illos,  Shop Talk

Stop Thief!

October 1, 2007 /

It’s going to be hard for me to write this post so please bear with me. I’m full of emotion and not really in the right frame of mind to be putting sentences together.

stop thief 1

You may have heard that one of my illustrations got stolen and has been used as the masthead for a website that gathers news and helpful hints for mothers. It’s bad enough that they are using my illustration as their main logo and top graphic but they’ve also plastered that same image on every single cafépress item available. My illo that I created from my heart is plastered like baby throw up all over teddy bears and mugs and t-shirts. I am ill. I would never do this. I would never let anyone do this. It is sickening.

stop thief 2

About a year ago I sold this image to a company (who is NOT momsbuzz) who holds all rights to it. I am under contract to this company. This company and only this company can use this graphic. So what does this mean? It means that I have all the legal rights in the world to bust the mom site who is using my image. But it also means that I’ve been naive and an idiot to think I could share my work with the world wide internet and not have it get stolen. I have to take everything down and protect it.

I’m going back to ground zero. I’ve taken all my galleries down and protected all of my illustrations that were up on flickr. I’m starting over. I haven’t made up my mind what I’m going to do. I want to have a body of work up on the internet for people to see but I have to do it in such a way that it can’t get ripped off so easily.

I’m not a web designer and I don’t know flash so this is going to be something that takes a long time. It makes me sad but at the same time, starting fresh is always a good thing. I needed a redesign anyway.

MomsBuzz has until midnight tonight to take the image down. After that it’s war. I’ve asked nicely. I could sue for all the profits they’ve made off my image but I don’t want that. I just want my illustration back. I loved that little illo.

Update: A public apology has been made. It’s getting better.

161 Comments

  • Caroline

    October 1, 2007 at 11:51 am

    I think you should absolutely contact cafepress and typepad and throw everything you can at them. Send certified letters at this point to the registrant for their URL, and so on and so forth. I would not let this one go gently, so to speak. The cafepress store is no different than if they were to break into your house and steal money from your purse in the night.

    Unreal.

    Tried to keep the faith, it’s easier said than done though.

  • Heather

    October 1, 2007 at 11:51 am

    After reading what happened to Sweet Junipers photos on Flickr, I took made photos of my little girl private and copyrighted everything. Now, seeing your issue here, I know I did the right thing. Good luck getting this rotten website to do the right thing. I certainly won’t be giving them any business EVER.

  • Kami

    October 1, 2007 at 12:03 pm

    Wow, clearly these people are idiots. I find it very disturbing that the people who are runnign a site providing advice to mothers have stolen your work. Um, I think we should spread the word… they suck.

    I hope you get this all sorted out and I am so sorry to hear that it happened. I think what others have said about karma is true. They will get what is coming to them.

  • Aimee

    October 1, 2007 at 12:07 pm

    I can’t believe they did that!! That is horrible. I hope you get your illo back asap.

    A site revamp will be good for your soul. Have fun with it. I look forward to seeing what you come up with. I am sure it will be awesome. :)

  • LCamp

    October 1, 2007 at 12:09 pm

    I am so very, very sorry that someone did this with your work and I hope that your informal “cease and desist” moves MomsBuzz to pull the logo. It is so trying and stressful to wait for a response and hope that someone who has already pulled a shady trick will do the right thing. Think about contacting your local bar association to ask if there are pro bono legal services for artists in your community. In my town it’s called “volunteer lawyers for the arts.” http://www.dwij.org/matrix/vla_list.html gives a list of such organizations nationally. It’s laughable but sometimes having a strongly worded letter sent on law firm letterhead makes a huge difference. I am just disgusted that MomsBuzz claims to be researching the matter; I seriously doubt that there is a third-party that MomsBuzz could blame for the theft and mis-use of your work.

  • Shauna

    October 1, 2007 at 12:17 pm

    It looks like they get revenue and site traffic from the Glam Network, and using a third party’s content illegally is clearly a violation of their TOS. I’d report them there too.

  • Chris

    October 1, 2007 at 12:19 pm

    That’s insane – they should be falling all over themselves to make this right (let alone not doing something as blatantly illegal as using your graphic in the first place.)

    I’m an avid blog reader and it’s saddened me to see all of the recent stories come to light about stolen images (you, sweet juniper, suburban bliss, the kids pics on orkut, etc.) It’s getting out of control and quite frankly scary, particularly with the kids pics.

  • Alissa

    October 1, 2007 at 12:30 pm

    I’m so sorry that there are such terrible people out there who carelessly break copyright laws. I just went to their site to leave a nasty comment and think that they have removed your images and on their cafe press as well and I hope it stays this way. Please let us know what is happening.

    On a happier note I love your new masthead.

  • Alissa

    October 1, 2007 at 12:32 pm

    I am so wrong. I visited the wrong site and your ilios are still up :( so it’s now time to leave them a rude comment.

  • Keely

    October 1, 2007 at 12:40 pm

    This just sucks. I’m sorry they’ve done this to you. I look forward to seeing what you do next. It may not seem like it now, but maybe something good will come from this. I wish you all the best and hope these people get what’s coming to them. Silly to mess with SAJ and all her supporters.

    Also, the near banner= AWESOME!

  • froglette79

    October 1, 2007 at 12:55 pm

    Funny… I just found a website that took something I wrote and attributed it to you. So, I know just how you feel. It sucks and I am sorry for you. Although, your situation is worse because at least the links lead to me, even if your name is at the top.

    Sorry you have to go through this. Good luck.

  • nina

    October 1, 2007 at 1:05 pm

    Oh my gosh!!! I was so upset to see YOUR work on their stuff. How dare they? Grrr.

    WWDD? What would Disney do? They are pretty picky about who uses their characters but then again, they have a giant legal staff.

    In Florida and Colorado, I know we could use the words “cease and desist” when we saw anyone using our artwork (or copying our designs). One woman found someone had used one of her artworks, copying it in paints, then selling it on notecards and as glicee prints.

    Can you put something over your work online, a see-through word such as “sample” that would prevent others from taking your work for their own use?

    Tap your inner pit bull, your mother bear instincts. This was wrong.

  • nina

    October 1, 2007 at 1:06 pm

    I meant to add to the “cease and desist” part of my email that the woman who was copying and selling at an art show had to take it all down, every bit of it, and was sternly warned about being sued.

  • chan

    October 1, 2007 at 1:20 pm

    Hi SAJ,

    So sorry to hear this happened. It prompted me to do a quick Google to find the site, and I ran across it AS WELL AS this one: http://www.momsbuzz.blogspot.com/
    It looks like a different company/blog by the same name, but she, too, is using your graphic. Did you find this already?

  • Jenna

    October 1, 2007 at 1:32 pm

    Ya know, sites have made legitimate mistakes in using a copyrighted image on their masthead or in some other way. But splattering it all over CafePress items? Totally, totally lame. And then? Not complying with the artist?! Even more lame.

    I hope you get fast results!

  • ~aj~

    October 1, 2007 at 1:37 pm

    Oh SAJ, that is just terrible. I feel so bad for you. I hate that there are people like this in the world that have no qualms with stealing (and profiting!) from other people’s hard work.

    What a bad situation. For the record, I’ve always been super fond of that image myself. Hope we’ll still be able to see your work in the future.

  • Lady S

    October 1, 2007 at 1:43 pm

    BTW, I swung by the offending (and offensive) site and when you click on their Cafe Press images there is an error message that the item is not available. So it seems you got through to Cafe Press, at least.

  • Leah

    October 1, 2007 at 1:44 pm

    I’ve emailed the site, CafePress, and the registered domain owner of MomsBuzz. (I’m surprised that someone who knows correct plural-possessive punctuation could be so ignorant of COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT.)

  • Erin

    October 1, 2007 at 1:54 pm

    I don’t know what to say that hasn’t already been said, but I am very sorry someone took advantage of your beautiful work! It sucks that evil people are out there, and it stuns me every day what people are capable of…both dogooders and evildoers. You’re a dogooder, and the evildoer will get their comeuppance! Keep on keepin on, and best of luck!

  • OMSH

    October 1, 2007 at 1:59 pm

    Even if you knew FLASH – EVEN THEN … screenshots can be had. Once an illo is on the internet it can be stolen (and I say that for the company who thinks that just because you are showing an illo makes you responsible for it being stolen – it doesn’t work that way).

    Either way – I’ve written about it on my blog and if we’d spread the word around for you, momsbuzz would get enough bad buzz that they might want to save their stinkin’ butt and pull it.

    I can’t believe they didn’t pull it already.

    I’m going to write them and tell them what I think.

    We should all write them.
    ALL.OF.US.

    gah!

  • Bethany

    October 1, 2007 at 2:05 pm

    Duh, I never even thought of bombarding them with angry emails! Which your readers are clearly ready to do. I still hate that this happened to you, but I love how many people are commenting and supporting you! It’s just making me smile to see how many people are ready to fight for you, and I hope it’s making you feel a little better, too!

  • Chelsie

    October 1, 2007 at 2:06 pm

    It’s always the kind, trusting people that get screwed… but I believe that karma wins out in the end.

    I’m with the above comments… let us know, and we’ll send so many emails to their in box they’ll be begging to give you their CafePress profits!

    PS – i LOVE the new masthead. Beautiful!

  • DottieMay

    October 1, 2007 at 2:11 pm

    Uhhh – nope, cafe press is still up. And all our comments have been deleted from the site PLUS she’s blocked us from commenting further. I’m no techie, but she must be blocking our ip addresses (i tried a different email address with no luck). so! get your friends to post comments! we can’t shut up about this! it just ain’t right!

  • reddirtroad

    October 1, 2007 at 2:13 pm

    Unfortunately there is no way to stop someone from Internet Thievery, unless you don’t put anything up. If someone REALLY REALLY wants a particular graphic, and is a morally unethical human piece of crap, there’s three ways to go about it.

    1. Right Click and Save As.
    2. Screen Capture (works even in Flash as far as I know.)
    3. Save HTML Page with your browser (downloads all corresponding documents and images to folder.)
    4. Browse through Temporary Internet File Folder. If you surfed it, you downloaded it.

    IMO, the best way to combat it would be to watermark everything. That way if anyone does any of those four things they WILL have your graphic but they’d have a lot of work to get rid of the watermark before they used it. That will deter most people.

    I’d really hate to not see your work. You are inspiring to me, SAJ.

    And the thing with Moms’ Buzz? She’s probably taking her sweet time to remove it so she can find another image on the Internet to use ;)

    Stealing off the Internet sucks. What I’d like to know is how you found out about it in the first place? Did someone recognize your work? Did you just come across the site?

  • DottieMay

    October 1, 2007 at 2:44 pm

    Hey!

    so google “mom’s buzz” and see what you get….

    I’m hopping mad so i did something about it.

  • rachel

    October 1, 2007 at 2:54 pm

    WOW… this is awful. i am so sorry. This is a warning to all designers/artists out there who put their work up, including me. How can we stop this thievery???

    Your illustrations are so beautiful.

  • Kuky

    October 1, 2007 at 3:05 pm

    Ahhh!! I’m sooo mad for you! You want me to call Cafepress right NOW?!?!? I’m so tempted to. Call them. Call them right now. They can remove the images from that person’s store so they won’t show up until it’s sorted.

  • Judy

    October 1, 2007 at 3:08 pm

    Hi Josephine!

    I found you through the comment trail at Sweet Juniper. All I can say is, good lord, how is it that people are so clueless about property rights infringement. I second Annika’s comment about also pursuing things with Cafe Press. I know that when there was inappropriate items put up after 9/11, they were very quick to respond. They have no vested interested in themomsbuzz.com’s use of your images and every interest in keeping their business legal.

    Good luck!

  • familymclean

    October 1, 2007 at 3:32 pm

    Ok, if you try to click on the images of things for sale on cafepress,like the mug or tshirt you get an error page. For those of you that missunderstood the comment left earlier.

  • a grrl with a blog

    October 1, 2007 at 3:42 pm

    I was doing some work for a company last spring when they received notification that an image on their website had been used without permission. It was a 1″ x 1″ image that had been used on one page. Nobody really knew how the imaged ended up there, and it was something that shouldn’t have happened.

    The company had to pay, get ready for this: $12,000!!! They also had to remove the photo or face legal action, and a much larger fine. This was for an accident (somewhere along the line a jr. webmaster must’ve added the image)

    That was for a tiny accident! This chick stole your illustration. She would’ve had to take it from your site, knowing full-well that you are a designer. She didn’t just add it to her site once, she wallpapered the internet with it. It’s everywhere, in all of her profiles, and on not 1, but 2 blogs: http://www.momsbuzz.blogspot.com/ and http://www.themomsbuzz.com/ .

    She’d better get those images off the web ASAP!

    I can’t stop thinking about this. As bloggers, we respect one another, we learn from each other, and we support each other. We’re united on this one. She won’t get away with this.

    (btw: if you want more info on that $12,000 fine I’d be happy to share it with you)

  • alaskalark

    October 1, 2007 at 3:44 pm

    themomsbuzz.com will be getting no business from me, the thieves. Grrr! Stand up for yourself! Someone (many someones) needs to learn a lesson!