I'm aware of a number of copyright issues that have been brought to light through twitter and blogs over the last 6 months or so. Its always so sad and frustrating when it happens.
Here is a lovely design by Rachael Taylor which has been used for a variety of products including this light, see blog post here:
Thankfully yet sadly the below image has been spotted on Shutterstock images....
a massively blatant copy!
See Rachael's blog and twitter where you can offer support and keep up to date with her battle to get to the bottom of this upsetting matter.
There is a lot of trust in this business, as a designer you hope and trust that other
designers and companies have morals and don't copy!
Of course designers get inspired by other designers and artists but surely the whole fun of designing is creating your own designs.
Unfortunately trust doesn't seem to be enough, there seems to be a handful of designers and companies that can still sleep at night when they know they have copied another artist.
Does anyone have any idea how we can protect ourselves? Any copyright tips!?
It would be a sad sad world if it got to the point where designers were worried about putting their work out there on websites and blogs through fear of being copied.
6 comments:
The best thing people can do is to let a site owner know when they spot a copycat. At Shutterstock, we removed this artist's work from our site literally within minutes of learning of Rachael's complaint. The artist has now been banned from Shutterstock, we've apologized to Rachael by e-mail, and we're taking additional steps behind the scenes to make this right. - Daryl@shutterstock.com.
Thank you for your comment Daryl. I understand that Shutterstock has to trust that an artist is submitting original work to you. So not only does a copycat artist cause upset to the creator of the artwork but also causes extreme hassle to companies, (Shutterstock in this case) as trust is involved at so many levels.
Its great that you removed the artwork quickly and you are in good contact with the original artist.
Hopefully the more public these incidents become the more copycat artists will think twice about what they are doing.
I know cost wise it can be prohibitive, but lawyers can advise as to how to protect yourself against copycats. I don't know the site personally but I came across this recently http://www.own-it.org/ Looks like a good place to start and there are some decent law firms involved.
Philippa
www.thefutureperfectcompany.com
Thank you for the blog feature, I think as designers it's important that we all raise awareness on this issue.
I just wanted to share this useful link: http://acid.eu.com/
If you have any copyright concerns of your own you can contact ACID (Anti copying in design)
Thanks
Rachael
An update from Shutterstock...
As mentioned previously the design has been removed & pulled back & I've also been recently told that the artist in question 'Sasha Yesik' has been banned from the Shutterstock site completely.
Shutterstock have been emailing me & have advised that they are still currently investigating where the design has been used from the clients who downloaded it.
However at this moment in time, I still do not know if my design is out there on any products & for how long... This is the main concern for my my business. I hope to find this out soon as this is what I'm am still finding distressing.
I will keep the blog updated with the outcome which I hope will be resolved quickly.
It has been a stressful week, thank you for all your honest comments & support.
Rachael:)
Oh dear makes me SOOOO MAD! I had an issue where just by accident I googled some of my work to see a really bad copy of it ranking higher in google. I had a really stressful week as the "artist" (con artist) in question claimed the work to be theirs. Anyway I got legal and it was removed. Have a look at my website now - the wording can leave no one without any doubts!! I now pay to have all my designs lodged legally and copyrighted. What a pain!
http://geordiemugs.com/shop/page/1?sessid=ZEiQDajuFHn03Qzbv96fEiIFletusQRAWyGp4cEoxihBY1OnWOEUuC7wWW0o219V&shop_param=
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