Art Theft Leads to Backward Litigation Against Artist - Grimvisions http://www.grimvisions.com/artists/art-theft-leads-to-backward-litigation-against-artist Where Grim Visions Become Dark Art Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:13:25 -0800 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Art Theft Leads to Backward Litigation Against Artist - Grimvisions http://www.grimvisions.com/artists/art-theft-leads-to-backward-litigation-against-artist/comment-page-1/#comment-968 StaticWhite Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:31:44 +0000 http://www.grimvisions.com/?p=1488#comment-968 Regarding "Poor man's copyright": <a href="http://resourcesforwriters.suite101.com/article.cfm/poor_mans_copyright" rel="nofollow">http://resourcesforwriters.suite101.com/article.c...</a> This one has good info too: <a href="http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2006/08/25/the-myth-of-poor-mans-copyright/" rel="nofollow">http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2006/08/25/the-myt...</a> Regarding "Poor man's copyright": http://resourcesforwriters.suite101.com/article.c…
This one has good info too: http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2006/08/25/the-myt…

]]> Art Theft Leads to Backward Litigation Against Artist - Grimvisions http://www.grimvisions.com/artists/art-theft-leads-to-backward-litigation-against-artist/comment-page-1/#comment-962 Yve Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:15:07 +0000 http://www.grimvisions.com/?p=1488#comment-962 Those are good policies that everyone should adopt... I'm older and wiser now but there's still this grey area where you have to go out there and share your ideas or you won't continue to get work... but the sharks make you so nervous and defensive, sometimes you back off from genuine people who want to collaborate with you. It's a strange old world! Those are good policies that everyone should adopt… I'm older and wiser now but there's still this grey area where you have to go out there and share your ideas or you won't continue to get work… but the sharks make you so nervous and defensive, sometimes you back off from genuine people who want to collaborate with you. It's a strange old world!

]]> Art Theft Leads to Backward Litigation Against Artist - Grimvisions http://www.grimvisions.com/artists/art-theft-leads-to-backward-litigation-against-artist/comment-page-1/#comment-961 KingUnicorn Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:13:53 +0000 http://www.grimvisions.com/?p=1488#comment-961 Thanks for sharing your story, Yve. It's ridiculous how often this happens. Having been on the receiving end of a litigation threat, this is a subject that's near and dear to my heart. For up-and-coming artists, veteran freelancers, and small businesses, a threat of litigation is usually enough to scare anyone off - even if we're the ones who are in the right. And the common tactic to starve the financial drive of an artist/small business by dragging out the legal process is a dirty, cowardly tactic. A habit I've developed - a sort of poor man's James Bond approach to copyright protection - is to mail myself the original work and duplicate files for any project I develop and intend to show to anyone else. The duplicates are usually cleaned up versions of the scratch notes and scribbles (the original work) that are the earliest ideas for of a project. If ever there's a dispute over the intellectual property, I can at least bring to bear a sealed file dated by a federal agency as proof of when those ideas were first developed. That might not spare me intense legal fees, but it does give me a terrific weapon in the defense of my ideas. Thanks for sharing your story, Yve. It's ridiculous how often this happens. Having been on the receiving end of a litigation threat, this is a subject that's near and dear to my heart.

For up-and-coming artists, veteran freelancers, and small businesses, a threat of litigation is usually enough to scare anyone off – even if we're the ones who are in the right. And the common tactic to starve the financial drive of an artist/small business by dragging out the legal process is a dirty, cowardly tactic.

A habit I've developed – a sort of poor man's James Bond approach to copyright protection – is to mail myself the original work and duplicate files for any project I develop and intend to show to anyone else. The duplicates are usually cleaned up versions of the scratch notes and scribbles (the original work) that are the earliest ideas for of a project. If ever there's a dispute over the intellectual property, I can at least bring to bear a sealed file dated by a federal agency as proof of when those ideas were first developed. That might not spare me intense legal fees, but it does give me a terrific weapon in the defense of my ideas.

]]> Art Theft Leads to Backward Litigation Against Artist - Grimvisions http://www.grimvisions.com/artists/art-theft-leads-to-backward-litigation-against-artist/comment-page-1/#comment-960 Yve Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:18:39 +0000 http://www.grimvisions.com/?p=1488#comment-960 This happened to me to a lesser extent, I showed an idea for a children's book/show that I was developing to a company when I went to see them about doing some freelance work. Mistake number one! They liked it and said that they might be interested in helping me to develop the idea and approach TV companies. I worked it up some more but wasn't happy with the direction they wanted to take my original idea and also wasn't happy that we had nothing signed (Mistake number 2) so pulled out of the collaboration quite early on. How naive was I? The company continued to develop MY original idea even though we had parted company on the grounds that they would not do so (again, I sent them this in writing but they never returned the signed copy) - When it came on the market in a very butchered form, after my initial shock, I approached them to say that they were infringing my copyright and was basically told that I could no longer show my version of the work as they had assumed ownership. They sent me papers to sign to say that I relinquished all rights to the work (I never got paid a penny by the company even for the damn freelance work that I did do for them!) and was told in no uncertain terms that they would sue me into the middle of next week if I tried to show my version to anyone or claim that their version was based on my original in any way. They are a big company - I am a struggling freelance designer, so guess who backed off? I really hope Mr Unger finds someone with big money or a s**t hot pro bono lawyer to take up his battle because in the end it's always the money that wins :o( This happened to me to a lesser extent, I showed an idea for a children's book/show that I was developing to a company when I went to see them about doing some freelance work. Mistake number one! They liked it and said that they might be interested in helping me to develop the idea and approach TV companies. I worked it up some more but wasn't happy with the direction they wanted to take my original idea and also wasn't happy that we had nothing signed (Mistake number 2) so pulled out of the collaboration quite early on. How naive was I?

The company continued to develop MY original idea even though we had parted company on the grounds that they would not do so (again, I sent them this in writing but they never returned the signed copy) – When it came on the market in a very butchered form, after my initial shock, I approached them to say that they were infringing my copyright and was basically told that I could no longer show my version of the work as they had assumed ownership. They sent me papers to sign to say that I relinquished all rights to the work (I never got paid a penny by the company even for the damn freelance work that I did do for them!) and was told in no uncertain terms that they would sue me into the middle of next week if I tried to show my version to anyone or claim that their version was based on my original in any way. They are a big company – I am a struggling freelance designer, so guess who backed off? I really hope Mr Unger finds someone with big money or a s**t hot pro bono lawyer to take up his battle because in the end it's always the money that wins :o (

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