Colorful Illustrations 93°C - Please DO NOT buy this book!
April 17th, 2008Last 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]
April 17th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
this is super-awful, darren– i’m really sorry to see it happen. your interviews are really great and the theft of this and the artwork is just on an unbelievable scale. i wish i had a way to help, but my fingers are crossed that someone else will. good luck with this and i really hope something works in your favor!
April 17th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Hey Darren,
Thanks for bringing this to my attention since my work appears in this book and I did not give permission for it to be printed there. Anyone that buys that book needs to know that not one artist is getting a penny of the sale. Not to mention ALL of Darren’s interviews being completely lifted. This makes me incredibly angry. I’ve already contacted some of the companies that I created this artwork for. I’ll let you know what I hear.
April 17th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Hi Darren,
Sorry to hear about this, found out about this via twitter from an artist I am following. I have had issues in the past with persons in China infringing in corporate trademarks and it is a hard road ahead to get these things resolved. I can’t recommend any lawyers that I have worked with for legal reasons but I can recommend starting with the Beijing US Embassy and going from there. They have some useful links on their page for contacting Chinese IP Enforcement organizations but this might be hard to do given the breadth of infringement, since its targeting so many individual IP holders. I wouldn’t expect to ever see monetary recompense tho since most fines collected by the Chinese enforcement are usually allocated back into their govt unless there is a solid lawsuit.
http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/protecting_ipr.html
Harris & Moure might be a good staring point if you can get all the artist being infringed together. I haven’t worked with them but they are good at multinational work from what I have heard. http://www.harrismoure.com/overview.html
April 17th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
[…] in a book that has come out of China apparently. You can find more details about this over at Darren’s blog. I am in the process of looking into this and will update if I get any […]
April 17th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Hi, May I suggest an alternate point of view?
1. The harm done is negligible (though it does sting!)
2. The opportunity created is tremendous!
Assemble the victims, form a group with a media-catchy acronym name, and bullet out press releases announcing a colorful non-violent protest campaign, including stealing all their company cafeteria trays for your home use, putting their company logo and founders face on t-shirts and other appropriations. Make a quick fake web site for their company that includes images of fetish and semi-fraudulent come-ons. Put the URL on your press release and hit the NY Times, Wall St Journal, Jon Stewart show, etc. Include links to stolen work. This is the publicity opportunity of a lifetime!
I spent five years as a consultant helping people with this kind of stuff. Done boldly and energetically, it can make you famous.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Thanks Darren I just got your email. Words cannot describe how mad I am at this book by the author/publisher. We illustrators/artists/designers etc work hard for our living and then ‘people’ like this rip us off. Calling my lawyer today
Don’t by this book!
April 17th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Absolutely furious about this. Thanks for letting us know Darren. My work is in this book, without permission or knowledge, and I am absolutely going to do everything I can to get this book off the shelves and the publisher held accountable.
I would recommend all illustrators — those in the book and otherwise — to spread the word via blogs and other social networks (Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Pownce, etc..) to warn people against buying this book. This would be a first step.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
@ Ben Gordon
Uh, right. I doubt this is the sort of news that would ever hit the NYT or John Stewart. I agree that we should collectively take control of this for a number of reasons:
- 1) Shame the hell out of the publishers and halt the distribution of the book
- 2) Ensure that re-sellers pull the book (they’re indirectly engaged in plagiarism)
- 3) Crowd-Source the news about this (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc…)
- 4) Discourage everyone from buying the book
- 5) Use the opportunity to educate other artists
You’re right though: the book is out there, the damage has been done. And yes, it isn’t like they’re actually taking thousands of dollars out of our pockets. I’ve had illustrations published in similar books and made NO money, and not even gotten a complimentary copy. That’s not the point here: We’re talking about plagiarism and infringement of intellectual property.
I also completely disagree with your suggestion that we use tactics such as theft, vandalism, and discrediting (although they have no good reputation to damage, this is certain). I don’t want to waste my time engaging in such things. Besides, whoever did this is in Hong Kong (or Malaysia?) so “stealing their cafeteria trays” would be impossible, if not completely pointless.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Wow. I just got your e-mail.
First off, thank you for taking the time and the energy to notify us all.
Second, I am in 100% agreement with Luc here. Lets take control of this situation - I, for one, will do my part to spread the word and keep an eye out here for anything else I can do.
Wow.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Good point Luc. Lets take action.
We’re visiting Hong Kong later this year, so we may pay them a visit
April 17th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
I just remembered I have some friends in Hong Kong for a few more weeks, I’ll see if they can dig anything up.
April 17th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
This SUCKS, ill do anything i can to help!
April 17th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Hooray! I got published!
Boo! No money!
Great Creativity organization: NAY FONG CHOW PEY!!!
Yours truly, RT Vegas
April 17th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
I got your email. Im in the book. I did not give these jokers permission to print my work. All the illustrations they used of mine hadnt been published before…Im pissed. We should all somehow get together and make a big deal out of this. Its not right and people NEED to know that copy right infringement is illegal.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:15 am
This is truly horrible! I am beyond words.
The question is how to stop something like this from happening again in the future? How do you protect your artwork, while at the same time showing it at various websites?
Here’s a stupid question: How did the publisher get hold of high resolution files of all the illustrations? That’s what you need for printing a nice looking book. (In my opinion you should never post your artwork in high resolution on the web.)
Keeping my fingers crossed that this will be resolved fast.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:40 am
[…] may be the first of a new form of internet piracy. Darren Di Lieto, of Apefluff and The Little Chimp Society, has recently written about a new book called […]
April 18th, 2008 at 1:22 am
Darren,
I received your email and am very upset that the book used/printed and are making a profit from publishing my art work and the other illustrators involved without consent. I am defenetly going spread word by posting this on my website and other websites. Yes, the damage is done and strongly feel that we should do something about this and not let it slide.
Is it possible if we got together as a whole group to form a class action law suit, by approaching an illustration ethics group for direction on who to use?
April 18th, 2008 at 2:49 am
[…] included with all the work, making it seem like copyright-free clip art. You can read more about it here, on Darren Di Lieto’s personal […]
April 18th, 2008 at 3:17 am
This really blows… well for what it’s worth I’ve suggested this site to Boing Boing. Hopefully it’ll get some exposure. I suggest everyone try and get this posted on whatever social site or blog they regularly read.
April 18th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Darren, that’s terrible man.
About that distributor (Azur) - basically you just have to ask again and again for somebody that speaks English to really solve this. I will try to give them a call to find out who you could talk to or mail to, so that you could at least write everything down in English and have people over there have it translated to them. I’ll keep you posted.
April 18th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Stupid Chi-coms!
This week I’ve seen a toy company selling my art they ripped off and now this. I’ll be contacting the copyright attorney I know.
The fact these clowns are over seas will make it hard to enforce anything because frankly China doesn’t give a “Year of the Rat’s” ass about this.
I’ll post more later when I see what can be done.
Von
April 18th, 2008 at 10:26 am
hey darren,
that make me upset! i will public this case to all my german illustratocollegs,
and maybe the guys from: http://www.drawn.ca support you aswell!
anyway + good luck! joe
April 18th, 2008 at 11:39 am
There are plenty of educated people who speak English as a second language in Hong Kong and if it was still part of the UK you might have some chance of satisfation with a legal action. With Hong Kong part of China…well, you know the story with all the piracy going on over there…I have a good friend who is a lawyer (and owns one of the original pieces on ‘my page’ in the “book of sin”).
I will let all know of his opinion.
RT Vegas
April 18th, 2008 at 11:53 am
A friend of mine and I were just talking about this problem the other day. This is a real big problem that has been developing with the internet for some time. All the gurus and really smart people I have talked to say PUT A BIG HONKING WATERMARK ON ALL YOUR ARTWORK POSTED ON THE INTERNET! but that sucks I think it mucks up the viewing pleasure of the artists work. But I do think it is really coming to that. And yes another reason to boycott the china olympics! Thanks for the info Darren! Always here to lend a hand if needed.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Hi Darren,
thank you for your mail and the upsetting information. Would have never guessed that something like this could happen. How bold!
I am really sorry especially for you and the plagiarism of your interviews and not mentioning your name anywhere. This is a clear case of copy right infringement… but unfortunately, i think, there might be only a small chance to stop the book from publishing further on. Today i talked to a lawer of the IO - Illustratoren Organisation (a german organisation representing illustrators). They told me that it would be hard to do something outside of germany. The best chances would, if there is a lawyer in hong kong, who is presenting us, the claimants… But there is a great danger of been left alone with all the charges that legal action might bring.
I will public the case on my website and spread it to all my colleagues here in Germany…
No one should buy this book!
Hoping for a positive outcome
All the best from me
*Jörn
April 18th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
What a rotten thing to do! How low of them to just rip the site, interviews and work off…Im disgusted. You have my support all the way. Good luck, Max x
April 18th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
[…] senza che l’autore delle interviste né gli artisti abbiamo mai dato il loro consenso. Sul blog di Darren trovate maggiori informazioni sulla questione e qui trovate le pagine del libro […]
April 18th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
[…] as other well known artists (Jeremyville, House, James Jean etc.) Someone´s needs to get hell. Apefluff » Colorful Illustrations 93°C - Please DO NOT buy this book! Gallery with all the pages from the book: Gallery __________________ […]
April 18th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Sue whomever made that book for copyright infringement.. and more so, poor form. Good luck with recovering your dues. What a shady thing to do..
April 18th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
P.S. Is there any way of getting a list of artists that are in the book.. artwork or interviewed? I think it’d be interesting to see how many personal infringement claims can come from this.
April 18th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
oh merde alors!
April 18th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
[…] Colorful Illustrations 93°C - Please DO NOT buy this book! from Apefluff […]
April 18th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Well, How colavorate?
I’ll put the notice into my blog.
Good luck!
April 18th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
this is pretty dispicable, although unfortunately it does seem like it will be difficult, if not impossible, to see justice done.
Darren, how do the images look in real life? From what I can see in the image gallery they look OK, but I can’t imagine they could print a whole book of 72 DPI JPEGs without some quality issues. Which should at least stop it from being taken seriously by respectable parts of the global art community.
April 18th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I’m not gonna say anything that anyone hasn’t said, but this is a serious blow to the art blogging community. We all have personal blogs that contain 100+ images—that we openly share with everyone. But these publishers have crossed a line, and we all need to do something about it. Use the blogging community to take them down. I worry that there are other books that could be made and sold unless we all stand up against it. Hopefully John Martz and his crew at Drawn! will get this up soon and it will spread to the world artist community. I’ll do what I can to help, Darren.
April 18th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
[…] Check out this and do what it says […]
April 18th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
What is totally repulsive to me is that they put their own copyright on the book!! How disgusting. I’m really sorry to hear about this. I’ll post the news on my blog as well.
April 18th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I will be sure to forward this information to all of our book suppliers. >_< My condolences. I hope you are able to pursue some sort of legal recourse.
April 18th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
[…] Di Lieto, who conducted the interviews for LCS, wrote a recent blog post about the whole event: how he found out, who he has contacted, and he even put up a gallery of the […]
April 18th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
So sorry to hear about this. There are things you can do to put an end to this and receive repercussions. I’ve had a few writer friends in the same boat over the years. It just takes time. And your legal costs can be included in settlment so while you may lose money at first to fight it, you’ll get it back after settlement. See about a class action suit or something similar since so many illustrators and blogs are involved.
First, contact your lawyer to get the ball rolling on copyright infringement.
Second, if your lawyer agrees, contact the news media with a press release announcing the plagarism. It should pick up pretty fast.
Third, send a letter to various major book distributors and bookstores asking them to stop selling the book because it’s being named in a lawsuit for copyright theft. I believe your lawyer can draft something up. And don’t forget Amazon’s legal department. With the proper proof they’ll cease distribution on their site rather quickly.
Seriously, that’s guts to do it so blatant and think he/she won’t get caught! As far as not carrying because it’s in a book….everyone in that book should care. If they allow it, without fighting, it hurts artists, illustrators, and writers everywhere.
April 18th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Here’s an idea I posted on my blog…
If you see the book in the bookstores, ask for a manager. Ask the manager to pull the book and explain why. I would think most will do it with proper proof so give them this link.
If you are in the book, yourself, contact your local press about spreading the word. One town, one community at a time.
And if anyone knows anything about YouTube.com, what about a few people in the book discussing plagarism and copyright theft in a video. That viral marketing could also help put an end to things.
Please no bashing and nothing that could get yourself in legal trouble. Two wrongs do not make a right. Remember that folks.
April 18th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Sorry to hear about it Darren. I’m confused as to why they’d speak to you in Japanese if the publiser is in Hong Kong though - it’s more like Cantonese or Mandarin there. You might want to see if you can trace the distributor and try to halt it there - most of the books are sitting round in their warehouses I imagine?
April 18th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I can’t imagine how upset I would be in your position. I cannot believe how absolutely blatant they are. I plan to do numerous posts to my personal blog as well as on other art forums to which I am a member. I have have received negative comments concerning my art that I post having watermarks. That they are “distracting”. Sadly, this only reinforces my reasons for including them.
Hoping for the best for you.
Della Lindsey
April 18th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Some of the images in the book include the copyright and watermarks with in the illustrations in question.
For example http://www.apefluff.com/ci93/main.php?g2_itemId=276
April 18th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Azurbook are based in Tokyo hence the Japanese. They are the people who sold the books to Index Book in Spain.
April 18th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Ouch! I am sure this kind of thing will get worse before it gets really worse.
But, odds are that the use of the material won’t go too terribly far before
the work is very outdated by the artist’s new works and therefore a bit
less painful of a doohickey. Shucks. Hopefully it is the work of one terrible
sleaze and not an organization or cadre of international sleazes.
Ook Ook.
April 18th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Just to let you all know I’ve received all of your emails, all 400 of them and I’m slowly working my way through them.
April 18th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
hi, i just read ur email and blog, i am shocked to hear that, and i feel really shameful and shock to know the book is published in Hong Kong!!
I am from Hong Kong, i would like to help, and i can call them, please let me know your questions.
April 18th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
What a serious issue to have to deal with. this is just a bad situation all around. I’ll be sure to pass the word along to as many people as I can. I know the Drawgerites are doing their parts. We have to do do something about this before it becomes even more common than it already has. I’m sorry that this happened at all and I hope it can be resolved properly.
April 18th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Hi Darren,
I know how upset and angry you are about this book. I certainly hope that you are not taking it personally or feeling responsible in any way.
The LCS website is an industry favorite and I hope this terrible episode will not affect your continued support.
Even though non of the illustrators from AGM are in the book, I cant help but feel the anger at being ripped off that you all feel.
Could have been anyone.
So many times I have seen illustrations from my gang pop up all over the web without our permission, often in foreign languages.
This absolutely has to stop and the more we talk about it the better.
It really is a good thing that you have put all this information forward and I am confident that it will make a difference.
I certainly plan to forward it to everyone I know.
Thanks for looking out for the community.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I am posting this on my blog as well. Thanks for the heads up.
Best wishes to all.
Holly
April 18th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
[…] or permission of me or anyone involved. For more information read my blog post about it… Apefluff » Colorful Illustrations 93°C - Please DO NOT buy this book! What can you do to help? Please make as many people aware of this as possible by linking to the […]
April 18th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Wow that is so not cool. This could be one instance where a site like http://www.sueeasy.com/ might be somewhat useful. I wish you the best of luck in getting justice and I will tell all of my friends about it to make sure they don’t buy the book.
April 18th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
[…] his website and published it into a 350-page book being sold online for $100. You can read more on this post in Darren’s […]
April 18th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Here’s my post on it.
http://www.luclatulippe.com/2008/04/18/book-publisher-in-china-plagiarizes-and-steals-illustrations/
As Darren says, share this news everywhere online. Thanks!
April 18th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
[…] I received an email from Darren Di Lieto over at the Little Chimp Society. It appears as if someone has taken images and interviews off of LCS and produced a full book from them affecting quite the boat load of illustrators! Read more here. […]
April 18th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
i agree with Joe,
this should be in DRAWN!
spread the word!
April 19th, 2008 at 1:30 am
Holy shit. It´s even more shocking to see work of people in my immediate surroundings (Jörn Kaspuhl) being in that book. I guess we all know that China likes to knock off all sorts of things, but in the case of art it just hurts a lot more.
And while the internet has made plagiarism and copyright theft a lot easier, spreading news like snowballs helps fighting stuff like this.
April 19th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Just a little link back.
http://frederikjurk.blogspot.com/2008/04/colorful-theft.html
April 19th, 2008 at 3:46 am
My bulletin about this at MySpace. This bulletin has been received by over 800 contacts - many of which are artists, designers, illustrators, publications, galleries and art organisations all around the world.
April 19th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Hello Darren,
shocking news with regards to all the copyright infringements. maybe u could file a class action suit against the perpetrators?? I found a phone number for the building which is listed as the address (chinachem plaza) it’s +852 2833 0940 and their contact email is cjp@chinachem-cs.com.hk
hope this information is useful to you.
kind regards,
yee
April 19th, 2008 at 5:10 am
Hey i try to call that publisher according to the info T:+85281324106, and they are not the publisher called Great Creativity Organization, and just a mainland consultant company and never publish a book.
Thus, i try to call the CS of Chinachem Johnston Plaza to check if there is company called Great Creativity Organization or a publisher company, they said no.
So the contact info they print on the book is probably fake!!!
I think another way to trace the source is to contact the manager from the bookstores who sell the books now.
Please let me know if i can help, wish you guys best of luck!!
April 19th, 2008 at 6:48 am
[…] the coming to light of an illustration book available online (and in bookshops) for $100 which is entirely ripped off the artists websites then we really have to take notice. Having your things stolen is one thing but […]
April 19th, 2008 at 8:16 am
[…] his website and published it into a 350-page book being sold online for $100. You can read more on this post in Darren’s blog. This book — which reprints without permission several dozen artist interviews […]
April 19th, 2008 at 9:29 am
that is terrible, maybe, a campaign of posting a little sign in each bookshop that anybody sees the book in, stating that the book is a rip off and not to buy it, sure the staff will take them down but if enough people did it it might make the owners of the stores rethink where they buy from? maybe you could put up a sign on the site that we can print off?
April 19th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Perhaps we can help by emailing any online booksellers we find selling this?
I already emailed this one I found:
(URL Removed. please call them on (+34) 93 454 55 47 if you wish to complain to the Spanish seller, linking from website to a place where the book can be purchased will not help. - Darren)
telling them this book they were selling was a fake full of stolen work, and linking to this blog article. It might not be much, but between all the readers of LCS we can do our bit?
April 19th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Thank you very much for the mail, Darren. I posted a entry about the whole thing to my journal and a couple of online groups related to copyright theft and web piracy i’m member of. I hope that helps you and the involved artists to spread the news and fight things like this.
April 19th, 2008 at 11:26 am
I hope karma comes around and bites these arseholes in the backside really damn hard!!!! All the best with your fight!
regards, TEZ
You may wanna check this post I wrote a while back on this very same issue of unauthorized copying……
April 19th, 2008 at 11:53 am
you can use this image:
April 19th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I understand one of the distributors is Spanish. Could you tell the name so i can contact it? I coul mail bookstores around here to let them know if that helps.
April 19th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
This is just so sad… I don’t think I can add something new to the comments made by others.
I wonder how the book looks in print. The images are all stolen from websites. I’m thinking that this has to be visible in print as images posted on website are low-resolution images.
If you can’t see the difference and the images in the book look good we have to think again about displaying our work on the internet. Redicilous but thieves like the people who made the book spoil things for others who really enjoy illustration and appreaciate it.
April 19th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Wow, it looks like such a great collection of amazing talented people! Maybe you should think of doing your own book, and call it the Official one. Then steal all their business.
You could even put some legal advice in it, and stories about your experience of getting ripped off, lessons learned etc. I’d buy yours in a heart beat. Then you could put the money raised back into boosting your artistic community? Or even give the illustrators the money they deserve from the proceeds. The fact that this one is clearly selling, is proof to any publisher that it would be a good investment.
It sucks when the law doesn’t seem to protect you. You go through life expecting that at least the legal system might be fair. But then it turns out theres not much the little guys can do about any of it.
April 19th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
You could even use the proceeds of the book to fund legal action if you really want to
April 19th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Discovering you’ve been ripped off is a terrible feeling - then worse is contemplating what’s going on that you might never discover. Who is selling the book? Please let us know - obviously they are not to blame but if no-one can buy it…
April 19th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
This is HORRIBLE!!!
How they were able to secure the hi-res images of the work for the printing of the book, if they pilfered everything from the lo-res web?
April 19th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
has anyone seen these fakes being sold online, as well anywhere in the u.s. and any other country with decent copyright and trademark laws?
thanks
rick byerly
April 19th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Heard about this on myspace
Copyright infringement and blatant wholesale theft is a serious issue, one that is compounded by the free availability of information and content over then net. I am a supporter of CC licensing and freedom to collaborate, exchange and re/produce adaptive and derivative theory’s and artworks WITH PERMISSION and due credit. Incidents like this make me very sad, not only does it harm the free low of ideas but on a personal level there is nothing worse than the feeling of knowing you have been totally screwed over.
Good luck with sorting this out.
A.
Wanderlust
April 19th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
i found them being sold online here
(URL removed - Please I’m trying to discourage the sale of the book. - Darren)
and
(URL removed - Please do not link to it. - Darren)
there were a few other links but my pc warned me from opening them
it’s worth it for those u.s. artists who were scammed to file a report with http://www.ftc.gov
April 19th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
It’s a shame what greedy and deceitful organizations are capable of. My best wishes to all the affected in resolving this matter. Maybe you can reverse-engineer this. If you know of a bookstore selling this book talk to them to find out who they got it from, then go from there. It’ll be tough but it’s worth a try. This is the first time I’ve seen something like this happen so blatantly, we can’t let them get away with this or who knows how many will try it next. I’ve added this to Stumble It! to spread the word around, I hope it helps.
April 19th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
(sorry for the long post, its too long for the contact form and it wont allow me to put it elsewhere) I don’t know if this will even help but it sure doesn’t hurt to try anyway. I am a recently new shopkeeper at cafepress.com, which if anyone hasn’t heard of it it’s a service where you can buy, sell and create your own apparel, mugs, clocks etc (you get the idea) and a whole bunch of other stuff using your own images. If you choose to sell you can open your own premium shop and sell your work.
It’s our duty to make sure we don’t violate any other peoples or companies rights and infringe upon anyone else. This caused all of us to become familiar with copyright law (or at least if we want to make sure to never be sued). Now I don’t know if all of you guys live in the UK and some in the USA and I don’t even know if it matters. But yes, copyright states you have immediate copyright the minute you create your work. HOWEVER, if you want to sue in the US you MUST register it through copyright.gov. Someone posted a thread in the cafepress forums, which he reposted some important areas which may (or may not) help you guys: http://forums.cafepress.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/504104/m/838100032. It only costs $45 to register one piece, OR if you throw them all on a CD you can register ALL work for $45. You don’t have to register to view this post. Again, I am not sure if this applies to only USA or not but i’m sure for those who have work stolen that live outside the USA, you guys have your own similar government registration site. I have heard most lawyers here would not even try to work your case unless you have registered your works. I say you all register your work and bring some kind of class action suit or individual suits, either way, to get these people who did this to you all. It may not be about the money to some people, but if someone is SELLING your work without permission, you are entitled to every damn penny, not the people who made that book.
I’m just a regular guy trying to make some extra income on my own work and I am in no way a lawyer and don’t have any knowledge above the basic level, but just thought I would throw out any ideas to help you guys. I just find this ridiculous and I hope this gets resolved.
April 19th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
********* Through a website selling the book (URL removed and replaced with a number (+34) 93 454 55 47 call then and ask them to stop selling it - Darren) Azure is listed as the publisher, they have an active website you should check out. Hopefully you can contact someone through this source: (URL removed and replaced with a number +81-3-3292-7601 call then and ask them to stop selling it - Darren)
April 19th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Wow, I had no idea that this plagiarism thing was so big. I’m sorry that this had to happen to you and all of your hard work, and those of the others.
While I don’t speak Japanese fluently, there are some members on deviantART dot com that I’m quite positive do, since they can travel to Japan with no problems. And if you are familiar with manga - Japanese comics - people who post manga scans online translate them so I might be able to link you to them.
I hope things work out! I guess, email me if you’d like me to connect you to those Japanese translators.
April 19th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
I don’t think I saw a suggestion like mine, so here goes -
Rather than wasting your time and energy trying to get them to stop selling the book, why not take advantage of it? Marketing is one of the hardest aspects of any business, and here you have a company that is doing it for you. Using a print-on-demand service or other affordable book publishing service, all of those who have been ripped off could put together a book with the same title and illustrations, perhaps even including more material than the illegal version. I would even include a page or two describing what has happened, and why your book is the “authorized” version and is supported by those who contributed their art to it. Include short biographies and web-links for the artists involved. The publisher of the illegal book is not likely to take any legal action against you. Spread the word, put links on everyone’s websites, and split the proceeds.
If handled correctly, this could turn into something that not only gives credit to those who were ripped off, but could actually bring you some fame and fortune. Personally, if such a book were put together, I would be inclined to purchase it just on principle.
April 20th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Just letting you know that the company is from Hong Kong, which they speak CANTONESE not Japanese.
But I will pass this on..
April 20th, 2008 at 12:46 am
If I were you, I’d contact the press. Embarrass the hell out of him. That will prompt for a recall, a lawyer probably coming forward who will work pro-bono, and the guy will look like a frackin’ idiot and probably will never be able to publish again.
You CAN fix this.
April 20th, 2008 at 4:59 am
This is really interesting. I knew it was only a matter of time till something like this happened. At least the names of the artists for most of the pieces were listed, and it may be possible to turn this into good publicity for the artists.
It’s odd, because I’ve used appropriated content in work, but I’ve never sold it. I’m not sure what to think of it in theory, or how I’d feel if my work was in the publication. I wonder if you should put it on your resume as “so and so book (without permission)” haha
April 20th, 2008 at 9:11 am
@ Glitter - The distributor based in Tokyo is my only link to the as far as I know the fake Hong Kong publisher.
@ Todd Eastman and everyone else who suggested an official book - If people enjoy the work and interviews visit the LCS and browse / read them and follow the links to the illustrators sites, enjoy. Putting a book like you have suggested together takes a lot of time, effort and money. I will be putting an official book together in response to this outrage, but it will not be duplicating the content of the book in question or even the content of the LCS website.
@ To anyone who has mentioned the quality of image in the book - all of the images were taken from the LCS, the illustrators websites and even Flickr. No one knew about the book and no hi-res images were supplied to the publisher. The quality is hit and miss with badly used low-res images reflecting badly on the illustrator. If I didn’t know the book content was stolen I would assume the illustrator supplied the bad images.
@ With regards to resellers - The Spanish reseller is Index Book (please do not link to them, I’m sure they have already sold more than enough). Index Book is also a publisher, so if you’re currently working on any publications for them would you like to question them as to whether your book will be sold alongside the plagiarized book.
April 20th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
[…] me or the unknowing contributors. So please do not buy it! — Colorful Illustrations 93°C - Please DO NOT buy this book! April 20th, 2008 / 0 Comments / […]
April 20th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
I’m actually living in Hong Kong, I don’t speak Cantonese however (I do speak Mandarin). Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.
April 20th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
@ Todd Eastman
As Darren said, putting together an official book like this is a long and expensive process. Why? Because even the artists that did the work may not hold the copyright to that work. I am in that plagiarized book. One of the pieces of art I did was for World of Warcraft. Blizzard Entertainment owns the copyright to that work. And that piece of art has already appeared in an official Art of World of Warcraft book. It is unlikely that Blizzard would give me the permission to use that image in a competing publication. And with 93 illustrators in the book with 350 illustrations, you can bet there are more cases like this.
Index Book has been informed that they are selling a book with plagiarized material AND a fake ISBN. Being a publisher themselves, you’d think they would be outraged and pull the book immediately. They haven’t done this. Until they pull the book, I don’t buy any books sold or produced by Index Books and I will suggest all my friends and colleagues think of doing the same.
The irony about this book is that if the publisher had taken the time to contact all 93 illustrators, I am certain 75% of them would have happily supplied the publisher with images and interviews in exchange for no compensation other than copies of the book. That’s because many illustrators just want to continue to be published and have their work in the hands of fans. But ofcourse this publisher chose the easy way out by just stealing everything.
I just did an interview and feature of my art for Fantasy Art Magazine out of China. They did everything the correct way. They contacted me to get high quality art, they interviewed me, and they asked about copyright to make sure they could reproduce the art, in which case I contacted all the companies that held the copyright to my work and got permission. It was very simple and smooth… and legit.
Artists need to have the right to choose which of their pieces of art appear in books for many reasons. And with the images being pulled from the Web, there are quality issues. Like I said earlier, the artist may not hold the copyright to their own work. So they need the permission of the copyright holder to display it on their Web site, books, on prints sold by the artist, etc.
The artist may have been licensing a particular image to someone. And maybe it was an exclusive licensing agreement where the artist states that noone else will have the right to use the art. This plagiarized book now screws that all up for both parties.
Or maybe the artist sold first printing rights to some other publication. So now the person who bought first printing rights sees that the image is printed somewhere else first and they pull out of the agreement with the artist. This does happen.
Thanks again to Darren and everyone else for their support. I am all for Darren putting out his own book at some point, but the guy has to get some sleep sometime
April 20th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
[…] offenders are listed as being from Hong Kong (see here for full details), but when the offended parties tried to contact them, they found out that the […]
April 20th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
As I suggested to Luc Latulippe, I would take your copy of the book and make good-quality scans of all the pages. Then compile into a PDF document and give the book away for free on your web site/s as well as torrent sites. The cows are already out of the barn and over the horizon…you might as well try to ruin any profits the crooks are trying to make off of your work.
April 20th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
[…] Não comprem este livro É o apelo de Darren DiLetto, outro dos lesados. […]
April 21st, 2008 at 3:54 am
Even the address looks wrong.
:::12/F Chinachem Johnston Plaza Wan
178-186 Johnston Road
chia, Hong Kong:::
Should be:
12/F Chinachem Johnston Plaza
178-186 Johnston Road
Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Also should have a suite # for the 12th floor of the Chinachem Johnston Plaza, like Suite 1203, 12/F. http://www.ccjohnstonplaza.com is the office building’s website.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:44 am
@ Princesse camcam - Thanks for that image. i used it on my site to get awareness for this Bullsh*t.
It’s a tragic thing. Hopefully internet exposure will help stop the sales of the ripoff.
April 21st, 2008 at 7:03 am
as pointed out, the contact info may be bogus…..but if it helps, I think the address should read:
12/F Chinachem Johnston Plaza
178-186 Johnston Road
Wan Chai, Hong Kong
wanchai being a district in HK. also, Great Creativity Organization is probably a (bad) translation of a Cantonese name..
April 21st, 2008 at 7:55 am
maybe on the bright side it helps to spread the illustrators message for free!!!!!
forget copyright these daze i say - go with the flow and make make make!!!! they are fake….
April 21st, 2008 at 9:40 am
Holy f**kin shit dude!!! This is absolutely unbelievable!! Somebody has a shit load of bad karma owing to them is all I can say!!
April 21st, 2008 at 9:48 am
Ok published quote of this article + the links on my Deviantart Journal, hope it helps find all the ripped people. The least i can do :((
April 21st, 2008 at 11:05 am
hello darren, thanks for bringing attention to all this. i received your mail last week as one of the artists whose work has been stolen.
great to see everyone rallying against it.
April 21st, 2008 at 12:00 pm
This is outrageous! I hope this mess gets sorted out.
April 21st, 2008 at 12:13 pm
[…] read Darren’s blog post to get the entire story. He is having trouble finding the publisher (which seems to be a fake) and […]
April 21st, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I’m so sorry to hear about this situation. I found out about it on a friend’s blog. I’ll post the above image on mine, and try to spread the word too.
April 21st, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I am an artist and am deeply disturbed by this…Its hard enough to produce and sometimes find work, but to have some heartless money-hungry assholes rip you off and others without notice or compensation is CRIMINAL. I pray that you find out the culprits and sue their fucking asses off!!! copyright infringement is copyright infringement no matter the medium. Best of luck in your inevitable lawsuit…
April 21st, 2008 at 2:56 pm
You can get the book for $25 USD, plus shipping, on Taobao (China’s eBay):
(URL removed)
April 21st, 2008 at 3:44 pm
This is truly sucky. There was an article in Fast Company about piracy, and it’s an interesting read.
http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2008/04/interview-mason.html?page=0%2C0
While I totally disagree with the business practices of stealing someone else’s work, I think Ben Gordon (way up at the top of this thread) might have a good point. To get legal action in China is going to be a huge, long battle, and to get the best overall outcome for yourselves, you might look at what opportunities this opens up for you as far as exposure, PR and other tactics.
What would Andy Warhol or Malcom McClaren have done with a situation like this?
Best of luck to all involved.
April 21st, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I think making a PDF of the book and posting it on a bunch of torrent trackers + linking to that torrent in reviews of all online retailers that sale this book could be a good start to fight this the “modern” way… You might even get free publicity for your site and the artists… A law suite across the Pacific might not be very effective (or cheap).
April 21st, 2008 at 5:45 pm
A PDF of the book without the approval of all that have had there work stolen, individuals or companies is not a good idea. Anyway we have an up-to-date website version of the book at http://lcsv4.com
I don’t mind the idea of people commenting and reviewing the book on the resellers sites and linking to this post from them. I don’t think that will do any harm.
April 21st, 2008 at 5:55 pm
What da fu$k happing to this world, people are not afraid of stealing some1 hard work….What’s really upsets me, its still on sale
April 21st, 2008 at 6:16 pm
[…] This book has been published without my knowledge that uses a number of my illustrations. Whoever responsible for this book has taken all the contents from LSC, the illustrator community site. This is a major crime so please don’t buy this book. Please go to this link for more info. […]
April 21st, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Unfortunately this is nothing new, It happened to our design firm a while back. I was at the bookstore looking at a new book of logos and lo and behold I saw more than a few of our logo designs pictured. I never sent original art to anyone, I never approved that they be used. I tried to look into the matter, but again, a world away, fake addresses and publisher, and I dropped it. While I am not happy that this happened to LCS and its contributors, it is positive that a large comunity of like-minded people are outraged about the issue of piracy in the illustration/design/new-media world. Perhaps the many can start to figure out how to combat thievery where the individual could not.
I know I no longer snicker when large multinationals like Microsoft or Time Warner bitch about piracy.
April 21st, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Along with others who wrote, I’m amazed that this publisher has been able to get hold of high enough DPI images copied off the web to print a book. Good God, how big do illustrators have to have their work viewed on the web? I know downloading time isn’t an issue any more, but if people kept images small, 72DPI
they couldn’t be used for print. O.K. Some one will always lift a JPEG and stick it on their website and most of the text content of the Internet seems to be Copy&Pasted from other material. Sadly there still isn’t any practical way of stopping this.
It could get worse. If a pirate publisher in China can only get web images of a “Bankable” artist, what’s to stop them paying a highly skilled guy to repaint an exact copy, at a larger scale. (for $10) In Viet Nam alone, there are hundreds of art school trained “Illustrator/Commercial artists” painting Old Masters all day.
(Sorry I didn’t mean to give them ideas.)
April 21st, 2008 at 8:42 pm
this is just awful. I hope you can the legal actions against these people who stole your, and the other artist’s, work. can I add the poster by Princesse camcam on my blog as a little help to spread the word? greetings.
April 21st, 2008 at 9:23 pm
I suggest you get in touch with your Congressional Representatives and Senators!! I would ask for legislation protecting you in these arenas!!
Many times folks post photos from class and teacher’s work. I believe most are innocent - but this is downright scarry!!
Perhaps the quilting community can get a defense fund. If everyone just gave $1.00 -it would be an amazing pool.
I’d also contact Paula Nadelstern (hope I spelled that right) With her horror in Houston (the carpet made from her quilt pattern) perhaps she has a good attorney. I just don’t know how you deal with foreign companies in this world!!
I would let every single seller know this book is fraudently published!!
I’m so so sorry!!
Patty
April 21st, 2008 at 9:53 pm
[…] Darren Di Lieto’s blog Luke Latulippe’s blog Drawn.ca […]
April 21st, 2008 at 11:02 pm
that sux darren!!! the ONLY POSITIVE thing i see outta this
is that they saw GREAT ART and wanted to (not the good part)
capitalize on it!
Good luck on purSUEing them!
- Mark Jaquette -
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:35 am
[…] hot place to go when you are looking for dope illustrations and awesome interviews. According to Apefluff, Darren’s personal blog, there’s a book called Colorful illustrations that is anything […]
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:35 am
[…] A Chinese publisher stripped Darren Di Lieto’s website–interviews, illustrations, the wh…: 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! […]
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:51 pm
[…] If you see it, don’t buy it, the artists don’t get a penny. You can read the full story here and […]
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:18 pm
[…] Perhaps many of you already know… Darren, the founder of LCS, and many of the artists he features on the site were ripped off by a new book out called “Colorful Illustrations 93ËšC”, published by Great Creativity organization. Read about it here on Darren’s blog. […]
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:52 pm
stolen illustrations: don’t buy this book…
last week, darren di lieto from the little chimp society (an illustration community art blog), emailed to inform a number of artists (including myself) that a book titled colorful illustrations 93ºc had been published using word for word interviews an…
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:45 pm
[…] Hong Kong with Love… Posted by Joseph Mastantuono 1 minute ago Found this in my google reader today and it sparked a few thinks in my head about the whole […]
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:25 pm
It’s times like this I wish I had stuck to my first major, which was law.
Good luck suing the pants off them.
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:19 am
[…] Read the whole story HERE. […]
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:46 am
hi Luc,
thanks for the info!
really appreciate it
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:08 am
Dear all,
We are Azur Corporation in Japan.
We reached this blog as being told by INDEX BOOK.
First of all, Colourful Illustration 93′C is not our title. We have never heard the name and dealt with and sold it to INDEX BOOK.
Regarding to this truble, INDEX BOOK has admitted that they bought the title from some agancy in CHINA, NOT from us.
We have been telling INDEX BOOK to correct their mistake, but they has not yet.
We are very sorry that you have been involved this trouble.
But we would like you to undestand Azur has nothing with the title and get the record straight in your blog.
Many people have sent us claims and abusing by e-mail.
We are begging that you could do something.
If you still have doubt of us, please contact with INDEX BOOK again. They will proof.
We hope it will clear ourselves of a false charge.
Thank you for your attension.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:17 am
Oh Darren!
All your hard work has been used and abused.
You have a strong army behind you.
Hopefully Karma will play a part in this travesty.
-MS
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Thanks for the comments and support - here is an update!
http://apefluff.com/colorful-illustrations-93c-update-1/
April 25th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
[…] his website and published it into a 350-page book being sold online for $100. You can read more on this post in Darren’s […]
April 25th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
[…] they definitely crossed a line, and should be put on blast for thievery. Check Darren’s post here and a full preview of the copy/paste book here. I guess this is the first time I am feeling the […]
April 25th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
[…] of illustrators’ work and the interviews he conducted with them for the LCS have been plagiarized in a book. I’ve been interviewed by Darren as well, but it looks like the book was published before […]
April 25th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
[…] Little Chimp Society site that has featured our work) about a book called Colorful Illustrations. This book is basically one big plagiarization of his art blog. None of the artists (including us) featured were contacted or gave permission for their work to be […]
April 25th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
[…] de assalto, e deixou muito ilustrador de cabelo em pé. O Darren Di Lieto (do TLCS) fez um longo post sobre o assunto em seu blog. Recomendo uma passada lá. Espalhem a notÃcia. Ah, o livro é esse: […]
April 26th, 2008 at 9:11 am
[…] Now that you know, pass it on. And, you know, don’t buy the book. […]
April 27th, 2008 at 5:19 am
[…] was for you, Ali) of posts about fraud. You can see some great artwork and read more about this at LCS or Luc Latulippe’s blog. I also encourage you to post about it if you are as outraged as I […]
April 28th, 2008 at 7:17 am
[…] In the light of this example, I’m curious as to how you can really protect your work online. […]
May 7th, 2008 at 11:01 am
[…] I’m a bit late on this one, Scamp spotted this a few weeks ago: The book Colourful Illustrations 93°C (pictured) features a rake of stolen artwork and interviews from the LCS website, as well as work directly lifted from a few artists personal sites. More about the book on Apefluff. […]
May 8th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
[…] daniel@d-stolle.de (Daniel Stolle) Share […]