The Great Little Chimp Rip-Off

By Mark Kaufman

Piracy has hit the illustration community website The Little Chimp Society (LCS). A “publisher” out of Hong Kong calling themselves the Great Creativity Organization has basically taken images from LCS contributors and interviews conducted by Darren DeLito of LCS and has without any approvals, any contact, any OK whatsoever and printed them in book form and is selling said book for $100 a pop. The heretofore positive world of social networking as embodied by LCS and Illustration Mundo and Illustration Friday, among countless others, now knows what the Microsofts and Time-Warners of the world know. That digital piracy from China and eastern Europe and the cul-de sac up the road from you, rips people off, abuses your rights and copyrights, and profits off of your hard work. All creatives in the USA should join the Graphic Artists Guild, which is at the forefront of artists rights as step one.

Unfortunately this is nothing new, It happened to our design firm a while back. I was at the bookstore looking at a new book of logos and lo and behold I saw more than a few of our logo designs pictured. I never sent original art to anyone, I never approved that they be used. I tried to look into the matter, but the addresses were fake  and publisher was a world away, and I dropped it. While I am not happy that this happened to LCS and its contributors, it is positive that a large community of like-minded people are outraged about the issue of piracy in the illustration/design/new-media world. Perhaps the many can start to figure out how to combat thievery where the individual could not. Read the comments from LCS blog.

I know I no longer snicker when large multi nationals like Microsoft or Time Warner bitch about piracy.

Artwork from Princess Cam Cam