When I came up with the design for Airbag I had a feeling that eventually some asshat would steal some portion of the design, or just take the whole damn thing. That seems to be the nature of man and the promise of web design. It's probably already happened a few times from some lo-life whose work barely scrapes an existence on Blogspot or some back alley zine.
Back in March when I released the now popular desktop images, I felt it was a way of daring mouth breathers around the world to steal my work. And that’s why I slapped a copyright statement and web address on each image.
Not that I thought it would really prevent theft but it's something artists do to help them feel better about releasing designs to the public.
It's been three months and sixteen days since Charles Stewart made the now infamous statement —
Well Charles take a looky here for another reminder of as to why I stamp my work, my own.
It could be worse, this is just a tiny infraction, but that this person is French makes it worse and somehow also appropriate.
So to you dear "Rimshot" I say, tu es un asshat, un whopper dirigé vide de cuvette de nourriture animale! Je fart dans votre direction générale! Ta mère est un hamster et tes odeurs de père des eldeberries.
Join the fray by reading through and commenting at the end.
Thanks goes to Dan for his Batman like detective work in finding my new little French friend.
Sorry, I'm with Charles and the Frenchies on this one. The entire point of copyright, originally, was to allow creators the sole license to profit from their own work. Are you losing money from this use of your imagery, or is it diluting your brand name and affecting your bottom line?
Besides, it seems like a fair, non-infringing use of your image to me. They used a small manipulated version in a larger design.
I have to admit I don't really see a big problem here, but that's not up to me as I am not the owner.
I'm glad you posted this though—I wouldn't have want to miss a design website that has rimshots.free in the URL. That's genius.
I am just amazed that you found that page. I can't imagine googling it would do good as it's pretty content free.
Batman, indeed! (although I'd go as far as to call it "Sherlockian")
I wonder if they will wonder why they are getting so many hits from Airbag
I don't even know if he can notice the hits, since this is hosted on his provider's free webpage service, with very few options to manage it.
I can certainly see a problem here.
He's claiming the work as his own, which is definitely not right. I mean it's in a portfolio section, not simply a small part of a page design.
I would most definitely be unimpressed if I found someone using a photograph from my site without permission. Especially as an example of their work, and even more so for commercial purposes.
Copyrights aside, I think this is a simple issue of ethics. Borrow and steal ideas from other work, but melt those borrowed ideas into your own.
This is an obvious direct copy of a portion of the main Airbag graphic. And I think Greg is justified in his outrage. However, we should be careful to draw a line and not cross it. Overreactions and perverted interpretations of copyright/trademark law have gotten us in quite a mess. DMCA, anyone?
Um, why is it worse that this guy is French?
I agree that it's a small infraction, but I also agree with Max that it's pretty dubious for someone to use someone else's work in the portfolio section of their site.
Ah, the web.
Greg,
I'm with you all the way. It's one thing to use the concept - it's another to take an image that was a gift in the first place, and to turn around and make money off someone else's creative work.
What's even more tragic, I look forward to Greg's next writing piece, and some François has to steal from Airbag thus preventing Greg from writing something worthwhile. Too bad.
A word to all Airbag readers, stop stealing from Mr. Storey and come up with your own material. The world will be a better place because of it.
Merci Beaucoup
Pretty cheesy. I have to go with Neil, though; the French bit is a bit off the mark. And to pass it off as an example of one's own work...well, to quote my Mom, Rimshot (slanderous aside: is this not a eupemism for butthole-licking?) is only cheating himself.
As a non-designer, I have to ask (guilessly; truly): assuming the blimp image in question is a stock image, (ignore this if it your own photo) what is the rule on calling a stock image "one's own" (even if heavily modified)? In the past have wondered this about Mr. Benjamin's "copyrighted" banners, as no credit is usually given to the original artist in these cases.
Greg,
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You've got the coolest design on the net, period. You just say when we start the mail bombing ;)
i love montey python. such great stuff.
sorry this guy stole your work. some people will say copying is one of the most flatering things that can be done. everyone loves your work and they want to be as cool as you. well, i say neigh and 'fuck you', and i guess i could call them asshats too (hehe. i like that.)
they just steal it. all your hard work and they make it their own.
bastards.
I'm naive I guess, but where did the airship picture come from in the first place? Did you create it with a 3d package from your own imagination? Or is it a genuine airship image that you manipulated into your design? If the latter, what's the difference between what you did and what monsieur rimshot did? If the former I support your right to feel aggrieved.
<off topic>Will you be changing the URL on those desktop wallpapers, now that airbag.ca has returned to the motherland?</off topic>
Asshat indeed.
What makes it worse because this guy is French? Nothing. Part of a long running theme since the start of this site.
As for whats the big deal, Neil has it right. If this was a hobby site or academic then fine but to pass it off as commercial work — not cool.
Lastly, I will change the URL on the desktop images but I'm buried in contracts right now. And I keep dreaming the good dream that the Canadians will release the address any day now.
First the Canadians. Now the French. Mon dieu!
I agree with you Greg. If its for a personal site or something its at least acceptable (although still not understandable if you say you're a "designer"), but for a business site, its totally unprofessional ... recently The Business Journal ripped my design.
I wonder how you have responded or contacted this person? What is the appropriate way to bring this up?
Absolutely love the desktops by the way.
Damn Chuck, I assume you've sent hate mail and horses heads there way?!
It's a crying shame that Mr. Asshat has recieved so much traffic because of his theft :(
Perhaps just posting a screen shot of the site but not linking to it would have been just as effective without benefiting the theif.
Did you know the French designed and constructed the first Airships? They can not be all bad can they?
Sadly, the derivative work issue is nothing new...just easier to spot these days. I think of the music world where Nirvana were sued for ripping off Killing Joke's "Eighties" (which they were in turn accused of ripping from the Damned). Elastica settled with Wire, and of course, the infamous Ray Parker, Jr vs Huey Lewis case (though in that case both sides were claiming to have stolen from the other, since neither wanted admit they'd actually penned the crappy song...). Hope you can get some resolution.
I'd also like to openly admit that I have added the term "asshat" to my vernacular, I will do my best to give credit where credit's due, but I find people look at me strangely when I provide bibliographies for water-cooler conversation. (They obviously can't be staring at my horribly disfigured face...it'd be rude to make light of a childhood croquet incident.)
Chuck, I don't think this is the time and the place for what you are doing. I have put as much work, time, and effort as anyone else. There is nothing similar in the design between our two websites. I don't think this is appropriate and relevant. I tried to be as civilized as I could, check this -
Rough Start, but guess it doesn't work that way. And Andrew nobody need such a "pitty" traffic to their website. I have received more the 15 visits for the last hour from here.
Yeah, but that's like using a steak to make a cheeseburger! Your site whops his sites ass ten-fold. It would be more serious if the blighter had an attractive website, or could even pull-off your pimping blimp.
Beerzie boy: Rimshot (slanderous aside: is this not a eupemism for butthole-licking?)
Slanderous follow-up: I think you are thinking of rimjob. A rimshot is the "badum-bum" the drummer plays at the end of a joke to cue the audience to laugh.
Holding unreasonable preconceived judgments of bloggers on blogspot Mr Storey? hotairindustries.com?
Not at all, there are some really great sites run on Blogspot but like most of the free web-based blog apps it's also home to a lot of crap.
Holy cow, Michael! You are right. My apologies to the estates of Keith Moon and Buddy Rich.
Oh such a small mind - shan't be coming back here I'm afraid. From a disappointed and bemused European.
Man, it seems like all of his title images are from someone else. The least he could have done is to give references to where he got it from. His surface reflection on the image could use a little work, too.
Maybe it's just me, but using stealing someone's work is like wearing someone else's dirty underwear.
Doug, don't let the browser hit your ass on the way out.
If you goto the site, and look under "Création Graphique" and view the "Airship" entry you might notice the lack of an airship. It was there last time I looked at it, but when I was showing it to my wife right now it was gone...
Have you seen the contact form ? You get the ship picture in the stamp... If you need an english to french insults translation service, I'd be please to give him a real taste of his creative hollowness, en version originale - I'm one of these french asshats.
i guess the instructions below the post button don't apply to The Author?
Some jumbled thoughts:
Personally, I never really understood people's fascination with copyrights, patents, trademarks, etc. , but I'm not going to get into that right now.
What I don't really understand is your reaction to this incident. This seems to be the same reaction I've seen a million times in the past and it never seems to get old. Why do some authors get so angry when people "steal" their work?
I suppose if you really did care so much, you could write the "thief" and remind him that the work was originally yours. If that didn't work you could take legal action, which, i guess, is the intended solution to the problem of copyright infringement.
I don't understand why you or anyone else would decide to turn the whole thing into a public spectacle. If you seriously didn't want the "thief" to profit from your work, why did you link to his site? Is it because it also draws attention to your site and your work? If that is the case you should thank the "thief" for helping promote your website.
If your goal is to prevent copyright infringement, pointing to someone's website and calling them an asshat, while perfectly within your rights, doesn't seem like the best way to achieve your goal. I can even see how dragging the whole thing into public might encourage people to steal intellectual property in the future. It seems to me that encouraging creativity and sharing ideas might be a better solution than pointing at someone and calling them an asshat. I dunno, maybe it just reminds me too much of the sandbox and jungle gym.
I can understand your anger at the thought of being "ripped off," but remember: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Imitation is following a design or pattern and I have no problem with that. Taking an image that I created from scratch and passing it off as original work is intellectual theft.
Did they change The Business Journal? I ask because it doesn't really look like Telerana to me.
I see nothing.
greg, I really liked your response to the euro. shan't? who says shan't? ha. some europeans think talking like that makes them intellectual and it doesn't. (such a small mind? what have you ever made, dork? greg's made a really good site full of good stories and isn't a bad designer either) I'm assuming you really don't hate french people (it would be even funnier if you really did), it's just that they're easy to make fun and I do it too and I am going on 4 years of french in highschool and I'm going to take it in college. it's just that they surrendered to the germans and eat fancy schmancy cheese and they never fight anyone and they don't like us. doug needs to get a life. what's the euro phrase for that? keep up the nice site.
Chris...
Taking another's artwork or creation is wrong. It is stealing. The offender is a thief.
Yes, a letter will often solve the problem. The problem with taking legal action is simply this: Are you going to pay an attorney x-hundred-dollars an hour to write some guy in France and tell him to back off? Sadly, unless the damage is severe, the payoff to protect your work overseas is difficult to justify.
Which brings us to...
Public Shame
Ahh, the beauty of the internet. Yes, your work can get stolen. But you can also post about it for several thousand people to see... and even link to. No doubt Mr. Rimshot is going over his server allotment for the month right now. And yes, now countless people know what an asshat he is.
Posting an offense on the web is the easiest and least expensive way to police copyright art.
I think pointing out publicly that someone else has stolen your intellectual property is a good way to go about doing things.
It sends a strong message to the community, i.e., the next guy who does something like this can expect to be treated the same way.
Hopefully, that thought will actually work as a deterrent.