Art theft & copyright violation?

[Morrus]

Art theft & copyright violation? Bleeding Cool has an article about an outfit called Outlaw Press which apparently has a habit of stealing art and other content and selling it. Owner James Shipman responds to takedown requests with things like "I really don’t care. Your item(s) will remain there forever. Copies are selling very good. Over 50 copies sold to date."

Obviously I'm only seeing one side of the story there, but it looks pretty clear. What do you guys think?

 

[billd91]

Obviously I'm only seeing one side of the story there, but it looks pretty clear. What do you guys think?

Seems pretty cut and dried to me too. But until someone cobbles together enough scratch to sue the bastard and have enough stamina to win, he's not going to stop.

 

[Alzrius]

Art theft & copyright violation? Bleeding Cool has an article about an outfit called Outlaw Press which apparently has a habit of stealing art and other content and selling it. Owner James Shipman responds to takedown requests with things like "I really don’t care. Your item(s) will remain there forever. Copies are selling very good. Over 50 copies sold to date."

Obviously I'm only seeing one side of the story there, but it looks pretty clear. What do you guys think?

Stories about this Shipman have been going around for a while; he keeps doing this, actively trying to avoid or circumvent attempts to stop him (I may be wrong, but I seem to recall that he had a previous company that did the exact same thing?).

Shipman's disrespect to artists and other content-creators is flagrant and upsetting. I hope at some point someone manages to put together a serious lawsuit against this guy.

 

[Morrus]

Does he produce any content of his own, or is it all stolen from elsewhere? I'm not familiar at all with the products in question.

 

[Alzrius]

I'm not familiar at all with the products in question.

This blog post provides a good overview of Shipman's activities.

 

[Agamon]

I haven't read the BC article, as I know about this already, but I'm surprised it didn't go into this moron's history. The name Outlaw Press isn't a coincidence, it's a flagrant "neener-neener" to content creators that can't afford to take this guy to court.

 

[Morrus]

But until someone cobbles together enough scratch to sue the bastard and have enough stamina to win, he's not going to stop.

This blog post provides a good overview of Shipman's activities.

Hmm. That's odd. That blog post mentions he steals art from big companies like WotC, Games Workshop, even Dreamworks. Those companies certainly have the resources to take whatever legal action is needed. I wonder why they haven't?

It looks like folks have been partially successful in getting stuff removed from DTRPG, Lulu, and Amazon.

(Oh, hey, we already have a thread! http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?269217-Outlaw-Press-stolen-artwork-accusations )

 

[Umbran]

I know, in that prior thread, I had come down as, "do not turn this into beating on Jim Shipman". At the time, the accusation was new, we had no proof, and all that.

Years have passed. The man has, apparently, pretty much outright admitted it with his responses to requests to take things down.

So, he's being a real jerk. He gets no protection from me other than what the board rules require.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Hmm. That's odd. That blog post mentions he steals art from big companies like WotC, Games Workshop, even Dreamworks. Those companies certainly have the resources to take whatever legal action is needed. I wonder why they haven't?

It looks like folks have been partially successful in getting stuff removed from DTRPG, Lulu, and Amazon.

(Oh, hey, we already have a thread! http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?269217-Outlaw-Press-stolen-artwork-accusations )

I wasn't aware of stealing from the big boys, only stealing from small companies and individual artists. I did some research, and the ways our current laws work, it costs you a LOT of money to file a suit and bring this to court. The paper I read from one of the state representatives (can't recall her name offhand) quoted thousands of dollars just to file the paperwork and proper fees. So you're screwed unless you've got a ton of money to go through the process. And what small time publisher or artist has that?

Jim knows this, and thus his attitude. Infuriating, really.

 

[nedjer]

Think there was an attempt to stop this a couple of years back - seems to just keep at it. If I remember correctly it looks like a volume approach. I.e. each title makes buttons, so even if someone gets the cash to go after him over the content it's hard to prove much loss due to his activities.

At the same time any larger company complaining about a fancy cover has to go to a cease and desist - at which point desist with no follow up is one option, i.e. pull the offending title for a while/ recover immediately. Or leave them to spend lots of trying to show he's harming their business by shifting a few T&T titles on the strength of just their cover.

I guess it makes bucks as a section of the T&T community presumably can't resist a bargain - though if so they are at the same time throttling their system, as there's no point anyone developing when they know what happens next.