I HAVE FINALLY ARRIVED!

[Pat Whatley]

I've had sign designs copied in the past, it annoyed me but life went on. I had someone literally photocopy a sign I did, splice in an different phone number and digitally print them, and even had someone from 1500 miles away call me one time asking me if I'd send them a wrap design I did for a local company because someone in their area saw it online and wanted to use the same design.

But until this morning I'd never felt like I'd reached anyone.

My little town was hit by a tornado Saturday. Most of the cleanup over the weekend involved heavy equipment so there wasn't a lot to volunteer for. Both of our local Boy Scout troops happened to have lost a lot, though. The 165 year old church that housed one of them collapsed, the Scout Lodge that was the home of the other was blown off its footings and will have to be demolished. I love my little town and I loved my time in Scouts so I thought I'd make t-shirts as a fundraiser. I'd hoped to sell 25 or so....well I'm at about 10 times that now after only three days.

This morning I got sent the picture below. I feel so special. This is the first time somebody copied something like this. She's been told to pull it down, she's getting served tomorrow morning. LOL.

 

[Johnny Best]

Beautiful design!

 

[kcollinsdesign]

Why not just call her up and negotiate a license fee?

 

[De.signs Nanaimo]

Isn't everything free on google?

 

[Pat Whatley]

Oh, she tried to justify it because she took my design into Cricut Designer and traced it so that makes it hers. I told her it didn't work that way, she responded telling me that she pays for Cricut Designer Premium so she's protected.

 

[TimToad]

At $15 per shirt, she won't be making much of a contribution to the cause.

 

[rjssigns]

At $15 per shirt, she won't be making much of a contribution to the cause.

Only contributing to her own "cause".

 

[kcollinsdesign]

Don't worry so much about it. Send her a registered mail letter to cease and desist, and file away your transactions with her, along with a time-stamped copy of your original art. If she ever makes a fortune selling her T-shirts, plenty of law firms would be happy to take your case. If you are really concerned about this, go through the steps of registering your copyright. Now if you are yourself capitalizing on this tragedy, or trying to channel funds to relief efforts, go after her now!

 

[Johnny Best]

Next time sign your name on your artwork. Even though she would not have Cricut traced that part.
Hopefully someone from Boston does not get on your case for using the word "strong" as Boston Strong after the bombings they experience.

 

[StarSign]

Wow

 

[d fleming]

Had someone do that to me from my own charity event. Took my logo, put it on those fancy keep it cold cups and started selling them. I made that little you know what donate every penny or forever be known in our little town as a someone who steals from a sick childrens' charity.

 

[kcollinsdesign]

Next time sign your name on your artwork. Even though she would not have Cricut traced that part.
Hopefully someone from Boston does not get on your case for using the word "strong" as Boston Strong after the bombings they experience.

...which, of course, comes from "LIVESTRONG", which is copyrighted.

I see copyright violations every day in the sign industry. Most sign designers are low paid, have no formal education and little knowledge of copyright laws. Usually, if they see a useful image in "Google Images", they just use it without credit or compensation. Much more common with local business signs; national accounts and corporations are more careful about this.

Nobody seems to care about copyright violations in signs, but if you are a Cricut user and sell your wares on Etsy, they will get all over you. This is a big deal in the Cricit community, even though copyright violations are still running rampant. I think copyright compliance will become more important as shops continue to outsource production.

Note: many Cricut users, embroidery shops, and sign shops outsource their digitizing (vectorizing). It is not illegal to vectorize a copyrighted logo, or to offer copyrighted logos on the internet from companies like "Brands of the World." It is just illegal to use them without permission from the copyright holder.

 

[visual800]

Ill slam her on facebook! what a crock

 

[visual800]

Well I wen ton FB and she apparently has removed that artwork BUT I was shocked at how many other "crappy" designs were out there. We just got too many folks with too much desire to be graphic design folks and they aint got a clue

 

[KMC]

if you want a laugh check out the silhouette crafting groups on FB, you will shake your head at the stuff they rip off
they also have separate FB groups to buy products in bulk so they get the 'deals' like the sign shops
and wait until they start talking about floor graphics you will cringe (at the lack of safety) at what they are trying to do, most of the groups also discuss prices and you can see they under cut all of us

 

[Pat Whatley]

If you are really concerned about this, go through the steps of registering your copyright. Now if you are yourself capitalizing on this tragedy, or trying to channel funds to relief efforts, go after her now!

I actually took it a step further and filed a Trademark application on it. The heart and bridge image (without the date and Wetumpka Strong) is part of a much larger marketing project I'm working on. The only reason I went after her was to stop if before it became an issue. She took a little convincing but she pulled it down and went with her own design(which is a copy of a local church's design). After talking with her yesterday I'm sure her intentions were noble and I hope she sells more shirts than she can cut on her Cricut.

And capitalizing on this tragedy? I'm losing money on it. We're donating 100% of the profits from the sales. I'm going to have the books fully audited when we're finished just in case it ever comes up.

 

[visual800]

I would assume you would have taken your costs out of materials and printing and THEN donated the 100% profit. if I was donating something like this I would at least get the cost of those items covered.

 

[Johnny Best]

Pat is a true scout, "help other people at all times".
Visual, if you were driving over to volunteer to help, would you want gas money and lunch to at least get those costs covered?
Pat said he was losing money on his project to help, I applaud him for that.