possible theft

[Burmy]

OK, the damage is done and the theft restituted for. Let us never speak of this incident again, OK?

[kwhey]

Hmmmmmmm

[Joshawaggie]

Not really.

[Gothamite]

Yeah, I'm not feeling that one.

[Lee.]

I for one would like to implore the professional design community, even Phoenix, to please step in and provide this team with a decent identity package ASAP. Even if you never see a dime from the team or any small percentage of merchandise sales, please, do something.

Joe? Casey? Anybody? Is there nothing floating around your files that you can send to them and say, "Please, guys, just use this instead." Even if it's in Copperplate, guys.

For the children.

[trekbkr]

Hmmmmmmm

More like:

[Sterling84]

Lots of right and lots of wrong in this thread.

I'll largely ignore the wrong as those posts have been sufficiently mocked already. But I would add...there is no "close enough"...there is no mythical percentage by which I can change your design and call it my own. Legally speaking those are all derivations of the same work; all protected as much as the original as derivatives are the sole right of the author. Therefore, it is never OK to merely appropriate (in this case) the head and hat or portion of someone else's design. We HAVE to stop perpetuating myths about the law.

None of which is to say, that two concepts can't be startlingly similar and not infringe on one another. With the thousands of teams there is bound to be overlap of team nicknames, color schemes and city or regional initials that can leave one thinking someone was reading their thoughts. But a trained and serious eye can tell the difference between two individuals pursuing the same thought process, vs one person starting their work with someone else's as its basis.

Dan (Simon) is right in that in 95% or more of all cases it is not the designers job to chase down infringement. The Moose (still) ask me to weigh in on a case by case basis as to what consitutes infringement in my opinion. But as owners of the mark, they are responsible for protecting its copyright. In that rare instance where the author retains the works, then they would be responsible for guarding their property.

Brad (Nitro) is also right in that this type of behavior permeates the culture of our field and there is very little that can be done about it. If the folks on this board of all places cannot be unified (or well informed) then it is no wonder small time sports execs and would-be designers think it's OK to use stolen art work. That's why I'm posting.....to try to get the word out that my own experiences over the last 13 months have made it crystal clear there is ONE thing you can and should do to prevent and discourage this behavior.

COPYRIGHT YOUR WORK!!!!! I didn't know this back in the day either. I'm not chastising anybody. But read the words and commit them to memory. There is no postmark copyright...no watermark copyright.....no act of creating copyright. All of those things are useful in proving when you created an image and are valid up to a point. But when you intend to take action, to sue for violation of a Federal Copyright, the Federal government has to have foreknowledge of what is being infringed upon to act. That foreknowledge (and intent) is gained when you file your work with the Library of Congress and USCO. It costs a mere $35. YOu can do it in ten minutes online.

And here's the important part. You cannot sue (trust me) without the registration anyway. So your choices are 1) protect it right away and be covered or 2) wait til your work is stolen and THEN copyright it if you mean to sue.

But under scenario 1)....because you've shown responsiblity and intent as an author of visual works....the Feds have your back in a huge way. Because you did this smart and responsible thing you are allowed to sue for your court costs (something a struggling artist or seasoned pro would benefit from). Because you did this you are allowed to sue for STATUTORY DAMAGES...meaning automatic damages ranging from a few hundred dollars to nearly a quarter million dollars PER INSTANCE of infringment.

If you run scenario #2 you can still sue after you've registered the work. But now you pay your own court costs and can only sue for actual damages...meaning the profits lost to you and made by the offender. How do you even know what Team XX has made off of your work? It's part of the discovery process but that means you'll have to engage an attorney and be prepared to sue (on your own dime) to even figure out how much they've made....i.e. what you can sue for.

To put it another way....you might have incurred $10K in preliminary legal costs just to FIND OUT that the podunk team has only earned $1300 on merchandise on the mark.

I made this mistake. Trust me you don't want to feel what it feels like...to have a hands down, open and shut case of infringement and not be able to pursue it cause who has that kind of money lying around. I'm currently saving for my court costs, but none of this would have been necessary had I just known the law, known the rules and respected myself and my profession enough to learn.

And please future design heroes......do not envision this as a path to riches....copyrighting every sketch you do in an attempt to snare an offender with deep pockets. That is not the point and it diminishes the role copyright plays. The statutory damages are always staggered and weighted to reflect the willfullness of the crime. But the point is, having statutory law on your side.....levels the playing field. It makes you get treated as an equal and get the respect of .....oh, just say a huge international cap company...for instance...just as an example of course.

Even now, as I take on projects, (even ones where a buyer is in place) I copyright the image first. Because the USCO website is pretty easy to use. And after payment is recieved and the contracts are signed, you just log back into your account and grant the purchaser the rights to the image through the system.

NO excuses not to use it. None.

Best of luck to you all. Let's try and at least get the word out here that there is one, and only one way to protect yourself. If we do that I won't feel nearly as bad about what I've endure the last year.

PS - Thanks to Keith Flynn for catching my issue too. That's a friend to all right there.

[rtrich11]

Dave (Sterling), on the images you've uploaded to the USCO website, did you include any extra information like name, email, etc., or just the image itself and let the registration metadata take care of all that? I see that there are a lot of acceptable formats, which is great. I'd go with jpg, I guess.

[Alphabet Man]

I initially thought the new one looked like PC's work. But...... on closer inspection, no.

[Burmy]

To prove my conversion to the light side, here's another BLATANT RIPOFF I found...

Akwesasne Warriors of the Federal Hockey League-we can all tell what that rips off...

All I can say is, you wouldn't like the NBA when it's angry!