(no subject)

[dolari]

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2416213

Todd Goldman has been caught plagarizing artists in his gallery display. I've kind of kept quiet on this, mainly because this Todd Goldman/Todd Goliath person seems to be the type that thrvies on any kind of attention at all (and will poke you for even more reaction) and giving him more just feeds that ego. The huge number of examples on this page here ( http://taxidermied.livejournal.com/42521.html ) just shows how much this guy has copies, and in a few instances TRACED his pieces from other work.

What I find funny, is Todd strikes me as a guy who is just loving this. The whole "Any attention is worth it" attitude. Talking about the plagarism he's doing is a good thing. Awareness is important. But it also feeds his ego.

What needs to be done is to have many people write very polite letters siting evidence to all the art galleries showing off his work, all the Hot Topics selling his shirts, and let them know they are participating in plagarism.

There may not be much we can do about the art (appropriation is fuzzily legal) but you can aim for the people selling the shit. Artists love bad attention. Merchants don't.

While my stuff has never been plagarized, and probably won't (I'm not that famous, and nothing I make is very independently marketable(or marketable at all)), it's people like this that make me very very very happy that one of my readers is a lawyer.

Comments

[drkbish.livejournal.com]

What is it with people and plagiarizing nowadays? First Carlos Mencia, and now this? Oy...

I've actually had my work plagiarized before, and it's not a fun feeling. On one hand, I was pissed because the person was dishonest enough to be passing off my work as his own. On the other hand, I was annoyed because while unlikely, I was semi-expecting someone to come forward and claim that it was ME plagiarizing the thief's work. Gah.

Ah, well. It still burns me up when I see plagiarizing nowadays. It just makes me wonder if these people realize the public shaming and loss of reputation isn't worth the short-term gain.

[fragment00.livejournal.com]

I firmly believe that human creativity is coming to a end. in 20 years everything will just be a copy of something else.

[tygerlander.livejournal.com]

And your rants reminded me of this one ass who took MK Fan Art from a bunch of people and tried to profit off it by offering to make printed posters (without any of the artists' permission)

Then he got beligerent about my opposition, stating that "I should be happy about free advertisement"

[drkbish.livejournal.com]

I remember that! As I recall, he was actually doing it in MK5.ORG's forums at the time. Ye gods... yeah, I remember (and fully agreed with) the stink there at the time. I think the guy got banned for his efforts.

That's one firm rule we have over at MK Online now: if you're caught plagiarizing someone else's art or fiction, it's an instant permanent ban. What's sad is that ACJ (our Fan Art director) has literally had to ban people for being stupid enough to pass of HIS work as their own...

[jenndolari.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's the end of human creativity. If there was an end to creativity it was a long time ago (there are only seven stories that can be told, everything else is a derivative of that).

But in this case, it's just human greed.

[shadow-mib.livejournal.com]

I don't have time for a eloquent speech in support of the artists.
Fuck this guy and the other plagarizers.

I have no problems with "fan art" but copying and passing stuff off as your originals is pretty low.

[fragment00.livejournal.com]

so that means you already heard the one about the guy who traced other ppl's art and put them on t-shirts and made a lot of money joke before?

and speaking of jokes, incase you didn't here about what happened this is highly humourous.

http://www.myspace.com/toddharrisgoldman

[kisai.livejournal.com]

The internet is a great way to do damange.
a) Report to theif's ISP, get it shut down
b) Slashdotting
c) Phone the places showing the art and annoy them with art theif questions
d) Call the presses (They do read digg)
e) Find anyone selling his stuff on eBay and report it stolen
or do one better, if he stole from you, get a VeRO account and take everything off eBay with your stolen art, that will in turn hurt the seller who will then realize the art is worthless and hopefully sue the theif for damages.
f) If you are the artist being theived from, lawsuit for damages.