In follow-up to Jet+Rubble’s letter below, here
are a few of the emails we received in the last couple of hours:

/>From gregol: “the street is the street! we are attracted by
the energetic chaos that it generates. action-reaction. non stop. and once you
give it to the street, it belongs to the street. please. copyrights and napkins
are for adults! streets are for us! gratis.

From href="http://www.josephcomba.htmlplanet.com">Joe Comba:  “Hi, this
is in reguards to the posting on march 23, about jet+rubble/brand new school…
After reading this post I had many thoughts cross my mind; Me being a designer
as well as an artist I found it very disturbing that a design firm would feel
correct about using a “street artists” original work without permission. I had
seen the commercials for the show when it was airing, and I had figured it was a
cooperative effort between jet+rubble and this design firm. All I know is that
just thinking about this is making me angry. When I design anything I am sure to
only use original things, wether it be photos, any images, art, whatever.
Because I know that if I were to use, say someone elses art, it would eat me up
inside, make me feel unoriginal, and awful. I am just shocked that a reputable
firm with decently creative designs felt that this was ok, considering the fact
that they too are creating original artwork in other peices they have made. The
thing that sucks is that, in putting up art on the street without copywrighting
it it kind of becomes fair game. I still don’t understand how “brand new school”
felt comfortable in doing this!

From Joseph Grier:
jet+rubble, Graphic designers know about biting. there is no question: they know
what they are doing is wrong. If you are fairly prolific in New York then they
know that there is a thinking and a continuim of thought behind your work and
not a one time thing.

When you put something up in public, it is
public. Anything that happens to it is fair game. I think it sucks that you got
bitten so badly, for profit too, but that’s the way it goes. Any real artist
should know, have you confronted them personally? Can you even find them? Not
that it would do much good now, but let them know what you are thinking.
/>
The bigger question is what do you do now? Abandon this great idea
because it was plagerized and corporationized? I would say go bigger and evolve
into something fresher than they bit. Show you can move forward.

If
they bite that, punch them in the teeth.

From href="http://www.quis.cc">quis: i personally am unsure about
whether another individual replicating my work would bother me too much; they’ll
either find their artistic niche in time or die out. I think within the street
art community/communities there is a respect for other people’s work, and the
effort that has gone into creating it.

The use of someone’s work
for commercial gain however is just totally wrong. Not only is the money not
going to the original artist, but nor is a lot of the recognition if a passer by
isn’t familiar with the work. What’s more, this is someone from outside the
street art community, who, by involving themselves uninitiated, threaten the
unwritten rules and respect that have built up over time.

/>From Filter: “Jet+Rubble illustrate an interesting dilemma. 
I agree that, generally, work created by an artist has an implied copyright; but
this implicit copyright is far less effective than a registered copyright when
it comes to cases of infringement.  The trend in intellectual property is moving
away from determining the owner of work based on “who did it first” as this is
often difficult to prove or validate. Instead, more emphasis is being placed on
registering/filing the works with the appropriate bodies (patent- trademark- or
copyright offices, etc.), as Jet+Rubble have learned by experience.

/>Although I agree that mutual “creative types” should be aware of implicit
copyright and respect the work of other artists, I don’t think it can be
expected that artwork left anonymously in public—in this case, street art—
with no indication of authorship OR copyright would be so respected.

/>I also find it ironic that Jet+Rubble are seeking legal restitution for
artwork which illegally defaces other people’s property (advertisements).  It
seems hypocritical to demand upholding of the law in one case—regarding
copyright—while disregarding the law in another—vandalism.  While
Jet+Rubble find it highly insulting that their work was appropriated by another
designer, don’t companies who legally buy advertising space find it highly
insulting when their ads are appropriated illegally through defacement which
detracts from their original intent?

I’m not siding with public
advertising and the associated corporations by any means, but from a legal
standpoint, it seems equally hard to condone Jet+Rubble.”

/>From rikcat: “Wow this is a sticky issue…..in some respects
i don’t think they have merit. By sticking the stickers in public places and
sometimes ruining ads there is no doubt they realize it is illegal. So in fact
they are breaking the law, but when some one fucks with them they want the law
to protect them. It’s kinda hipoccritical. How many rip-off’s or take-offs of
the original Obey Giant stickers are there…thousands and i don’t think Shep
went after them…Actually he celebrates them by putting them on his
website.”

From Dave the Chimp of the Finders Keepers
Crew: D*Face has been the victim of ‘art theft’ twice in the last 6
months. First time, his character was used as in-store display in every Virgin
records store in the UK, and now his work has turned up on the new Levis Europe
website. As you’d expect, he wasn’t asked or paid for any of this, and has spent
a considerable amount of time, and probably money, trying to get this work
removed from display.

Unfortunately the only way to fight this is to
copyright every character you are going to put up, or register them as a trade
mark. It costs money to copyright an idea or image unfortunately, but I have
heard that if you post yourself a letter containing the idea/image by a secure
method, so you have to sign for the letter when it arrives and it is stamped
with a date (and don’t open it!!) this can be used in court as proof of
ownership on an idea/image. It’s not perfect, but it’ll sure help.

If
you’re going to cover a city with one character then the purpose is surely to
get it noticed by the general public. That public includes graphic designers and
advertising art directors, so expect it to be ripped off. Don’t forget you’re
‘advertising’ yourself without paying for legitimate ad space, and alot of
artists use found (ie not paid for) images, so don’t get too upset when you get
ripped off. There’s two ways to fight this - either put up individual, one-off
pieces (the method I prefer) or do shitty characters no one likes!!! Remember,
by painting in the street you’re already giving your work away free, so don’t be
surprised if someone steals it - I mean, you wouldn’t leave your bike unlocked
in the street now would ya!!

One final thing I’d like to mention. I
was chatting to a guy I skate with the other day. He works for a large “extreme
sports” magazine. He’d seen a memo from the marketing department of a large
skate shoe company which basically said “Street Art is going to be the big thing
over the next year, so we have to use it as much as possible, with as many
products being ‘customised’ as possible”. So there you have it kids, if this
company is saying this, you can bet there’s a whole load of marketing
departments saying the same thing. expect a whole shit load of biting for the
next year, some of you will get paid to work for these companies, but most of
you won’t. It’ll all be over in a year, then those of us that make art in the
streets out of the pure love of creation and the adrenalin rush of being out in
the streets after midnight will be left to carry on indulging their dreams,
while all the fashion/band-wagon jumpers will fuck off and do whatever style
magazines tell them to do next. And good riddance, the streets are filling up
with more and more ill-conceived and badly executed work every day, and the
sooner it becomes unfashionable the better! I’ve experienced skateboarding
falling out of fashion twice already, and it’s great, it’s the best way to clear
away the hangers-on and the fashion wankers, so I won’t be shedding a tear when
“street art” is no longer “cool”.

Stop crying and start painting!
Constant change is the way of the world!!

Here’s to the future!!”
/>
From MAGMO THE
DESTROYER: “Just read the troubles w/ Jet+Rubble. first thing: THAT
SUCKS. I feel for them. Really, creative theft and misuse is the worst thing
that can happen to an artist. I have always believed that what ever YOU create
is YOURS. but we live in a world that has millions and millions of people
creating everyday.  Whatever you do; paint, street art, stickers, write, graf…
and for what ever intent; personal exploration, fame,  hobby, fun whatever, you
should claim RIGHTS to your work. Commercial graphic design and the marketing
machines have the money and power to buy and use anything they find will make
them profit. The people who work for these machines do not care that you
created it, or what your artistic intent is. They ONLY care about their bottom
line.  So if ripping off your style/artwork gains them popularity and makes them
cash, then that’s what they will do. PEOPLE WILL DO ANYTHING FOR MONEY.  Our
world, if you like it or not is run by business and politics.  Treat yourself
like a business would. PROTECT your investments. TRADEMARK and COPYRIGHT all
your work.  Learn about all the legal crap BECAUSE IF YOU DON’T, smart slimy
lawyers and marketing campaigns will try to destroy you and take what you have
created. KNOW your enemy. KNOW the SYSTEM. In the begining I have used the
POORMANS copyright. Which you makes copies of your artwork, sign and date, then
mail them to yourself. You do not open the envelope and you keep it in a safe
place. Then after saving money, I have registered MAGMO w/ the United States
Trademark office it was kind of a hassle but learned a great deal and got it
done. NOW I am filling out the copyright forms. To me this is a necessity, this
is life, MAGMO is mine. I will destroy anyone or thing that tries to take it
away. I think it would be great if artists can talk more about this topic and
share experience and advice. If artists want to get in touch or have more info
about this, just give me a shout.  magmo@magmothedestroyer.org

/>DESTROY+COPYRIGHT ?2004, MAGMO THE DESTROYER

here are some links
that may help you:

href="http://www.copyrightauthority.com/poorman.htm">http://www.copyrightauthori
ty.com/poorman.htm

href="http://www.copyright.gov">http://www.copyright.gov

href="http://www.uspto.gov">http://www.uspto.gov




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