Blamblog - Brett Lamb's Blog

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

The Bigger Idiot

It's internet mob madness again ... get out your torches and pitchforks!

A guy named Jon Engle posted an article claiming that he'd been accused of pilfering images from stockart.com; they sent him an $18,000 bill last year:

This was a bill for new images. Very familiar images. They were images from several of my logos; 65 of them in fact. That breaks down to about $275 per image. They actually wanted me to pay them $275 for each one of MY images!

But then the stock company stepped up their tactics:

They are calling or emailing every one of my clients they can find. They inform the client that I’m being investigated for copyright infringement and that the logo I designed for them may have been stolen from their client.

Digg and Reddit and a load of other sites piled on with headlines reading: Designer gets accused of stealing his own work and billed $18,000 and then links to client and company email addresses appeared, encouraging people to write and let people know "what's going on".

Except nobody knows what's going on yet because, so far, the only thing on the record is Jon Engle's accusation post. The stock site hasn't responded and their contributor in question seems like he might be on the up and up.

Somebody stole something from someone -- that's all that's clear at this point -- and either Engle or the other guy are going to be exposed as the bigger idiot. Engle's posts seem a little fishy and it raises some flags: why didn't he deal with this six months ago? And why hasn't he provided examples in his post where it would be easiest to prove his case?

All of the internet lynch mobs I've witnessed over the years (that Moxiepop thing, the Dooce plagiarism thing, the Blogumentary thing, the suckling off the government boob for life thing ... and on and on) didn't have their facts straight ... if you want to make a wager, I'll put $2 against the mob.

UPDATE: It's not looking good for the mob. A couple of people on reddit did two seconds of legwork and found that Engle's art matches the work of at least two different illustrators at stockart.com who work in different themes ... and one artist's work dates back to 2001.

Meanwhile, a legal defence fund for Engle already has almost $2000 in pledges, a twitter feed continues to spread the story and blog after blog relays the tale without an ounce of skepticism:

Matthew High shows how these things start and spread, "
Since stockart.com and their pit-bull lawyers don't seem to be willing to listen to reason, then perhaps they might respond to overwhelming public shaming and disapproval. So feel free to spread the word."

TechDirt wrote about it, but only the people in the comments were suspicious.

Adland wrote, "Now, I don't know John Engle or his designwork but I don't think this story is too crazy to believe."

Unbeige raved, "A creepy story from start to finish and we're hoping the third act ends up with all things made right in the world."

The Beat wrote, "The tactics being used by the people who are suing him are quite alarming."

The Blog Herald used the dust-up as a reason to post some useful information, but regarding Engle they don't go any deeper than his inital post and cover their butts this way,"However, it doesn’t matter who is in the right in this case. For either side to clear their name, they are going to have to prove that the work is theirs."

And a copy of an email from the DIGG thread:

Emailed
----------
Dear Stockart

You better be careful with your next move, the people of the internet are going to come down and launch a jihad on your asses. It think it is disgusting - they way that you do business, and the way that you can bully small independent artists the way you have. You should really be a shamed of yourselves.

I suggest that you check your facts, upon review, drop the case against Jon Engle immediatley - I believe you used no win, no fee lawyers anyway - so cut your losses NOW!

I shall try and get in contact with some of your clients to try to let them know about the situation, and I shall be contacting the lawyers you used with the same advice and information.

Yours,
##### #######
p.s. ***** you, go die in a hole

MORE UPDATE: The mob hits the mainstream with the Guardian relinking the original story and Drawn! posting it on their Twitter feed.

MORE UPDATE: I've set up a cafepress shop to commemorate the mob experience.

1:42 AM , # , |