To all of my artist friends, I need your help. My artwork has been directly copied and sold to "Thunder sportswear"(thundersportswear.com) by Steve McDonald, an artist based in Azle, TX. I have documentation of this fact supplied by Thunder sportswear. In the image below, my artwork is on top. the lower image is an enlarged section of what Steve McDonald supplied Thunder sportswear. Ironically the whole image reads, "Drive it like you stole it". I was supplied Steve McDonalds Phone number and address by Thunder sportswear. My first call to him went unanswered. When I called a second time his phone was disconnected. I need help in contacting Mr. McDonald. If anyone knows how to contact him, please let me know, or contact him yourself and give him my e-mail ([email protected]). Thunder sportswear has cooperated so far but will be recieving a letter from my lawyer within the next week. I would like to settle this with with Mr. McDonald without lawyers, but I WIll take this as far as I need to. He is "linked" to a few artists that post here and other places on "linkedin" I think every artist should check out www.thundersportswear.com, and www.stevemcdonaldartist.com to make sure none of your artwork has been stolen.
WOW!!!! didn't even change the color or anything! I went to college with some people like that... they would claim they were "paying Homage" to previous artist!! Whatever!! That sucks Del... Hope you get compensated!
Send him a certified letter, or maybe that is registered letter, the one you have to sign for. I know it sucks when someone steals your ideas or artwork if you will but it appears as though he has changed your original at least 20%. I don't know if the laws have changed but it used to be that all someone had to do was change it 20% to get around copy right. Anyway it does suck for someone to steal from you. I was in an advanced photography class in College and had someone get in my folder and borrow on of my negatives and turn in the print on their final project. I got pulled aside by the teacher and asked if I loaned a neg to someone and I said nope. She showed me the print and said this looks a lot like one of yours and I said it sure does. Grabbed my negative folder and sure enough there was the neg, upside down in the folder. The other student was expelled for plagerism, final year final class. He got another college to let him in and he finished his degree but his transcript will always show that he was expelled and why.
Beano is right, it is changed a little bit... not much but that might be the case... but anyway... I wouldn't want to be labeled as a plagiarizer!!
Nor would I. Like I said I don't know if the laws have changed, there have been some changes in things since we jumped into the digital age. One thing for sure now it is out there for the entire world to see. One should be careful about stealing from another that is a member of one of a site as large and watched as the HAMB. Del I sure hope it all comes out well for you. If you have hired an attorney you have done well.
Sounds like your beef is more with Thunder -- payment and royalties -- and maybe going after the thief is just spinning your slicks..... edited to add: let Thunder go after the thief.....
That 20% thing is an urban myth. It is a ripoff either way. Everyone should leave him a nice note http://www.stevemcdonaldartist.com/contacts/index/
The "20%" or "30%" change "makes it legal" is complete MYTH. In court the simple question would be if the average person saw it would they confuse it with your original---obviously yes. This is from real world, real court experience. If you need a good "Intellectual property and Copyright Infringement" lawyer I can point you in the right direction. Marcy
Isn't an urban myth I have been though it. It doesn't change it from being a rip off I think everyone understands that. Even a registered trademark doesn't need to be changed much just ask speedy bill, all it took was a shamerock to keep him at bay.
Del my remarks on percentage of change were not to discourage you. You should go after any and all of the parties involved. If for no other reason than to teach them a lesson and give them the exposure that they deserve. A good attorney is your best starting place. I think that a problem that you are going to have is finding an attorney that is liscenced to practice in all the states involved. Maybe you can file in your own state and they will be required to give an answer for their actions in your jurisdiction, only a reputable attorney can answer that for you. Some states are reluctant to allow you to file unless you have met certain criteria.
Get the possie together, there'll be a hangin tonight! I hope this ends well for you without astronomical lawyer fees.
beaner (if I may call you that), don't worry I didn't take it that way. I do have an attorney and we are going forward. I just want to talk to him and maybe settle something with him with out my lawyer. Del
I just looked at his website. The art on the "Drive it like you stole it" shirt is NOTHING like the art on the shirts he has for sale on his site. Wonder what the deal is?
In this day and age I can't believe how stupid some people are. Hope you nail that guy to the wall then cut some stuff off.
Beaner is one of the nicer things I have been called in my life time. hell one of my last living close friends calls me asshole and has for nearly 40 years. Anyway you are more than welcome to call me beaner. Settling out of court can be a good thing. Make sure that you are sufficiently compensated don't take a beating unless you absolutely have to. Stick to your guns.
I'm not sure either, but I have a copy of the release form with his signature from Thunder sportswear. Trust me, if the release form is bogus and Mr. McDonald didn't do this, I will publically appologize to him and we can both go after Thunder.
I'm not suggesting anything one way or the other, just wondering. Let us know how it works out. I hope you get well compensated.
This isn't typical of an artist who's that old. There could be something fishy going on. It's important someone gets to speak to him. It looks like he can paint pictures himself, so why steal?
Just easier? I can build a car or a bike from a screw I found in the road, but it would sure be easier to steal one than to build one from the ground up.
Posting your work in the FAS means that it's fair game for anybody to 'save picture as' & then maybe print themselves a copy. That's one thing & I have absolutely no objection to this as far as my own work is concerned. Otherwise I would do what some of the other guys do & watermark the work, which can put people off doing this. But to blatantly steal a piece & then use it to make a profit is simply outrageous & unacceptable. Best of luck sorting this out, Del.
I don't recall how to do it but there is actually a script that one can use to deter someone from stealing a photo or image from your own personal web site. it can still be done by doing a screen capture or even copying and pasting but you can't just do a save as. It may be worth any artists while to contact someone like Ryan and ask them so they can do it on their site. When we ran the E-zine there was a car that because of the color was particularly hard to photograph, we had one of our images show up in a magazine in an article about the car. I wouldn't have minded the fella deserved the coverage, but they didn't ask or give us credit. The fella that did all the web work for the E-zine fixed the problem for future image theives. I know that this is way off topic for the thread but maybe it is information that someone can use in the future.
Well, at least it looks like he's a big fan of your work! From another cheesehead: don't let whoever was to blame get off without an ass kickin'. It's theft, no matter what handle you want to put on it.
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