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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

#11

Post by ja2ke »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #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 onlin…

I imagine it would be his clients who copyright their logos, not him. It's a rare day that the designer has any claim of ownership over a logo s/he does on contract.

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

#12

Post by feverishaaron »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #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 onlin…

If he has a work for hire relationship with his clients (pretty common for logo work), it is up to them to submit the logo for copyright, unless he chooses to submit it on their behalf as part of his services.

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

#14

Post by feverishaaron »

patio11 wrote: post #9
tomsaffell wrote: post #6

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 demons…

That, and be wary of using any work from that stock art website, as their may be... uh... "usage rights complications".

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

#15

Post by joshwa »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #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 onlin…

The good news is that a single registration fee can cover an entire collection of unpublished works, as long as they are by the same author: http://www.copyright.gov/eco/faq.html#eCO_2.3

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

#16

Post by thinkcomp »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #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 onlin…

Logos are not copyrightable. You would trademark a logo.

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

#17

Post by huhtenberg »

Back in 2002 Stockart was actively soliciting copyright infringement leads:

  ...
  All we need is for you to give us enough information 
  to locate the communication which has the illustration(s)
  used out of copyright, and we will take it from there. 
  In return, we will send you 10% of ANY settlement moneys
  we recover. This could amount to thousands of dollars for
  you AND the illustrators, by simply doing what is right!
http://whatdoiknow.org/archives/000097.shtml

Also, Jon (the designer) said that there was at least one other designer that had gave into their extortion scheme, and that he would've given in too if not for the community support. To me this puts the whole situation in a completely different light. It makes it seem as if the copyright "enforcement" is a part of StockArts business plan.

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

#18

Post by vaksel »

patio11 wrote: 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.

based on the way the guy typed, I'd bet he'd let them get away with it, whenever they email him saying that they decided that he is right

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

#19

Post by mbrubeck »

thinkcomp wrote: post #16
mechanical_fish wrote: post #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 onlin…

Logos are not copyrightable. You would trademark a logo.

A name is just a trademark, but a logo is a work of art, and may be covered by both trademark and copyright law. For example, the Debian/Firefox controversy hinged on the non-free copyright license governing the Firefox logo artwork: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=354622

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

#20

Post by kwamenum86 »

thinkcomp wrote: post #16
mechanical_fish wrote: post #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 onlin…

Logos are not copyrightable. You would trademark a logo.

You would only trademark a logo if you plan on associating it with your company and you don't want any other company to use the same or similar artwork in their identifying artwork.
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