Appropriated Images

Last night a keen-eyed family member alerted me to the fact that one of the images from my Flickr photostream was noticed on another member's site. Besides being a violation of Flickr's rules it was a little thoughtless. Taking an image I had kept for 34 years, then scanned, cleaned, restored, researched and shared for my fellow Flickrers to enjoy. Not playing well with others.

But... one image isn't a big deal. If that had been the extent of it I probably would have left a snarky comment on it and that would have been the end of things. Unfortunately after looking through his sets I found around 70 images of mine that he had "appropriated". Not just hard-to-find vintage illustrations from my collection, but original images from this blog ( and many other blogs and sites ), one-of-a-kind original art that I owned and my photography as well. A blatant act that I couldn't ignore.

I sent off a polite but strongly worded message asking him to remove the images in question, and alerted some fellow Flickrers who images I had also noticed in his photostream. Long story short is that as of 10 a.m. this morning his account has been deleted ( not sure if it was by him or by Flickr ) and, at least in this instance, case closed.

So why am I, dear reader, regaling you with this unfortunate but not exactly earth-shattering-in-the-grand-scheme-of-things information? Because during correspondence on this matter with illustrator, illustration archivist supreme, and just plain swell guy Leif Peng I was made aware of the recent, and more insidious "appropriation" of a fellow illustrator's work. How, you may ask?

What about gathering an illustrator's images from online sources and compiling into a book!
Follow the links below to read Luc Latulippe's harrowing story of his ( and several dozen other artist's ) horror to find their copyrighted images being sold online in a fancy looking $100.00 tome!
A cautionary and still unfolding tale involving stolen work, fake publishers and ISBNs and an online world of scam artists and resellers who apparently couldn't care less about morals, ethics or the legalities of their actions.

This one hits a little too close to home.

http://www.luclatulippe.com

http://apefluff.com