As the saying goes - “Watch this space.” This
afternoon we were given a glimpse of hope that the IDW / Banksy controversy
might actually have a happy ending after all. We’ve hooked Alex up with the
right people in London to make sure that Banksy now at least has a say in the
Smoke covers before seeing the Smoke bites in the stores. Mad props to Alex who
is now actually working very hard today to get things all sorted out with the
proper ending. It’s not easy for her and she is indeed trying hard. Alex and I
had a good conversation on the phone today, and while we still have some
differences on this issue, we’re trying to work together a bit to “make things
right” on both ends.

For us, this is not about Banksy or IDW as much
as it is an issue of education and dialogue that needs to take place. If you’re
not talking about how broken the process is, then your not making any progress
on the issue at all. The good news is that right now on this one case all the
parties are talking and hopefully there will be some progress. The other good
news is that the Smoke covers have not been printed yet so there is still a
chance that they will never see the light of day.

So why are we
telling you all of this? It’s because if you haven’t yet contacted Alex, Chris,
or Igor (as I know many of you have) please hold off just a bit on the IDW
bashing so that these guys can calm down a bit (we really did blindside them)
and so that they can have some time to think through all of the issues. The
things they wrote yesterday to us were in the heat of the moment. Perhaps with
some time and with less anger directed towards them they will re-consider.
Again, our hope still is that IDW does the right thing and thus sends a message
of understanding on the issue to all artists rather than one of justifying what
to us and many others can’t be justified- ie theft.

We can’t say much
more than this now, but again please hold off on the IDW bashing for now. Trust
us on this one.

A couple of other things to know:

—
First, thanks to everyone who sent us emails this week about this issue. Both
positive and negative. The support and dialogue was amazing. The emails we have
received have been incredible. It truly supports what the Wooster site is all
about. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

—Our point in yesterday’s post
was not to accuse all “Creative Directors” of having no creativity and of
stealing. A ton of Creative Directors check out our site each day and we’re not
trying to tar and feather the entire community. This should have been obvious
but maybe it wasn’t. So to those Creative Directors who don’t steal - thanks! We
wish everyone did the same things but they don’t.

—Please know that
our whole point in bringing the Smoke covers onto the Wooster site is not to
create a personal attack on Alex, Chris, or Igor for their actions. The reason
why we did what we did was to bring to light the process in which artwork is
developed to sell products that is really truly broken. The Smoke covers are
only one example. This is happening more and more because with digital
technology and good lawyers it’s becoming easier and easier. And the easier it
gets, the more people stop thinking about what they are actually doing. The
easier it gets the more it is accepted.

—For us art for “arts sake”
should have very little controls. But art that is created to sell products
(including books) needs to be done in a way where the process itself works such
that artists don’t get ripped off. We all have things that inspire us. To get
our creative juices flowing we check out art for inspiration. But it takes
restraint to make sure that those things that inspire us don’t become
appropriated as our own. If you make a living doing this, you need to be held to
a higher standard. And in business, protecting the little guy can be hard to do
when people don’t put in safeguards into the process. This can only change if we
all bring this issue to the surface. This discussion needs to be about the
process to have any impact.

—In the last couple of
days we’ve received a ton of emails, lengthy photographs, links, etc. of other
examples of biting. Some are worthy of discussion and some aren’t. But for us,
we’re not going to suddenly turn the Wooster site into a place where we take on
every example of a bite. We’re not turning into Ralph Nader all of a sudden. The
Wooster website can’t become the “Wooster Legal Defense Fund.” What we will
continue to do is to support a dialgue and awareness of this issue and we will
continue to support the artists. In cases like the Smoke covers we will
absolutely deal with it head on and call people like IDW to the carpet. The
truth is that in retrospect we felt like we could have done a lot more at the
time to make Zara’s bite of Freaklub more well known. We did post something
about it on the site, but perhaps we should have done more. We could have done
more and we should have done more (One thing we did do was to make sure we will
never ever buy any more Zara clothes)

So to sum things up - Hold off
a bit on the IDW bashing. Don’t slow down at all about talking about this issue.
Make people aware. Use your voice. We’re using ours.

Yesterday we
were screaming, today we’re talking.

With much love,

Marc
and Sara