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Imposstor Ss T-shirts Available On Ebay!


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This morning while surfing on ebay I found my ImpoSStor SS cartoon available on a t-shirt (and a print and a mousepad) .

Click here for details. It appears the artist sold the design. I am not involved with this and get nothing from it.

Edited by ImpoSStor SS (see edit history)
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Did you pay him to design and draw it for you? I take it there was no agreement on paper saying that he wouldn't use it without your authorization?

I was looking into getting some shirts made for our submarine dept at work, and the paperwork states that the design company can use the design as an example, but after I paid for the design work, the rights to it are now mine. It can't be reproduced in part or in whole without my consent.

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Hmmm well there's something wrong there, my spidey-sense tells me that unless you signed a release the original artist cannot do that - you need to follow-up with an intellectual property attorney; I know for FACT this applies to photographed materials, example we have a team roper that we photograph at a public event, we can sell reproductions of that photo to the public (because it was captured at a public venue) but must have an artist's release in order to sell the image to a magazine for a sponsor ad, or TV for a promo spot, etc, our only exception is that we do allow free use for "editorial purposes" but in your case the artist/publisher is obviously making a commercial profit. Again what I've observed applies to photographs, but I cannot imagine depicted works to be treated any differently. It would be the same as if I took a photo of your truck with my digital camera, then started selling t-shirts with the image on it - that is a violation of intellectual property law and you have every right to sue for all gains I've made off your truck because I did not get either a financial agreement with you or a release from you.

 

BUT - what might be a good idea is that you approach the new publisher and offer to display their Imposster shirts, posters, and mousepads at your show appearances and you get to keep a percentage of the sales... I'm pretty sure you got the leverage unless you signed an agreement/release with the original artist, check with an attorney.

 

Mr. P.

Edited by Mr. P. (see edit history)
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Did you have the cartoon made by the artist at http://www.koolcartoons.com ?

Who "owns" the cartoon may not be as straight forward as you might think... For instance, in the case of photography, a photographer can take your picture and sell you a copy, but the photographer retains the 'copyright' of the photo. So you could not legally reproduce the photo, even though you purchased the copy and it is a picture of you. I am not sure how the laws work with created art, probably depends on the contract between artist and buyer. So it is possible the artist retains the copyright to his work and the ability to resell it to others, like the ebay T-shirt vendor (asuming the ebay guy is bothering to follow copyright laws).

Edited by dcairns (see edit history)
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... So it is possible the artist retains the copyright to his work and the ability to resell it to others, like the ebay T-shirt vendor ...

Yeah your first thought you have about the photographer selling you your own pic but you cannot reproduce it is correct - however the artist being able to resell it without your say-so I know for fact is against intellectual property law, we've been sued over it years ago.

 

Mr. P.

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ive worked as an animator for a few years now and from my understanding unless imposter ss had a contract written up stating that the price he paid was to establish full ownership of the artwork than the art still belongs to the original artist. if no ultimate ownership was established than really whatever imposter ss paid the artist for was a liscense so to speak to use the artists rendering.

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