Protect Your Work, Enforce Your Rights
While the creative industries are based upon inspiration from and use of certain ideas and elements from previous artistic works, when there is a wholesale and slavish reproduction of a work, the artist of that work should not just shrug it of as part of the business, but should enforce his or her intellectual property rights to deter future biting.
Intellectual property rights are just as valid as rights one would have in a car or a watch - if one owns something, others shouldn't be allowed to freely take or make use of that something. Only by enforcing these rights will those who bite others' designs and expressions reconsider their actions in the future. The government recognizes this and has enacted strong laws to protect artists who have expended considerable time, labor and resources to create the works and punish those who steal the artwork. If anyone is interested in discussing how to protect their art or prosecute someone who is illegally benefiting, either monetarily or otherwise, from exploiting their protected works, let me know.
September 29th, 2006 - 03:03
here here…all you so called artists/designers out there making it by stealing real creative peoples jobs by remaking whatever is “cool” at the moment should be put in art jail and rehibilitated to janitors or bankers.
September 29th, 2006 - 21:43
I’m an illustration student and have done my first year. And in that year I was plagerized at least twice. Once where some other student copied my idea and the other from my own brother, scanning an image from my drawing book and using it in his own work. It looks like the industry is just as bad, I would like to read up on my rights.
September 29th, 2006 - 21:52
There should be a collective website where artists can in a sense register their websites/artwork and establish reputation and credit- if communities were strong enough and backed by people who could help protect or at least shine light on the theft as it happens it would be alot easier to make a difference and actually protect artists.
Of course a site like this is great especially when a more prominant street artist is ripped off, because they are easily identified by their work in their particular scene, but what about the lesser known artist?
Someone with the resources and reputation in the art communities should get together and do something for those who continue to make it thrive
October 2nd, 2006 - 08:10
i was totally on your side until you said “intellectual property” “rights”. This term is used to pidgeonhole several distinct parts of law together in a way that is confusing and inaccurate. Besides, art is protected through COPYRIGHT, not some bullshit made up term.
October 2nd, 2006 - 22:43
Actually, “intellectual property” is a term used by the Courts in the United States and refers to a whole suite of rights, of which copyright protection is only one. Should you create a symbol for a brand you are developing, for instance, you would want to protect that symbol under trademark law instead of, or in addition to, copyright law. So, while you are correct that one of the ways art is protected is through copyright, it is inaccurate to state that art cannot be protected under one or more of the other intellectual property branches as well.
October 2nd, 2006 - 23:21
check out
http://creativecommons.org
(for all those copyright issues with a progressive spin)
April 20th, 2007 - 02:41
it was really simple back in the day.
if someone bit from you, you would find them and beat the living shit out of them.
now we got people like this tosser in spitalfields, london blatantly selling digital canvases of photos of people’s street work.
January 28th, 2008 - 03:11
Yeah I am having this problem currently, some ripoffs of my work are being sold on ebay. Worst thing is that they are SHIT ripoffs. Have to go through the whole ebay vero program which is a pain in the ass quite frankly.