Sunday, April 22, 2012

My character is being use without my permission!

I just came from the "World Book And Copyright day" from Quezon Memorial circle. And when I checked my messages. The first message that I get is that my CHARACTER is being use WITHOUT my permission on a t-shirt design competition which has the current theme of "Kalayaan".

The executive director of this non-profit group was kind enough to inform me of one entry that he said that it is too similar from one of my work. He asked if I have send this image using another name or given any other person a permission to use my character. And they are willing to disqualify this naughty (or misinformed person about copyright laws) person. 

Here is the image of the entry for this T-Shirt competition and you judge for your self it this is just a similar character from my own. 

In my humble opinion, and probably most of the people that could see this will agree with me that it is my character that had just been cut and paste, and had a minor editing. This image is based on the cover of Kalayaan  #1. And to see the comparison... here is the cover of the first issue of Kalayaan comics.


I asked the executive director of this T-Shirt competition to disqualify this person immediately and give me his name so that we (indie creators) could teach him a little bit about the Laws regarding copyrighted materials.

10 comments:

Cesar Tolentino said...

It's an absolute rip-off.

Cesar Tolentino said...

Absolute rip-off.

Gio Paredes said...

Thanks for the comment Cesar.
The organizer just send me an email telling me that they just disqualified her.

And they also told me that she is a just a high school student. I will just presume that she just did this because she is still young and do not know about copyright laws.

macoy said...

ituring mo nalang na compliment, gio. at least no harm done. :)

ang mas kinabilib ko, nakilala nung ED nung nonprofit si kalayaan!

Gio Paredes said...

Yup Macoy, malaking pasalamat ko talaga dun sa organizer ng t-shirt competition. Kahit paano ay kilala ako. :-)

jonasdiego said...

Buti nahuli, Gio. :)

Gerry Alanguilan said...

Grabe!!

Gio Paredes said...

@Jonas... oo nga. Buti na lang at na inform ako nung organizer. Kinakatakot ko lang ay baka meron pang iba na ganito na hindi naman ako kilala ng organizers. Or baka hindi kilala ang character ko. Or baka merong mga ibang organizers na hindi masyadong sinasala ang mga entries.

@Gerry... na windang nga po ako kagabi ng pagdating ko sa house namin at nalaman ko ito. O_O

Reno said...

What's amusing is even the organizers are in violation of copyright. Their event is dubbed "Summer Slam", which is copyrighted and trademarked by WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment).

Let me echo macoy's sentiment that at least Kalayaan has become very well-known! :)

Gio Paredes said...

Marami pong salamat sa comliment boss Reno. :D

The T-Shirt competition was conducted by CANVAS http://www.canvas.ph/

Magkaiba po iyon sa "Summer Slam" na event. :-)