you thought we wouldn’t notice

A few years ago I made a simple animation of Charles Darwin emerging from his own beard, you can view the original version on my site here:

http://www.cyriak.co.uk/gifs039.html

I included it in a compilation of my animations, which got quite a lot of views on youtube. You can see it here (animation in question is at 1.38):

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-3JCESdFNyw

Then a couple of months ago I was alerted to a recent Swedish tv commercial for McDonlads coffee in which a bearded man emerges from his own beard. Here it is on youtube:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Itl08AFJOZI

In an ad campaign where the brief was obviously to come up with some random weirdness, it seems incredible that they would not only pick an identical idea, but use an identical style to portray it, and animate it in exactly the same way… but the true miracle of this “coincidence” appears when both versions are viewed side by side - see for yourself:

http://www.cyriak.co.uk/beard-comparison.html

Not only do the keyframes within the loop match perfectly, but the animation loop itself is exactly the same length of time in both versions, to the frame - I have not altered the speed of either of them.

That really is so unlikely to be chance that to claim otherwise would be laughable, and yet that is what the company behind the commercial, DDB, said when I approached them about this. They claimed to never have seen the original (despite its 2 million youtube hits), its all a complete coincidence, and I even received a rather rude email reply from one of the creative team behind it, voicing how “absurd” it was to claim they had copied it.

I’m still considering my legal options, but I’d be interested to hear any other opinions on it.

My website is Techdesigns.co.uk

I received an anonymous e-mail informing me of these guys, (Update: website has since been removed after several e-mails and no initial response) who had pretty much copied my entire website (including text, photos, graphics and clients).

Comments?

Edit: It’s especially worth noting their amazing photoshop skills - check out how they’ve seamlessly edited the 2nd icon in (original image on top).

This really pissed me off when i seen this:

I took it upon myself to comment about how they totally stole Rumiko Takahashi’s Panda version of Genma Saotome on on their site. They of course declined from commenting back and just deleted my post. This isn’t just for a flyer; seems they are also using it as their logo and printed flags/banners of the above image for possible purchase(?).

Rumiko Takahashi’s Original.

-Ranma ½: Manga & Television Series.

I was surfing the other day and came across this neat, simple css designed website for this hot new company called Eden

Then I was like.. hey.. that looks similar to a portfolio site I just saw from a dude I went to school with.  Interesting…

Update

This post is dedicated to the law student Superart & his valuable insights in the comments below. Good luck with the Bar Exam!

1. I succeeded in shutting down his screenprinter connection with a well written email and a link to a heavily trafficked blog that exposes artwork theft, guess which one?

2. Remember, I gave him the artwork for sampling purposes originally. Superart, you didn’t think I could navigate a social graph of someone that I’m acquainted with and contact the other people closely involved with a link to a heavily trafficked blog that exposes artwork theft?

A little research goes a long way and there’s many ways to amplify a signal that you wish to send to someone.

3. Lastly, I wouldn’t have started this if I didn’t know that he possesses something that he valued as equally as I do my work. After giving him my two cents over the phone, he offered to rectify the situation, I won’t disclose the terms.

Thanks to YTWWN, creators have a way to bring public attention to theft of their work and a lever to apply pressure to someone who would otherwise get away with their thievery. Sure sometimes the posts are lame & obviously not a rip, but the ones that are genuinely are infringed upon are lucky to have this site.

——-

In March 2007, I designed a concert t-shirt for some student organizations at UC Irvine, which is also featured on this flyer [the Africa logo in the lower right corner].

I combined lyrics from Nas (The Message) & Bob Marley (One Love) to form the phrase “One Life, One Love, One Heart”. With love as the axis point, I thought it would make for a powerful, positive message.

The original was scaled with a 10″ width, I later sampled it in a larger size via an acquaintance and discovered that I needed to make some adjustments to the artwork, I wasn’t 100% on the layout & wanted to clean it up before I put it out there myself…I haven’t seen him in awhile btw.

So, imagine my surprise when a friend clued me into this…

Remember, I haven’t seen a dime or even a shoutout (I looked). It’s not like these guys are a real brand or anything, but they’re in some stores and they peddle at tourist traps and live shows. The point is, my unfinished artwork is being sold as their own.

I’ll post up pics of the original & the sample that he made for reference once I get my camera charged.

You can give them your take on artistic integrity here http://www.myspace.com/gonegreenworld

I’m giving them one opportunity to make amends, otherwise this could get embarassing.

——————- EDIT ———————–
She finally responded to my messages and has removed all of my work from her site.
————————————————-

Today a very nice person emailed me about a French site from Camille Cassan named un jour un design which I think means “one day a design”. I guess she meant one day one STOLEN design. The thing that really gets me is that she has the nerve to call herself a designer.

The design is clearly mine with a color change. The XHTML and CSS are both MINE. If you compare them you will see that they are the same and that she left in things she doesn’t even need. I really wish there was a better way of policing these matters.

The Fake

The Original

I suppose in a way I should be flattered because imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I’m not.

I own a dance studio and am the web master for our site. The site is very informative and contains all our policies, schedules and much more. Many dance studios have the same policies obviously. But I recently came across one of my local competitors that copied my policies page verbatim! They changed a word or two, but copied everything else down to the formatting.

Here is and example of a paragraph from my site:

Dance is a cumulative learning process and everyone progresses at a different rate. Technique comes easier to some than others. It is not unusual for some students to remain in the same level for 2 or 3 years before progressing while others need only take one year of class. Placement is based solely on a child’s ability. It is the teacher’s duty to evaluate each student’s progress.

Here is theirs:

Dance is a cumulative learning process and every child learns at a different rate. Technique comes easier to some than others. It is not unusual for a student to stay in the same level for several years. Placement is based solely on the dancer’s ability and is determined by the teacher.

That is just one small example of an entire page. They even forgot to edit some of the policies to make them match their own, like their withdrawal process.

I have been use to other local studios taking my forms and ideas, but this is the limit. See it for yourself.

My Site: http://www.miracledance.com/children/policies.cfm

Their Site: http://www.spotlightcincinnati.com/aboutus/policies

Brad Maule of phillyskyline.com, a website that chronicles architecture & city life in Philadelphia, slapped a lawsuit last week on the Colbert Report and the Philadelphia Inquirer (among others) over photos swiped from his site. Here is an example of one of the images in question - the original is on the left, the new & improved version on the cover of the Daily News on the right:

These are companies that should have known better, and must have thought Brad just ‘wouldn’t notice.’ Hopefully this can further the dialogue about copyright law & the internet … just because something is online does not make it fair game!

For more info from the photographer himself (full disclosure, my husband), check out a statement on his website: http://phillyskyline.com/statement_080721.htm
He is also looking for people to tell their own stolen image horror stories, so please feel free to share via his contact link.

I’ve read this site for a while and really never hoped I’d have a reason to post. Keep up the good work, vigilantes!

-Rachel