Copy of My Crawfish Designs

Crawfish: Suck What? Shirt by figstreetstudio


 Why Just Copy Another Work????

 " Imitation is the highest from of flattery" said by  Charles Caleb Colton.  However I find it distressing I take my time and creativity to do a graphic design or piece of art and someone out and out copies it. Some at least make an effort to change some part of the design others just download it from the web. Usually I mail a cease and desist letter when I find who has done it. Generally they stop as it gets expensive to defend the using of copyright material. Here is another I found on the web from someone selling just about my entire copyrighted graphic design of my "Suck What?" crawfish logo. I am e-mailing them in hopes they no longer copy my art. I have for years found copies of my work. My issue is if you claim to be a creative artist create something of your own, build your own idea, do not just change a little piece of another art and claim it for yourself. Or  at the least ask permission to redo the art. Had this person asked me I might have said yes?

PS:  After several hours of tracking down this sign that has already been sold months ago but appears on Pinterest over and over on Louisiana pages. The seller kindly contacted me to say they did not know of the copyright. They also said they do not sell signs any longer. I did also found a similar blog post on this blog in 2010 when I discovered other copies of this design on the web. So it should be clear to anyone who sees my art it is copyright. Says so on the art page and over and over in my blog. Each time they claim they did not know. But please if you copy someones art isn't easy to realize it isn't right to sell it as your own without permission.

Downloading My Art Off The Web Is Prohibited

As a follow up to my blog post about me discovering 2 crafters this month downloading my art off the web I want to mention how I know it was clearly mine. Most of my fine art is signed and a lot of my graphic art shows Fig Street Studio on the image. The ones I do that do not have a name on them have clear marks I put in them. For example my Pontchartrain Beach design above. It is an adaptation of an ad run in a local newspaper in the 1950's. The original black and white image has a clown face and the words "Fun at Pontchartrain Beach" and in the background a hand drawn image of the Zephyr Roller Coaster. My adaptation has a similar clown face I drew, one of the bigger differences is the hat on mine is different than the original and the background in mine is an old aerial photo cut down to one color matching the clown and in different font "Fun, Pontchartrain Beach". The other Pontchartrain Beach images are fashioned from clip art and me adding in the words Pontchartrain Beach working the images so I know I did them. Those are not based in any historical image of the beach, but me selecting images to use. Pontchartrain Beach is not a trademark and in the public domain, my art work is my work product and thus copyrighted by me. All of it takes time and thought so the people who just download it without permission and use it on products will get caught and I will sue to stop them.
The issue is not new I ran into it in the past and will do a separate blog on the past incidents. However the reason it has happen recently is due to how Cafe Press is presenting the products I sell through them. They recently re-designed the presentation of the products using a larger un-protected image then in the past. The old images were too small and fell apart after downloading then enlarging them. They were so blurry they could not be used. The new presentation the images are larger and do not fall apart as badly so they reproduce up to 4 inches slightly blurry. Large enough for smaller crafts like fridge magnets. I have e-mailed Cafe Press to alert them my images need to have a water mark or be prevented from downloading like other companies do my art on the web.
The recent discover of my art being wrongfully used is gross as a lot of the images clearly have my name, mark, or Fig Street Studio on them yet were reproduced on products I also sell. Thus the person who took them has no work product or time in those images and sells them less. Selling my hard work in competition with me on products I also sell. Copyright is a lot easier to enforce now and so happens my brother-in-law does that legal work. As I no longer practice law, I gave it up to do art, he is consulted when this happens. I just hope the people who hijack my art realize I do things to clearly know it is mine and I take steps to protect my copyright. If you see my art being sold let me know via e-mail so I can prevent the wrongful taking of my art.

COPYRIGHT INFO IN PLAIN ENGLISH:
10 Big Myths about copyright explained- by Brad Templeton

Note that this is an essay about copyright myths. It assumes you know at least what copyright is -- basically the legal exclusive right of the author of a creative work to control the copying of that work. If you didn't know that, check out my own brief introduction to copyright for more information. Click below link for more on not downloading art off the web.

http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyt

hs.html

I copyright all of my art, graphic designs, and local phrases. Do not duplicate them I will find out and take legal action.

 I have several Pontchartrain Beach designs on the web. Each design has hidden in it my initials, like the clown face. In its hat are small JS initials so I know when it is downloaded off the web and is my art work.

http://www.cafepress.com/figstreetstudio/455870

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 This art sign is  created and drawn by me and is not the original sign. It took time for me to create this art and is protected by copyright. Do not download it and use it on products. I have found it on several items for sale locally. I will find those people and sue for damages for illegally using my art.

New Orleans Christmas Tree Poster by figstreetstudio

 This is another design I have discovered on  items sold locally in New Orleans. It is my art and copyright. Do not buy it if it is used illegally. Do not download it to use, It is a violation of my rights and I will seek damages. Anyone downloading my art to use and sell will be sued.

Copies of my Fridge Magnets

Today while looking around a local store that on occasion sells my art I discovered duplicate copies of my fridge magnets being sold. The manager gave me the name of the person who sold them to her and I was able to contact them. Seems they bought several of my magnets and just copied them and put them on smaller magnets. They said they did not know they could not do that. I explained that taking another persons art, graphic or fine art, and reproducing it without permission is a violation of copyright laws. I understand that people may not be aware of it but again my web pages clearly say my things are copyright. Well buying a magnet then reproducing it should at least be questionable. If someone is selling art and graphic art and you buy it to reproduce it that has to be something one would look into before doing it. I tried to be as nice as I could and they agreed to compensate me fairly for the taking of my work without permission so I think the issue is closed. I hope.

Here is a web page of my fridge magnets, if you see one with my designs on them being sold please let me know so i can look into it. Fig Street Fridge Magnets


Some info on Copyright- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright