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Showing posts 26 - 46 of 46, (reverse)
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 09/10/2012 04:23:08 PM · #26
Originally posted by Brent_S:
Other more legible things did get posted by Disney that will come up in court.
If you want to see a little more evidence though. Here is a link to an article that Robynne wrote a while back (before a fundraiser was even floated to them) for Rock Paper Ink.
Rock Paper Ink Article

Thanks for that, Brent. Has the defendant(s) responded to the suit? I am wondering what they are claiming. However egregious, I don't know that I would risk everything to fight it. I would have shopped around for a lawyer that would take it on a contingency basis - if won, would stand to make some good $ and also a good name for themselves.
 09/10/2012 04:30:18 PM · #27
I cannot connect with "Rock Paper Ink" - keep getting "Page not found", even for the web site on both IE and Firefox.
 09/10/2012 04:32:49 PM · #28
Originally posted by CJinCA:
I cannot connect with "Rock Paper Ink" - keep getting "Page not found", even for the web site on both IE and Firefox.


works for me.
 09/10/2012 04:34:17 PM · #29
Originally posted by mike_311:
Originally posted by CJinCA:
I cannot connect with "Rock Paper Ink" - keep getting "Page not found", even for the web site on both IE and Firefox.


works for me.

Not for me. Maybe it's related to today's Godaddy hosting problem.??
 09/10/2012 04:36:16 PM · #30
Originally posted by Strikeslip:
Originally posted by mike_311:
Originally posted by CJinCA:
I cannot connect with "Rock Paper Ink" - keep getting "Page not found", even for the web site on both IE and Firefox.


works for me.

Not for me. Maybe it's related to today's Godaddy hosting problem.??


I was thinking of something more sinister - perpetrated by the big guns. :-D
 09/10/2012 04:36:28 PM · #31
Originally posted by Art Roflmao:
Originally posted by Brent_S:
Other more legible things did get posted by Disney that will come up in court.
If you want to see a little more evidence though. Here is a link to an article that Robynne wrote a while back (before a fundraiser was even floated to them) for Rock Paper Ink.
Rock Paper Ink Article

Thanks for that, Brent. Has the defendant(s) responded to the suit? I am wondering what they are claiming. However egregious, I don't know that I would risk everything to fight it. I would have shopped around for a lawyer that would take it on a contingency basis - if won, would stand to make some good $ and also a good name for themselves.

Oh yes the defendants have responded and their tactic is simply to drag things out and try and make the litigation so costly for the other side that the case will be dropped.
Look, these big corporations are probably filled with some very nice people who on their own would maybe not be so nasty. But collectively as a corporation some pretty nasty things can happen all in the name of ultimate profit.
I know that Modern Dog is on their second attorney with this case. And this one feels so strongly about it that he is working on a contingency. The original lawyer was paid I believe and all research, depositions, and other court fees have been footed by Modern Dog. Plus they have had to spend so much of their time on this case rather than getting more jobs to bring in revenue. So this has already cost them big.
I can tell you this, had they known what they know now they never would have filed the suit. On top of the financial burden the stress has been crippling for them.
 09/10/2012 04:38:55 PM · #32
Originally posted by CJinCA:
Originally posted by Strikeslip:
Originally posted by mike_311:
Originally posted by CJinCA:
I cannot connect with "Rock Paper Ink" - keep getting "Page not found", even for the web site on both IE and Firefox.


works for me.

Not for me. Maybe it's related to today's Godaddy hosting problem.??


I was thinking of something more sinister - perpetrated by the big guns. :-D


Maybe I should just paste the link for people to copy :)
//www.rockpaperink.com/content/column.php?id=303&cid=13

Message edited by author 2012-09-10 16:39:30.
 09/10/2012 04:40:01 PM · #33
Originally posted by Brent_S:
Originally posted by Art Roflmao:
Originally posted by Brent_S:
Other more legible things did get posted by Disney that will come up in court.
If you want to see a little more evidence though. Here is a link to an article that Robynne wrote a while back (before a fundraiser was even floated to them) for Rock Paper Ink.
Rock Paper Ink Article

Thanks for that, Brent. Has the defendant(s) responded to the suit? I am wondering what they are claiming. However egregious, I don't know that I would risk everything to fight it. I would have shopped around for a lawyer that would take it on a contingency basis - if won, would stand to make some good $ and also a good name for themselves.

Oh yes the defendants have responded and their tactic is simply to drag things out and try and make the litigation so costly for the other side that the case will be dropped.
Look, these big corporations are probably filled with some very nice people who on their own would maybe not be so nasty. But collectively as a corporation some pretty nasty things can happen all in the name of ultimate profit.
I know that Modern Dog is on their second attorney with this case. And this one feels so strongly about it that he is working on a contingency. The original lawyer was paid I believe and all research, depositions, and other court fees have been footed by Modern Dog. Plus they have had to spend so much of their time on this case rather than getting more jobs to bring in revenue. So this has already cost them big.
I can tell you this, had they known what they know now they never would have filed the suit. On top of the financial burden the stress has been crippling for them.

I feel for them, Brent, but a certain Kenny Rogers song comes to mind.
 09/10/2012 04:49:52 PM · #34
@Ken,
He he, yeah I hope that Kenny Rogers song won't ultimately apply in this situation! ;) They certainly got sucked in, and hopefully they can hang on to get the justice they deserve...
 09/10/2012 04:52:35 PM · #35
My daughter works at Target corporate. I'll have her go talk to the lawyers. This will be cleared up in no time!

Seriously, though. This is so blatant, it's not even funny.
 09/10/2012 04:55:58 PM · #36
Disney got its start by stealing Steamboat Willie. You might know him as Mickey Mouse.

I think it's funny that the maroon who did this couldn't just draw his own dog heads, since he went to the trouble of redrawing them.
 09/10/2012 05:20:42 PM · #37
Like reshooting wine glasses?
 09/11/2012 02:47:00 AM · #38
Originally posted by Art Roflmao:

You mean this one?


Similar, but completely redrawn, IMO. Are those dogs known for having their ears sticking out like that?


Imagine that these were not drawings of dogs, but pictures of Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck et al. Now if Modern Dog had completely redrawn those characters and sold them as copyrighted work on a T-shirt, do you think the good folks at Disney would have been fine with that? I know for a fact that Disney has sued and won for less clear use of their trademark characters.

Message edited by author 2012-09-11 02:48:29.
 09/11/2012 03:25:13 AM · #39
Originally posted by BrennanOB:
Imagine that these were not drawings of dogs, but pictures of Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck et al. Now if Modern Dog had completely redrawn those characters and sold them as copyrighted work on a T-shirt, do you think the good folks at Disney would have been fine with that? I know for a fact that Disney has sued and won for less clear use of their trademark characters.


Except these are not trademarked characters. I'm not defending the big evil corporations here - the likely fact is that they had some contractor or subsubsubcontractor come up with the design which definitely looks like it was plagiarized from the book - sure Disney may be on the hook overall, but I am just analyzing the case from a winability perspective and selling your house and/or letting it run your business into the ground to pursue the lawsuit seems utterly insane, IMO.
 09/11/2012 07:36:11 AM · #40
I wonder why the t-shirt images were drawn so badly compared to the originals?

When I saw the samples in this thread, I thought it was the other way around (i.e. disney version being the better drawn one)

But yeah, I don't know if I'd sell my house.
 09/11/2012 10:51:36 AM · #41
Again, thanks to all for taking the time to look at the links describing the situation the folks at Modern Dog Design have found themselves in :)

We can all look at what has gone down and hope if in the same situation we would know when to just bow out and accept the fact that it's maybe too difficult to fight huge corporations with all their resources.
From what I have seen and heard, the "money drain" started with an attorney offering to take the case (for an upfront fee) and telling them it was a slam dunk and would be over in a relatively short time. So initially Modern Dog had to foot attorney fees, pay for court costs, depositions, etc. As things drug on, it became apparent that the one original attorney was not going to be able to handle everything himself. So some of the court footwork was actually done by the people at Modern Dog pulling them away from their true business. And these interruptions continued on for a long time. New bills came in, revenue dried up in an already tough economy for designers, etc.
So anyway, at some point Modern Dog ended up getting a new attorney who was better able to handle the case. He feels strongly about being able to win the case and has taken it on a contingency- though court costs and etc. are still footed by Modern Dog as I understand it. Hindsight is twenty twenty and I know there is no way MoDog would go through with this again. But what is done is done, and a lot of money has been spent and potential revenue has been disrupted while all the time being told this case would be much easier and short lived than it has been. At this point it's just a long waiting game as the corporate attorneys do everything they can to stall the case hoping it will just be dropped. I think they have a juried court date about a year from now.

My original post had a link to a fundraiser that was initiated by people outside of Modern Dog Design and thankfully some money is starting to come in it seems. Whether they win the case or not, that money which is going into a trust I expect will at least help to cover the large amount of legal fees they have already had to foot. Because of being a fundraiser, they needed to be very careful about what they showed as evidence there as they could be countersued for making a profit off someone else's copyrighted material. But long before the fundraiser was even thought of by others, an article was written by Robynne (a Modog owner) explaining their situation and showing some examples of how their work was stolen (still holding back some evidence fearing a countersuit). The video embedded there shows things quite clearly. And no, you can not just retrace someone else's work, flip it, and then call it your own.

Again, here is the link to the article from last year well before this fundraiser explaining the violations. (I'll just paste it to copy as links don't always work in this forum)-

//www.rockpaperink.com/content/column.php?id=303&cid=13
09/11/2012 10:58:33 AM · #42
i would expect the original lawyer to return the fees he collected, at least he should if he had any ethics.

Message edited by author 2012-09-11 10:58:49.
 09/11/2012 01:26:11 PM · #43
Originally posted by mike_311:
i would expect the original lawyer to return the fees he collected, at least he should if he had any ethics.


You would be disappointed. Lawyers work on hourly fees, like plumbers. He thought Disney would cave early and pay off. He guessed wrong, but he put in his billable hours, so he is under no ethical constraint to return his fees. In fact doing so would be to some extent be an admission of some sort of malpractice on his part and open him up to further litigation.

Message edited by author 2012-09-11 13:26:42.
 09/11/2012 01:42:02 PM · #44
Originally posted by BrennanOB:
Originally posted by mike_311:
i would expect the original lawyer to return the fees he collected, at least he should if he had any ethics.


You would be disappointed. Lawyers work on hourly fees, like plumbers. He thought Disney would cave early and pay off. He guessed wrong, but he put in his billable hours, so he is under no ethical constraint to return his fees. In fact doing so would be to some extent be an admission of some sort of malpractice on his part and open him up to further litigation.

Unfortunately, I think you are exactly right Brennan :)
 09/18/2012 01:31:24 PM · #45
Just a follow up on how the Lawsuit Fundraiser is going for my friends at Modern Dog Design...

About a week into things they have almost $20,000.00 donated!
Friends of Modern Dog

Whether or not they win the lawsuit (it appears a slam dunk if they can just hang in there) I know these funds will be very helpful to offset their legal costs. And I can tell you Robynne and Mike want to thank very much any DPCers who kindly contributed to their cause :)
 11/30/2012 05:39:36 PM · #46
Since I started this thread I thought I would fill in the details on what became of this fundraiser to help Modern Dog Design with their copyright infringement law suit.

After having the donation site active for almost two months, it's the last day for it, and they have almost reached their $40,000.00 goal! As I write this they are at right about $38k and who knows, they just might hit 40k before it's over.

Thanks to any DPCers who donated to this cause. I know Robynne and Mike of MoDog really appreciate it and most likely they have already thanked you themselves. Let's hope they get justice!
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