Lawsuit Summary

A free lance graphic designer named Jon Engle received a bill from a stock art site called stockart.com for $18,000 back in 2008 for designs he allegedly used without purchasing.  Jon was being sued for 65 of his images (roughly $275 per image).  On Jon's own blog he wrote, "Once the sticker shock wore off the obvious question came to mind. Where the hell did they get these from? It seems as if most or all of them were lifted from my LogoPond showcase. They especially seemed to favor the ones that made it to the gallery."  He claims that someone copied his artwork and separated from the typography and then posted them for sale on the stock site.  After he refused to pay the bill, stockart.com hired a law firm specializing in copyright infringement that called John offering a settlement of $18,000 (not much better).  "BRING IT ON!," says John, "I have no doubt I can win in court." 

 The case caused an outrage around the blogosphere and Twitter in overwhelming support for John even to the point that a donation collection was setup for his defense fund.  Upon some investigation of the allegations, it actually appears that Jon is a blatant liar and he knows it. The Logo Factor, a graphic design blog with no relation to either side did a little investigating into the matter and came up with this: "I was also told that before contacting anyone, IPG perform extensive research into the background of any disputed images, including creation date, history and when it was added to the Stock Art site, pointing out that some of the images “in question” have been on the Stock Art website for almost a decade. Logopond, the supposed source for the designs (at least according to Jon’s blog), had only been online since June of 2006 at the very earliest. The worst point, from a designer’s point of view anyway, was the dispute involved the work of over twenty illustrators. With illustrations and icons that just happened to mirror their exact personal style. And if that wasn’t enough, Jon had previously been billed for other Stock Art licensed work, after it was discovered that it may have been used without permission. He paid that bill."  Here are a few examples of the work in question.

Those are some pretty incriminating photos with even more of them shown here: http://www.thelogofactory.com.nyud.net:8080/logo_blog/stock.html.  While the copyright dates on the Stock Art images show 2009, some of them have been around for over a decade.  This is a case that needs to be decided in court and there is definitely a strong chance that Jon would have no prayer of winning.  It appears that Jon must have agreed also because he removed his website, blog, Twitter account, and even the legal fund set up to help him.  That is pretty incriminating when you put it all together.  That man's career as a graphic designer is over, just as it should be.  These kinds of things can be easily avoided by giving people credit when you use their image or just making something completely original.  Failure to do so is just lazy and will end up making you the recipient of a surprise bill for $18,000 some day.








 Info attained here:
http://www.freelancerant.com/2009/04/13/jon-engle-copyright-infringement-case/
http://www.freelancerant.com/2009/04/07/so-you-thought-you-had-a-bad-day/
http://www.thelogofactory.com.nyud.net:8080/logo_blog/stock.html