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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > Company ripping off icons. So what do I do?

Company ripping off icons. So what do I do? (Page 2)
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demograph68
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Oct 5, 2004, 11:28 PM
 
Originally posted by Captain Obvious:
I am not going to look into it for him especially if I have nothing to gain from it.
You can be so nice sometimes...
     
fireside
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Oct 5, 2004, 11:47 PM
 
Originally posted by Captain Obvious:
Then I would contact whomever represents Nintendo and have them look into the derivative work Mindfad has done based on their copyrighted and trademarked material.
i never realized MindFad sold his icons that were based on nintendo characters. although i might not know the law as well as you do Captain Obvious, but i do think creating 'fanart' is okay.
     
Xeo
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Oct 6, 2004, 12:22 AM
 
Originally posted by fireside:
i never realized MindFad sold his icons that were based on nintendo characters. although i might not know the law as well as you do Captain Obvious, but i do think creating 'fanart' is okay.
And even further, MindFad's Nintendo-based art is still his own original art, just based on Nintendo's characters. Also, MindFad has never tried to push his Nintendo art off as anything other than just that, meaning he has never tried to push them off as his own original ideas.
     
Xeo
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Oct 6, 2004, 12:24 AM
 
Originally posted by Captain Obvious:
I caught it, maybe you didn�t catch what I said above. I said someone who has some vested interest should look into that.
And I caught that just fine. You then just seemed to repeat the same thing that you had previously said.
     
TETENAL
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Oct 6, 2004, 12:24 AM
 
Originally posted by CharlesS:
I believe it's a RealBasic app. Although there are exceptions, that fact usually gives a fair clue of what the code probably looks like.
I didn't mean the language.

I mean, a person who is too dumb to copy the alpha channel when stealing an icon, would you trust such a person to "improve" your operating system? I wouldn't.

I fully understand why you wouldn't want to be associated with that guy. Did you try contacting this web hoster? Costs nothing so it should be worth a try. If they threaten to turn off his web site that should make sufficient pressure on him.
     
Captain Obvious
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Oct 6, 2004, 12:29 AM
 
Originally posted by fireside:
i never realized MindFad sold his icons that were based on nintendo characters. although i might not know the law as well as you do Captain Obvious, but i do think creating 'fanart' is okay.

Okay: as in the odds are they won�t prosecute you, maybe. Okay: as in legal, no.

Only the entity that owns the copyright can give permission for others to make new artwork based on the original. If he made it, Nintendo owns it now and he needs their authorization to distribute it. The fact that he does not charge would be addressed in the amount of damages that would be awarded in court. But by giving it away he opens himself up to claims of hurting the commercial value of the intellectual property.

If Nintendo hasn�t gone after him up to now its because they don�t know about it or because they think its good for business. But make no mistake, they own everything Mindfad has done based on their characters.

Barack Obama: Four more years of the Carter Presidency
     
demograph68
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Oct 6, 2004, 12:43 AM
 
Originally posted by Captain Obvious:
But by giving it away he opens himself up to claims of hurting the commercial value of the intellectual property.
Their was a similar case with StarBucks over this:

In 2000, a year after Kieron Dwyer made comic books, t-shirts, and stickers with his version of the Starbucks logo, the company sued him, obtaining an injunction that prevented Dwyer from using the parody until the case was scheduled to go to court over a year later. When the case was finally settled, Dwyer was allowed to continue displaying his logo but only in extremely limited circumstances. No more comic books, t-shirts, or stickers: he may post the image on the web but not on his own website -- nor may he link from his website to any other sites that show the parody. In short, Dwyer is permitted to use the logo as long as Starbucks can be confident that no one will see it.
It's BS if you ask me.
     
MilkmanDan
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Oct 6, 2004, 01:09 AM
 
Brick + window. Go for it.
     
storer
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Oct 6, 2004, 02:26 AM
 
Originally posted by MilkmanDan:
Brick + window. Go for it.
     
Link
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Oct 6, 2004, 11:57 AM
 
Actually, flightcheck didn't use that AT ALL until 5.0 -- 4.5 had a different checkmark.

I hate to make captain obvious look bad, but as far as I'm concerned that company is trying to pass off a hack job for money.
Aloha
     
zigzag
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Oct 6, 2004, 12:09 PM
 
The thing about the Nintendo/Starbucks cases is that trademarks are involved as well as copyrights. Unlike copyrights, if a company doesn't actively protect its trademarks, the trademarks can pass into the public domain. That's why companies go after even inconsequential trademark infringements.
     
MindFad  (op)
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Oct 6, 2004, 01:23 PM
 
Since I haven't been home yesterday or all day today, I'll write them sometime later. I'm not sure how much I'll pursue it, though. This isn't the first time something like this has happened, and I'm beginning to care less and less.

As it turns out, I actually don't have the original layered PSDs of the clipboards�only the arranged PSDs I put together to compile the icons. Apparently I merged the layers. So that might be a problem since all I really have now are PSDs with merged layers and my word.

As for the Nintendo icons, as people have pointed out, they're nothing more than "fan art" icons. Yes, some I've done from scratch based on characters, others (namely the Wind Waker set) I did by eye by looking at character pictures from the manual. None of them are "tracings" in Photoshop�the work is mine; the content and characters are not. Was there ever any question that they owned the material? You can tell as much by lining them up and seeing that the shapes aren't perfectly on since I did it by eye. And I don't make profit from any of it. Technically Nintendo could sue or tell me to stop (and I would gladly), but I really doubt they care that someone is promoting their franchises with fan art icons. As if that is any different from the thousands and thousands of Apple icons out there, or sets that use the Apple or Finder logos, or any number of things.

I didn't mean to burden the Captain so heavily with my question, so I'll get off everyone's backs now. Back to the SR388 icons. [/tease]

Thanks for the comments, everyone.
     
dillerX
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Oct 6, 2004, 01:25 PM
 
i still love you florida.
I tried to sig-spam the forums.
ADVANTAGE Motorsports Marketing, Inc. • speedXdesign, Inc.
     
fireside
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Oct 7, 2004, 12:23 AM
 
Originally posted by dillerX:
i still love you florida.
i did too, until this comment came along..

Originally posted by MindFad:
I didn't mean to burden the Captain so heavily with my question, so I'll get off everyone's backs now. Back to the SR388 icons. [/tease]
     
MilkmanDan
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Oct 7, 2004, 12:32 AM
 
MindFad, I still love you!

In only the way two people on a Macintosh forum could love each other.
     
MindFad  (op)
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Oct 7, 2004, 12:57 AM
 
I <3 you guys, too.
     
The Godfather
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Oct 7, 2004, 01:34 AM
 
Mindfad,

I wish you success and a lot of infringement reimbursements
     
nredman
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Oct 7, 2004, 05:56 PM
 
Originally posted by MilkmanDan:
MindFad, I still love you!

In only the way two people on a Macintosh forum could love each other.
     
ManOfSteal
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Oct 25, 2004, 05:37 PM
 
Originally posted by fireside:
and its been that way for like 2 years. get over it Hein!
He finally got over it...today!

     
MacMan4000
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Oct 25, 2004, 07:21 PM
 
Originally posted by manofsteal:
He finally got over it...today!

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!! Party! celebrate!
     
ironknee
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Oct 25, 2004, 07:47 PM
 
mindfad say the word and i'll send knuckles

love ya brother
     
MrBS
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Oct 26, 2004, 05:20 AM
 
So what happened? Any action taken? Any results had?

~BS
     
 
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