Don't support Art theft

[palitoy]

This past week I've had two friends had their work stolen, I thought I'd point it out and the culprits, please spread the word.

1) Rob Kelly, founder of the Aquaman Shrine and well known podcaster, Who has already had his Bill Murray art swiped (for what i can assume great profit) by the Chive got dinged again this week by a company call teechip which stole his awesome Frankenstein poster for this limited edition $40.00 hoodie (net gross for them $4,000, paid to Rob, zero.)

Rob made that poster as a passion project and I doubt he's ever made much from it.

2) Kelly Forbes, Fangoria cover artist. I've known Kelly since he was ten, he's a passionate, talented person who does not make a living doing this.

Recently he was sent a facebook ad featuring his Jason Vorhees art on a hoodie that cktee.com (a pirates cove of stolen artwork BTW) already sold 113 units at $40 a pop. Way more than he's ever gotten for a piece of artwork. Can you imagine seeing this ad knowing it's your work they stole?

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Anyway, he's fighting back, here is a video explaining what he's doing:

And he's launching his own shirt to raise money for legal fees and he's also raffling off the original art (which he drew with a knife)

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$5 gets you a good chance to win this large piece, the paypal is kelltallica@hotmail.com

Thanks for reading!

[Earth 2 Chris]

Amen. And good for your friend on fighting back. The sad part is most folks won't know this is stolen art. They'll just assume someone working with the people making the clothes worked with the artist, and paid them. The only way to fight this is to spread the word like this.

Chris

[palitoy]

Agreed, i don't think it would have sold half as well if folks knew the artist wasn't even aware it existed.

[hedrap]

How are they stealing it? Saving it as a jpeg or buying a copy?

[palitoy]

How are they stealing it? Saving it as a jpeg or buying a copy?

I honestly don't know, Kelly did a tiny batch of prints some time ago but I have no idea how they took Rob's work. I think he made some stickers at one point.

[rche]

these are all active licenses and properties, aren't they? Do these folks making the hoodies and whatnot pay royalties for these items?

[palitoy]

these are all active licenses and properties, aren't they? Do these folks making the hoodies and whatnot pay royalties for these items?

No clue. I guess it's possible that a temporary license is obtained for limited runs but I feel these are both "until we get caught" deals.

[rche]

I would think that whoever owns the property would be interested. Fan art is one thing when no one is selling the item, but when profits start being made.....
This makes me wonder if any of the 'limited t-shirt' things that are all over the place are legit or if the modern generation of cut and pasters just don't think about copyright, royalties, or artist reimbursement.

[palitoy]

There is an operation around here called Shirt Punch/Joe Nerds that I have to think is on the level, otherwise DC/BBC/Nintendo would burn them to the ground but i don't know about these FBN operations like this.

[hedrap]

A lot of these are mock made to order fronts. The sales numbers are usually false as a way to drive impulse buys. The hoodie is not legit. I could make that mock in five minutes that's why I'm wondering where they lifted the image from. Whole thing reeks lazy.

A Cease and Desist with the warning if it's not pulled, he'll be contacting the Karloff Esatae and Universal licensing. If they don't reply, drop a line to Sara Karloff.

[enyawd72]

Is it even legal to sell prints of your own art if it's another company's licensed property? Being an artist myself who's sold a few I've always wondered that. You see tons of unlicensed Universal Monster prints for sale everywhere.

[comicmike]

O M G, I'm very upset to read about this. Thanks a lot for posting. This is a reason why I am so protective about my own work. I hope he gets his justice.

[hedrap]

Is it even legal to sell prints of your own art if it's another company's licensed property? Being an artist myself who's sold a few I've always wondered that. You see tons of unlicensed Universal Monster prints for sale everywhere.

You used to be able to skate on commission sales, but that's dependent on how you set up the commission. Marvel went a tad batcrap crazy about it a few years ago. I think Meanie posted about it back then.

If you utilize Universal's images, you got no legal ground outside artistic license i.e - not for sale. If you violate their trademarkings, they can shut anything down. So for Frank - neckbolts, green skin, flat head...i.e Glenn Strange Frank. The irony is because Universal went out of there way to create such a non-Karloff look, they made the Karloff's estates case that Boris' likeness is paramount to his design. That opened the floodgates for the rest of the estates.

[palitoy]

Teechip has a facebook group called Horror Movie Fans, it's just a shill account used to promote their t shirts. I let them have it and they banned me, deleting my comments that they stole the art.

https://www.facebook.com/horrormoviesonly/?fref=ts

The retaliated by posting more of Rob's artwork, guess they plan to make a series out of his work....

If you're so inclined, comment on their post.

[hedrap]

English is not their first language so they ain't convention bootleggers who decided to open a site.

If it hasn't happened, someone needs to thread this at Universal Monster Army.