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Author Topic: Update to our story about George Riddick of ImageLine Inc.  (Read 6330 times)

BartPerry

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Update to our story about George Riddick of ImageLine Inc.
« on: March 02, 2009, 09:07:31 PM »
I want to post an update to our story about George Riddick of ImageLine Inc.

for the past few days after receiving emails from ImageLine I went to work doing research. I have various contacts in the embroidery world, and contacted them all, and asked them for help in this matter.

We (all of us) started emailing, calling, and faxing Jupiter designs, and other clipart website owners asking for specifics of terms of use, who owned what, and to make terms of use cleared to the embroidery world.

WOW!!!

All I can say is the power of numbers works like crazy!!

One clipart site REVISED their terms of use to specifically include the use of images for digitizers, and Jupiter designs has sent ME personally emails stating they do NOT claim copyright on finished products such as embroidery designs, and that THEY (Jupiter) own ALL RIGHT TO IMAGES ON THEIR SITE!

This means, one of them is in trouble. And I assume that since Jupiter is the larger entity in this matter they will win! At least they made their intents clear now to digitizers.

My advice to others with problems with ImageLine is to contact Jupiter (clipart.com) and get it in email from them who owns what so you have a leg to stand on in court, and force it into the courts without lying down and giving up.

I want to thank the owner of this site. What has transpired in the past few days was nothing less then a miracle, and without this website to point many of us in the right direction, I don't think this would have happened quite so quickly.

Bart

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Re: My Comments on the George Riddick/ImageLine Controversy
« Reply #1 on: March 04, 2009, 09:01:23 PM »
This appears to be good news for you to get clarification. Do you have a copy of these emails?  I would be very interested in reading the verbiage.

I appreciate your kind words but this is what I was getting at in my commentary and this website.  Cowering in fear does nothing except empower the bully.  There is power in numbers.  There is power in speaking out.  There is power in sharing information.  There is power in sharing resources (and I don't mean infringing or sharing copyrighted materials).

What you did was great.  You reached out and decided to get informed and find out for yourself instead of relying on someone else who may not have your best interests at heart.

Truthfully speak, I did very little except do some reporting.  I posted a bunch of outrageous emails, wrote one major commentary, several minor ones, and one public response to Mr. Riddick.  Mr. Riddick seems to give me more credit and power than I truly have.

Mr. Riddick's and Teri's own emails (now exposed publicly) have done far more to damage their own credibility and case than anything I can do.  Most of those emails are self-explanatory and have enraged so many.  How they expected to get away with such shady tactics in the age of the Internet is beyond me.  I think he underestimated the outrage the embroidery community would feel when he started to go after them using nasty, questionable tactics.
I'm a non-lawyer but not legally ignorant either. Under the 1st Amendment, I have the right to post facts & opinions using rhetorical hyperbole, colloquialisms, metaphors, parody, snark, or epithets. Under Section 230 of CDA, I'm only responsible for posts I write, not what others write.

BartPerry

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Re: My Comments on the George Riddick/ImageLine Controversy
« Reply #2 on: March 05, 2009, 08:49:59 AM »
At this time I think I am going to wait on posting the actual emails, and I tell you why. I am ALSO waiting on another outcome DIRECTLY from Jupiter Images (higher up the line) and then I am going to work on Getty if I can get that far. Quite a few people right now have emails stating they CAN use the clipart for embroidery designs, but CANNOT sell the original clipart. That part was easy, just email kwoods@jupiterimages.com and she seems to be MORE then willing to send you an email letting you know what you can, and cannot do.

I will ad one simple note, you HAVE to be specific, in other words when you ask for permission state it as such to let them know you will NOT use the actual image. Here is what I posted to her as a question.

Email to Jupiter- "Thank you for letting this be known. Do you think there is any way
Clipart.com will put this into their terms of use, in plain English so as
not to confuse digitizers in the near future?

Now, I have one more question. Now that Clipart.com has given permission for
us to commercially sale items we have digitized using clipart.com items,
does clipart.com own the copyright to art found on clipart.com?"

This email was answered DIRECTLY to the point with a YES, Jupiter has acquired copyright to each design on its website.

You HAVE to be specific, and stay with it.

When I asked to use their designs from resell I asked it in a way that they KNEW the original clipart would not be sold, and had no way of being downloaded itself.

I did however find one more little tidbit that was interesting. George Riddick has done something that even amazed me. He sent us an email with an electronic attachment inside (Word document) that not only contained the images in question that we DID ask to see, but ALSO contained actual page shots of our website showing text, pictures, and clipart that WE own sole rights to, and one image that was hand painted for our site use, and cannot be found elsewhere.

Mr. Riddick seems to think that HE is beyond the law himself, as sending our text, our WebPages, or our images itself breaks copyright, and our terms of use both. I would LOVE to see our company get him into court. He stated we have two images on our website that belong to him, however one of them not only was hand drawn by Dollarstitch, we own the actual picture of the praying hands used to draw the image, and HIS image of praying hands he claims was the worst piece of unusable trash I had seen in quite a while. (no harm intended, just my personal opinion).

Anyways, he sent through an email items NOT asked for, we simply requested he resend the attachment again with the images in question. He stated he had proof of IMAGES his company owned on our WebPages, he did not state he wanted to use our WebPages, our  images in an email. He did NOT have our permission to do so, did not have WRITTEN permission as requested on our website prior to copying anything on our website, and a person in his situation SHOULD know better.

Here is what was asked of him "If you would be so kind as to resend that document to us through email I would be more then happy to locate the clipart source, and divulge that information to you in an email at a later date when I am allowed spare time to locate the media in question."

And this was a response to his sending OUR images in an email.

"Now, on the other hand you have copied and pasted our website showing an EXCLUSIVE image drawn by Mrs. ***** ****** of California, and you did not have permission to copy this image in ANY form, or send it electronically. This in turn really upsets me, that a man in your position making such claims would himself violate copyright law by sending our website as an image through an email that was not asked for.

 George, what is your attorney’s name, and phone number as this email itself violates copyright law, and our penalties are the same as yours by law, as this is a one of a kind image only to be distributed by Dollarstitch(tm). (The Indian maiden you viewed in this email). I am sure our headquarters will be very interested in this matter, especially the email you have distributed with our image, and website contained inside."

He did not divulge his attorneys name, address, or phone number and our company is fuming at his flagrant disregard towards anyone else's copyright.

Anyways, not trying to ramble, just trying to show that he himself does not respect intellectual property law in this situation, or copyright of others by sending OUR items out in electronic format in his email. I will bet that he will not make that mistake again as our attorney has stated it was illegal.

Bart

 

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