What a degenerate.

[Shishio]

My lack of faith in humanity gets validated once again:

http://forum.somethingawful.com/showthr ... id=2416213

[McDuffies]

I wonder if he's really gonna sue the poo poo out of him.

[Bustertheclown]

Parts of me wants to see this move to legal venues. Honestly, cases of blatant rip-offs are few and far-between, and this would be a nice case to cite to paranoid artists who rant and rave about their "copyrights" and perpetuate myths on how to protect them. I just hope Shmorky was smart enough to copyright that image before it was traced.

[Mercury Hat]

I wonder if he's really gonna sue the poo poo out of him.

Heh, for those who don't know, the Something Awful forums censor swear words if you're not a member/signed in.

But yeah, I hope this really takes off. Unfortunately for the stuff he swiped from Roman Dirge, it looks like they're just different enough to not be a legal issue :| .

[Robbie]

Good gawd. Now I'm going to be paranoid about the stuff I write for days now. Not that someone'll steal it, but that I'm ripping someone off.....

Still, yeesh. That's disgusting.

[Princess]

This is terrible, and I am so glad that Smorky caught him.

Last year someone made t-shirts with my artwork on them without asking- there was nothing I could do and I felt helpless and robbed.

[The Neko]

Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit

[Ataraxia]

The trouble with copyright infringement cases is it would cost more to bring the infringer to court than either side are likely to make from the artwork. A C+D letter might get some results, or it might just be ignored. At the very least it would establish that you're defending your copyright, should a time ever come when there is enough money involved to make a court case worthwhile.

Making this situation known on the internet may sully the offending cartoonist's reputation, and may get some free publicity for the offended cartoonist. In this case I'd say both of these would be good things.

[Cope]

I wonder if he's really gonna sue the poo poo out of him.

Heh, for those who don't know, the Something Awful forums censor swear words if you're not a member/signed in.

I wondered why everyone wanted to gently caress things.

[Kris X]

First off, artwork has a poorman's copyright... So even if he didn't have a copyright, he's still have rights to the original work and drawing. Given that Todd traced the work... He's screwed if the original guy does it right.

Second, what an ass...

Thirdly, it's also hard to sue in art cases, because people whine about individual interpretation and coincidence. As well as those jerks who take someone else's work and say it's a representation of something they feel and because they re-made it...It is a new piece (referencing the movie Ghost World).

[MinekaC.]

Whoa, talk about being stupid. How did he thing he was gonna get away with that?
In terms of proving who drew what in court. Smory obviously had it up first, and they can check internet dates to see when it was last altered, so he has that going for him. Not to mention the "How'd you come up with the idea?" defense. He can say where he got the idea (if he can remember it, but considering it was so popular, he likely can) but what's Todd gonna say? "I saw a kitty praying in the back yard?"
If it was in an LA gallery, there's likely some money involved.

[Nervous Spy]

Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit

Well, I guess tracing could count as auratic experience....

[McDuffies]

I wonder if he's really gonna sue the poo poo out of him.

Heh, for those who don't know, the Something Awful forums censor swear words if you're not a member/signed in.

I wondered why everyone wanted to gently caress things.

It's ironic/poetic, I don't think that anyone goes there to be nice.

Anyways, though rip-off cases happen and they aren't pleasing, there's little reason to get paranoid about. I remember an advice from one of first comicking books I've read:
If you're afraid someone steals your work, don't be - you have many other ideas and are capable of many more. If you aren't - then possibility of someone stealing your work is the least of your problems.

[Leperdoctor]

Anyways, though rip-off cases happen and they aren't pleasing, there's little reason to get paranoid about. I remember an advice from one of first comicking books I've read:
If you're afraid someone steals your work, don't be - you have many other ideas and are capable of many more. If you aren't - then possibility of someone stealing your work is the least of your problems.

Best advice EVER!! My friends and I used to draw / write all the time, and we were ripped off several times by people claiming they had drawn the characters themselves (they were traced), or that their friends had given them the pictures. Thing was, our art at the time wasn't even very good, yet this still happened. I'm happy it didn't scare any of us off. <.< Using art as a userpic or posting it on a blog to show people ("ZOMG! I found the most amazing web comic, look at it!") is fine, but when you actually take someone else's art and claim you had any hand in creating it...that's just lame. People who steal art should just be shot in the head.

[Stinkywigfiddle]

Let's burn him at the stake!

Anyways, though rip-off cases happen and they aren't pleasing, there's little reason to get paranoid about. I remember an advice from one of first comicking books I've read:
If you're afraid someone steals your work, don't be - you have many other ideas and are capable of many more. If you aren't - then possibility of someone stealing your work is the least of your problems.

I agree. It's always good to have other ideas anyway, in case your one big idea doesn't work out so well.

[Bustertheclown]

Anyways, though rip-off cases happen and they aren't pleasing, there's little reason to get paranoid about. I remember an advice from one of first comicking books I've read:
If you're afraid someone steals your work, don't be - you have many other ideas and are capable of many more. If you aren't - then possibility of someone stealing your work is the least of your problems.

Best advice EVER!! My friends and I used to draw / write all the time, and we were ripped off several times by people claiming they had drawn the characters themselves (they were traced), or that their friends had given them the pictures. Thing was, our art at the time wasn't even very good, yet this still happened. I'm happy it didn't scare any of us off. <.< Using art as a userpic or posting it on a blog to show people ("ZOMG! I found the most amazing web comic, look at it!") is fine, but when you actually take someone else's art and claim you had any hand in creating it...that's just lame. People who steal art should just be shot in the head.

While being laid back about it may be a nice personal philosophy, it's not a great business plan. I know there are plenty of hobbyists out there who might not care about how their work is used (or misused), but there are also plenty of people who create this work in the hopes of making some sort of a living. Intellectual property is still property, and in this digital information age, it's an extremely lucrative form of property at that. The ravenous approach that the RIAA and MPAA have taken in recent years to protect intellectual property is proof enough of that fact.

The tracing of an image is still theft, whether the original owner of the property shrugs it off or not. Copyright infringement could very well cause a negative commercial impact toward that property in many different ways beyond the up front insult of "he's stealing my work!" It could cause confusion on who the original creator was. It could cause defamation of the original artist through its misuse. It could limit future options for official merchandising. That's not even to mention that the act of infringement itself could be a ploy to make money for the infringing party. If you were a baker, you wouldn't let someone get away with stealing your bread, and selling it across the street for their own profit.

Here's the moral to this story:

It pays to protect your work. Registering copyrights the correct way is affordable enough to those who are serious about the future of their creations. Anyone who wants to keep their work legally protected once it's published should shell out the money (in the U.S. its $45) and register their work BEFORE publishing.

For anyone wanting further info on comics themselves, here's the U.S. government circular for Cartoons and Comic Strips, Online Works, and Serials, which most webcomics, according to their update schemes, could certainly fall in under. It pays to know these things.

[Skyman8081]

Just to give a concrete example to buster's post. I think that more people remember Calvin for peeing on ***car_company***'s logo than for anything that he did in the actual comic strip.

Obviously that case was a bit more complicated, since Bill Watterson didn't own many of the right to Calvin and Hobbes. It is a good example of why it is important to go after people like that, since that IS a case where infringing products did harm to the original work.

[McDuffies]

Regardless of whether you're hobbist or aspiring professional, you simply shouldn't be paranoid. Registering copyrights is one thing but I know people who hestitate to share their comic ideas in fear that someone will steal them.

[The Neko]

Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit

Well, I guess tracing could count as auratic experience....

I dunno, unless he broke into Dave Kelly's house, stole the original paper document and then traced from that, I dunno if it counts as an auratic experience.

I know the essay didn't discuss this kind of plagiarism, but I think it's related in that digital reproduction has just made it easier for people to appropriate cultural artifacts and copy things.

[Ida]

What a poo poo.

According to the Las Vegas Sun article linked in that thread, the guy really seems to be making a lot of money off of this, AND apparently makes himself out to be some sort of high artist, claiming that the humor is the draw of his stuff. Other peoples' humor.

And at prices between $3,000 and $10,000, it's not children buying them. It's grandmothers, stockbrokers, firemen, twentysomethings and a prostitute - a financially fit population that has moved from T-shirts and bumper stickers to wall art.

"He's an artist in the spirit of Warhol. He has a finger on the pulse of our society right now. His humor is irreverent. It's fun. It makes people laugh and feel good. It's not such serious art so you don't have to be intimidated by it."

I really hope Shmorky sues the gently caress out of him.