Legal action?
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- SirLawrence0
it's blatant for sure, but this you already know - and keep hearing from us :-P
Send then both an official legal letter, drafted by a lawyer. Attach your invoice with it, and offer them to pay within x amount of days, or take out the visual, or with a legal follow up.Usually it gets resolved once the legal threat comes in, and once you have a lawyer in your corner. At least that is the experience I have - though I am fortunate not to be THAT experienced in it. In our case a client fired us of a project, stating we didn't deliver the requested quality, only for them to use the designs in-house and have the packaging and pop executed the same way we designed it. Our first - friendly - contacts fell on deaf ears. We then got our shit together, went to a lawyer, gave them the ultimatum, and the suckers paid.
If you word it strong enough to let them know it is not going to go away, and your actions are not just talk, they will listen and react. They don't want to go to court over this.
Contacting myspaces is not a bad idea either, but more to inform them of the situation and that they may have a lawyer contacting them for info regarding your lawsuit. That will wake up a few people there too. Owh, and keep it civil - don't fall into the trap of fingerpointing and accusations. Bad vibe, plus you know you are right.
Ask around for junior lawyers - they'd love cases like this as it is clear winner. Work out a deal where he or she takes a commission from your royalty fee (of course - bump up your fee as to include it)
go get 'm
- mbr0
Right, but who's to stop them from claiming he stole it in a blog?
My point was that by screaming no one is going to win.
I think it's extremely dangerous to make public claims about someone as they can just as easily do the same about you. They have no reputation to lose, so it'd be nothing for them to attack him back, he's got everything to lose (his name is exposed, etc.).
I wouldn't take the risk. You'd be making yourself extremely vulnerable.
Most lawyers will give free consultation, anyway. And writing a letter stating you have a lawyer would only make sense.
Good point about proving the copyright, too. If it did escalate to a verbal/blog war, it's basically just gonna be one persons word against an organization's word (numbers win).
- UndoUndo0
this is blantantly a direct rip and not someone who has taken inspiration from ricstultz work. ric has tried to contact them and they have ignored him.
I'm not saying the purpose of blogging about it is to ruin ppl's lives and the explanation you give sven_sk of this kid who's life was ruined, is fairly extreme.
as ric said he's not got the cash for legal action so what should he do? sit back and let it ride , not get paid and let them promote their festival with it to make $. If ppl rip and get away with it only encourages them and others to do it again.
do you think they dont make dollar from this festival?
The only person who is going to get affected by this is ric who's been ripped and not payed his royalties.
- Neuarmy0
what up ric - been a while..
check your area man, you'd be surprised. i know philly has volunteer lawyers for the arts.
http://www.pvla.org/get your google on:
http://www.dwij.org/matrix/vla_l…
http://negativland.com/lawyers.h…
i'm sure you could find someone to help you out if that's what it comes down to. sucks man, but hopefully you get it sorted.
- rtl30
Everyone says egt legal advice but before you do that, you should know the burden of proof is yours not theirs. How ill you prove that their image is inspired by yours and not vice-versa?
You need this image dated, copyrighted in one way or another, any record at all, else you'll be wasting your money on a lawyer.
The co. will ignore you until you let them now you can prove the original is yours.
good luck and mfdoom is god
- tripleflux0
I don't see any resemblance
- mbr0
you could make a fake profile and try to get the graphic designer's name and contact them directly.
'hey, nice work, we'd love to use the same dude'
Probably won't work.
I'd get that form letter and say that you are talking to your attorney about purusing legal action. Don't threaten to do it, aas then it sounds like you don't have a lawyer, say you are doing it (with your attorney, so they think you already have a reguarl guy).
I'd avoid blogging about it. That starts a war and nobody wins. You have your name out there, they don't. They could easily start something against you and it'd just be ugly.
Keep it clean and professional.
Sucks they stole it. Nice work, though.
- ricstultz0
hahahaa... I love you guys.
- chossy0
screw it I'll do it for free. I'll take photos it'll be great :F
- chossy0
If you pay me seven pounds and fifty new pence I will travel over to australia and cut the persons teeth out if you like as some recompense for their error?.
Let me know
- Sven_sk0
isn't a myspace page?
there wasn't any graphic designer for that shit, cmon now!
- dopepope0
Damn Ric, that's blatant. A cool image too, I see why they'd want to use it. I hope you can work this out.
- uberdesigner_0
sue them, their corporate body, their families, the bands, the vendors, and their graphic designer
- Sven_sk0
very clever of you my friend...very clever.
you won this round but i'm sicking my 'getintoporfolio' bot on your site as we speak.
k0na_an0k
(Aug 18 06, 09:01)lol@kona
i've had stuff knocked off and i've known people that have knocked stuff off a little too close had it blogged about and it literally ruined their lives, one kid had a piece in his folio that someone thought was too close and put a whole rant about it on a forum and the place went nuts. they contacted the kids firm, got the kid fired, can't find new work and the thing is still out there somewhere and the kid lives in fear of it.
and this was a piece that was just inspired by another piece and someone took offense to it
i'm just saying this shit can ruin lives and explore all options before trying to ruin someones otherwise good name for what might have been an honest mistake.
- algorithm0
do you have a myspace page? If you do, did you have this image up there?
- THA0
Consult with a lawyer about this asap before you do anything else.
- ricstultz0
Thanks guys, I'll give it a shot looking in law forums. I wish I was in the UK, I'd love some free legal advise... nuthins free in the US.
In other news, anyone looking for an illustrator?
:)
- nicnichols0
Send a cease + desist letter, stating that you are speaking with a lawyer and will be following with a letter from him.
Google that, and I bet you can find a stock letter that is well worded.
Good luck- that sux that people rip stuff off like that...
- mg330
I work at a law firm, wish I could help but our whole IP Department is off golfing today!
- nicklewi0
google for some law forums. i bet you'll find a keen young lawyer who would help you with this on a no win no fee case