Kinkos won't give me my marquee!

[mameiac]

I have done alot of research to figure out where I can get my marquee printed at a decent price with a fairly quick turnaround.
I decided to go with Kinko's. I spent between 5-6 hours designing my own version of a marquee panel. I sent the file over to Kinko's and they called to say it would be ready in 24 hours. Then they call back and say the artwork I used is copyrighted and I would need a release form before they will give me my marquee.
Has anyone else ever experienced this? Is there something I missed along the way about designing my own marquee panel? 

[Pipercub]

Call a district manager, explain that you designed it and you want to pick up your item. If they don't play ball, hang up calmly and type up a nice looking release on letterhead babbeling on about non-comercial use only and cut and paste two pages of legal mumbo jumbo from some other item. If that doesn't play, send in as many large and complicated prints form may sources over and over till they have a pile of printed material they can't sell.

[brophog]

Does your 'original' work contain copyrighted images?

[SNAAKE]

Just tell them you drew everything from scratch. They cant do much if you claim you are the owner of the picture.There is no "kinkos cop" either lol

[mameiac]

What constitutes "original"? If I make "my own design" Wouldn't that be considered "original"? And if it'd for use in my "home" and not for profit, isn't that considered for "personal" use and has no bearing under copyright laws?

Just for the record, I found my artwork available for download on a well known and respected MAME website.

Does your 'original' work contain copyrighted images?

[TurboC--]

Personally I think Kinkos is just using the copyright excuse to cover up the fact that they are completely incompetant, printed out your marquee in black and white and then accidentally dropped your disk in the paper shredder.

But that's just a theory.

[Crowquill]

What's in the design? If it's a copyrighted image or in some cases even a character then it's AGAINST THE LAW for them to reproduce it without permission of the copyright holder.

At the Kinko's I work at, copyrights have been a big topic lately. Most of the time these things slide by unnoticed, but some photographer's association recently did tests around the nation and 8 out of 10 stores copied their work. It's actually illegal to even suggest to a customer that they can use the self-serve copiers to duplicate artwork that's not theirs.

If you make a composition of copyrighted materials they're still copyrighted. Whether or not it's for profit doesn't matter.  If it's not obvious that you didn't do the artwork, just sign the waiver that you hold the copyright and they should print it. If it's something like pac-man art, then you probably won't get anywhere. When it comes to copyrights, calling a district manager won't help.

[RayB]

That's just paranoia, thanks to the RIAA, MPAA and other whiners that have been loudly complaining about copyrights.

There's something called "fair use". If you're a graphic designer, it's very common to use "comp" images. You sure as hell don't pay for those image rights until your client gives final approval and says "yes, we'll go with that design". Then you go ahead and pay for the images you use in the final product.

Kinko's and other print shops doing "one-offs" shouldn't be saying anything. But they are so scared now they are taking the "better safe than sorry" side. Unless a customer is asking for multiple copies of an item, Kinko's is being ridiculous.

I work on many projects that use high-profile brand names and characters. I CANNOT imagine the trouble I'd have to go through if I required a "release form" for each and every time I use a copyrighted or trademarked image. My projects which are "due tomorrow" would likely get delayed by weeks, since that's how long it usually takes to get "upper management" types at the big brand companies to do something as simple as sign and fax through a form.

MAMEIAC: Call Kinko's and tell them your marquee is a "proof of concept" for a client, and that they are holding up your schedule and your client is getting angry with you. Tell them if it was for commercial use, you'd be ordering hundreds, not just one.

[mameiac]

I went to Kinkos this morning and they still insist that I get a copyright release from Atari because I used a Pac Man picture (that was a "concept design" I altered it to my liking).  With all the hassles, I thought about editing this particular picture out, but when I closed the project in Photoshop, I forgot to unflatten it so I lost all the layers making it probably near impossible to edit anything now. At least when I asked which picture was in question, Kinkos "printed" out a hard copy to show me and actually gave it to me to take. So at least I have an 8 1/2 x 11 paper copy to look at. 

[TurboC--]

Try different Kinkos in your area or some other equivalent place...

[missioncontrol]

if kinkos doesn't want your money then don't give them the business.

have it done by either

emdkay

or

mame marquees

both have a great reputation in this community for providing quality prints......

[GGKoul]

mame marquees

Yep!! Chris at MameMarquees does a great & quick job!

[mahuti]

Kinko's did this to me 2 or 3 times when I was in college. ON MY OWN WORK. Since my stuff looked professional, they assumed it was copyrighted and wouldn't let me just sign the damn copyright OK and be done with it.

That is one of the MANY reasons I can't stand Kinko's. Granted, I know they COULD get hosed if they did copyrighted work, so I can't really fault them on THAT policy. I have rarely had consistently good experiences with them otherwise however, so I just don't care what their policies are, I can't go there. When I first started using them, there were a few guys that I knew there that were cool... but anybody good didn't last long though, and I was always left with the dregs. Now, if I can't print something myself, I just doesn't get printed. I think Kinko's is a big reason I got into web design... so that I would never have to go there again.

[missioncontrol]

just curious


what ever came about with your marquee vs. kinkos problem?

updates man

[JREYES63]

Hey Mameiac:   

New to the forums here, but this is what you do.  Scrap Kinkos and tell them to shove it!  Take you data file over to a "REPROGRAPHICS" printer.  Look in your phone book.  They're mainly used by the construction field for printing drawings / documents.  Cool, professional people to work with.

I haven't printed out a mame marquee before, but I have printed out a large transparent color screen.  I have one of those Sky-Box Vending machines by Maytag and I wanted to have my own custom transparent screen.  So I brought in edited jpgs of both the Lakers and Raiders and had them printed on tranparent film.  It came out beautiful and even had it laminated 10 mil to protect it. 

They didn't care what so ever about any copyrighting and as long as you use it for personal purposes you should be okay.  Reprographics places can even print at higher resolutions than Kinkos and have it done faster......no waiting for Joe Shmoe w/ a custom calendar order.

John
(cali)

[DrewKaree]

Seems to me the problem is that they won't give him his artwork back, yes?

If you just want your artwork back, go in there, tell them you gave them your data, and you want it back.  Call the cops and wait for them to show up if they won't.  I see no logical reason they won't give it back to you.

If you went in there baked off your ass and accidentally gave them your baggie of oregano instead of the disc, does anyone honestly believe they wouldn't give it back to him?  Time for you to sack up and take back what's yours, whether it's legal or not.  It's not Kinko's Police Department, it's Kinko's Printing/Fed Ex/whatever. 

"If my artwork violates some law in some fashion and you aren't just being ass hats, then call the cops or gimme back my damn disc.  NOW!"

[SNAAKE]

Seems to me the problem is that they won't give him his artwork back, yes?

If you just want your artwork back, go in there, tell them you gave them your data, and you want it back.

[DrewKaree]

Well then this is really dumb.  There's only 3 solutions to this, and it's up to him to PICK one and just put the rest of this fiasco behind him.

Go to another Kinko's
Go to another printer (The Yellow Pages works great for this)
Go to that Kinko's and deluge them with copyrighted prints in poster size since they obviously have a policy that is impossible for every employee to pick up on - like the ass hat who originally helped him and said NOTHING about this policy

Continuing to hope this Kinko's will give up the marquee is wasting his time

[Roughy]

It all sounds a little power-trippy on the side of Kinko's to me.

Granted, you are using the Pac Man image--you stated that yourself, but I'm not certain how they can tell yours is Pac Man or <insert any other ripoff here>.  Also, if you are using any materials covered by copyright, you generally do pay for them (such as stock photography--you use the comp images with some sort of watermark--or not--for free and then a client signs off an you spend an assload on the image(s)) in order to use them.

While it may not be popular, Kinko's probably is able to stand behind this one. But that's also probably just one person or one store.  It's kind of like the kid at the grocery story who takes peanut butter coupons when you've not bought any pb; just keep trying if you really want it.

Otherwise, there are a lot of places out there that'll take your money; people have given links and I'm pretty partial to mamemarquees.com at this point.  Fast turnaround on simple plexi.

[AtomSmasher]

I'd say your out of luck at that kinkos, but if you go to another place and they give you flak about it, if you look young enough, tell them its for a school project.  Your making a banner for a presentation you have to make in class about classic video games....or something like that.

[missioncontrol]

I say go back in there throw youself on the floor and throw a tantrum until they give it to you

[loddie]

I say go back in there throw youself on the floor and throw a tantrum until they give it to you

For added effect, go in wearing only a diaper.

[M3talhead]

Just take a giant crap in the middle of the store and walk out. See what they do then!

[RayB]

Baby made a boom-boom!

[MovingTarget]

Ah the old dump and dash routine 

[mahuti]

Somebody did that at a Subway restaraunt I worked at. The guy was mad that we wouldn't give him a free sandwich.... so he naturally took a dump on the bathroom floor to display his displeasure.

Luckily I was leaving when they showed up... so I wasn't there to see the mess.

I still can't believe it... I mean... how could you ever take a crap on a store's floor because they didn't give you something for free? Does he do that everywhere... like at 6pm every day he has to go to a store to ask for something free so he can be regular? Just weird.

[Crowquill]

I think it's kind of funny that that store won't run the oversize print but will fire off a letter-size print. By their own reasoning that's just as illegal.

Just like anywhere else, there are good employees and dumb employees. I'm one of about 3 people in the store I work at who actually know how to use all the fancy programs on our computers and get the most out of the printers. I'd print it for you. Actually, back in the summer we printed up a really nice-looking 18x24 print of ROM's hexagonal artwork.

The Kinko's I work at has a permanant pee stain on the floor. It's not from a disgruntled customer though, it's from a kid that peed his pants. Last week we did have a mad customer point to his crotch right before he walked out of the store and yell "SUCK IT!"