In Case You Weren't Convinced
I've created a new comparison piece featuring the Weecan and Happy Beaver. This is part of an email response that I've just sent to Washington Dental's law firm, DLA Piper.They wrote to me on the twenty-sixth, and said since the ad agency had no knowledge of my design, the two characters have "clear differences" in their appearance, and the two companies have unrelated area of commerce, that they feel the two can "amicably co-exist."
I've asked for changes in the Weecan design to make them less similar. We'll see what happens...
Labels: copyright, delta dental, happy beaver, jeff pidgeon, youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com
posted by Jeff Pidgeon at
12:27 AM
11 Comments:
Bad/sloppy efforts by someone should never be acceptable.
If the Weecan was such a different concept from the Beaver, then wouldn't the artist who created it have premlimnary sketches to prove it? Just asking... You know, cocktail napkins, etc?
I'm sorry but only making it green, not orange, with slightly different shoulders does not make "clear differences".
Ridiculous.
"No knowledge" and "clear differences" my ass - it's obvious that the Weecan was originally traced from a Happy Beaver photo and modified from that... no doubt in my mind...
Unbelieveable.
Hopefully this gets worked out...
Is there an email we can send our complaints to? That might freak them out if you get enough people on your side.
My email communications were a little clumsy... I just keep emailing more and more of Delta Dental's email addresses until I got a response!
Here's the list I worked from:
http://www.deltadentalwa.com/Guest/Public/ContactUs.aspx
I would think the Seattle office, the Spokane office, or Media Relations would be good candidates.
it is obvious that they have stole your idea!
What?! Wha-what-wha-wha-wtf?!
Pardon, but this is the first I've heard of this. I am stunned. No, no resemblance at all, eh?
This is so infuriating. I'm so sorry you have to suffer this. Well, at least in this case you know about it.
Now I have to read backwards and see what else is up with this mess. But all I can do is hope it gets straightened out, soon.
...and Delta Dental, eh? My union plan! Grrrrrrrrrr
This is one of three copycats that have happened in the last month or so.
The silver lining is that people like the character enough to steal it, I guess!
Well, yes, I guess it's flattering...in a way. You're a saint, Jeff.
I'd never been to the "you thought we wouldn't notice" website before., so I went over to have a look.
I always used to "enjoy" the swipe feature in Comics Journal--it happens; I was shocked to see once that even Dave Stevens, who I adore, had 'borrowed' an image almost verbatim from an old comic and used it for a greeting card(that I had happened to buy years before). Dave was the superior draftsman but he took the pose, the enviroment, angle, [props-everything.
What really got my goat at the site, aside from the Beaver was the shocking "Nate the Great"/Emily the Strange" ripoff. I'd read "Nate" ages ago, and I certainly knew the illustrator, Marc Simont.
What totally killed me was reading how many people--many of them supposedly artists themselves--who not only didn't care about it/think it was "no big deal", but also thought it made sense and was perfectly cool and dandy to outright steal from an artist-whether anyone "knows" you stole, or not!
I was infuriated and depressed reading these apathetic or outright hostile comments--hostile to the "nobody" Marc Simont who has the luck to have someone rip off his image and the author's text verbatim and make loads of money of of it, all the while claiming there really wasn't any resemblance.
It just makes you wonder. Anyway, I'm glad you know about this and can do something. It gives me an ulcer!
Well, yes, I guess it's flattering...in a way. You're a saint, Jeff.
Thanks, but no! :)
I'm annoyed by all this nonsense, and I'm amazed to discover (and by 'discover', I mean be cluelessly notified by friends) three steals in a little over a month.
Another one happened just last week and that one was pretty blatant, too! Part of the 'negotiations' with this person to stop was to pull any mention of the steal that I'd posted. Ironically, they were VERY upset with me because I'd 'stolen' the copied image onto my blog!
Rest assured that I'm going to register HB (and the rest of the characters that I'm developing) with the copyright office. Hopefully I won't have to go further with this sort of thing... but I may have to, in terms of Delta Dental.
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