Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Copyright infringement of one of my pieces

Hello to everyone :o)

I just wanted to let you all know what has happened about the copyright infringement of the owlet (Nasha) I created. For anyone who didn't hear about it, a design company took a photograph I had taken of Nasha and used it in a "Talking Baby Owl" app for iPhone without my consent. It was being sold all over the world. I found out about it because someone kindly emailed me to let me know. I sent the design company a "cease and desist" letter and sent Apple an email asking them to cooperate with making sure it was removed from their iTunes store. It was immediately removed from the store. If you are curious about the app, you can see a spec page of it here:

http://www.appannie.com/talking-baby-owl/





It seems that some people don't understand that artists continue to keep the copyright to their work after it is sold. At http://www.arsny.com/basics.html I found this wording: "A work that is created (fixed in tangible form for the first time) on or after January 1, 1978, is automatically protected from the moment of its creation and is given a term of copyright protection enduring for the lifetime of the artist plus an additional 70 years after the artist's death."

I've been considering taking legal action in this case and have been advised by legal council that I have a case in this matter. Has anyone else had to deal with this? What advice would you have for me?

No comments:

Post a Comment