Industry Topic................

[MikeSTK]

So, let me ask the question.

How is the "owner" trackable on some random internet image or unlabelled photo?

Beyond company logos is it even possible to chase something down?

What if a customer presents a piece of paper with a line drawing claiming it as his own?

And just because I have to ask can anyone honestly say they have never used something they did not "create"? I have to believe this is precisely why this topic holds everyone's attention.

 

[jiarby]

Had a guy here in town who was doing decals at the local flea market and the FBI walked in looking for counterfeit fashions and illegal knock offs,..well they walked by his booth and then did a turn around,..seems he had some harley decals and some calvin peein' type decals dispalyed,..well they took a look thru his stuff and found half a dozen pirated cipart titles and a piece of cracked cutting software and took all his equipment,software and vinyl etc. and him off to jail.

Back in the 90's there used to be a Friday night/Saturday flea market in downtown Dallas. Guys would set up Friday at midnight, and the the "retail crowd" would show up during the day. You used to be able to make some money buying bargains at midnight and then selling them yourself Saturday morning.

Anyway, there was a couple guys selling bootleg MS Office and Adobe software for something like $30 a copy.

They sold a ton.

I know for a fact they got raided and the whole crew went to jail and the ring leaders got 5 years and millions of dollars in fines.

 

[OldPaint]

i do a ton of copywrite art for the little league baseball signs. i just did a TRAVELODGE & DAYS INN. BUT.........these are REQUESTED by the SPONSOR to advertise these businesses support of the little league. so no problem as far as iam concerned. like most old brush guys, doin stock cars and being asked if i can DRAW a TAZ, ROADRUNNER, POPEYE, MIGHTY MOUSE or other well know cartoons on their car, it was more of a challenge then worrying about somebody coming after you for "recreating" some thing on a car that might not make more then 2-3 races sometimes!!!!! but then in those days we didnt have YOU TUBE & FACEBOOK.
iam in the process of making my eye doctor a "von dutch" flying eyeball. iam giving it to him, and i will put on the back of the panel, ARTWORK by Von Dutch, recreated by me.
as far as PRINTING......... and using COPYWRITEN MATERIAL, i see a crap load of it.
but then printers arent so much artists as they are a business of printing existing material.

 

[10sacer]

So what are everyone's thoughts on photographs of previous completed projects... but done for another company?

While working for a previous wide format provider, I completed a vinyl banner wrap of three large silos. My employer at the time never used any images for promotion of this capability in any marketing and I personally did all sales, design, installation coordination and client interaction.

Since I did all the work am I not entitled to use those images as examples of projects I have completed... regardless of who was the vendor of record?

If the answer is "no" - then its like my time and effort never existed. See attached for photo of project.

I suppose this topic also applies to designers who design racecars as freelancers. Are you not entitled to display those designs in your portfolios since you don't own the actual car or any of the copyrighted graphic elements?

 

[round man]

Actually the answer is no if you were employed with any part of your job description including the word design and or designer,then the copyrights belong to your employer.I would ask about portfolio privileges to be sure, I know I have had to get permission from certain sponsors in the past,...

 

[Arlo Kalon 2.0]

V
as I belong to a number of aircooled VW clubs,

Not to be a thread pirate, but this is number one on my bucket list. I MUST own another split window vw bus before I kick. Know anybody willing to donate one to a guy with one foot in the grave? (haha)

 

[signage]

Arlo were do you want it shipped to?

 

[Arlo Kalon 2.0]

Arlo were do you want it shipped to?

A top flight restoration place!!!

 

[letterman7]

Not to be a thread pirate, but this is number one on my bucket list. I MUST own another split window vw bus before I kick. Know anybody willing to donate one to a guy with one foot in the grave? (haha)

Take your pick, Arlo! http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/cat.php?id=5

 

[steve.leleaux]

In the few weeks I've been a member of this forum I've seen a lot of questions about font id's and it made me wonder, if a vehicle manufacturer uses a certain font for the name of a vehicle and you have that font in a package you paid for, is using the name and font together infringement? or is using the name the infringement? Kia makes an Optima, there is a font called Optima and I'm sure there are plenty of other people using the word optima as well. At what point is it infringement for you to use the word?

 

[Custom_Grafx]

First, shoo get the money, then, shoo get the power, then, shoo can do whatever shoo like. fly pelican fly!

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aNtnl9vC6QLc

 

[iSign]

While working for a previous wide format provider, I completed a vinyl banner wrap of three large silos. ... Since I did all the work am I not entitled to use those images as examples of projects I have completed... regardless of who was the vendor of record?

If the answer is "no" - then its like my time and effort never existed.

NO!

and it ain't like your time never existed... it did, but your traded it for $10 an hour... so you got the ten buck... and he got the results of that hour... ALL of it! That was the deal you made (knowingly or not)

ok, maybe it was $15 or more... you get the idea...

 

[OldPaint]

where did the PIK-TURE of the silo come from????

 

[Fred Weiss]

In the few weeks I've been a member of this forum I've seen a lot of questions about font id's and it made me wonder, if a vehicle manufacturer uses a certain font for the name of a vehicle and you have that font in a package you paid for, is using the name and font together infringement? or is using the name the infringement? Kia makes an Optima, there is a font called Optima and I'm sure there are plenty of other people using the word optima as well. At what point is it infringement for you to use the word?

The Patent & Trademark office has more than a dozen categories for trademarks. The goal is to avoid any public confusion while not over restricting the use of common words. In your example, fonts and cars aren't likely to be confused. And there's still room for an appliance line, a realtor and a line of frozen pizza ... all named Optima. But there cannot be another car or font that bears that name.

And it is the name that they mostly go by with a few exceptions like Harley Davidson's shield. The courts ruled 22 years ago that no protection other than the name of a font can be protected because the alphabet is in the public domain ... therefore so is any typeface design. The courts later did grant protection to the vectors themselves because they are unique mathematical formulas.

So you can trace your own version of Optima and distribute it to anyone who wants it as long as you don't name it Optima.

 

[Sticky Signs]

I believe that Robert Plant said something along the lines of - I've never been opposed to a little musical thievery.
What ever that means...

 

[Colin]

I'm glad you brought this up Gino. Can someone shed some light on this for me? If I Google Images: "Rembrandt Vaters" and wanted to use that very old image (or any one of those old classics) to promote my Giclee canvas printing abiltity, is that frowned upon? My professional artist friend suggested that because of it's age, copyright wouldn't apply.

In addition, would it be frowned upon to print some of those and sell them?

 

[Fred Weiss]

I'm glad you brought this up Gino. Can someone shed some light on this for me? If I Google Images: "Rembrandt Vaters" and wanted to use that very old image (or any one of those old classics) to promote my Giclee canvas printing abiltity, is that frowned upon? My professional artist friend suggested that because of it's age, copyright wouldn't apply.

In addition, would it be frowned upon to print some of those and sell them?

What you need to understand is that while an old painting isn't protected by copyright, the image you find on the internet is. If you did not photograph the source image yourself, then you need a license from the photographer or whomever owns the rights to the photo.

 

[Marlene]

just lost the chance to bid a local job because the customer e-mailed me artwork from another sign shop that was clearly marked as belonging to them. when I asked her for her logo and told her that I wouldn't use another shop's ideas but would come up with my own, she hung up on me. I wish other shops would do the same and not steal my work when it is shown to them. there is another shop that has my design for a housing development on thier site. they changed my graphics of trees to some toher trees and change the font. the shape of the sign, the layout out of it, the colors were exactly the same as mine. they must have thought if they changed a few things, it became their design which it was not.

I also would never make anything with a copyright that the person did not have the right to use.

 

[Gino]

I'm glad you brought this up Gino. Can someone shed some light on this for me? If I Google Images: "Rembrandt Vaters" and wanted to use that very old image (or any one of those old classics) to promote my Giclee canvas printing abiltity, is that frowned upon? My professional artist friend suggested that because of it's age, copyright wouldn't apply.

In addition, would it be frowned upon to print some of those and sell them?

I think these two shots will explain it to you.............

​

 

[sardocs]

Marlene, you say, - "I wish other shops would do the same and not steal my work when it is shown to them. there is another shop that has my design for a housing development on their site." - but when a member posted last week that he was surprised that I had complained in a private email to him about his using my designs as his examples on his website, you told him I was just some whining pinhead. No wonder we are all confused about what we can and what we should not do as far as using others art and ideas.