How do you deal with rip-off-ers?
Note: What follows is email correspondence between myself and a designer seeking advice. Names have been anonymousized, and I’ve subtracted praise since it would be icky of me to just post praisey emails.
Hi Jessica,
I've been lucky enough to land imitators of my work in the last few months, some of which have worked with larger companies on very visible campaigns. Obviously, you understand too well. I wondered if you had any thoughts on how to deal with people ripping you off. I understand the legal proceedings but wondered how you personally deal. Frankly, I'm flattered and simultaneously depressed at any given moment and try not to think about it. Is there a better way?
Thanks so much for your time. Hope you are well!
Person McPerson
Hey Person!
Here are the nine stages of rage / action / acceptance when it comes to dealing with someone ripping off your work:
1. Fury
2. Angry Tweeting
3. Regrets over angry tweeting and people calling you a troll
4. Writing the person directly in a way that is gentle, respectful, and educational
5. Receiving a defensive angry email back
6. Having your rep send an official stern letter
7a. They take the project down / send some form of apology (if it's an individual)
7b. They force you to file an official complaint with their legal team (if it's a company)
8. Feeling awful / exhausted no matter what happens
9. Pastries
(I recommend skipping the first three steps if you can)
The truth is, it’s pretty tough to get someone to acknowledge / offer compensation for a style ripoff. If you’re talking about someone working in your same medium or someone who was obviously the cheap version of you at the time of hire, chances are any pursuing / letter-writing you do will not lead to financial compensation. The best thing you can do is try to educate the person that ripped you off—they’re likely young and just don't know any better. If you do it in a way that is kind, you might end up making an ally instead of an enemy and they'll tread more carefully on future projects.
I used to get people sending me style rip-off-ers all the time, but they’ve definitely started to taper off. I think the style of lettering I helped to develop/revitalize just became so popular that people think of it as public domain now. I don’t mind, as the work is still coming in steadily and most of the people that are way too close to me stylistically acknowledge in some way that I was/am a big influence on their work. I try not to carry animosity toward the ones who don’t because that kind of stress makes you die young. The best medicine is to just keep working and know that any time and energy you spend getting panicky rage over people ripping you off takes away from your ability to make work. When you’re first starting out, you’re so defensive about your position in the industry because all the good stuff just started happening, but if you can keep the ball rolling and keep making awesome work, what once was a soul-crushing fury will turn into a barely noticeable annoyance that can at times legitimately feel flattering.
If you’re talking about someone ACTUALLY ripping off your work (i.e. reusing an image of yours without your permission or copying an image of yours exactly), there are of course ways to get compensation for the infringement but once you start threatening anything legal, especially with a bigger company, they will bury you in paperwork. Usually large companies have an in-house legal team that can devote endless hours to writing hard to read letters saying that what they have done is perfectly legal. Your lawyer must respond, and in no time the legal fees you're paying to keep up with the paperwork volleying start doubling / tripling / quintupling whatever the original fee might have been for the project had they hired you. I wouldn’t ignore a true rip-off, definitely send a letter to the artist (a much more stern one than you would to a style rip-off, but still give them the benefit of the doubt that they’re probably young and made a mistake and are not an awful human). Hopefully you'll get an apology back. The company, on the other hand, will be less likely to acknowledge / apologize without a fight.
There are brave souls that take on large companies when rip-offs happen (like Modern Dog) but if you followed their journey (which thankfully had a happy ending) it was full of heartache and stress, they had to sell their studio to pay legal fees, etc. If you’ve got the balls, the time, and the money to do it, and the company is CLEARLY doing something illegal by reusing / tracing your work, fight. Your battle will be tough, but you'll find plenty of support in the community for it.
The best advice I can give you is to copyright your images so that if a clear cut case of stealing comes across your plate, you have some ground to stand on legally. While you of course “own the copyright” to the images you create unless you're transferring them to the client in a contract, it’s difficult to pursue copyright infringement cases without having filed for copyright of the images officially.
Hopefully that helps!
J