Stealing artwork and putting it on a t-shirt...

[Macneil]

Grrbang said:

An effective cease and desist letter would, among other things, clearly set out the evidence that your friend would rely upon if they went to court, and would convincingly portray them as extremely aggrieved.

If the evidence clearly meets the 'balance of probabilities' test, then the other side's counsel *should* advise them to give up. If the evidence is incomplete, they will probably nitpick to try and test your friend's commitment. As a patent attorney who also deals with design and copyright disputes, that's what I would do if acting for the defense, and is on my mind when acting for the claimant.

A good letter would therefore require a bit of time and research to put together the evidence. Assuming settlement can be reached, your friend should also factor in some subsequent rounds of correspondence/negotiation, particularly on any financial payment demanded. The payment (if any) may only partly cover the costs.

If negotiations fail (not that common if you have a strong case), a small claim could perhaps be launched (assuming low value). The costs aren't astronomical, even for the loser. However, even the winner should expect to end up a bit out of pocket. The reward is generally the injunction.

Stealing their shirts would be shoplifting. Sorry, but your friend has no authority to do that!

Thank you if she could stop him doing it again that would be a result in itself.

[martinbiz]

DanL said:

konark said:

If you sell an original artwork to someone aren't you also selling the copyright to it's use?

No.

Really? I think you will find that very much depends on the terms under which the sale was agreed

[DanL]

martinbiz said:

DanL said:

konark said:

If you sell an original artwork to someone aren't you also selling the copyright to it's use?

No.

Really? I think you will find that very much depends on the terms under which the sale was agreed

Well, obviously - you can contract for those rights. But you can’t assume that (having purchased some art) you’ve also purchased the copyright to it, to do with as you will.

[Gareth79]

martinbiz said:

DanL said:

konark said:

If you sell an original artwork to someone aren't you also selling the copyright to it's use?

No.

Really? I think you will find that very much depends on the terms under which the sale was agreed

The terms are separate to the artwork sale. You don't automatically get copyright by buying the artwork itself. You could buy the rights to the artwork without owning the original article.

In this example, lets sat the t-shirt seller contacted the artist on Etsy and asked for a specific commission and specifically requested the original artwork to be posted to them. They could not then scan the art and sell it on a t-shirt, they would need to have requested permission to reproduce it (and most artists would not give permission without an additional fee/cut, or would simply refuse if they don't want to do that).

Edited by Gareth79 on Tuesday 29th June 00:30

[tigger1]

Related to this - but sadly won't help the OP.

There was a funny news article about 18 months' ago highlighting the issue of bots - automation tools looking for comments on social media along the lines of "I love this picture - where can I get it on a t-shirt". Bot then scrapes original image and automatically uploads it to a t-shirt printing company. One person making such images realised this was happening - so started putting up images with text in like "this site does not own these images - they're stealing them" - and getting followers to re-post it / ask for t-shirts. Then it escalated....deliberately poor pictures of Mickey Mouse etc, basically goading Disney into having to go after the t-shirt companies because Disney must protect it's IP

https://waxy.org/2019/12/how-artists-on-twitter-tr...

[fooman]

Put a price on it. I had something similar when someone used our website images, I wrote to them to say we'll be charging £50 per image (would have been hundreds) it stopped pretty quick. If it hadn't I would have gathered evidence and gone to small claims. Estimate how many T-shirts they might be selling with your image and send them a bill at say £20 each with threat of small claims unless they stop or pay.

[IT Geek]

tigger1 said:

Related to this - but sadly won't help the OP.

There was a funny news article about 18 months' ago highlighting the issue of bots - automation tools looking for comments on social media along the lines of "I love this picture - where can I get it on a t-shirt". Bot then scrapes original image and automatically uploads it to a t-shirt printing company. One person making such images realised this was happening - so started putting up images with text in like "this site does not own these images - they're stealing them" - and getting followers to re-post it / ask for t-shirts. Then it escalated....deliberately poor pictures of Mickey Mouse etc, basically goading Disney into having to go after the t-shirt companies because Disney must protect it's IP

https://waxy.org/2019/12/how-artists-on-twitter-tr...

Page 1.

[tigger1]

Haha - so it was. Missed that when I scrolled through

[JQ]

robuk said:

Aware of issue locally where a lad who does great art had it ripped and put on canvas and sold by a business nearby. He asked nicely and they stopped... then restarted.

His route then was to embarrass the hell out of them on social media with his mates helping, and the firm stopped it sharpish.

Depending on the situation the number of sales could be very very low, so complicated and costly licence agreements would be a waste of time to create, and in effect are based off trust (who is to say how many were sold?) which does not seem to be there.

If its decent on Etsy I would guess it is being ripped worldwide sadly. On that note it is worth looking at reverse image search as it is probably easier to get stuff removed from ebay / etsy / amazon than an offline biz in the UK.

This would be my route of choice - all publicity is good publicity and your friend may start selling more pictures as a result, or get approached by someone who wants to print t-shirts with their consent and appropriate fee.

[LargeRed]

DanL said:

konark said:

If you sell an original artwork to someone aren't you also selling the copyright to it's use?

No.

In law, I understand it to use the term 'Prior Art'

[DanL]

LargeRed said:

DanL said:

konark said:

If you sell an original artwork to someone aren't you also selling the copyright to it's use?

No.

In law, I understand it to use the term 'Prior Art'

This might be quite a neat pun, but in case it’s not… I’m reasonably sure prior art relates to trying to patent an invention.

https://www.epo.org/learning/materials/inventors-h...

[mgv8]

The local paper mite also be looking for a story?

Note small clams will not deal with this.

[dudleybloke]

martinbiz said:

dudleybloke said:

Trading standards should take an interest in it.

And why would that be?

Trading standards are very hot on people infringing copywrite around here.
I also believe a fellow PH'r with a t-shirt printing business got stung by trading standards in a copywrite honeypot a while ago so it does happen.

Edited by dudleybloke on Tuesday 29th June 11:00