Points for Facebook!
A few days ago a fellow caricaturist alerted me to a Facebook post that was using a caricature sketch of mine of Jay Leno as part of a political propaganda message (see image above, the “Stolen Image” added by me so no one is confused as to why this is on my blog).
This angered me greatly. God knows I’ve done artwork for some conservative political groups, but I get PAID for that. I often just roll my eyes at this sort of thing, but this one I couldn’t just let slide. To top it all off, they intentionally cropped out the clear copyright I had in the original sketch:
I contacted the FB group directly and politely asked them to take it down, citing that they were breaking U.S. copyright law. I got no response… I guess only laws they don’t feel like breaking are part of the Great American Way of Life. I researched the issue on Facebook to see if I could get FB to remove it. Turns out it is very easy to object to an image that might contain a female nipple or someone’s bare rear end, but the blatant infringement of copyright requires digging through many prompts and detours to finally get to some sort of form with which to report it. While I did go through the proper back channels, I also took a little more direct action…
… I reported the photo as containing nudity. Then in the follow up explained the real reason complete with proof that it was my artwork.
Anyway, after a few days I got the following:
So, score one for Facebook for upholding the copyrights of creators and removing an infringing image! I’ll give FB a 7 out of 10 for this only because I had to lie and say it contained nudity to get their attention, but a positive result nonetheless. BTW I would have not reported this anonymously if I’d had a choice to put my name to it, but I did not.
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Unfortunately the image still exists…and if I were you I’d keep an eye out for it and make sure it doesn’t pop up again…have a feeling it will though…congratulations on the fb victory!
Ugh…. Next stop: Pinterest.
https://www.pinterest.com/1katet/jay-leno/
The fight continues…
Yeah, it’s a losing battle. One guy versus the entire internet. Still, I bitch-slapped these idiots.
My greater fear is that there would actually be a picture with Jay Leno’s nipple visible. (Ps. Loved the MN Original piece)
Get your lawyer to send a letter to ALL of the social media sites telling them they will be sued if illegally posted copyrighted material of yours is found on their sites, even if they claim neutrality or “hey, not responsible for what our members post” crap. If BitTorrent/Pirate Bay/or other sites can be sued for allowing members to post music without permissions, these social media companies can too. I think a letter from your lawyer will be a good start to “put the fear of God (TR) in them.
One thing I would like to remind cartoonists around the world is that some American cartoonists have been screwed over big time, syndicates, big media companies, now the online use of copyright material around the world has not been addressed. The big online sites should be paying into a fund with the copyright owners being reimbursed for the use of their work.
You didn’t lie to Facebook. Leno’s chin is girthier and more tumescent than any nudity I’ve seen in any porn film.
Don’t forget, these doucheweasels also stole Jay Leno’s joke. But at least that’s petty theft.