Apefluff

I’ve just posted up the LCS’s May newsletter, check it out! I review a coloring book, a very cool coloring book.

Along with the Hire an illustrator! redesign, I’ve also rebuilt the Pixel Presence ready-made-website template. I used it to create the recent Hai! redesign. The sales site is a bit blank at the moment, but I’m really happy with the result. Pixel Presence gives not only illustrators, but anyone who wants a fantastic website the ability to do it! I’ve change the price scheme too. Now you get your own website for as little as £12.50.

Visit - pixelpresence.net
Visit - hireanillustrator.com

I know I said I wasn’t going to post anymore updates, but this is just a quick one…

Sendpoints Books have just sent me an email…

We have stopped selling this book, and return them to our supplier. Please contact him if you have any question.

This is great news! I’ve contacted their supplier, but have not received any response so far.

Here is his details if anyone else would like to try.

The personal supplier details…
Attn: Zhao Jun
Tel: 86 371 6913 0968
Mobile: 86 136 0769 6970
Email: 80419003@qq.com

Updates… [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

I was given no credit or was the LCS for the interviews used in the book. They were passed off as the fake ADs, hence why I have stated this to be plagiarism in previous articles.

All of the images in the book were taken from the LCS, the illustrators personal websites, with a few from Flickr. All the images are web quality 72dpi. They did not obtain hi-rez images for the publication, but to turn a web quality image into a print quality image is not that difficult. Just divide the width and height by 4.1 and you’ll then have a 300dpi print worthy file. Although the publishers of the book in question are not that clever - a number of the images in the book are considerably distorted through pixelation where an image has been stretch to fill a space.

The artists were credited for their work, but also in some case for other peoples work or with an incorrect URL to their site. Just giving someone credit does not make it OK to steal their work.

Me and the rest of the team at the LCS are planning to put together an official LCS publication which will be in the form of a lowbrow magazine.

If you’re writing up an article about this for general press get in contact with the illustrators directly if you want to use any of their images. Also you are welcome to take quotes directly from this blog without permission, but not from the comments section. I would appreciate a link to the LCS in any press. If you want a hi-res images of a certain page - check the gallery http://apefluff.com/ci93/ and email me the page URL(s) and I’ll see what I can do.

I can no longer spare anymore time to pursue or seek out the people behind the fake publishers. If anyone else involved is making any head way and posting about it, email me and I’ll link my posts to your blog, so you can continue with updates. My blog will be returning to my regular rantings with hopeful a couple thousand less visitors per day as I mainly only maintain this blog for my personal use.

Updates… [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Possibly as a result of my post yesterday. This morning I received an email from Sendpoints Books…

The personal supplier details…
Attn: Zhao Jun
Tel: 86 371 6913 0968
Mobile: 86 136 0769 6970
Email: 80419003@qq.com

I have sent an email to Zhao Jun and I am waiting for a reply. I have also phoned Zhao, but Zhao would not speak to me. It may have been that I was only speaking English and not Chinese. So if there is someone reading this who is fluent in Chinese - could you call them and ask them for their suppliers information and then email it to me. The telephone number is above, and I use jajah.com for long distance calls.

Also please feel free to continue to email and call Sendpoints Books as they are still selling and stocking the book.

Updates… [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Sendpoints Books Co.,Ltd. replied to my email with…

We found that the publisher - Great Creativity organization has closed down already after survey, so that we miss the chance to contact. If it is need, we may offer the contact for the personal supplier to you.

We hope you may understand this matter, because we also suffer for the wrong information.

I then sent them an email asking for the contact details for their personal supplier, but I guess the quick response of the first email and then (so far) no reply to the next email is an indication they have decided to ignore me. So I decided to do the only thing I could think of to put a smile on my face. I sent them an invoice for the work they are currently reselling and distributing, not for the illustrations, just for the LCS interviews.

Doing that made me feel me better, even if it will accomplish nothing. I have spoken to an IP Lawyer and perusing this would cost me several thousand, to pursue the publisher with very little chance of any compensation. Getting stores to stop selling it is inexpensive with a simple letter, but very time consuming. Pirates 1 - LCS 0.

If anyone else would like to make themselves feel better about the whole situation send your invoices or emails of complain - about the sale of the book titled ‘Colorful Illustrations 93°C’ to spbooks@163.com with a Carbon copy to gzsendpoint@hotmail.com. Address them to Sophia Guangzhou or Lin Gengli and keep it polite. You can also call them on Tel: 86 20 89095121, Mobile: 86-139 2519 7703, Skype: sendpoint

To anyone reading this who represents Sendpoints Books, I’m happy to remove your contact information from my blog if you would like to email me to discuss the distribution of the book in question.

Updates… [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

This morning I was informed by Index Books that they have removed Colorful Illustrations 93°C from their site and have sent the remaining copies back to their supplier who are…

Sophia
Guangzhou Sendpoints Books Co.,Ltd.
Add: #80 Xin Ya Rd.,Haizhu District, Guangzhou, China
Tel: 86 20 89095121
Fax: 86 20 89095206
E-mail: spbooks@163.com
MSN:gzsendpoint@hotmail.com
Website: www.sendpoint.com.cn
(Please do not link to them)
Also…
Name: Lin Gengli
Mobile: 86-139 2519 7703
Skype: sendpoint

I have emailed Sendpoints Books, but they are yet to reply. Any information about their supplier, anyone can find out would be very much appreciated.

If we find the source, then we have someone to sue.

Updates… [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

I have been unable to answers all of the emails sent to me and I apologize for this, but 600 and counting emails is a lot.

Index Book and Azur Corporation have informed me that Index Book are sorry that they made a mistake by giving me Azur’s contact information as their supplier, but Index Book are yet to update their site with the correct information. I’m still working my way up the chain to find the company or people behind Great Creativity organization (Which as far as I know is a fake publisher) and Index book are still happily selling ‘Colorful Illustrations 93°C’. Hopefully the AOI or GAG will do their bit and put a stop to the sale of the book, but they are currently waiting for their members to make contact and supply them with more information before they can proceed in anyway.

I will not personally be considering legal action until the publisher is found and we have someone to sue, I’m leaving it in the hands of the cummunity and the organizations that represent the illustration community, like the AOI or GAG to try and put a stop to the sale of this book.

Here is the contact information for Index Book’s supplier.

Sophia
Guangzhou Sendpoints Books Co.,Ltd.
Add: #80 Xin Ya Rd.,Haizhu District, Guangzhou, China
Tel: 86 20 89095121
Fax: 86 20 89095206
E-mail: spbooks@163.com
MSN:gzsendpoint@hotmail.com
Website: www.sendpoint.com.cn
(Please do not link to them)

I have not contacted them yet, as I wanted to get the information out that Azur was only connected due to Index Book’s mistake. If anyone contacts Sophia at Sendpoint before me and please feel free to, please relay her response to me by emailing darren at lcsv4 dot com. I’m guessing I’ll hit a language barrier if I try to phone them, but what I’m after is who and where they got the book from. There are to many resellers selling this for it to have come from small market stall. Sendpoint have a pre-print copy of one of the pages on their site so I’m hoping they will be of more help, because the image hasn’t been taken from the book and must have been supplied to them.

Work by Adhemas Batista

Also as a result of this situation I’m working out the details of a lowbrow LCS magazine with a few friends at the moment, let me know by emailing me if you’re interested in a pre-ordering a copy.

Updates… [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Updates… [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Last week a British illustrator called Jonathan Edwards informed me that he had come across a book that contained his illustrations along with other illustrators work. He contacted me because the book is also riddled with interviews that he recognized as being the interviews I conducted for the LCS.

Today I received a copy of the book (costing me $100) and to my horror it has plagiarized the art blog. This has left me deeply upset!

This has not only hurt me… The book is available online and in book stores and every image in it has been stolen from my community website and the websites of the illustrators featured - with the interviews being the backbone of the publication. Before anyone asks - the internet is publicly accessible not public domain, copyright still applies.

“The worrying thing is all images are included on a CD in the back. This seems to give the impression that all the featured images are clip-art or copyright free which is certainly not the case.” - Jonathan Edwards

The images file-names on the CD have not even been renamed in anyway, so you can see exactly where they were taken from. The interviews are word for word with all the typos and switching between English and American grammar. Also according to the Book the interviews were produced by the Art Director Bernadette • J with no reference to the LCS.

Personally this has hurt me as I’ve spent the last three years building the archive of Artist interviews on the LCS. But what has really made me angry is that all that work included in the book has been stolen from the illustrators involved with some of them even being credited for work that is not their own. I am sure some of them won’t care much, but others will and will want retribution. Someone has made a lot of money from this book and it wasn’t me or the unknowing contributors. So please do not buy it!

If you think you can help here is some additional information.
Art Director/Producer: Bernadette J
Graphic Design: Malcolm Lee
published by Great Creativity organization
ISBN 978-988-98142-0-5
12/F Chinachem Johnston Plaza Wan
178-186 Johnston Road
chia, Hong Kong
T:+85281324106
F:+85281324105

I’m currently in the process of contacting the included illustrators, to let them know they’ve been ripped-off. Please note I’ve already tried to find the publishers via the internet and even called them to find out the number is for a company called Lucky Enterprise Co., Ltd. who make air filters. Also I’ve tried to contact the retailers, but I don’t think any of them will get back to me as they’re all only sales people. Index Book were helpful enough to give me the website of the place they purchased the books from for resale - Azur. But when I’ve tried phoning them on +81-3-3292-7601 I hit a brick wall because I don’t speak Japanese (maybe someone can help me with that).

I’ve been in contact with the AOI to get legal advice, but I think at the end of the day I or the illustrators who have had their copy-stolen will not be able to do much about this situation without major backing or support. So if you’re a major organization or copyright lawyer email me… darren at lcsv4 dot com

Update: Here is a link to the gallery showcasing every page. [LINK]

• I got the MAiLmeART book out the door to the editor.
• I think we have decided on a gallery for the MAiLmeART expo, located in Nottingham.
• I posted three new interviews on the LCS.
• I’ve nearly finished working on a new website.
• I put up a new way to locate illustrators on Hire an Illustrator - The Wall

If you look down the bottom left hand side of my site below the links you notice I’ve started to import some of the RSS feeds for sites I’m currently running. There’s no particular reason to do this as I don’t think it helps Google find them and I use a handy service called Netvibes to keep track of a large number of site… A very large number. At the end of the day I think it looks cool!

The sites I’m importing are the LCS, Hire an Illustrator and We Don’t Do Spec. I’ve got a few more up my sleeve, but that will do for now.