Seraph needs hug, badly.

[Aethian]

*hugs anyways cause I'm late to the game*

[dendawg]

Yes, yes he was. He tried to fool me into thinking he was a "poor victim of the DMCA complaint", when it was him all along.

He was basically Mr. McMahon.

Fixed that for ya.

[mhkohne]

If someone commissions you for a graphic, and they pay for it, does it belong to them? If it belongs to them, could they legally re-sell it? I don't know the legalities there. Or is this a case where, even though they're commissioning you, the art is considered intellectual property, and therefore belongs to you, and you are selling a license to use the graphic? Again, I don't know the legalities there.

Did they come to an agreement with you or sign some type of contract that stated they would not re-sell the graphic? I don't know the legalities of that.

I'm just wondering, and I'm VERY curious about this. I'm considering doing some development work of my own, and I'll have to look into the legalities of people stealing/reselling my work.

The thing and the right to reproduce the thing are separate rights. For instance, I own a number of paintings, but I don't own the right to make and sell prints of them. The artist was in fact explicit about this when I bought them, much like seraph is.

These kinds of bozos are a real pain in the ass for people who are actually trying to get work done, hopefully this one will run off and find some other sleezy business to be in....

[MoonCat]

said he wanted to just "sell it a lot to make my money back".

Unclear on the concept, was he?

Hope he's down for good!

[XCashier]

Well, I sent the emails on over to HostGator, and wouldn't you know. Turns out the 'site owner' was the pirate himself.

His database has now been disconnected, his accounts at the hosting companies I contacted are suspended. WHEEE~

Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

Yes, yes he was. He tried to fool me into thinking he was a "poor victim of the DMCA complaint", when it was him all along.

He was basically Barty Crouch Jr.

Without the brains, talent or good looks, undoubtedly.

Is this someone you've had previous trouble with, or a new luser?

[Seraph]

OK, I'm really curious.

What kind of sites does this guy have that he had 34 of them?

Pretty much the same site over and over again, with a different name on each.

I didn't get into it because it'd be difficult to explain, but it turns out he was running a heck of a scam operation. Best way I can explain it quickly, is that he was doing one time use tasks, that paid BIG money, on each site. So he'd do all of them on one, and then make a new site, rinse, repeat. Plus, he had a team of friends ALSO doing them...so they were just cruising along, frauding tons of money.

[Seshat]

First:

HUGE hugs to Seraph.

Second:
Since Seraph is busy, I'm going to toss my oar in on the explanation here.

If someone commissions you for a graphic, and they pay for it, does it belong to them?

Megasnipped. See mjr's post.

All art (and writing, and etc) is intellectual property regardless of the licence used; and all falls under both national and international copyright and/or trademark and/or patent regulations. (A trademark is different from a copyright, which is different from a patent.)

A trademark is used to make one company or individual's goods distinctive. For example, Raps could choose to apply for a trademark for the phrase "Customers Suck" as a company name; and for the use of the graphic as the trademark for his company.
The trademark would prevent others in the same field from using the phrase as an identifying term; but anyone and everyone could still use the phrase as a simple fact.

Patents are for .. well, they're supposed to be used for innovations. Such as patenting the process of evacuating a glass bulb of air, and attaching a metal fixture with two electrodes and a coiled wire to the base of the bulb: whoot, we have a light bulb!

Brief mod note: I'm trying to describe what IS. If anyone wants to discuss what should be, or to discuss abuse of IP laws, take it to Fratching.
Mod hat off.


Copyright is the one which applies to Seraph's work, and to the work you seem to intend to do.

If someone commissions you for a graphic, and they pay for it, does it belong to them? If it belongs to them, could they legally re-sell it?

You get what you pay for.

Sometimes, people will pay me for full rights to a piece of work. In that case, they own ALL the rights copyright law provides. I sell that very, very rarely, and for a very high price.

I recently provided a piece of art to a new parent, for her son's bedroom. I provided a very special set of rights for that art; and wrote it on the back of the artwork as well as in a contract. She, her partner and her newly born son have the rights to duplication and derivative works for personal use only.
In other words, they could copy it and have it made into a calendar or a greeting card or a 'come to our son's birthday' invitation or something, to go to their friends.
But they can never use it commercially; and they can't pass the image around beyond family and friends. (Family and friends is 'personal': complete strangers is not.)

A common sort of licence for artwork - if it's not a full-rights licence (usually beyond what people are willing to pay) - is a usage licence. Short form: you can use it on your website, but you can't sell it or share it with anyone else.

By default, all rights remain with the author/artist/musician/whatever. It's only once they sell it that rights transfer, and the transfer is only whatever portion of the rights they have chosen to sell.

IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE: this does NOT apply to 'work for hire'. If you're working for someone for salary or wages, and producing intellectual property to their specification, they get the rights. Speak to an intellectual property specialist before ever taking on a work for hire job.

[Sunshine]

Late hugs. Glad its mostly over

[wolfie]

This is why so many companies have automated DMCA scanners/takedown generators.

Unfortunately, they often send takedowns for their own stuff that they have posted themselves. Hilarity ensues.

(BigMovies Legal send takedowns for trailers that BigMovies Marketing have put up)

Since "DCMAbots" have a tendency to produce false positives (I recall reading about one TV station whose 'bot saw another site that contained the same footage as one of their broadcasts, issued a takedown notice, and the other site was taken down - the footage in question was from a Mars rover, and the "pirate" site taken down was NASA), there should be a heavy penalty for improper takedowns. The case ASV mentioned should have an obvious penalty - you mistakenly send a takedown notice for stuff you post, it STAYS taken down.

If someone commissions you for a graphic, and they pay for it, does it belong to them? If it belongs to them, could they legally re-sell it?

Seshat covered it pretty well (note - I am not a lawyer, and I don't play one on TV). Basically, if you're an employee, your employer owns all IP you create. For an independent contractor, the contract covering the commission says who owns what - and anything that isn't explicitly sold belongs to the creator. Quite some time back, a letter to Dragon magazine asked about the possibility of a book of the cover artwork, and the editor's answer was that it wasn't possible. Dragon bought first reproduction rights (i.e. they could publish it ONCE - before they published it, the artist couldn't sell it to anyone else, after they published it, the artist could do whatever they wanted with it).

Naturally, if you commission an artwork, it'll cost you less if you only buy the right to use it than if you buy all rights.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Good on ya for hitting the pirate with a PWNZER, Seraph!

It's me, Austin! It was me all along!

Aw, son of a bitch!

[paintballworker]

I know I'm late as well, but you can always store hugs for later. Also *slips seraph a card* this is for one free hug from my cats. If you ever need it.

[lineswine]

*Hugs Seraph*...I know I'm late for the party, but I hope you'll have this one anyway.

[Mikkel]

I agree that an idiot tax never seemed more appropriate.

[Pixilated]

Wow, hope the pwnage spreads to his friends who were in on the fraud!

I was looking for online work a long time ago and spotted a site that involved writing. Oh boy! Unfortunately, one of the conditions was that if they saw your work anywhere else on the internet, even if you hadn't put it there and didn't know who had and had had nothing to do with it, you were liable.

Sorry, I've got a life, such as it is, and it doesn't involve cruising the internet 24/7 to make sure nobody is pirating the stuff I did for you.

How on earth does one keep track of this type of work? Or do you just have to hope that honest people recognize your stuff and give you a heads-up?

[Seshat]

How on earth does one keep track of this type of work? Or do you just have to hope that honest people recognize your stuff and give you a heads-up?

Pretty much, yes.

And it's a good thing you refused the place that was holding you responsible for other peoples' theft of your work. You simply can't keep up - it's just not possible.

Too few people understand copyright; and of those who do, too few care.

Giving people the benefit of the doubt: they don't realise that every time they put our work up, they're reducing its value to paying customers.
(note: a sample, along with a link to the original work, is likely to attract paying customers. But too many people would rather reproduce the whole work than to put up a sample or a summary, and a link. For those who DO the 'sample/summary plus link' thing: BIG MEGA HUGS from all the content creators on CS!!)