This Is Why You Don’t Steal People’s Artwork
June 11, 2009 - By Bobby Solomon - Category: Art & Design & Illustration & Kitsune Noir & The Desktop Wallpaper Project
I got an email from Dustin over at Threadless Select yesterday letting me know that one of the Desktop Wallpaper Project contributors, Kristina Collantes, was having her artwork ripped off. You might remember her wallpapers, filled with beautiful patterns and colors, they’re both really beautiful.
Well some tranny girl named Melissa Ortiz has decided to take her skull wallpaper, blow up the images and make them into masks for some advertisements for some crap-looking wallets she’s made. This is not acceptable. The Desktop Wallpaper Project is an exhibition in which artists can give away their art for your personal enjoyment, like putting it on your desktop so your screen is a bit nicer.
But talking her artwork and using it in an advertisement is bullshit. You’re using someone else’s artwork, something you didn’t commission, credit, or pay for, and used it for your personal gain. Melissa, did you even consider if she’d want you using her beautiful art to be displayed along with your tacky bags? I highly doubt it.
Kristina even emailed this Melissa person to ask her to stop using the photos with her art, and she got this insane response back:
“I believe that it is very rude of your part act like that when it is a free image that one can take of kitsune, we thought that was a way of following your work and to please it, a sorrow gives me great that you take this attitude it was not the idea ” to make yourself be a nuisance “, we hoped to talk to work with you , but already not even desire we have, regards.”
I’d just like to reiterate again that these wallpapers are not for you to EVER make money on, they are purely for your desktop enjoyment, and the rights to all of these pieces of art are property of their respective artists, and always will be. Don’t be an asshat and steal people’s hard work.
End rant.
Bobby
P.S. If you’d like to email Melissa Ortiz and tell her to stop using Kristina’s work you can reach her at melissa.ortiz@tresymedio.com. Please take a second to let her know she’s very wrong.
P.P.S. Sorry if I offended any real transexuals with my tranny remark. As a gay man, who goes to gay clubs, who knows many many transexuals, I didn’t even think about it. I meant no harm and I’ll be more careful in the future.
Comments
If you've got something to say, keep it positive.Wow that’s crazy. That response is also crazy.
I second that. It looks like a free translation service was used or something… is it just me?
Hey Bobby,
While I totally, totally agree about how bogus it is for someone to use artwork without permission for profit, what does her being a tranny really have to do with anything? You use it like an insult, and being a tranny myself, it’s hard not to take offense.
I love your blog, look at it almost everyday. Could you just lay off the ad hominem attacks on an already persecuted group of people?
Much thanks!
This needs to be posted on http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/
it has been a big help to me when I have run into the same problem
cheers
Sucks. Big fan of Kristina’s work.
Why don’t you stick a Creative Commons Non-Commercial license on the pieces made for project?
That way people can use the works for anything other than commercial purposes? Would hopefully deter people from taking advantage.
i hope her prints pixelate!!! …sorry, that’s the most evil i can get…
I also sent her a not so quaint email letting her know how much of an “asshat” she was and Melissa claims, “she didn’t like it i put it down big deaaaaaal, i didn’t do it on porpouse! And she know it! I was thw one that told her”.
Something about that seems a little contradictory compared to the email quoted above.
_aa
People from a tight knit art forum I’m apart of ream out anyone hard core if we ever saw them copying someone’s work and claimed it was there’s. Usually they left.
This is despicable though, it really irks me that someone just takes public works to be free from any kind of copy write.
Bad? Very. But don’t go callin’ people trannies when you mean to call them immoral and despicable. That too is pretty uncool.
i hate when this shit happens and it happens often… people just don’t get it… how funny is the translated version of that chicks response tho? haha
You should apply a Creative-commons licence to the wallpapers of the project such as this one:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/
to prevent from this kind of things to happen.
Huh, twice in one day. Did you see this blog article? Drawn! posted it on their Twitter today.
Yeah, not on board either with the intellectual property theft. However… is it necessary to use ‘tranny’ like an insult? Grow up.
sticking to the main topic at hand i fully applaud calling this person out. i feel like the internet gives people a false sense of entitlement to “repurpose” other people’s artwork and that is not the case.
I don’t understand. The person in the pictures isn’t selling the wallpapers. They’re selling a wallet. If the artwork was marked free and it’s not being sold, what’s the problem. Even if you had a full copyright, it would still probably be fair use…
@Lisa – So if I made masks of your face and made advertisements of people shooting guns, or selling condoms, or selling anything… I’m sure you’d be upset by this. It’s someone using something that doesn’t belong to them to profit from it, and that’s never ok.
“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
— Albert Einstein
ps. I am sure that Einstein was a true tranny fan!!
these tacky bags are called guapa gloria thats the name of the companay that melissa and her bussines partner (marie) made for these bags,
are made in a horrible vinyl quality also pixelated, and is not only with this art, they have stuff from upso, shepard faery (obey), tycho iso 50, you can check yourself, here are some links on guapa gloria merchandise
http://www.myspace.com/guapagloria
http://guapagloria.blogspot.com/
http://www.guapagloria.com/portada.html
most of the art stealed is from deviant art, abduzeedo and from here, they´re making money with someone else art without receiving a check or at least “hey this stuff is from this artist, i knew this brand being in caracas last summer and i was shocked watching how it can be legally piracy, because they sell those bags under a label, a brand, or a name, that´s lame and i understand what you say here.
the melisa ortiz hotmail is sibila3@hotmail.com i know these because she tried to sell me some of those bag, with other´s artwork, and i thougth in that momment that this info will work for something, hope it works, for stoping art stealing for piracy making money purposes. because today is with you, tomorrow it would be me. so its an ethical function, you dont use others work saying it´s yours
While I agree Kristina completely has the right to protect her artwork and where it is used, I believe this whole thing is getting blown WAY out of proportion.
If Kristina did not want her art to be used in this way, why couldn’t she have privately and kindly e-mailed Melissa on her own instead of recruiting the entire Threadless army to send downright immature hatemail to her? This blog post also doesn’t help IMO, it just emits more hostility. It would be more understandable if the photos were on Melissa’s personal website with links to buy the wallets right there, but they’re not; they’re on facebook, a personal photo-sharing website.
I work in the design industry too and I’m well aware that designers can be very myopic in their world view. But please don’t attack others because they don’t always know how the design industry works. This kind of thing ultimately happens everyday, and I think it could have been resolved with a little less drama.
@Anonymous – Kristina has nothing to do with this, this is all me. I asked her to create a wallpaper for me, and someone has used her images against her wishes, plain and simple.
Making sure that people know the story behind what is going on is the least I could, especially after the stupid email the woman sent back to her.
I’m not saying we need to start a witch hunt, but she, and anyone else who would think of doing something like this, should know that it is not and will never be an acceptable practice.
Why couldn’t she have just drawn her own skulls? Then this would never have happened.
Kristina should sue them, they´re making money out of it, sue them!!!. melissa is stealing something, we should take her to bagdag and chop her hands off for this. then she probably start making her own skulls, oh no wait she couldnt, jajaja!!! so just sue them
@ Anonymous
why couldn’t she have privately and kindly e-mailed Melissa on her own instead of recruiting the entire Threadless army to send downright immature hatemail to her?
You’re way off the mark with this. Kristina didn’t recruit anyone, she told her friends who then garnered support using the Threadless blogs – and damn right too.
Using other peoples work to gain commercial advantage is common in the design industry but only because artists haven’t had an efficient network of support, outside of institutions like the AOI for example.
The speed of which this has been resolved is thanks to the support, both negative, and reasonable from some of the Threadless users.
We all like to think as educated people that simple, polite words will win the day in these cases, but the sole reason this became an issue was because of the insane response from Melissa to Kristina’s original polite request to take the images off the website.
I hope this clears it up for you.
cheers
G
Some people are bananas.
It is hard enough for artists to make a living from their work, so to have someone appropriate work without paying or at least referencing that work is awful. As artists we make stuff all the time, because thats what we do, and people benefit from this process – often without any cost, or money exchanged.
Bobby, you have every right to say whatever you want to on your blog, and I think it is admirable that you are supporting Kristina, and many other artists by featuring their work.
They cut off their nose just to spite their face. Artists will think about releasing their work for free if they get ripped off like this.
She didn´t put the desing of kristina on her wallets, u are all insane!!! egomaniacs
On one hand, Ortiz is clearly misinformed about what it takes to get the rights to artwork. On the other hand, it is vindictive and unprofessional for anyone to say, “Here is her email. Please spam her.”
you’re right (100%) and I support !
LAME TRANNY
hahahaha ‘asshat’
nice ;)
I am currently attending an art school in vancouver british columbia and when this sort of thing happens it does not fly with anyone. At all. I am defiantly going to email her something vicious.
I enjoy this site so much and all the artists on here are great for inspiration and they are great for other artists to look up to.
But this is just not cool. Not cool at all.
wow, that sucks. and those bags look truly awful.
lameeee Sh*T these bags looks like made for a retarded tranny, these is a shame to someone put someone fine cool art in a bag of sh*t. i think those bags look like a 2.0 version of doggy poo bag just with color, i mean you just have to set on fire and ring a doorbell
I agree. This is a terrible misuse of the artwork you have generously featured on your site.
However, I cannot get past your use of the word “tranny.” It is not ok to use that word, Bobby. It’s a malicious term and your gay male credentials don’t excuse its use. In fact,, it has been my experience that gay men are often as clueless as to how to deal with transsexuals as the rest of the world.
An apology is a good start, but maybe you should just edit the post to remove the word? I have been a fan of your site for close to a year. I hope this was simply an honest mistake.
Yes this is wrong. But it totally reminded me of this: http://izismile.com/img/img2/20090611/selection_174_76.jpg
I can offer you legal support for protect the work of the site. I am Lawyer and fan of kitsune Noir.
“In fact,, it has been my experience that gay men are often as clueless as to how to deal with transsexuals as the rest of the world.”
Lol, that is so true. I agree with Anna though, just remove the word. s you can see, it’s just distracting people from the real issue. :/ As of right now the whole thing sounds like a play on the ever popular “whoops, but seriously I’m not racist because I have lots of black friends…”
Apparently this girl is being seriously harrassed with hate-mail so I’m not going to go though the trouble of sending my own. Shame on her, though haha.
Haven’t posted a comment on this blog in over a year. just been lurking and appreciating your work. Love you :D
@Everyone – Get over the word tranny. I’m not removing it.
The word tranny is there to describe how that person looks. It isn’t making fun of trannies just simply describing the obvious in the photo. I thought it was a dude in drag personally. Bobby is obviously a compassionate and cool person based on the long history of posts on this blog. All of the complainers need to focus your energy elsewhere because there is nothing wrong here.
lol @ Bobby apologizing for using the word “tranny” and stating you meant no offense, and then stubbornly refusing to remove it
TRANNYZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
get over it, its a silly joke
As per ian’s comment, if you read carefully, Bobby didn’t even use the word derogatively, he was referring to how she looked.
It’s a common occurance however that political correctness goes too far because someone can’t read comprehensively, there will always be people who misinterpret an innocent observation and read it as a derogatory comment discriminating against a type of people.
My advice is that if you are going to take the time to bitch about an article, take the diligence to carefully read and understand at least the part of the article that you are bitching about, so as to not embarass yourself and make a big deal out of nothing.
“The word tranny is there to describe how that person looks. It isn’t making fun of trannies just simply describing the obvious in the photo. I thought it was a dude in drag personally.” So what if is really a transexual person in the person? you are way to far with word, and if your are gay that doesn’t gives u the right to say it. you shoul be carefull for what you say, it doesn’t matter if u remove it u already mean it.
If you’re offended by what Bobby wrote, I cannot even begin to imagine how you deal with your day to day life.
He used a shorthand version of the word to describe the person, that is all he did. Really you have to be pretty damn insecure and sensitive to be hurt by such pettiness.
On the contrary I expect these types of people to have a thick skin, as they have to deal with the prejudices of society. Furthermore by bitching about insignificant things like this you are giving a bad name to other people of your kind.
Bobby? Is this post the one with most comments on your site? If it is I think it’s sad for this wonderful blog of yours. Followed for a long time, and never met so much bullshit. Always been a good, inspiring, positive tone in here. Sad – I hope it doesn’t scare to many people away – gay, tranny or whatever, I know it’s your blog and you write whatever you feel like. But i would avoid using words that offend people… especially if your still writing about design etc, and not minorities in US. (Then it would be ok :) )
still love the blog
cheers
oh, cmon! those bags are ugly.
“Furthermore by bitching about insignificant things like this you are giving a bad name to other people of your kind.” MY KIND??? i real liked this blog but i already don’t feel comfortable with it at all, all this bullshit has been take other direction and attention that doesn’t make sense, really all you get attention to your own lives and not to the others.
trevis
As a”tranny” myself, i take no offense to you using the word. It’s not a derogatory term and if your comfortable with who you are then words like that shouldn’t bother you. Enough with all this PC bullshit, Bobby, I grant you the right to use tranny any time you damn well feel like it. Plus it made me giggle.
Well, it’s only fair that she took down the photos where they used Katherine’s skulls, but there’s so much more stealing going on in those horrible bags that I doubt this will stop them from doing it again.
I’m just commenting because I’ve never seen this many comments on a +KN post.
I hate these skanks.
As an artist and I had these moment before in my past, when my friend “designer” was stealing my art applying it on her clothes and had a nerve to tell me that I’m the one that is not OK. pfff…but she went down. so this bitch will too :)
WHAT YOU ARE DOING MELISSA IS JUST WRONG. so go and EF yourself with your hideous bags and lack of creativity.
if you have to steal someone else idea then why call yourself an artist anyway..
if she is the girl from the picture she really looks like a man with makeup, so, if she looks like a tranny what the fuck, she looks like a tranny, there are trannys that looks like real women , so thats is offensive for women in general? noup! soo… also the bags looks like crap that´s the offensive stuff in here others art and bad taste in cheap tacky bags
7th GRADE shame on you!
I kinda feel sorry 4 the girl. she’s lame. ugly. uncreative. uninteresting. ouch, wouldn’t want to be you :D
Judging about the name “Melissa Ortiz” I think she speak in spanish. That is my primary language so I’m going to send her an email.
No matter what you do or work at you go by a certain code, being an artist you expect that other artists respect your work and the first rule of Art Club is DON’T TALK ABOUT ART CLUB – the second rule of Art Club is DON’T RIP OFF OTHER ARTISTS WORK. Its enough to be closely inspired by an artist as its respectable and some what complementary but once you act like a con man or woman or both you don’t act like an artist your just plain shit and very useless. We need more bobby’s to watch our backs and lay off on the tranny thing and get a sense of humour, I dont upset when bobby calls me Mick or Awesome……THIS RANT IS OVER N OVER N OVER !!!!
That’s just lame. I hope that Melissa will apologize for stealing Kristina’s hard work.. Thief..
It’s a shame and unfortunately this sort of stuff happens with artists of all media all the time. A way to protect yourself as an artist is to Copyright all of your images that are posted on the internet whether they are published and/or unpublished. If this was a precaution taken beforehand, Melissa would have a predicament on her hands. For all artists of all media check out this site for information regarding copyright. http://www.copyright.org. It is an easy and effective process and a way to protect yourself from other organizations, individuals and other artists from stealing your work.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Alejandro Cardona
well that friggin blows, at least we now know that Ortiz is a sham.
Ehhh… the image is not on the wallets, which is what they’re selling. If it were, you might have a case even if you don’t have a Copyright or a Creative Commons license. But it’s not.
You have to read “Bound By Law”. It’s a comic book, so even if you have ADD you can still learn about fair use.
This is her email sibila3@gmail.com
hate her, gives a bad name to the “bag industry” in Venezuela. And here’s the blog: http://guapagloria.blogspot.com/ please send her your thoughts…
An angry girl from Venezuela
this post work on some level, because as it seems in their blog, they (melissa and partner) shut down the brand, because i was reading with my basic spanish level, and what i can understand is that they´re not gonna make any more tacky bags, and it has being a pleasure doing that stuff with others artwork, this is sad by some way, because we dont know if these kids knew in what they were into, because it looks really childish, but in other way we can think that this post, with all and the tranny incident help to unmask peoples who was making profits with others work, we have to be more easy with these stuff, and the personal shit, but hooray for beatin down a conterfeit brand
xoxoxo
It’s very sad when you hear about projects or people who are trying to make a profit “out” of others’ intellect, time, money, sweat, imagination, etc. Because is “as simple” to make it actually a profit for both: that lovely creative person, and you. You just have to wish it… want it to be that way.
And the outcome is beautiful: you get to work with amazingly talented people and help sharing what they do with the world. As Bobby did with this project we all love.
I can totally relate to what you are feeling Bobby, I’d feel the same if I notice any of Monoblock’s author’s works is being use without our knowledge. Whether if it’s being sold or just used without notification. I’d feel responsible too, and I’d try to protect the rights of my author. Because we’re their publishers, regardless of the medium we use to publish their work.
And you don’t get to publish someone before saying to that person the words “please” and “love”. This girl behavior was not only rude, but damaging. It ruins the day of the talented creative people. And clearly, we need talent. So as publishers, we have to walk that extra-mile to keep these ungrateful people from upsetting our imaginative minds.
I disagree with those who call on the legal aspects of this being a “free image”, because its purpose its very well explained. Check the concepts of Intellectual Property by the French Right. IP always belongs to its author.
Illustrators should embrace the term “author”, and use it more often. That may help people not to get confuse. These are not just doodles!!!
Besos for all. Good work Bobby!
Before someone gets confused following Monoblock’s link: Parquerama’s art on our Designer’s Notebooks is an original art that Matias made for us (you’ll notice is not the same “Electric Angel” used for the Kitsune Wallpaper).
And for your tranquility: we work based on author’s right, through commission’s rates. As in the book-publishing industry.
Live the love!
Besos
“ Transsexuals are the stormtroopers of evolution. ” Genesis P-Orridge
Just looking through the persons inventory of bags on their website for Guapa Gloria….they seem to put a lot of work on their bags that I don’t know how they would have gotten the permission to use.
I just read the last post on the Guapa Gloria blog and it looks as if on the 23rd of June 2009 they decided to close shop. I guess all the emails worked.
But *taking* her artwork and using it in an advertisement is bullshit.
wow what the hell kind of response is that. I’m a bit late when I say this, but we’re all with you and Kristina on this issue!
This should go straight to court, if there is any advantage for Melissa to do so. I’m guessing there is not, in light of the tedious details of the situation, i.e. use of the image in advertisement combined with the overall free nature of the material. I’m sure it would have been to court a while ago, otherwise, and there would not be so many people talking about what “should” be done. The act of stealing someone’s ideas and creative works is deplorable, detestable, and utterly disgusting. Sra. Ortiz makes me want to vomit. It pleases me to think of her inbox full to the brim of people cursing her very existence, hahaha! Melissa, there are some very simple ways to ensure that your intelectual property is under your full control. I am sure that you know what these are. For those of you that believe just because it’s in the commercial and not on the product it’s “fair game”, imagine that you wrote a song and it was a potential hit. You made five CDs of this song in your home and gave them to five people. Three weeks later, your song is playing on the new Oprah commercial. Is this ok with you?
@ myself:
I should correct myself by noting that everywhere I say the name “melissa” I mean to say “Kristina”. When I say “Sra. Ortiz” That actually refers to Melissa Ortiz. If that got too confusing, just ignore the whole of it. It’s not like it’s anything more than a vent anyway.
Creative Commons the Desktop Wallpaper Project! This is the kind of thing Creative Commons was created for.