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Designer gets accused of stealing his own work and billed $18,000

jonengle.com

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Re: Designer gets accused of stealing his own work and billed $18,000

#5
post #3

I think a certain law firm is going to get a very expensive lesson in the meaning of "tortious interference". God, this is such a canonical example of it you might as well print it in the freaking dictionary next to the definition.

The definition:

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

That should save everyone who reads this a few clicks.

Re: Designer gets accused of stealing his own work and billed $18,000

#7
post #3

I think a certain law firm is going to get a very expensive lesson in the meaning of "tortious interference". God, this is such a canonical example of it you might as well print it in the freaking dictionary next to the definition.

Yeah, in my totally unprofessional opinion, if he can prove those are his originally there's a pretty compelling countersuit there. This sort of thing is why we have those.

Re: Designer gets accused of stealing his own work and billed $18,000

#8
So the big question is: I've invented a logo. Where do I submit it, along with my identifying information, in order to get a certification (backed up by something that will hold up in court, like a notary's signature) that I uploaded and claimed it on a specific date?

One obvious answer is "The US Copyright Office":

http://www.copyright.gov/eco/index.html

But that's $35 per registration. Seems like one of those online entrepreneurs I keep hearing about might be able to offer a cheaper service, via the web, to every designer in the world.

Of course, a lawyer may tell me that this is useless. Or it might be that the correct answer is "Flickr", and to do more is overkill.

Re: Designer gets accused of stealing his own work and billed $18,000

#9

This does seem terrible. Can anyone suggest a way that we can help this guy? (assuming this can be validated - though I'm not suggesting it's not true)

Do nothing. He doesn't need an Internet cheering section. He needs a lawyer, and an extraordinarily straightforward civil suit.

Anything a net groundswell could possibly accomplish is only going to complicate the very simple "They falsely alleged copyright over my works. They ignored my reasonable attempts to correct their misunderstanding. They then contacted my clients and called me a thief. I have suffered demonstrable damage to my business and professional reputation as a result. This behavior is tortious." narrative his lawyer will be telling the court.

Re: Designer gets accused of stealing his own work and billed $18,000

#10

So the big question is: I've invented a logo. Where do I submit it, along with my identifying information, in order to get a certification (backed up by something that will hold up in court, like a notary's signature) that I uploaded and claimed it on a specific date? One obvious answer is "The US Copyright Office": http://www.copyright.gov/eco/index.html But that's $35 per registration. Seems like one of those onlin…

Just upload it to flickr, they should store the uploaded date.
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