running this joke into the ground ...
Here is the deal. Any illustrator and design does get their artistic influences from other artists. There are even situations like this meme where we pay tribute to an artist. In my art, I often look for reference photo to help my art look more real. However there is a line that can be crossed. There is a fine line between stealing or being inspired by an idea. I have drawn four examples of that. This one right here, while I redrew it and changed the caption slightly, is a direct swipe. If I was trying to sell this as my own idea it would not only be immoral, but illegal. There should be no reason why the illustration above should be out of the context of this meme EVER. There is some gray areas for the other three I drew. If I was a daily comic artist and tried to post a comic influenced by Jess Fink, maybe. I have read the daily comics in my newspaper and seen an idea recycled before. It happens. However in the case where both the idea and execution is so similar, that comic should definitely have something like "after Fink" or some kind of comment. Outside of the comic book page, when you get into putting it on a commercial product, you have licensing and such to worry about. Nobody should be making money off your idea unless it is under a strict contract. There will be graphic designers who are unoriginal who think they can get away with it. However, that does not mean the corporations they work for should let them get away from that. If I sold ANY of the last four illustrations on a t-shirt, it would be wrong and hurting the independent artist. Nobody could confuse a couch with a bar of soap, but the idea and execution, no matter if I changed it or added to the idea, The original and the copy are the SAME.
If you look on You Thought We Wouldn't Notice, you will find case after case where Hot Topic did not design a t-shirt, but bought one from an agency that sold it from Threadless or some other source. It happens over any over again and they continue to play innocent. Let us face it, unless we do something (complain, protest, boycott, or what each artist should be doing is suing their ass), they will continue to walk all over the small but creative artist. Act now!
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Don't forget all the others at:
http://losttoy.livejournal.com/89326.html