Issue 8 is on street…
Bodyboarding Rockstar Andre Botha makes his first Sixty40 cover.
I was a bit quick to decide I support Jon Engle in his battle against the Stock Art site that claimed he was using their art on some of his client logos (previous post). It is apparently not so clear as to who is in the wrong -> see this excellent post by The Logo Factor – The Jon Engle vs. Stockart.com story – an anti-spec work parable?
Moral of the story; however this playes out, it serves as another nod towards the wrongs of Spec Work and the negative effects it has on the Graphic Design industry.
I was utterly horrified when I read the following (excerpt from his blog – Jon Engle… click here to read the whole thing):
This morning I received a message from a friend alerting me to a discussion about me on one of my favorite sites. I tried logging in to see what was going on to find out I had been banned. I emailed the site owner to see what the issue was. His response was that someone had contacted him to inform him I was being investigated for copyright infringement. One of the logos I’ve been accused of stealing was for a client of this site. In order to protect himself from a lawsuit, he had to boot me off the site and distance himself from the problem. I’m not happy about it, but I understand. He wasn’t left with much of a choice.
This morning’s shocker is just a sympton of a larger problem, a HUGE problem, that I became aware of July 2008. I’ve been quietly dealing with it for the past 9 months and thought I was making some headway. Today they crossed a line and have done irreperable damage to my business and my reputation.
I was first contacted by a stock art site in July of last year. They hit me with a bill for a whopping $18,000! I had an account with the site. Years ago I purchased an illustration of a chef’s hat for a client’s project. So, I thought this was some accounting mistake. Nope. This was a bill for new images. Very familiar images. They were images from several of my logos; 65 of them in fact. That breaks down to about $275 per image. They actually wanted me to pay them $275 for each one of MY images!
Once the sticker shock wore off the obvious question came to mind. Where the hell did they get these from? It seems as if most or all of them were lifted from my LogoPond showcase. They especially seemed to favor the ones that made it to the gallery.
My theory is that someone copied my artwork, separated them from any typography and then posted them for sale on the stock site. Someone working for the site either saw my LP showcase or was alerted to the similarities. They then prepared the bill and sent it to me. The good thing is that the bill gives me a record of every single image they took from me. That helps me gather dates, sketches, emails, etc to help me prove my case. The bad thing is that despite my explanations and proof, they will not let this go.
When I refused to pay the bill they hired a law firm specializing in copyright infringement. The attorney called and offered a settlement of $18,000. How is that any different than the bill? I refuse to pay THEM for work I created. That is the epitomy of ridiculous. The attorney didn’t like my response. He threatened to sue. I say BRING IT ON! I have no doubt I can win in court.
Source: www.jonengle.com EDIT: Last time I checked his site is down… for more info on this story see this follow up post.
Sixty40 Magazine – Issue 7 is online. Enjoy.
This also means Issue 8 (the hard copy version) will be on street within the week…
