Live data from Hacker News

Disney have stolen my artwork

katiewoodger.tumblr.com

41–50 of 198 posts

Re: Disney have stolen my artwork

#41

"...I created at University and I was proud of it in many ways. Disney have used it..." If she passed any English classes or graduated from the mentioned university, then she deserves a tuition refund.

As she mentions elsewhere, she is British. And "Disney have used it" is perfectly valid in the Queen's English, even if it sounds odd to us yanks.

Re: Disney have stolen my artwork

#43
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't matter; all works of Lewis Carroll's are in the public domain. As far as I know, this is true in all jurisdictions. The traditional Tennyson illustrations are also public domain. Compare with https://www.google.com/search?q=tennyson+illustrations+alice... .

if you're citing lewis carroll's (well, Tennyson's graphics) work as the artist's inspiration then why not a line from LC to Disney, bypassing the artist entirely?

I'm not 100% sure I can parse your question, but the answer is that the handbag appears to be an exact copy on the inside, with some Disney graphics on the outside. The Disney painting is, as others have observed, much more ambiguous and would be harder to prove (although perhaps not impossible, given the presence of the handbag, if for instance the same "artist" did both).

(In fact, the handbag is quite bad as a result of this mixture, if I say so myself as a rather poor judge of design. The tone of Katie Woodger's work and the tone of the original Disney animated piece are at odds with each other, and the juxtaposition is rather less than the sum of the parts.)

Re: Disney have stolen my artwork

#44
I'm of course just guessing but this seams more like the result of a lazy (unscrupulous) designers hired by Disney rather than a corporate decision to ignore copyright.

This doesn't make the situation of the author any better, the author should at least talk to a copyright layer IMO.

Re: Disney have stolen my artwork

#45
post #6

> I’m so mad because I have no chance at getting Disney to do anything about it. For such a straightforward violation, I don't see why there's any call for pessimism. Send them an invoice for a worldwide license, follow it up with a lawyer letter (find someone willing to do no-win-no-fee if you want) once the invoice is overdue.

I wonder how one prices out a worldwide license like this. Obviously if she put the prices at $1000/use, neither would Disney pay it nor would she recover that much from a court. But it's worth more than $0.01/use as well.

It's not my field, but by "worldwide license" I meant a single lump sum that covers everything they might want to do or already have done -- i.e. "this is the amount that you can pay to make this go away and avoid bringing in your expensive legal team".

My naive guess would be that somewhere USD $5k-$10k is that amount: small enough to be within budgetary authority, large enough to make it worth the artist's time to chase up.

In reality, I'd suspect and hope that the artist already has an e-mail from Disney's brand protection team, or whatever they call it, with an apology and an offer to pay immediately. Disney's surely one of the most brand-conscious companies in the world.

Re: Disney have stolen my artwork

#46

"...I created at University and I was proud of it in many ways. Disney have used it..." If she passed any English classes or graduated from the mentioned university, then she deserves a tuition refund.

She is British (it says so on her site). Using plural verbs with organizations ("the police are coming", etc.) is perfectly correct British English; same for "at university" [1].

[1] http://www.amazon.co.uk/Writing-at-University-Phyllis-Creme/...

Re: Disney have stolen my artwork

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was under the impression that this would be covered under copyright and not a particular licence. As soon as the artwork was created by the artist it belongs to the artist, they don't even need to put a copyright symbol next to it. My advice would be get in touch with Disney, it seems the artist has support on tumblr already. I suspect a public spectacle of Disney's mistake (assuming it was a mistake) is probably t…

Copyright is the law from which licenses get their power. It's because the author has the exclusive rights granted by copyright protection that they can dictate the terms under which others may use their work (that is, offer licenses). When no license is offered, the author retains exclusive rights. The parent comment was implying that the author may have offered some kind of license (for example, by uploading his ar…

Thanks for the clarification :)

Re: Disney have stolen my artwork

#48
post #6

> I’m so mad because I have no chance at getting Disney to do anything about it. For such a straightforward violation, I don't see why there's any call for pessimism. Send them an invoice for a worldwide license, follow it up with a lawyer letter (find someone willing to do no-win-no-fee if you want) once the invoice is overdue.

I'd contact a lawyer before communicating with them in any capacity. You wouldn't want to risk giving their attorneys an angle.

Re: Disney have stolen my artwork

#49

I have worked with Disney's intellectual property teams in the past, and I'm blown away that this slipped under the radar. They are very up-tight about protecting their own IP and the brand of their princesses. If this were somebody selling a T-Shirt on eBay I would say, "Don't worry about it," but this is Disney. They know better. Their entire business model is based on intellectual property. Time to lawyer up.

I have had similar experiences with the Disney IP teams. They mean serious business in all directions, from protecting IP to ensuring they are not infringing. They make sure everyone in the company or affiliated is very aware of IP issues. If the painting is indeed the original work and it somehow found its way onto some merchandise, I'm sure Disney will be amicable.

Re: Disney have stolen my artwork

#50
post #6

> I’m so mad because I have no chance at getting Disney to do anything about it. For such a straightforward violation, I don't see why there's any call for pessimism. Send them an invoice for a worldwide license, follow it up with a lawyer letter (find someone willing to do no-win-no-fee if you want) once the invoice is overdue.

Actually, that line turned me off to the whole plight. She clearly has a case, why would her first though be complete hopelessness?
Post reply on HN