Comic Plagarism

[NoahRodenbeek]

p.s. http://dummcomics.com/index?sid=628#c5t_form

[NoahRodenbeek]

bump.

Lest we forget.

[Gibson]

Actually, I think this topic is best sneered at and forgotten. Nick Simmons is not important.

[wendyw]

I'm pretty much with Gibson here.

If we get some new news on the issue then we can bump this thing back into life, but if we kept every thread like this going then eventually Rod would have to make a whole new forum just for all the threads about the Todd Goldmans of the world.

Edit: And yes I do realise that I just bumped this thread further in order to say that.

[NoahRodenbeek]

I'd prefer to keep this kind of mess all stirred up.  Here's a Facebook page dedicated to giving updates on the story:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Calling-for-legal-action-against-Nick-Simmons-for-plagiarism-of-other-works/10150099569020063

Obviously there haven't been any updates for a little while, but, if you're like me, you'll want to know as soon as there is.  This whole story makes me want to rage-vomit and Nick's public statements to date have only worsened the matter.  I'm very anxious to know what, if any, legal ramifications this incident will have.  Until they occur though I will cut back on the bumps for this thread.

[Gibson]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I don't need updates about this. I was pretty apathetic about this when it happened, someone I don't care about copied someone else I don't care about, and people lost their minds because he was a celebrity (sort of). Artists get ripped off much worse than this all the time and no one ever shed a tear until it was someone famous doing the copying. This is nothing more than celebrity crucifixion.

[Rob]

Some t-shirt salesman was selling our very own Yamino's Lady Gaga poster as a shirt without her permission last week and although I saw quite a bit about it from her and on Twitter I didn't see anything about it here.

Apparently the artist (I'm afraid I'm not up on Lady Gaga... is artist the right term? Singer? She doesn't actually play music right?) saw Yamino's poster and that acknowledgement was enough to get a lot of people clamoring to Yamino for posters and T-Shirts with the art on it. She has of course been quite busy but it is telling that before she could even set up a shirt sale herself the leaches were already offering her work for sale.  

This thing with Bleach and Simmons just seems like a big deal because the people involved are quasi famous already. It does happen all the time. Hot Topic has made a fortune ripping off webcomics artists. I don't see any reason to beat the dead horse.

That said, there is no censoring here and the horses are on display should you desire to beat them. it's up to you.

[NoahRodenbeek]

Celebrity or not, Nick has a major contract, a comic deal most of us will struggle our entire careers without achieving.  I guess I didn't stop to think that apathy might be the best reaction to the news.

So which Hot Topics items are being ripped off without reprisal?  We could contact the original artist and maybe help them through copyright laws, help them better protect their creative property moving forward if they left themselves open.  If Hot Topic was soliciting art I had copyrighted I wouldn't need to make webcomics, I'd have sued myself into early retirement!

[Rob]

Celebrity or not, Nick has a major contract, a comic deal most of us will struggle our entire careers without achieving.

Perhaps but he has to live with the very real idea that perhaps his success was born out of his connection to his much more successful and famous father rather than any unique talent or hard work of his own. I don't know about you but I wouldn't want to carry that baggage around. I may be in the minority but if you grow up as the child of a guy who spits blood, stomps on baby chicks on stage, has proclaimed to have screwed hundreds and hundreds of women publicly and married a softcore porn star (he also made some awesome music that I still enjoy to this day... but I didn't have to call him daddy) I'm willing to cut you some slack on the quality of your career; nepotism or no. As long as you aren't robbing the convenience store whilst I'm shopping in it I'm willing to leave you alone.

As for the Hot Topic Stuff I think Fleen covers most of those incidents fairly well. A search of the terms Hot + Topic garner a litany of tragedies.

http://www.fleen.com/?s=Hot+Topic&submit=GO

Also, Sister Claire (Yamino) has apparently been invited to join Topatoco.

http://www.fleen.com/archives/2010/03/22/changes-in-the-air-also-rain/

Congrats Yamino. I am more jealous than ever. 

[Gar]

Way to go Yamino! You get to go mad with power now!