoking post.

I have several friends who are fairly well known artists. They often “inspire” other artist so I am familiar with the grey areas of appropriation. In this case I was FLOORED by how Lauren’s work was basically stolen. Thank you for talking about this topic. I am sad to say it isn’t talked about enough. I hope this story starts a dialogue in both the art and graphic design worlds to expose this type of theft right away.

As an art degree graduate I know that work can be tough, the courses can be stifling, and at times inspiration can be hard to come by… but this is just horrifying. Surely this girl had some talent to get on her degree in the first place, and now this? what a waste of potential.

I feel sickened for Lauren, it’s something that we all dread occurring, and thank god it has been highlighted before the farce can continue further!

Ah man, this is so depressing. Surely there must have been SOMEBODY in her circle of friends, her tutors who wondered where this very distinct style suddenly came from?!?!

that is crazy she ripped off so many unique drawings and so blatantly! sickening. i know it happens, but it is always such a shame. glad you are using your forum to educate and inform, along with entertain and inspire. i hope the wrong is righted!

AND she took lauren’s beautiful drawings and just stuck them together in repeat; the patterns aren’t even particularly well done, nor do the juxtapositions of different drawings do anything together. I can’t believe she used one of lauren’s patterns even in the header of her blog! ballsy!

Well, she got caught, so I find it more amusing than horrifying at this point. Can anyone ever make amends or bounce back from something like that? Or are they forever doomed to be remembered as “that girl who jacked someone’s art and tried to pass it off as her own?”

As for everyone else worrying about putting your art online, I’d say it’s a moot point. If you want any kind of exposure you have to be online. Your risk is everyone’s risk if you think about it.

If anything this is a good excuse to get your legal stuff in order, so that if someone should steal your work, you’ll be ready and maybe even be able to come out a ahead in terms of visibility, money and credentials. As they say, no publicity is bad publicity. I didn’t know who Lauren was before this, and now I know :)

I am so shocked that someone could do something so awful to a wonderfully talented artist ..hopefully it will all be fixed and Lauren will get the true recognition for her art (which is amazing ) and maybe Pantone will give the award to the correct artist..not the fake one.

Maybe I’m really sensitive (or horrified), but a theft that blatant seems to me to border on the psychopathic. Either you’re freakishly ignorant about how the internet works at its most basic level, and/or you think that everything on it is for you to use as you see fit, with no thought to or expectation of consequences – like the way a child can’t really conceive of anything outside its own head. So bizarre, I have to wonder about her mental health. But maybe that’s just me. Maybe in the UK the internet isn’t as pervasive in daily life the way it is in the US.

incredible. This story reminds me of Jenny Hart’s (Sublime Stitching) story, but the fact that the perpetrator in this instance is an individual rather than a corporation disguised as an indie artist, makes it 100x worst. I hope that this sets an example to other copy cats out there. Thank you so much for sharing this story.

Thank you Julia for posting this. It’s very sad on all accounts and may this be a lesson to anyone foolish enough to be tempted to do something like that.

Shocked and yet not surprised. As a lecturer in Science I am constantly struggling to make students understand the concept of plagiarism – is it lack of understanding or lack of caring? Thanks for exposing this. It does happen all the time, but at least there are people out there willing to be the social conscience.

I’m so sad that Samantha thought so little of her own creativity that she felt it was better to rip off someone else’s work. Lauren’s work is so beautiful! I believe, though, that the attraction of original illustration is the work and the HEART that we put into it. The connection in art is a personal thing between the artist and the viewer, not some formula of skilled hand and appreciating consumer. I suppose there’s only so much that an artist can do to protect their rights, but it does sting to be treated in such a manner!

I hope that Lauren is able to right this horrible wrong! I’ll be reblogging this, as well. Thanks for this, Julia!

This is just too depressing. I agree with Kristina that i do wonder about this ladies mental health, really, especially entering competitions knowing this wasn’t your work, it’s mega lying!!
Also being on an art degree you should be very aware about plagiarism.
Obviously she had some talent to get onto the degree in the first place, as Falmouth is considered a good art school in the UK, so you just think why do this :(
It’s very sad.

Yikes–even to the blog header! I’ve bookmarked Lauren’s blog for a while, both envious and inspired by her talent, so I can understand wishing you could emulate her. But what this gal has done, to the extant she did it, really seems like a narcissistic pathology of some kind. As someone else mentioned, what the Internet giveth, it also taketh away . . .

This is truly a sad story. The plagiarism itself is totally disgraceful. But what I don’t understand the most is that this person doesn’t seem to care about having pride in her accomplishments. How can you possibly care about winning an award if the work is not yours? Its like cheating at checkers when your opponent is looking away. How can you have satisfaction in your win?
To be recognized for your true talents is such an amazing feeling. I don’t get how she could think that this would bring her any kind of personal fulfillment. I suppose that isn’t important to some people. Obviously.

[...] EDIT: For a greater overview of the extent of Beeston’s plagiarism, including pictures of her former website, see the entry on book-by-its-cover.com here. [...]

It’s such a shame on every level. Besides the obvious (and there is so much of that here!) one of the things that strikes me saddest, is that this young girl must not have had an iota of self confidence in her own abilities…to blatantly steal as she did. And she went to such great lengths to steal it all too. Have you seen the youtube of her “sketchbook”? (I found it via http://www.youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com )AMAZING. Imagine if she’d harnessed all that energy into developing her own work? I sure hope Lauren is compensated!

It’s comforting to know that for as vast as the internet is it’s a pretty small world. Kids like this think they can get away with it but they never do. Her’s seems to have gone on longer and been more painful than others (ugh, look at all that prize money!) but like the others, she was caught in the end.

I hope true and good artists out there don’t use this as a sign to hide their works away! :(

Maybe everyone should label their work “heavily indebted to” instead of “inspired by.”

I agree with a previous commenter that “there is nothing new under the sun,” which makes it even more difficult to draw lines between intellectual debt and outright theft.

Lauren’s is a clear-cut case (and a terrible one!) because it deals with lifting exact images, but grey areas surround ideas as intellectual property.

For example, what if someone started their own Drawing-A-Day project, making line drawings on off-white paper, drawing in a style very similar to Lauren’s but of subjects Lauren has never covered? Can we rightly accuse this second artist of stealing the principles of a project, or can this person honestly say that he/she was *inspired* by Lauren Nassef?

I really don’t know the answer to this one.

What if the images showed up in a “sketchbook” Flickr set but were not used for direct professional or financial gain, as in an official portfolio or school/magazine/contest submission? How do we differentiate between personal artistic development and, well, copying?

I know younger, not-yet-published writers who will re-type pages of, say, Hunter Thompson or David Foster Wallace to get a feel for the rhythm of their phrasing and thereby expand their understanding of the limits of language as both writer and reader. They would never in a thousand years pass off these passages as their own, but it contributes to their growth. I’m guessing there could be a parallel with visual artists still finding their feet.

Julia, thanks for posting about this (justice!) and for raising some compelling questions.

Truly disgusting. Some people have no shame. :(
Thanks for posting this and I hope Lauren gets the proper credit she deserves.

I greatly hate when people suggest, as WIX does above, that there are no original ideas left, that everything we do now is a repeat/copy. It’s such an absurdly moronic notion to put out there.

There are always new things to do, new ideas and ways of thinking, and if you’re so terribly unimaginative that you can’t envision even the possibility of a new idea then go work at K-Mart, you nincompoop.

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”

Guess she took that Oscar Wilde quote to heart.

oh thats awful! i can just imagine how terrible it must be to discover someone stealing your work on such an enormous scale, and winning an award for it too! i hope laurens ok. in the past i’ve been alerted to people using my illustrations as their own and when they live in a different country you feel so violated and helpless. i can not understand what sense of achievement there is in stealing work from others. there is nothing more satisfying than creating unique and original illustrations.

I think Lauren should let the ‘Textprint’ price people know. This is not good publicity for them, they should take action! I think Lauren should take advantage on the fact that this girl won an important award with stolen work! On the Textprint website all images even have the copyright text all over them.

This is ridiculous and so sad. I honestly hope the girl gets expelled.

This is unbelievable! And the crazy thing is some people really don’t get the difference between flattery and copying. She probably thought what she was doing was ok because it was her “inspiration” or because she liked the style of drawings, when really she was straight out copying. She should be charged for something this obvious. I feel so bad for Lauren! And I agree with CHARLES… people use “there’s no new ideas” as an excuse to copy. Not cool.

I’m shocked to read this!

real bad news. on the link you posted for her “huge reward” and in the youtube video of the sketchbook i noticed the exact same image from this album cover has been traced too: http://www.woodpigeon-songbook.com/music/songbook/
i don’t think this work is lauren’s is it?
does anyone know who’s art has been stolen here?

This is shocking. But if you think about it, this is probably the tip of the iceberg in the sea of “plagiarism” cases. Samantha has only been caught because she got some success out of the copied designs, won prizes and with that came publicity… how many people do the same thing but don’t get caught because they don’t get the same amount of publicity? I really hope that Lauren is able to sue Samantha or something, it must be heartbreaking to see your work stolen so shamelessly…

Hi Lauren,
I’m a great fan of your blog and look at it every other day..which is why I was so shocked to read this entry!! I KNOW Samantha, we went to the same uni! We share a mutual friend who also did Textiles and I remember her complaining to me about Sam tracing and copying other people but nothing was done. We couldn’t believe no-one noticed this when she received those prestigious awards! I feel very sorry for Lauren and embarrassed that Falmouth never picked up on it. I’m very glad this has finally come to light though and Lauren has been acknowledged for her beautiful work.

oops I meant hi Julia!

I think it’s shocking too. I don’t think we should stop putting our work out there though. I think/hope lessons like this will deter future plagarists from pulling the same stunt.

Look, this girl got more than a slap on the wrist. She’s now publicly humiliated. She probably never considered that Lauren would find out or that the blogosphere would blast into an uproar. Hopefully this will serve as a lesson. It’s ok to be inspired but this was blatent “tracing” as you pointed out in this disturbing post. She really should and must be ashamed. I wonder what she was thinking?

Frankly, her career must be ruined. I hope she apologizes to Lauren, learns from this and moves on to discover he own voice. I actually feel sad for her. I’m sure if I were Lauren I’d be livid though.

I can’t believe this! As a Falmouth illustration graduate (from 5 years ago) I’m amazed that she was able to get away with it there, it’s a brilliant college and i hope this doesn’t harm its reputation. I almost feel a little sorry for her, (almost), she went to so much effort to find and trace Lauren’s work, surely she knew she’d be discovered at some point?! But to echo some other poster’s comments, at least we all know about Lauren’s amazing work now, and for that i am happy.

I was linked to here by Grace of Design*Sponge, and in a lot of ways, I wish I had never clicked. Hearing about situations like this is so depressing, to think that your own hard work and creativity could be stolen from you, perhaps without you ever knowing! I’ve heard so many stories of artistic plagiarism (I’ve even seen some personally through fellow students while in college) but it still disgusts me to the core every time I come across a new case.

I’m so sorry for Lauren; please encourage her to keep creating despite this whole debacle. And I hope this Samantha has learned a lesson or two. :[

It looks like the Woodpigeon album cover that Samantha copied for her “Oslo Nights” pattern was made by Lizzy Stewart and Jez Burrows.

You can see it here: http://www.texprint.org.uk/2009/winners_2009.htm

And here is the original:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lizzystewart/2968917485/
http://markzipan.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/process/

I can’t begin to imagine how someone thought they could get away with such blatant stealing in this digital day and age. The online world is big – but not that big. As others have voiced, it’s sad and shocking and pathetic.

Lauren’s work is excellent though, and it’s good to have been introduced to it here!

Disgraceful. Can’t believe how aggressively stupid her actions are.. I hope her cheque for Lauren is in the post.

I’m so completely shocked. I’m not even an artist,just an art appreciator. Thank you for sharing Lauren’s art which I think is so refreshing and creative. I’m so terribly sorry that Lauren has had to go through this and so thankful that she discovered this was happening. Best wishes to all of you.

Well, this is disgusting and of course, a career ender for the thief. I wonder what the mea-culpas will sound like. it’s a familiar pattern.
She will talk of the pressures on her. She will talk about the drive to succeed instilled in her by her upbringing. She will find the Lord or someone, and yoga and her sanity, and yet she will always merely be a thief without honor.
Samantha Beeston; This is your life.
(At least, I suppose, she has good taste in choosing the marvelous work of Lauren to target.)

It happens to us all, just had the same problem, with a lad using my work and a friends to pass his degree, he was also selling it as prints. check the pictures here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatcollective/3768146731/

Thanks for posting this. I’m a fan of Lauren Nassef’s work and I think that Samantha Beeston’s behavior is unacceptable.

I am always amaze at the sheer “gutsiness” of these people.
If you look on the Texprint Award page there is this girl standing there being photographed with “her” work and being handed her prize. What must go on in her head?? Maybe there is a psychological problem and she actually believe the work to be hers? How else could one go through with this? Imagine how her life is going to start falling apart around her now. Not many people with be sympathetic to this. I am sorry Lauren got her work stolen but I am also sorry for this girl. She will need help after this and I doubt she will get any.

This is unbelievable. The nerve of this girl to not only steal work but enter into a competition. It is hard enough to be an artist in this current economy. Some people are so eager to steal from others instead of putting the work and effort into making their own unique style. So glad she was discovered though.

How could she be so brazen? What other artists fill her sketchbook, I wonder? What does her own work look like, is it included there?

How could she stand there and accept an award, have judges review your “sketchbook,” and call yourself an artist? I wonder at the type of relationships she has formed, do they have any shred of honesty in them? Surely her own parents, friends, and clients were not made aware by Beeston that her whole degree and therefore career has been based on thievery, fraud, and a complete bankruptcy of integrity and respect for others. She really needs to seek help if she hopes to live a full and valuable life on this earth.

Publicly apologize, and rescind your award.

As a tutor I know students take stuff of the internet all the time but not like this. This is shocking, but I can’t help but think that she didn’t realise what she was doing. Maybe some tutors turn a blind eye, maybe even she got confued about the internet being ‘public domain’. I feel really sorry for her. At least lauren is getting great exposure, and admittedly the textile designs make her work look stronger, maybe she might think about putting her images into reapeat as I hear on the textile grape vine that Samantha has been selling her collection left right and centre.

This is shocking. Did Samantha really think she’d get away with this? Texprint should immediately right this wrong by awarding Lauren the prize money, trade show opportunities to exhibit, publicize the plagiarism AND run a feature of the correct artist.
Samantha has just destroyed her credibility as an artist and should be held accountable.
If there is any justice it would be that Lauren receive the recognition she deserves for her beautiful work.

I am stunned. This is absolutely awful … it’s unfathomable to think that someone would think they could get away with something like this. To call yourself an artist while blatantly lifting other people’s work and calling it your own…
Thank you for posting about this.

Argh. My fear is that now, with information and imagery being such a liquid thing on the internet, this kind of activity will only get worse.

Networked-everything and steal-music-without-guilt have had a very ugly baby, and this is what it looks like.

Sorry, Lauren, for your hassles.

This absolutely shocks and appalls me.

As many other posters have commented, I just can’t comprehend how this girl’s thought processes must have worked for this situation to arise.
I’ve often come across fellow students copying and stealing ideas, and even the most subtle plagiarism annoys me, but this is just outrageous!

I’m surprised, considering the effort that Samantha went to making the sketchbook etc., that she didn’t even have a the basic creativity to modify the designs at all – ofcourse, this kind of plagiarism is much harder to catch and more concerning, but it’s going to be an endless mystery to me as to how a person can convince themselves that they could get away with this kind of behaviour.

Please keep us informed as to what happens, I want to find out what is going to happen to this girl to put others off doing the same thing.

I’m glad some comments stuck up for the course at Falmouth, I’ve been seriously considering it for the MA in Illustration, and I’d hate to let something like this ruin the reputation, I’m shocked she got away with it though! Unbelievable!

THIS IS VERY NAUGHTY

I don’t understand how someone can be so blatant! I’m speechless! An entire sketchbook of traced drawings? How did she sleep at night?

This is SO sad. I had my work copied by Oiiliy earlier this year and I know how this hurts. My advice to Lauren and anyone in the same situation is spread the word as much and far as you can. Hire a lawyer if you can afford one, of course, but nothing will affect the offender as much as the bad publicity you can get her. In my case I contacted some well known blogs in the craft and design area and they were all generous enough to post about the subject. Because of all the attention the case received, anyone who googles Oilily today will find out about what they did. I sincerely hope that Texprint issues a public statement about this and withdraws the prize. Good luck Lauren!!

This is so scary! And I feel so badly for your friend! How terrible! It’s one thing to be “inspired” and certainly another to just copy and paste. That girl couldn’t possibly survive as any kind of artist with her name dragged through the mud now. Good job by sharing this!

Having been online for more than 10 years, I’ve seen my fare share of plagiarism, but the documentation you have here of Samantha Beeston’s copy-cat work of Lauren’s is just unfathomable. This is especially sad since we too love Lauren’s captivating style and still get praising emails about her feature on Doodlers (http://www.doodlersanonymous.com/featured.php?featuredID=11). Wishing her the best and quickest resolution to this most awkward and unsettling circumstance.

unbelievable! i’m speechless…
networking and putting our work up on web is a great thing but when something like that happens… oh my… wishing Lauren to reach the best solution for this creepy situation.

Ok it’s not big and it’s not clever but on a positive Samantha has turned Lauren’s really beautiful illustrations into sellable and well designed prints. Yeh it’s shit when someone steals your work but she could have weirdly done Lauren a huge favour. Lets hope so!
-Lauren, your work is beautiful in its own right and in repeat print so looking forward to seeing more!
-Samantha, if you can’t draw that’s fine, just try collaborating next time!

Amy – that is ridiculous, it’s not fine. And I highly doubt there will be a next time.

I want to thank you for sharing this. I am actually just now going through such a thing. Not on such a mass scale, thank goodness. But i recently happened upon an interview where someone id previously sold my work to was taking credit for the idea and remaking the items themselves. It ripped out a little piece of my heart i swear. I have since contacted and tried to work out a deal involving their suggestion of royalties. However, i remain unhappy and feel trapped in the situation when i certainly didn’t want to be involved in the first place. As far as excepting royalties i feel i had to do as you say and let things go in a since, though i feel Ive let a piece of my self respect go out the door along with it.

Hearing and seeing how this is happening to so many other artists somehow helps me to feel better. I don’t know if the way i handled this was the best. But i felt it was all i could do. Much more hurtful than the loss of money and business was the disregaurd of respect for a fellow artist.

thanks.

To those who wonder how on earth this could happen and what goes on in the plagiarist’s head–that’s my question too.

Specifically I was reminded of a case several years ago involving another “bright new talent” who did much the same thing as here-but with a novel that she received a hefty advance for:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaavya_Viswanathan

In that case the publisher recalled and destroyed all copies of the book and canceled a planned second novel.

I wondered then what could possibly have gone on in that girl’s mind, and I wonder now about S. Beeston. I doubt there will ever be any real answers. I suspect this sort of person “tricks” themselves into believing it’s “no big deal”, and in living with the lie and doing the drudgery of tracing and copying they become defensive and in total denial about it publicly. But I don’t think for a minute that Beeston ever really thought these were her drawings.

They are very lovely work, not incidentally; I look forward to ordering Ms. Nassef’s upcoming book from BBIC. At least this awful situation has given that much to me.

I think the only way this will be controlled — it will never be completely stopped, I fear — is if the penalties levied on the perpetrator are appropriately grave. (I sure hope Mr. Baitz is right that this is a career-ender for her.) And I think the story of how she was penalized needs to be disseminated very widely — so that some other Bright Young Fraud isn’t tempted to try this. The irony for me in all this is that Lauren’s work is so wonderfully, exquisitely original —

i’d say the thief should at least lose her degree as in art school plagiarism is just not acceptable…

I once caught someone ripping off Amy Butler patterns. The offender was giving away free desktop wallpaper made from Amy Butler’s patterns. But they wanted a CREDIT AND A LINK on your website if you used them… I called Amy Butler’s studio spoke to someone in person and the ripped off wallpapers came down. The Bernie Madoff’s of the design world have no shame :)

THANK YOU for taking the time to cover this. I can’t begin to imagine Lauren’s horror at discovering such a blatant theft of her work–and that somebody else was receiving kudos and money for it.

I recently covered the issue of plagiarized tweets on my blog, but that pales by comparison to what Samantha Beeston did.

Destestable. And so disheartening as an artist or any sort of creative person who relies on the internet in such a huge way to share their work. I’ve seen copycats before but this is an obscene offense. I can’t believe there are people in this world capable of not only copying someone else’s work to that degree, but actually accepting praise, recognition, prize money! for it as if it were their own. That type of deceit is beyond my comprehension.

Lauren’s work is inspiring and original- she is sincerely due the recognition she deserves for her creations. I also feel sorry for Textprint & the bloggers who were unfortunately swindled into supporting an awful imposter.

I hope Samantha is feeling as nauseated by her actions as we all are. Hopefully she’ll take it as a lesson to have confidence in and rely on her own artistic talents from here on out, because I’m sure she has them. She just chose the really easy (and pathetic) way out.

this is so sad and horrible. thank you for sharing this story. I am speechless.

So sorry your friend had to go through that. You honestly need to contact her University as any plagiarism by a student (assuming she as a student at the time) will result in related studies being forfeited and even disqualitifed. It’s important.

i think that this is actually heartbreakingly sad. this woman does not feel competent or good enough on some level as an artist, does not have faith in her own voice, style, or abilities. i think it is truly heartbreaking. try to find an empathic place in your hearts for the shame and worthlessness she must feel, she is an imposter, a shell. think of a time that you felt you were not good enough, talented enough, think back to a time you copied someone, even if it is at the age of 8 , we all have copied soemone in some way and taken credit. this is jsut aextreme heinous version. i actually feel sorry for the woman who copied the art and i hope she finds a true vopice in all of this that she can express with authenticity and humility and grace. send her a blessing and forgiveness. i also send the artist who was copied peace of mind and i do hope she gets to have the prize money or something~

To go this far she must be delusional! I’d love to hear the excuse! Lots of people would love this opportunity that Texprint gives (I was part of it in 1999). What is also sad though is that so many commercial companies to this and get away with it.

Penelope,

I’m a pretty lousy artist. I don’t think anyone would rip me off. Still, I’m secure enough to admit this. If I want to get better, I need to work at getting better. There’s no excuse for plagiarism. It’s the art of the lazy. An adult woman has no reason to fall back on the excuse that she was just insecure with her ability. If she wasn’t happy with her product, she should’ve worked harder. If she had no ability to do that, she shouldn’t have been in design. I doubt she got into her school off copy cat designs. If she did, the problem runs deeper than any of us think.

I find the excuse that inspiration could lead to accidental plagiarism ridiculous. Even with my artistic inexperience and lack of skill, I’ve never felt the slightest need to rip off another artist. It’s never crossed my mind. I understand I can only speak for myself, but I think most “creative” types would feel the same way. I can’t understand the mentality that a little bit of plagiarism is normal or to be expected. There are limitless possibilities for creativity. If you feel the urge to rip off someone else’s designs or works of art, you should remind yourself that everything you need is already in your head. Just keep thinking until that urge leaves you. It’s a pathetic excuse to fall back on.

Submitted to Digg: http://digg.com/d3zpRn

It may be worth suing her. Any money (including the prize money and website sales) Samantha has made is the rightful property of Lauren. And her art school should definitely be contacted, who knows what she has plagiarised that *isn’t* on her website.

Send her an email here:

http://www.samanthabeeston.co.uk/page5.htm

Thieves are definitely out there. You see it happen over and over again on EBay (where I’ve personally experienced people copying my jewelry designs). I wrote about these experiences in an EBay guide a couple of years ago because I wanted to expose the problem. I’ve never seen it to this extent, though. Very sad…..

I feel uneasy participating but awkwardly I have noticed some of my patterns and work references amongst her sketchbook in the youtube video (the most obvious being 0.58 on the video)I am hoping they haven’t been used amongst her prints and only used as research.
see http://www.aurelialange.co.uk/pattern.html

Omg, this is really really shocking.
I actually saw this work in the exhibition and met Samantha and was blown away by her prints…until NOW!! I am really really shocked. This is her degree work, so if it’s all stolen I wonder if she will keep her degree. She seemed like such a nice person… I really hope there are consequences, I heard the organization have withdrawn her prize.

[...] by Lauren – and a few others by other illustrators too. There are images of her website on Book-by-it’s-Cover and even her header was one of Lauren’s drawings. Incredible! What was this girl thinking?! [...]

Thanks for the reminder! It is a problem that isn’t going away. As much as we want to share ourselves with others, we need to remember that as soon as its posted on-line we run this risk. I say get a lawyer, sue her butt off and don’t look back!! No slap on the hands over this one….she deserves all that comes to her!!

YOu have got to be kidding me, this lady should be in jail and I hope they are going about it so she will that is not right. It’s a sad day when you can’t share your work you have to have it so well documented that it’s your work just in case.

you’re right SHARON she should be put in jail, locked up, buried alive, electrocuted and DESTROYED!!!!!! just like all the other murderers, rapists and baby killers out there. CHILLAX BABE!

Tell Samantha @

http://www.samanthabeeston.co.uk/page5.htm

Just noticed some more traced/copied patterns in the “sketchbook.”

The owl at 00:11 and the tree pattern at 00:16, look like they are taken from Stuart Kolakovic’s badge designs – http://blog.stuartkolakovic.co.uk/2008/11/badges-round-two.html

This could very well exist solely in the “sketchbook”, but you never know.

Who thought BBIC would turn into an investigative journalism site.

What a horrible thing for someone to do!! Texprint appears to have taken her name off the list of winners on their site.

oh this is so very sad!

responding to Charles and a few other people who’ve raised similar objections…

saying “there’s nothing new under the sun” is horribly depressing, and unfair to people who make their livings creatively. i certainly don’t feel this about my own work or the work i see on this site and elsewhere, otherwise i would have admitted to being a “nincompoop” and taken that K-Mart job a long time ago.

the phrase should in no way excuse stealing someone else’s material, and i’m pretty sure that’s not the message expressed in my comment. i’m not claiming that “all we do now is repeat and copy,” but i am saying that it’s impossible not to be influenced by what has already been done. and there’s nothing wrong with influence, so long as you don’t mistake “influence” for copying.

guess the original comment should have been worded differently. sorry to anyone who felt shitty as a result of reading it.

I contacted Textprint yesterday about this whole thing wanting to ensure that they were aware that Beeston has used some of my work as well as Lauren’s (and now as its revealed Aurelia Lange’s and Stuart Kolakovic’s) and I recieved this email earlier

“Thank you for providing the information and we are extremely concerned regarding this matter and have already taken steps to withdraw Samantha’s images from our website. We are also investigating the circumstances surrounding Samantha’s submissions for the prize award with her and her college – given the summer holidays, this may take some time.

In conclusion please be assured that Texprint takes copyright infringement very seriously and as part of the Texprint experience all of the applicants are given written materials and lectures on the subject. ”

EH?SERIOUSLY? She would have attended lectures about copyright infringement and recieved written materials to ensure that she was fully aware of the rules? And she STILL entered our images? WHAT? This story just gets weirder and weirder. I for one cannot wait until it’s all resolved.

AND she got a FIRST CLASS degree out of all this blatant thievery. Hopefully University College Falmouth takes this off her. As an ex-UCF student, (Samantha was in the year bellow me) I find this pretty disgusting and SO embarrassing for the Uni. And now it turns out she has been ripping off other artists too. I reckon she must have had to take out a student loan just to cover her tracing paper costs…

I can fully understand the feeling of all who had their work stolen by Samantha. I had 13 pices photographed and the pattern/images stolen during an exhebition last year. Seems more and art more people just do not have the respect for copywrite anymore… Sad to say the least!

Her actions don’t really merit the avalanche of outrage and abuse and emotional outpouring. Here are some of my favourites:

‘this lady should be in jail’ (sharon)

‘an obscene offense.’ (Jena)

This is so scary! (Virginia)

Truly disgusting. (Veronica)

I have to say it really strengthens my belief that most people in the illustration industry are self obsessed, pompous, middle class bitches. She ripped someone off, she isn’t a child killer.

The disproportionate vitriol expressed here makes me wander if any of you ever felt a little guilty after producing something that resembled another artist’s work.

to POINTY, – quite right!,

by the way, ive been through lots of bloggers websites and if I see another kookie looking body or disenchanted creepy face, or happy-go-lucky doodle I MIGHT JUST EXPLODE into tiny love hearts or whatever it is you lot like to explode into.

POINTY: Surely: “I have to say it really strengthens my belief that most people in the illustration industry are self obsessed, pompous, middle class bitches” is what a reasonable person mught call: “disproportionate vitriol “.

Where did that come from? Is there any need to be so mean?

Yes, saying she should be put in jail is obviously extreme and disproportionate, but Samantha has copied work that other people have spent a great deal of time and thought over, and that is personal to its creator.

As a textile designer I put a huge amount of time, emotion and effort into my work (sorry if saying this makes me a “self obsessed, pompous, middle class bitch”) and what Samantha has stolen is not just an image but someone else’s hard work and creativity, using it to get a first class degree and a prestigious award without expending the sweat and tears… So I think a bit of outrage is justified. And that your nasty comments are not…

Thank you Mykl.

Apologies for sounding nasty Rosabel but the
industry (in Britain at least) is practically defined by this sort of online personality assassination. I have met a lot of illustrators who would sooner reel off a list of their clients to impress you and participate in public debates about mind numbingly small points (usually aimed at bringing other illustrators down) than actually pursue good drawing and professional practice.

Yes a BIT of outrage is justified. But only a bit. Most of the stuff here is emotional fire-breathing(!)

sounds like Pointy is doing a bit of emotional fire-breathing himself! (but about the industry) Bad experience? obviously not an experience involving plagiarism..

I think you summarize the moral of this whole mess beautifully on your last couple of sentences. I have posted about it on my blog and hopefully the word will spread. The web is a double-edged sword for sure…
Thank you for posting.
-maria

[...] on You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice, but the better images to compare the work are on the blog Books By Its Cover.  The original artist seems to be fairly upset about it all, and rightfully [...]

Yes actually I have been ripped off before but at least I can put it into perspective. Frankly there are real scary and obscene things in life and everything doesn’t revolve around a bit of playing dirty in business. What are all these outraged people going to say when something ACTUALLY sickening and bad happens?

The worst experiences I have had in the art world are dealing with egocentric illustrators.

I think you made your point, Pointy; however over-blown it may be. There isn’t some imaginary scale of how people should act in any one particular scenario. I think it rather silly to morph this story into a ’spin’ of how egocentric illustrators are.

“Pointy”(must refer to head):
Love how you cherry-pick to prove your worst beliefs and that’s ALL you can get out of 120 comments-4 meager lines, and only one truly OTT. Speaks well rather than not of the illustration world I’d say.

There’s no more useless and self-regarding tack to take in a good discussion of plagiarism than the old canard of “frankly there are real scary and obscene things in life..” and blah-blah.
Well, no shite sherlock. Thanks for giving all of us fools perspective.

Please don’t make your feeble attempts to minimize a very real and damaging professional offense by a “comparison” to murder/rape/world hunger/child trafficking. I’m sure you’re busy-busy worrying and reading up on all the internet news on those more weighty topics truly worthy of our ire, but this is a discussion about plagiarism, not simple-minded relativism.

@Pointy
“The worst experiences I have had in the art world are dealing with egocentric illustrators.”

you are very lucky if the worst you’ve had to deal with in your career are other ‘egocentric illustrators’. It’s your choice to deal with them. If you get commissions from art directors, when would you ever have to deal with other ‘egocentric illustrators’?

Frankly, if you take your work seriously, you must take plagiarism seriously. Only if the art community reacts with outrage, can your work be protected, too.
If nobody reacts to plagiarism or thinks it’s no big deal, any illustrator – including you – may suddenly find themselves with there livelihood pulled away from under their feet.

Apart from that, there is absolutely no reason for you to assume that anybody here does not care about other, bigger issues in the world.

I agree she shouldn’t have copied the work but I must admit that I like her designs a lot. The new versions are pretty cool.

@Edith
that’s like saying “I must admit she shouldn’t have stolen all the furniture but it looks really good in her house”.

I cannot believe how brazen this woman was – how she went about receiving those awards, setting up her ‘own’ website and making fake sketch books in such a calculated manner is a worry.

She obviously has little self belief in her own abilities, and I perhaps the idea that she will never be able to look her friends and family in the eye after this shameful outing, will be punishment enough in itself.

omg!
i wanted to put my entire sketchbook (180 pages) on the internet, but now i don’t know …

Wow, that’s pathetic…
still don’t understand why people do such things…

Since I post many of my own artwork online, this is also a very big concern of mine. I’ve been thinking about it, and there’s really no sure fire way of preventing something like this from happening.

Everyone who wants to put their work online like this should take this into consideration, and should be willing to take action and protect their work once it does. Because you really are the only one who can protect your work, aided and abetted by the vigilant friends online.

The hard work happens after the fact.

If someone steals my work, the first thing I do would be to document everything. I’d then contact the person involved and raise a stink. And regular visitors to my blog know exactly how much I can raise a stink if I have to.

Owch, i’ve had my photography stolen and exhibited by another artist and went nuts, I went as far as going to the exhibition (a friend found it) and ripped it off the walls. It’s a very difficult thing as when your an illustrator theweb s such a good toolt o get your work out there, but at the same time you don’t want it taken. We all need to remember to put lo res images on our websites and pref. some sort of system in palce that stops them being copy and pasted. Good luck lauren, your work is very nice.

it’s just pure stupid of samantha taking credits on all the arts in her design, and unnecessary. What led her to that end is the question. The school should take a hard look on its own system!

I was, along with everyone else shocked not only at the extent of the plagiarism and audacity of the thief, but the time and effort involved in the process! I’ve always considered people like this lazy..I mean, rather than take the time to create something original they’ll lift an existing work just to make a buck, but can you imagine the time and effort it took for this person to not only steal the images, but put them together, promote them, etc?? A LOT of work went into what was done. It’s scary!

I’ve found my work used in a range of ways without my permission from simply posting the image on a website, to selling the work on an auction site on a wide variety of items. I even found a POD site based in China selling items with one of my designs and no author or ’shop’ listed. They saw it, thought it would sell, and took it.

If you display your work on the net, it’s become almost necessary these days to do at least an occasional keyword search within your niche (if you have one) looking for your work being sold or credited to someone else. I almost feel dirty doing it, then I find someone selling my work on eBay and I’m infuriated.

I don’t believe my work is of the quality that I have to worry about plagiarism to this extent, and usually a cease and desist or an email to eBay’s vero program (they’re really great about it if their notified) takes care of it, but I’m only one person and can’t possibly find them all.

I do suggest EVERYONE do occasional keyword searches though…never think it won’t happen to you because chances are it already has.

I have this constant battle now with my art and design students [at foundation level] in getting them to fully understand and appreciate that the web is not a free resource supply for their designs. For a generation that have grown up with the internet there is actually a prevailant naiveity about how far reaching it is. They honestly think that they can just take things and no one will notice, or even mind. They seem to think that if it’s an artist they haven’t heard of before then their old fogey lecturer [35] won’t have either.

There needs to be MUCH more emphasis on copyright issues and good working practice on all art and design courses, and lecturers need to remain informed about their field of work & the work of other artists and be quick to stamp on anything that looks like plagiarism.

Just terrible. It makes me SO angry.

[...] Digital Culture, Professional by The Department of Illustration on August 10, 2009 this from book by its cover… a cautionary [...]

Shocking behaviour! Lauren’s illustrations are fantastic, I hope this whole palarva brings a lot of good publicity for her. Samantha on the other hand… most of her degree was probably a fraud. This must have ended her career before it even started, and hope she hasn’t spent all that £750 award money yet! What a crock.

Enough wicked and disgusting comments about my daughter. And yes she can look me in the eye you have no idea of the pain she is in over this. The matter has been settled with Lauren, now end this insane chat and find something else to character assassin. Bigoted hypercritics this has nothing to do with you lot.

We struggle with rip offs every day at Tatty Devine. Often people can’t understand that copying our designs is wrong. Teachers should be teaching design students about these issues (though sadly we’ve had teachers come to our stand and tell their pupils that “here are some good ideas to try out on our new lasercutter”).

At this point I’ve decided to close the comments out of respect for Samantha Beeston and her family. I think everything has been said that should be said. This is a sad story for everyone involved but hopefully we all can learn from this situation. Thank you all for your support and for sharing your own stories.

Please continue to leave your copyright questions here. I have found a copyright lawyer who is going to do a guest post answering your requests for information.

Oh dear, this is awful, a sad story indeed! More than sad though, truly quite sickening… I know the feeling of being plagiarized, people have stolen my writing, or re-created my posts, and sometimes they’re not exact, but they’ll use the same or same kind of photos, and write like the exact same thing, just slightly different wording, and really, it pisses me off, and sometimes makes me want to stop posting any of my work online…

Since photography isn’t my area of expertise, but I like having photographs to illustrate and capture the essence of my writing, I do use others’, but I’m obsessive about giving proper name and link credit, to the photographer themselves, and not just the source, where it was re-posted. If I don’t know where it came from, I don’t want to post it, and I hate logging on to blogs and seeing no credit given for all the photos…its not that hard to credit, folks, and if you don’t, you’re flat out stealing, have some decency!

xoxo,
S-C

Thank you for sharing this story. The question that arises is whether the same Internet that enabled this piracy can be equally as valuable in exposing the plagiarism.

In the end, will Samantha be held accountable and thoroughly discredited, as she deserves? And will others who Google her in the future find this disgraceful episode and refuse to do business with her?

And what will be the lesson for other would-be pirates? Will they be discouraged from stealing others’ work, or will they simply seek new ways to avoid being caught?

It’s a never-ending battle, and I commend Lauren for pursuing it vigorously.

Wow. Unbelievable.
I just wanted to lend support to Lauren, and encourage her to continue with her art. I would also like to commend those who pursued and publicized this.
Unfortunately, there are many Samanthas out there, in the art world, in Hollywood, and the corporate world.
Just remember, Lauren, you’re the one with real talent and you can continue to create for the rest of your life.

I heard about this story from my Flickr group, Stop Art Piracy Campaign and wanted to express my sadness about what happened to Lauren and I hope with all my heart that this gets rectified and the thief gets prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I have never seen such blatant thievery but unfortunately it probably happens more than we know. :o(

Wow. What an artist’s worst nightmare. Samantha obviously wanted a quick buck. I hope she has some consequences.

Andy, your daughter stole artwork and passed them off as her own! She did not do this once, she did it SO MANY times, as many as 50+ pieces of artwork! She will get what she deserves. Of course a parent will always act like their kid did nothing wrong. But SHE WAS WRONG, period. I love how whenever someone gets caught they feel bad afterward. She feels bad because SHE GOT CAUGHT, not because she is sorry!

[...] un’illustratrice inglese ha vinto un importante premio copiando il lavoro di un’altra (leggi il post), e quello più sfumato di Valerio Vidali, che ha pubblicato sul suo blog un leone troppo simile a [...]

Mike is right, of course anyone would feel sorry AFTER they’re caught… every kid, whether taught by their parents or society, are already aware that taking something that isnt yours is a big don’t, let alone a college graduate. If she’s brave enough to accept an award for stolen work, she should be brave enough to accept the deserved comments she’s been getting.

While this is an unfortunate incident from the perspective of commercial art, art commerce is not that much different than any other commodity trade. Young artists are very aware of the current business climate where all kinds of products are copied and produced in China, for instance. In addition, appropriation is an important topic discussed in art academia now; artists are taught skills which question all systems and structures, including economic ones.

The missed opportunity here is that Samantha did not go all the way and make this a bit of performance art, from start to finish. That could have been a brilliant commentary on the fact that artists may not be cultural producers anymore, but simply commodity producers taking direction from the over-arching for profit maximization system they claim to ‘transcend’ by being creative.

Are ideas such as copyright off limits to real artistic commentary, even if the artist is unaware of the statement being made?

Wow – I think one of my friends whose girlfriend graduated from Falmouth was there when she was.

Was horrified to hear, then read this.

So bad. Horrible to think that as an illustration student that people would even think to do this! I’d be so embarrassed…I mean…You just don’t :(

As an illustrator at uni myself I am horrified she was not rumbled sooner? How did her tutors not realise?

Why do a creative course if you are not going to create but copy… I would be upset to say the least if someone so obviously stole from me.

I must be living under a rock for the longest time, because I just found out about this. Shame on Samantha!

This is unbelievable! I am shocked by the nerv of this person. On the positive side, this is just more affirmation for Lauren’s work. Which of course goes without saying is spectacular. It is such a fine line what we choose to show on the web. I want to have faith that people will be decent. I think it is vital to let things flow and share. As creative people we have to remember that we always have more to give and keep doing what we love and sharing it with the world. People who do this are not lucky enough to have their own talent and voice. What goes around ALWAYS comes around.

Good artists imitate. Great Artists steal.

[...] had time to check for updates on this story but see what you think, originally found on ‘Book by its Cover’ blog. posted under [...]

I think that the student has probably learned her lesson from this, and really the issue in hand is how does this keep happening? The problem is often with the industry; from the blogs we can see that Lauren’s actions are not uncommon.

The issue of visual plagiarism has until recently been seen to be a minor distraction in some universities, but at the 2008 International Plagiarism Conference in Newcastle, I heard for the first time that some legal action against students and institutions were beginning to appear, and that visual plagiarism should now be seen as akin to textual plagiarism.

One of the website blogs asks if theft is taught in colleges and universities; at my institution we have in place preventative measures which have been very successful, and we merely introduce students to the idea that all copying is theft; oh, and Edith please note, they are not Lauren’s designs whether you like them or not!

You may be interested to see that the next Plagiarism Conference at Northumbria University, June 2010, has visual plagiarism on the agenda, so please see the following link if you are interested.

http://www.plagiarismadvice.org/conference.html

In this instance I think Lauren has suffered enough, and lets concentrate on prevention.

Malcolm Clements: Samantha Beeston traced/copied from the work of Lauren Nassef, not the other way around. You wrongly refer to Lauren in your post, again and again.

Next time try reading slower or thinking or something…

Quite right too Malcolm

It’s Charlie’s I think, or should be if you are going to criticise.

Typing error in previous blog:

I think that the student has probably learned her lesson from this, and really the issue in hand is how does this happen? The problem is often with the industry; from the blogs we can see that Samantha’s actions are not uncommon.

The issue of visual plagiarism has until recently been seen to be a minor distraction in some universities, but at the 2008 International Plagiarism Conference in Newcastle, I heard for the first time that some legal action against students and institutions were beginning to appear, and that visual plagiarism should now be seen as akin to textual plagiarism.

One of the website blogs asks if theft is taught in colleges and universities; at my institution we have in place preventative measures which have been very successful; we merely introduce students to the idea that all copying is theft so the answer to that question is ‘No’.

You may be interested to see that the next Plagiarism Conference at Northumbria University, UK, June 2010, has visual plagiarism on the agenda, so please see the following link if you are interested.

http://www.plagiarismadvice.org/conference.html

In this instance I think Samantha has suffered enough, and lets concentrate on prevention.

Thank you Charlies for pointing out my error, and thanks too Tinker.

this makes me feel so sad and so ill in my stomach. a really delusional and desperate act by the “artist” samantha.

this happens in the cake world often too… cake designs being copied, or cake designer’s photos being passed off as other people’s on their own cake business sites. again, just as there is in the illustrator’s community, there are very vigilant cupcake/cake artist watchdogs out there that call out the photo stealers!

also, lauren’s artwork is so lovely… ! and the “tracing work” and coloring samantha did to it made it much more garish and less subtle.

thank you for posting.

take the whole “Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal” statement to a very unfortunate and literal level. Ouch. I feel for Lauren, but I also pity the criminal. what a sad sad person… on many levels.