Little Cat A begged me to visit a certain website to enter our pooch, Lola, in their cutest dog competition. I finally had a moment and went to the site and OH MY (!), was I surprised to see my very own artwork being used as their Twitter symbol. I don’t recall giving permission for my little friend to fly over to their site and visit. That’s because I didn’t give permission, nor was I asked. You tell me, is this the same bird??
What's on their website.
What's in my etsy shop.
Um, yeah. That’s the same bird. I recognize it because I drew it.
I’ve emailed (only way to contact them) saying to remove it from their site. That was a week ago. I just checked. It’s still there.
Wow – That is, ummm, I don’t even have a word for it. I’m really sorry to hear that someone felt it was okay to use your stuff as “free clipart”. Good luck getting it sorted.
That is so uncool to do that sort of thing. I hope you can get it resolved!
Ack! Whitney!
It’s probably a misunderstanding… I hope they take it down!
That’s not nice, (and nice matters!)
How utterly annoying! Yes, that is the same bird! Why do people think that they can just take whatever they see on the net?? I hope they rethink their actions…
I agree, not nice. And yes, it is the same exact bird. I hope you get a response quickly.
Hey, you’ve “made it” now! You’re not a real designer until someone steals your work.
People do that a lot these days with twitter birds I think. I know that’s no consolation, but it gets easier.
That is so not cool. I hope they settle up with you.
Whitney–
Email them again.
Email a cease and desist letter with a time frame for removal of your images (i.e within 7 days, within 30 days, etc.). If the request is not complied to within the given time frame have your lawyer follow up with a written letter. You should be able to find a mailing address for them with a bit of internet searching.
Personally, I know these situations are very frustrating.
Best of luck-
Janice
That is so frustrating! When I worked in the corporate world, I was in Marketing and was constantly having to tell other companies not to use stuff from our website without permission.