Back in 2009, while we were working on building Myows Online Copyright App, I remember reading about Sky News using a Twitpic picture by Joe Neale without permission or licensing and the debate that followed.

In Today’s case, the perpetrator is again SkyNews, this time using a 1 minute Youtube video without seeking permission and then using legalese bullying techniques to reach an ersatz settlement. (more…)

Unbelievable case today, and shocking response from the copyright perpetrators, Curebit, a startup that recently received 1.2M$ in funding and couldn’t be bothered to pay the few thousand dollars it would cost to design and code their own landing page. Poor form Curebit. (more…)

With close to 50 000 Twitter followers, Jacob Cass is a celebrity in the design world. He runs the popular logo award site Logo of The Day and publishes regular great articles on his website, JustCreativeDesign.

Many freelance designers worldwide aspire to be him; some taking it too literally as this Tweet may attest.

So today we have a case of a brand identity specialist who’s own identity is being used by an unscrupulous thief in hope of getting work from Freelancer.com – imagine the disappointment on the client’s face should he fall for it?

Thankfully, as a design professional, JustCreative seems to be proactive about it. (more…)

I’m going to expose the biggest cases of copyright infringement I find online on a more regular basis. Why? Because it angers me that some people think it’s OK to steal other members’ of their own community’s work, only to claim it as their own.

So today, let’s have a look at how MWEB (South-Africa) blatantly stole Numericable’s (France) ad. (more…)

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If there is one thing that I’ve learned over the past six years of running Plagiarism Today, it’s that deviantArt is one of the most dedicated and united communities when it comes to fighting plagiarism. Few communities have shown the heart and the unity on this issue and none that I’ve seen have been as quick to rally to stop art theft.

Whether it’s the formation of anti-plagiarism groups, of which there are now several, dealing with uncooperative hosts, or tackling commercial infringement of the community’s work, deviantArt has always been there.

However, of all the cases I’ve tracked and even worked with the dA community, the most recent scandal, the Art4Love case, is perhaps the best example of it. deviantArt is a site that does not tolerate artistic plagiarism and is at war with the site’s former owner and artist, Chad Love Lieberman

The story, however, is a bizarre one and a case of an investigation that is still struggling to discover how deep the rabbit hole goes.

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A Typical and not so Funny Case of Online Copyright Infringement

I’m a huge fan of the Oatmeal, an abrasive and hilarious comic-strip by Matthew Inman. In fact, he is probably my favorite person to follow on twitter or Facebook and brightens my timeline daily. Matthew is clearly too talented for his own good – producing Highly Original cartoons, and it is no surprise that, with very little deterrents, his work gets republished with no attribution on a plethora of dubious sites. One of which is called FunnyJunk and lives up to the latter part of the name.
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Wikipedia claims that Shakira wrote the WAKA WAKA World Cup 2010 Song, and, well, that’s not entirely true and I have proof (watch the Youtube Video below to see what I mean):

Scroll down for Shakira’s “version”

Since both Agency Zebra (my Agency) and Engage Brandcraft (Chris’s) are a short walk away from the Cape Town stadium, we’ve heard this song ad nauseam and I was very surprised to notice that the original version was so similar to Shakira’s. Intrigued, I investigated and here’s what I found:

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Amber Leigh Turner is a freelance web designer who recently launched a community website aptly called Students That Freelance.

In yesterday’s article, Amber relates how she discovered through Statcounter that someone was using her work without her permission. She subsequently used Myows to have the copy removed and even received a letter of apology.

Are you wondering how that is possible? Then read her very well written article Why No One is Invincible from Copyright Infringement on StudentsthatFreelance.com

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Yesterday I showcased Tim van Damme’s Wall of Shame, a rather fun way to treat copyright thieves.

Today I’ll present a similar approach, from Panic, the software makers who bring us Coda, Transmit and other Mac apps that have become part of our every day life.

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