*RESOLVED* need some input on a stolen control panel design...

[pbj]

Scare tactic from companies hoping you'll cut them a check to go away.  Buddy of mine worked IT for a company that used stolen copies of everything.  They told the "license police" to go pound sand and never heard anything about it ever again. 

 

[Dawgz Rule]

PBJ is spot on.    I would expect you are talking about a letter from the BSA which doesn't mean ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.  If MS or Adobe have any issue, they will always reach out directly and to be honest, are quite easy to work with if there is an identified issue.      Been there, done that.   

[jennifer]

    Gatsu:   It was not my intention to single you out... And for that I apologize.

[ark_ader]

     Whatever, Im not inflamed, In fact could care less about your big "Problem".... The real tragedy here is you will Still go through life with the mentality that its yours.

I'm sorry that's what you decided to take from the post. It honestly wasn't what I meant at all.

Let me try to explain it again.

I was NOT mad that the guy was selling a print of something I put together. (time it took, skill level involved, materials used are irrelevant) You assumed that because I said the design was mine, that I actually believed that all of its contents were 100% mine and no one could do anything with it unless I gave them express legal consent. Not true at all. I know I don't "own" it in the full legal sense (or in any sense depending on who you ask. I'm no lawyer, don't want to be.) I made the statement "it's mine" and meant that it was something I put together. Admittedly I could have worded it better. But I was not mad or upset about the situation at all. Nowhere in my post did I say it was a crisis or a major issue, nor that I was entitled to some kind of legal acknowledgment or compensation. Granted the title of the post could have been worded better as well. I admit those oversights.

I asked for input because I was curious to know if there was anything that could be done IF the guy got ornery about it. I would NOT have been upset if there wasn't. And life would have moved on. If you thought, that I thought it was a crisis or a major deal...that is what is unfortunate. Because again...was not what I meant.

I ASKED the guy nicely to remove the item. I explained to him that I designed the layout for a friends personal project. (again. Time it took, skill level involved, and materials used are irrelevant, legality or legality of it all aside as well). The guy said that was cool, he understood, and removed the item. And that was that. I DID NOT THREATEN or in any way convey to him that I thought I was the soul legal lord/master/owner of it and that he was stealing a priceless amazing and original creation, nor that I was entitled to some kind of compensation or acknowledgement. YOU decided to assume that. Basically it was just "hey I made this design a while back for a friend. Could you please not use it?"

And that is all. Nothing more....nothing less.

What the thread turned into....was a mass of assumptions and inflammatory comments. Granted there were some constructive and well thought out. Some not so much.

Now. The legality or illegality of it all doesn't matter in the end. I KNOW the design isn't original, didn't take much time to throw together in photoshop, and used elements that were not crafted from scratch, most found via a google image search. So...all of the fun comments pointing that out were not necessary. I know how I put it together...and others here on the forum are intelligent enough and have been around long enough to know all of that. AND there are plenty of designers and artists on this forum and out there in the wild that can and have done much better than what I can do on my best day.

So that's it. For reals yo. For reals.

You should have asked him to cut you in and you could have given him the hi resolution prints.  Artists steal everyone's work, it is not intended to be detrimental, but more of a compliment.  If I took a picture of an arcade control panel, photo-shopped it from scratch and sold it, nobody would bother.  The fact that you "stole" the idea from another "artist" to make your creation, to improve or to help a client, shouldn't warrant such an outcry as this thread demonstrates.  You should have dealt with it as a compliment.  PBJ's original comment is right though, and since we IP steal the dickens out of this hobby, I do not see anyone "bothering".

[dkersten]

One of the companies here in my little town of Billings (an engineering firm) was using all unlicensed copies of AutoCAD.  One disgruntled employee ratted them out and they ended up with $500,000 in fines, plus they had to buy some 50 licenses of AutoCAD.  This was 17 years ago now.  You can believe what you want to believe, but I have seen companies get hit hard with fines for unlicensed software first hand, and fighting it is a lose/lose situation. 

I dug pretty deep into the legitimacy of the last letter I got, as well as consulted with our lawyer because I have had fishing letters before that try to scare you into buying licenses and whatnot, but this one was indeed legitimate.  You can tell the fishermen to pound sand, but there are some firms you tread a little more lightly around.  My company has spent well over a half million in defending against frivolous lawsuits in the past, and when we win, we still lose.  I didn't pay these guys a penny, but I sure as hell made sure nobody in the company had any unlicensed software.  CYA...

I completely hate the idea of paying Adobe nearly $1000 per year to use their software, particularly since I often go a month or more without using photoshop or illustrator.  I got by for 7 years on photoshop 5.0, and then for many more on cs3.  It sucks I can no longer buy a current version and just own it, and I have a hard time spending $2500 for a 2 year old version that will never get updated again.

[Dawgz Rule]

Use GIMP.

[nitrogen_widget]

Use GIMP.

Or gimpshop if you are that used to the interface.

[Admiral688]

Most of the original stuff in this hobby comes from the cabinet makers...... If we were audited on our avatars, art and mame setups we would all be doing time in Club Fed :-)

[ark_ader]

One of the companies here in my little town of Billings (an engineering firm) was using all unlicensed copies of AutoCAD.  One disgruntled employee ratted them out and they ended up with $500,000 in fines, plus they had to buy some 50 licenses of AutoCAD.  This was 17 years ago now.  You can believe what you want to believe, but I have seen companies get hit hard with fines for unlicensed software first hand, and fighting it is a lose/lose situation. 

I dug pretty deep into the legitimacy of the last letter I got, as well as consulted with our lawyer because I have had fishing letters before that try to scare you into buying licenses and whatnot, but this one was indeed legitimate.  You can tell the fishermen to pound sand, but there are some firms you tread a little more lightly around.  My company has spent well over a half million in defending against frivolous lawsuits in the past, and when we win, we still lose.  I didn't pay these guys a penny, but I sure as hell made sure nobody in the company had any unlicensed software.  CYA...

I completely hate the idea of paying Adobe nearly $1000 per year to use their software, particularly since I often go a month or more without using photoshop or illustrator.  I got by for 7 years on photoshop 5.0, and then for many more on cs3.  It sucks I can no longer buy a current version and just own it, and I have a hard time spending $2500 for a 2 year old version that will never get updated again.

I used to manage the IT department's software library for a extremely large and well known corporate division, and the acting head of the time needed a spare large office, so he ordered all the filing cabinets in that office emptied and destroyed.  Naturally they did this while I was on holiday, and I found out they sent all the software licenses and disks to the incinerator (we are talking several million dollars worth).  So when the compliance auditor came from HQ, there was all sorts of yelling and crying.  Solution?  I just put a request in for a complete hardware and software upgrade. 

Heck we were still using windows 3.11 anyway.   

[Skaliwagg]

I shouldn't bother writing this but I will anyways since I just got back to this thread and saw how it has expanded. What I find fascinating in this thread is people’s willingness to find it more than ok to make money off of someone else’s work. Copyright laws aside, who owns what aside, how can you abide by that? Its fine that you don't care about your own work but you really can't see how it would bother someone else? Doesn't matter if it took 5min to 5days, time is money and that is time the seller is profiting on. Do what you want to do but for crying out loud at least realize when it's wrong...

Welcome to the wall. 

Thanks, yeah I mainly lurk, so much so that I couldn't remember my old login name

[jennifer]

                                                                                             **  This comment removed  **

 

[yotsuya]

                                                                                             **  This comment removed  **

Cool story, sis.

[dkersten]

I shouldn't bother writing this but I will anyways since I just got back to this thread and saw how it has expanded. What I find fascinating in this thread is people’s willingness to find it more than ok to make money off of someone else’s work. Copyright laws aside, who owns what aside, how can you abide by that? Its fine that you don't care about your own work but you really can't see how it would bother someone else? Doesn't matter if it took 5min to 5days, time is money and that is time the seller is profiting on. Do what you want to do but for crying out loud at least realize when it's wrong...

It isn't so easy to see how much it costs someone until your own work is stolen.  My attitude changed a lot when it happened to me.  Like I said though, as long as it doesn't affect the customers who might pay for my product, I don't really care.  At worst I lose nothing (those who pirate my stuff wouldn't pay for it anyway) and at best I gain potential future customers.

[tomstewdevine]

Settle down pinballjenn. You obviously arent picking up what he's putting down.

Favorite part of this whole thread.