This link was sent to me from thelittlechimpsociety.com about a book that was made in China. This book took interviews and large amounts of illustrations without the knowledge of the illustrators.
Darren Di Lieto wrote "Last week a British illustrator called Jonathan Edwards informed me that he had come across a book that contained his illustrations along with other illustrators work. He contacted me because the book is also riddled with interviews that he recognized as being the interviews I conducted for the LCS.
Today I received a copy of the book (costing me $100) and to my horror it has plagiarized the art blog. This has left me deeply upset!"
Links:
Ape fluffpictures from the bookSo this this begs many questions-How safe is our work online? What else is being ripped off? And when this happens what can we do about it as illustrators? Some see this as free publicity. Free publicity? They are taking work and making a profit from it. Some are extremely mad and want compensation. I don't blame them. When I saw Von's and Luke Feldman's work plus many other familiar illustrators, I couldn't help feeling sick. So, what am I doing about it? I am sending this out to everyone I know in the industry. There is one nice thing about the internet-word spreads fast. Word of mouth is on our side. If you steal or plagarize the whole industry is going to know about it. We illustrators seem to be a pretty tight knit bunch. We don't like it when you mess with our work and our creative way of living. .
I am in the process of making a book myself. It will be about the creative business side of illustration. Not for one moment do I think I have the right to take work or use quotes from anyone without permission. What this does give me is information to include in my book to keep illustrators informed. This is one of the challenges to "being out there". Something tells me this wont be the last time this happens.
Copyright is being turned onto its head lately. What we knew as ethical rules to follow are now being ignored. In the US they are trying to pass a Orphan Works Law. An Orphaned Work is any creative piece of art where the artist or copyright owner has released their copyright, whether on purpose, by passage of time, or by not registering it as theirs. This is causing much confusion about who owns what and for how long. It is a lot of legal mumbo jumbo. Just when it seemed by placing a © by your name was enough then this comes up.
My final thoughts about this are- if you are going to post images online make sure they are low resolution files. Will this protect you 100%? No, but it is a start. Make sure you know where your work is for example, online groups etc and their posting terms and conditions. Facebook is one that you should be leery of. Be informed and if you see something let others know. This not only affects illustrators; it affects the whole creative industry. Speaking up and loudly is a start. Please pass this along.
Labels: alerts, great links
