mikoto

That really sucks… check out http://www.copyright.org.au/information/art-design/visart.htm Should give you a starting point!

they left your symbol on the helmet, how dumass.

this is YET ANOTHER REASON why RB needs to put the dates back on work….... what else has to happen for them to do it? come on guys!!

I’m annoyed to see this has happened!!! Unfortunately I don’t think there’s a whole lot you can do about it :(

there’s a lot of stupid people around!

ouch. its a horrible feeling when your work gets pinched. get some better pics and post it here: http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/ all the best

call them mate! that is disgusting!!

LOL! yes you should…... I had a look on their site and the more i see it the more its you!!
you don’t need to take the photos…. its all over the site

PS – your design looks much better!

you need to talk to someone before making a fuss (like a lawyer) you might get on going royalties for this.

you can prove it by showing them your working files, and the date that shows when the file was created…..

I would be extreamly angry about it.

There’s a better image on there website here (Not that you wanted to know this)
the pencil case

I would really follow that up, as much as I love Red Bubble as it seems that it’s becoming a place to steal work rather than to view and admire it. I have seen a few occasions peoples work has been used on websites and other places they shouldn’t be used. Its a scary place for us artists to be in.

mmmm its definatly an issue thats for sure. What does one do about this?

That is utterly crapporiffic.

Do a post here about it too

Oh … contago beat me too it, anywayz, spread some bad vibes for smiggle. They deserve it.

man that sucks!! yeah definitely get on to smiggle about this and chase up the designer too. hope you can sort this out. anyway let us know what happens.

Yeah I’m telling you as a person from ad land you could do some serious damage to their reputation. Show them this thread for a start, if you want any help let me know. This sort of this really s** me.

Wow, thats crazy, You might have to look at compensation for this, which they might offer considering its plastered on everything. I think this guy deals with a lot of this stuff alexiuss on dA Good luck with everything!

The other thing is Smiggle the management probably don’t know it was stolen. The designer may have been freelance and stole it without them knowing. I agree with Lost Boy, if you approach it in the right way they may be happy to pay a royalty. It would be cheaper for them than pulling the stock. Definitely follow it up. Any lawyers on here who can advise?

yes, well that happens a lot in fashion and you have to accept it has more than 3 changes so I guess they CAN do it but doesnt mean they SHOULD. At least you can rub there faces in it and hopfully get some heat on the designer thats ripping off designs. Bad form! Hope you get some justice.

Mel is spot on.

I reckon Smiggle wont even know it was stolen.

I reckon contact these guys first
http://www.copyright.org.au/

get their advice and take it from there. Dont take my original advice to call them (that was reactive because I was pissed) just get some good advice before you contact smiggle.

Mikoto – keep me in the loop mate, I want to help you with this!

http://www.copyright.org.au/information/advice/problem.htm

http://www.copyright.org.au/information/advice

check these out too.

Yeah keep us up to date Mikoto. Regarding the ‘three change rule’ it is a technicality. I think the legal term is ‘passing off.’ Tell the Smiggle folk-point out the bad press-give them the benefit of the doubt in terms of whether they knew or not and ask for compensation.

Hey maybe if everything goes relatively smoothly you can offer this guy your services after they find out its yours.

Damn the fool! Get this designers name so we can shame him on the web!! Good luck to you Mikoto.

That designer needs to be shamed and blamed for what they’ve done.

If you don’t know your copyright laws, you should be “designing” if that’s what you can call that.

Oh I’d also keep an eye on a line of shirts in Dangerfield if you have any up in Sydney. They have this line of shirts called pulp kitchen which is basically them stealing popular designs and images from the web and selling them to ignorant, overly emotional teens =/

I agree with some of the points above- It is the designer that has clearly done the dirty but they have made so many changes it may be hard to prove. Alerting the company may get you royalties or even knock off that designer in favour of your works (as it is very clear who is the superior artist here).
Something needs to be done-Good Luck Mikoto, makes me angry !! x

That’s terrible man, so blatant as well, seriously good luck trying to sort that out man that’s ridiculous.

That is disgusting!!!!!!

I don’t live in Melbourne, but some of you all do. As well as sending them a letter, registered, with what I’d call polite “language”, that is , wirtten in somethng as legal as you can manage, I’d make a plea for redbubblers to go into the shop and COMMENT ON where they saw the design first. They’re trying to sell to your demographic – they won’t want to lose you.

You might also suggest that, since your design is better anyway, possibly they should consider hiring you in the first place. But that would be down the road.

this is too bad!!

I know it’s not much, but it means that you’re such a great artist ;))

wow.
at first glance, i thought, ‘well, could just be another cartoon samurai, not NECESSARILY a rip-off’ – but then i saw the skull-n-crossbones EXACTLY where your symbol is. now that’s a TOTAL GIVE-AWAY, absolute proof of rip-off. what other samurai has a skull-n-crossbones on its head? NONE. so that’s yr proof right there, i’d say! sure, other artists will be doing cartoon samurais left right and centre, but that is a stylistic point NOONE can defend. straight out and out plaigerism.
just recently i saw a commonwealth bank ad that was stolen straight from redbubble, and i’m sure it happens all the time. when you’ve got a community of the best artists on the net, all together, how could desperate designers NOT look here for inspiration? it’s going to happen, and we’re not even going to be aware of it happening. that’s why we need big fat dates up on each pic – so if (or when) we’re stolen, at least we can prove that we were here first.

sorry i’ve got nothing in the way of helpful things to say – other than i like yrs better, and good luck!

Well damn. I bought a couple of notepads with the samurai on it yesterday, and I thought the design looked familiar, but thought nothing more of it. I’d definately be calling them up and demanding to speak to someone of importance and having a right go at them if I was you. Sorry to see your work being stolen like that, and also sorry for inadvertantly encouraging it with my purchases.

i’ve seen that pencil case before… and i knew it looked familiar.

anyway.. your design is way better!

Smiggle are thieves, make as much noise about it as possible then point there head office in the direction of a few of these threads, i reckon they will pull the line… if its a franchise im sure there would be a few franchisees that would be unhappy to see this publicity :D

but first send them a more official letter of demand either pay up & remove the item from sale OR wait for legal action

When Beatrix Potter first created Peter Rabbit and her first little book was published in 1903 she also began marketing hand-painted figurines and plush dolls and she prided herself in the fine qualitly of her little “sideshows” as she called them. But within months, shoddy “Peter” copies were on shelves all over London. Copying art goes back to Renaissance times and earlier! As long as there has been great art, there has always been someone to take advantage of it. Remember the saying: Everything has been done, it just needs to be done in new ways. But that’s the difference. Sometimes if we see or hear something we love, the image or the music is burned into our sub-concious and we are in turn influenced by this beautiful piece and create our own response to it. That is natural in the artistic process and a great thing. I’m sure you can associate with this. Copying also helps young people perfect their own craft. But for us Red Bubblers, I would like to hope that as artists we would never intentionally copy someone else’s work so blatantly for profit. This is wrong. Smiggle is a big business and they will be making millions off your design Mikoto, so I’m sure you will definitely follow it up, but also remember that emulation is the finest form of flattery, your work will only become more well known and respected as a result of this little experience. It may happen again and you will learn how to deal with it better. You are not alone. Everyone who has quality work out there is in the same position. In the end, no one ever even compared Beatrix Potter’s true work to the copies. They did not even come close and her genius will long out live these things and in turn influence others in a positive way. Good luck Mikoto. Everything will work out in the end! Love your work!! Boof : )

ouch .. i bet that stings . ..but u know there just might be a free pencil case in it for u .. hehe :]

I smell a big fat cash settlement!!! I wish someone would steal my work.

The next thief I catch will pay for all the thieves before them…

The best form of flattery is copyright infringement, or something like that.

Do not be discouraged , be empowered!

Sam Dantone

How did you go with this Mikoto?

Have you contacted the managers?
I actually live in Melbourne, and had no idea the head office was down here, but thats absolute crap, you need to do something. You should make it as public as possible that this has happened, just in case you arent the first. Hope everything is going well for you, I love your stuff =]

that would be great, just really interested to hear the outcome of this….

hey Mikoto, its the 21st, wondering the outcome of the situation :)

Gidday,

I went into Smiggle store the other day and saw this plastered over everything – could not believe my eyes, hundreds upon hundreds of little replicas – far out!

I’m going to buy this design just to see if people ask “where did you get the smiggle t-shirt from”.

I use to work for Smiggle in their Warehouse when it was owned by Steve Muers. They use to get their products from china and put no thought of their own into the designs.
Looks like they still don’t! Good luck, hope you get paid out.

Hi all,

(｡◕ ‿ ◕｡)

sorry that comment about google is wrong, i was logged into gmail. opps.

Good on you. $800 + GST for them is a steal (pun intended) but hey you are happy and you got money and recognition from it. The key thing is there may be a future relationship with Smiggle and that’s great. :)

I hope you do get some work out this! Of course the main thing is you are happy with the out come or feel comfortable with!!!!!

im glad this has been resolved, i hope they learn a lesson from this. Well done Mikoto, i hope we see some more smiggle/mikoto prints, your a load better than there dodgy rip artist

appears they love ur work 2

Its a result !!!! Well done- deserves a bit more I think, but hey I’d be happy with it too.
Blessings and ROCK ON xxxxxxx

yay for you : ) sounds like some sweet negotiating on your part mikoto!
...get crackin with the ABN man, i reckon you’re going to need it. you have too much talent not to make an income from it. go on

awesome outcome – well, compared to the “yeah well, too bad” i was expecting!
good work mang.

toot ching . ahehehe

That is great. An optimal result – being heard + compensation, good for you for pursuing it. You might want to continue to research design & prices – marketing design, product design, logo design – all are different kinds of things.

Great to get a result…as ripped off as i would feel about the whole situation…i had been wondering how you got on so thanks for the update…the world is so small these days and the copy right issues are a very heard issue to get around.
Congratulations on the settlement.

its a good result, but I am hoping you offered the original design for their future use, at that price you are invoicing them? and what happens to the “offender” are they fired and mikoto is in?? :) i hope so.

good price too, strangely, the players aren’t interested in a full licence payment, but just a nice one to see you design up in its glory!

Congrats on your results mate! We are all happy for you!

Congrats on getting that all sorted. Result!

obviously this person (who commented) is not of good quality! karma got them in the end.
i hope that The Smig contacts you for a future design!!!!

I hope that you can keep selling your samurai here? i would assume so!

Mikoto – Im glad you got a result here mate. But what this demonstrates to me is that the design department of Smiggle do not act ethically nor do they appreciate copyright laws. Seriously, any designer with any slight bit of integrity will approach an artist if they are considering using their work in any way shape or form. I personally would have taken this much further but if you are happy with the result then I am happy for you.

So glad to hear the results Mikoto. The best thing is that your work will now be recognised and maybe this can be the beginning of something really big. :)

Wow.
I work at Smiggle and I can assure you that, at a store level, I and my fellow employees had no idea!
I really love your design and always suggest it to customers. I’m glad they’ve compensated you for it.
:)

Just thought i’ld let yuou know that i im in New Zealand at the moment and your design is over here as well.

Hi Mikoto,

They’ve learned their lesson I guess, ‘cause someone from the company contacted me by mail and asked politely if they could buy some of my work. I haven’t decided yet, but I’m glad I’ve read your story before agreeing.

Thieving pricks, that’s the one thing that worries me about putting my art online, people will steal it sometimes to make money off OUR art… I hope you get reimbursement in the end dude.

i only just discovered our local smiggle – “awesome!” i said.. and the designs are all so cute and crisp.. i recognised the image immediately when i saw your gallery.. hang on a sec.. so disappointing! i have a few friends who have to deal with this a lot.. it seems honest letters are the way to go, hope you have better luck in the future!