My buddy Jay (Jay Marsh, jay-marsh.com) found a site (by searching his name in google) that had taken two of his, and one of my, original works, had resized them, and posted them as "These are original avatars. Please do not post them to other pages. You may link back to this site if you like."
Can you believe the balls on this bastard (Richard Adams, Web and Graphic Designer,
DreamQuest Design) "These are original avatars"! So I guess I can go to any site steal
images, resize them, and post them as original works. Anyway that is how this
dickless-wonder (Richard Adams, Web and Graphic Designer, DreamQuest Design) has
Interpreted the shadow land that is 'Fair Use'.
Starting here is the correspondence between myself and dickless (Richard Adams, Web and
Graphic Designer, DreamQuest Design) in chronological order. My personal summary can befound at the end.
-----Original Message-----
Your use of STOLEN art at http://dreamquest.to/AV-Spooky-Misc2.htm puts you
in violation of U.S. and International Copyright law.
The Copyrighted works of Mink, Jay Marsh, and R.S. Connett are illegally
being used on this site. Consider this your cease and desist, and remove
these stolen works from your site immediately.
We will strive to identify the authors of the other stolen works on your
site and inform them of your illegal use of there images.
To which dickless replied...
-----Original Message-----
You are going to have to be a little more professional and specific.
Ryk
This is when I knew I was dealing with a complete dick head. I needed to be more "professional"??? I wasn't the one stealing art, resizing it, and posting it as original works with no reference to its true origin!
-----Original Message-----
I'm going to have to be a "a little more professional", I'm not the one
using stolen art. Nor am I the one who doesn't know which images were stolen
from whom.
The images:
jaymarsh17
To be specific.
So there we go right? Now dickless knows the artists who created these original works of art, which were stolen, should be removed. End of story right? WRONG!
Here's where dickless gets all legal on me, using 'Fair Use' as a License to Steal!
-----Original Message-----
...Fair Use. A search engine's practice of creating small reproductions
("thumbnails") of images and placing them on its own website (known as
"inlining") did not undermine the potential market for the sale or licensing of those images...
...Important Factors. The thumbnails were much smaller and of much poorer quality than the original photos...
...1. The Transformative Factor: The Purpose and Character of Your Use
In a 1994 case, the Supreme Court emphasized this first factor as being a primary indicator of fair use. At issue is whether the material has been used to help create something new, or merely copied verbatim into another work. When taking portions of copyrighted work, ask yourself the following
questions:
Has the material you have taken from the original work been transformed by adding new expression or meaning?
Was value added to the original by creating new information, new aesthetics, new insights and understandings?...
The avatars at the Vault fall under all these categories and in no way harm the original artist or his works or deny him income and are also non-profit in nature and are of no gain to me.
Now if I wanted to further my right to use the small avatars I could add a review of the original art also, which I could then use a much larger and higher quality version.
Bottom line it was not my intent to make anyone mad nor to deprive them of their livelihood but to give freely a zillion hours of time to make available to the general public avatars to represent their personal tastes on the internet in chat rooms or forums, which is a whole new use and enriches the artists original work in a whole new way.
Ryk
So instead of being a human being who had made an error, admitting it, and doing the right thing, dickless decided to say FUCK ARTIST WHO CREATE ORIGINAL WORKS, I'VE FOUND A WAY TO SCREW YOU AND TELL YOU TO PISS-OFF AT THE SAME TIME.
My responce...
-----Original Message-----
I'll leave the final desision to Harper-Prism Press, who own the copyrights to 2 of the images that you have stolen. I'll pass along your email to thier legal department.
This must have gotten his attention because the stolen images miraculously now have links back to the pages they were stolen from!
Here’s my deal, all anyone has had to do to is ask if they can use one of my works. It’s a little thing called common courtesy (although there is nothing ‘common’ about it). I can think of only one case where I told someone no.
The ironic thing about all of this is that it was just a few weeks ago that I was discussing 'Fair Use' with one of my Buds, my opionion was that it was a License to Steal. So if nothing else I can say THANK YOU to dickless (Richard Adams) for helping me to prove my point. ‘Fair Use’ is a License to Steal because of unscrupulous assholes who will abuse any loophole in copyright law to fuck those who actually produce original works. I can also thank dickless (Richard Adams) for making me painfully aware of just how big an asshole these unscrupulous people can be. And for giving me a new cause to fight for.
This experience is the reason that I have now put the following on my pages...
"I have allowed my works to be used for everything from band posters, to club fliers, to CD covers, and what have I asked for in return... a credit to where the art came from and nothing else.
I know I’m an idealist, I think that ‘common courtesy’, ‘please and thank you’, and asking someone before taking original works of art from their site should be, to most people, universally obvious acts of personal conduct. Yes I know that these simple concepts have no place in the real world, but I don’t have much use for the real world or the obtuse pieces of flotsam that inhabit it.
If you like my work well enough to want to use it, please have the common courtesy to ask first."
From: MINK
Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 7:42 AM
To: richard adams: visionary@dreamquest.to
Subject: Your use of STOLEN art at http://dreamquest.to/AV-Spooky-Misc2.htm
puts you in violation of U.S. and International Copyright law.
From: Richard Adams
Sent: Nov 10, 2004 12:10 PM
To: mink_art@mindspring.com
Subject: RE: Your use of STOLEN art at http://dreamquest.to/AV-Spooky-Misc2.htm puts you in violation of U.S. and International Copyright law.
Web and Graphic Designer
DreamQuest Design
From: mink_art@mindspring.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 1:07 PM
To: Richard Adams
Subject: RE: Your use of STOLEN art at http://dreamquest.to/AV-Spooky-Misc2.htm puts you in violation of U.S. and International Copyright law.
hand
holler1
From: Richard Adams
Sent: Nov 11, 2004 12:49 AM
To: mink_art@mindspring.com
Subject: RE: Your use of STOLEN art at http://dreamquest.to/AV-Spooky-Misc2.htm puts you in violation of U.S. and International Copyright law.
Web and Graphic Designer
DreamQuest Design
http://dreamquest.to
From: mink_art@mindspring.com
Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 8:26 AM
To: Richard Adams
Subject: RE: Your use of STOLEN art at http://dreamquest.to/AV-Spooky-Misc2.htm puts you in violation of U.S. and International Copyright law.