Monday, June 25, 2007

ANGER: Infringement of my Design!!!!

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I am numb with anger after finding that one of my most popular freebies has been illegally appropriated by a fellow designer as an item she is selling as her own original design at pocket-pearls. This should not be tolerated by any designer in our community.


As I am a lawyer, I have written a cease and desist letter to Pocket-Pearls (www.pocket-pearls.com). I urge you all to contact them and let them know that you likewise will not tolerate theft of copyrighted material we create as designers.

I created my Graph Tags in early April 2007 and posted them here on my blog as a {freebie} on April 15, 2007, where they remain available to this
day. They currently have over 1100 downloads to-date. Conni Klueter posted her "Graphic Letters" for sale on May 17, 2007.

You be the judge:


Anyone in our community knows well enough that all items are for personal use only unless specifically sold as commercial use-licensed. Most all of us, especially me as a lawyer, places a TOU with every design stating clearly that the license is solely for personal use. There is no acceptable excuse for such blatant illegal actions.

I am seriously considering stopping all past and future {freebies} if this is what it leads to. While I am here visiting in New York City for 3 days I will mull this over and make a decision upon my return to Baltimore. I will leave my current {freebies} up until at least then.

With much sadness & dismay,
Lawgal Diane
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7 comments:

Steph said...

That's awful!! As I've never bought anything there, my threats wouldn't mean much, but I'll send over a comment anyway. I definitely agree that they look a lot too much like yours, including the darker band 2/3 of the way down. That's sad. I hope you don't have to pull down your freebies, but would understand if you decided you had to. I hope they act on your C&D so it doesn't come to that.

Anonymous said...

I have never bought from there either but I too will leave a comment. I agree that they are just WAY too close. Your work is fantastic. PLEASE dont let one sour apple ruin it for the rest of us. How awful that someone would do such a thing.

Marta said...

I agree with Rainbow Kitty, please don't let one illegal act prevent you from sharing your designs with those of us who love them and use them responsibly :(

Melberry said...

Too close for comfort, I'm afraid. I agree with you. This is so disappointing and so discouraging. I've never purchased anything at that store but will check it out now and file a complaint comment, too. I really like your work and would hate for it to disappear on us. Thanks for sharing your talent with us for FUN purposes.

Anonymous said...

You know what's really sad? I bet she puts "Don't pirate this" in her TOU. *Insert imaginary eye-rolling smiley here*

Steph

Anonymous said...

They look very similar indeed. I remember going to a conference once and getting a handut that was clearly my work-word for word. I approached the presenter who couldn't remember where she got the info. I told her I didn't mind her using it but I wanted my name after it. I just happened to have the entire piece I wrote on my laptop so it was easy to show the work was mine. She had egg on her face. I am certain she was given the entire article and just wiped my name off. In this case she wasn;t selling my work..just taking credit for it- in any case not acceptable.

anke-art said...

OMG! And it's not only your graph tags she's using, it's my font "Anke Calligraph"!!! That is so unfair, she never contacted me either :(

As a font designer, I often come across products, sites and printworks which use my fonts illegally, somehow I'm already used to it. But it's sad anyway.

Now here's a little layout to make you smile, I used your graph tag on it: crazy quote challenge