What is Digg?81 Comments
- chris9902, on 10/12/2007, -6/+69what, did you even read it?
I hope he wins. they stole his idea and didn't even give him a job. That is really cheap.
I really really hope he wins. - noahhoward, on 10/12/2007, -6/+38A company steals his copyrighted work and ruins his image in his clients eyes and you think he is fishing for money?
- cdinic, on 10/12/2007, -6/+23Are you kidding me? do you have any evidence to back up your silly comment? You act as if this has never happened before. It occurs frequently, and its devastating to the victims career. Go research the copyright battles over the eyeball character from Monsters Inc. and tell me that guy is fishing for cash.
- kidhero, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18Why is this web 2.0's david and goliath...
American copyright protection occurs from whence content is created.
God you people are so stupid. - noahhoward, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18"I agree. This guy couldn't web design his way out of a paper bag."
Who the hell are you then? This guy is good, I expect whatever samples of your work that you intend to show to support your position to make me weep in absolute awe. - Scottish, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Copyright is implicit.
- thinkdifferent, on 10/12/2007, -8/+18Article says his trademark was on My Card, My Work in the reference of art design. The campaign for AMEX was My Life, My Card about a credit card. Trademarks are limited to categories for just this reason. Microsoft has a trademark on Windows just as it applies to operating systems and computer products. They certainly don't have rights to every use of the word, otherwise plenty of window shops would be in trouble.
Looking at the two sites, www.mylifemycard.com and www.mycardmywork.com, about the only thing they have in common is they both use Flash, and have the words "My" & "card" on the page. Does the designer really believe he can have ownership of the idea of possesion as in my something? Also Amex had previous campaigns that involve The Card, does the designer want to take credit for that too? - dknighton, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Having worked with Ogilvy & Mather before, it wouldn't suprise me if they were, in fact, stealing ideas from some poor schmuck.
- databasecowboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Isn't this what the advertising business is all about? It's one of the reasons I got out. Heck, at the end of my career, I even got ripped off by Crimestoppers in a similar manner.
They had me do some comps for a billboard campaign. I gave them some quick stuff they didn't like. A few months later the billboards all over the Twin Cities were carrying my unpaid work. Even worse, I used captures from TV in place of models. After all, they were only comps. So CrimeStoppers not only stole from me, but used unlicensed photo stills from Melrose Place.
I never pursued the case, (I should have called the crimestoppers hotline) but I hope this guy all the luck. He's going upstream on this one. Stealing is the bread and butter of the ad world. It would be nice to see a new precedent. - ArcticCelt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I think submiter wrote web 2.0 just to whore more diggs... and it worked :(
- headzoo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9"I agree. This guy couldn't web design his way out of a paper bag."
I'm guessing that you didn't look at his client list. Apparently some top name companies out there disagree with you.
I too will be waiting for examples of your work. - Grimdotdotdot, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10Christ, this poor guy, it sucks to see all his hard work ripped off by...
Uh-oh, gotta go, my torrent of Pirates Of The Carrabian 2 has finished downloading. - cheech_sp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8BS? The guy makes a living coming up with unique logos / catch phrases / graphics / business identification. If people think his own business name is a blatant copy why would they hire him?
- lane.montgomery, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Design is a matter of opinion.
That being said, his site design does suck. It is way too busy and upon loading the page my attention was immediately drawn the the navigation on the top left. That is good, but it looks aweful being squeezed up in there. Second my attention was drawn to the large streak of ***** down the middle of the page. WTF? Also, take the border off the RSS image link. Who leaves a border on an image link anymore?
To be fair, I prefer white space and minimalism, but I don't think I'm the only one. - withears, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Based upon the title and little bit of intro text, I thought he was fishing as well.
But after reading the article and looking at his site (I've used the Amex site before, so I'm familiar with the design), I think this guy has a case.
Best of luck to him. - danshields, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Well he deserves the money if they used his idea's to make the the concept, Just as if they hired him as a consultant on the project to develop this idea.
- ArcticCelt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I do normally tend to root for the small guy and if they stole from him I hope they lose but right now, I am trying to find similarities between the two web sites and honestly, apart for the two words “my card”, I cant find other similarities. Here are the two web sites, anyone see something that I don’t see?
O’Keefe
http://www.mycardmywork.com/
Visa
http://www.mylifemycard.com/ - jgtg32a, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Yes he does
I checked out his site and the writing at the bottom is the same as from the commercial - medieval, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I hope this guy isn't paying his lawyers by the hour.
- lucidmatt, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6I wish this guy the best of luck. However, as a longtime veteran of the web design business, I know that this type of stuff happens all the time, and there is very little recourse. While legally (and I'll throw in the obligatory IANAL), you have a copyright on a design once you fix it, it's extremely hard to inforce those copyrights. The best thing you can do is to take it as a form of flattery and move on.
That being said, seriously, he's suffered irreperable harm from people associating him with an AMEX campaign? A clothespin on the nose for that type of BS. - cuddleparty, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7advertising is vicious. i don't doubt that they stole his idea. i'd sue the ***** out of 'em too if it were me. i'm pretty sure he's not just fishing for money. he'd be silly to do that, as it could possibly have an effect on his public image and hurt his business if these were trumped up charges. oh wait, it is already hurting his cred. which means he must be fairly passionate about it in order to risk his career.
- PAJK, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Slick? LMAO. It's completely unoriginal, and uncomparable.
- Suchmann, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4My bad on the copyright / trademark confusion, but the comment still stands.
I still think it's a bit of a stretch. - david76, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5@pajk
Being inspired by existing work (not that I think Ogilvy was inspired by his website to create the AmEx campaign), and copyright infringement are very different. In this case, the copyright infringement issue is exactly as thinkdifferent says. His claim is out of the scope of his copyright.
"According to the Complaint, the defendants not only used a confusingly similar mark to Mr. O'Keefe's ``My Card, My Work'' trademark, but they copied significant copyrighted expression"
That's a ridiculous contention. The whole concept of the campaign is different, as is the mark. It's not like he pitched an AmEx campaign with "My Life, My Card" he just sent in his resume & url. - noahhoward, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Actually, now that I've seen it (not sure why you expected everyone to instantly think of your profile) your stuff is just as good, you are both on levels of design I've been trying to reach for a while. While I agree that your homepage isn't anythingspectacular, a lot of your other work is great, but I fail to see how you can turn around and bash this guys work when you are on about the same level with him.
You stuck me as arrogoant regardless of your talent. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@cdinic: I agree that this guy might have gotten ripped off and may deserve money but I don't like your comparing it to monsters inc's problems. Sonoma drew something similar... but really... its a ball with an eye and arms and legs... I drew something exactly like that when I was young, as did my brother and even kids I work with at special-needs classes. Maybe it's because its such an easy design, but that "look" is not unique to Disney or Sonoma, so the lawsuit is pointless.
- dmolsen, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Is it that hard to look in cmyke's profile to see if they list a personal site? Voila!
Site: http://karmcity.com/
Portfolio: http://karmcity.com/?s=portfolio
Looks pretty slick to me. - Skeuomorph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3How large is a large project? And, if you're serious, it would make sense to provide a way for people to contact you, currently not specified in your profile.
In any case, you should prequalify what you're seeking by sharing your need (what are you trying to have built), your budget (what you expect it to cost, or what you need it to earn), and your timeframe (real world or business plan milestone dates). And you should be able to be reached.
// 250+ engineers and developers on staff, all web 2.0 specialists - databasecowboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Go to the source, Jesse James Garrett, the guy who coined the term. His company is
http://www.adaptivepath.com/
Check out 37Signals
http://www.37signals.com/
go to a web 2.0 seminar near you and see who's doing this in your neighborhood. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Not even similar.
The sites are totally different unless he is suing because they used Flash.
One is for business cards/design. The other is for credit.
My Lawsuit. My God! - arkmtech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It seems that, unfortunately, the new business ethics in the marketing world are "cheat, lie, and steal."
In high school journalism and again in college, we were often taught it was okay to copy others' ad designs if it got the job done, so long as we modified the designs enough to make them distinguishable from the original(s) - Reading this article makes me think that such practices now carry over into the "real world." :-( - mrdent, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Sorry guys, but it's a bit of a stretch. Whooo Haaa for the underdog and all, but seriously, it's a BS suit even if they did rip some of his idea it's so very different, but it appears to me like this kind of thing could easily happen by accident. It'd be like suing someone for using green on black text in 1996;) The number of client's I've had that want the desktop (literal) and handwriting "personal" feel these days...
- Desslok, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3You're confusing copyright with trademark. The person has a registered trademark for that look, and appearance and brand names are definitely things you can trademark.
- ADIOlab, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well now that you point out the mylifemycard.ca site there is some similarities. Although I originally thought there weren't any accept just a coincidence. Its not surprising that big agencies look to young designers all over the world to stay fresh. It happens all of the time.
nothing is original anymore, just some people capitalize on ideas faster than the other. - ncooley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow... I hope he offered to redesign his lawyer's web site in lieu of cash payment for legal services because their site really sucks...
- redrighthand, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3He may have a case but I think Amex will shoo him away with a settlement because they won't want to trash their investment in the ad campaign.
- Hardcase, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"My Life, My Card" and "My Card, My Work" are in some kind of handwritten font. That's about all that I can see that is similar to the two websites. OK, they both use Flash, but I don't think that really counts. I'm with the OP here - the guy is fishing for money, or at least he's got an attorney who is fishing. I just don't see the deal.
EDIT: Whoops, now maybe I do - www.mylifemycard.ca. OK, maybe there's a case after all. Watch the Flash all the way through. - MisterKen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Having worked at large agencies, I can say for a fact that it is very possible this happened. They may have seen his site (or even had is resume) and went 'hey, what about My Life. My Card' closely followed by 'lets go for it, what will he do about it?'.
Then again, the phrasing is common and could have easily been arrived at by both people by different routes.
This really brings up the topic of branding and the web.
In effect, this guy established a brand mark for himself and had another company assume it (or variation therein). The web has leveled the playing field between a freelance creative and a large debt management company (that is both amazing and a bit scary). Both parties have their industries overlap in an interesting way: his services are creative by nature and the large companies use of his branding called into question the quality of his services.
If the suit is valid, I think it will cause an interesting rumble. And if it causes large companies to hold their agencies accountable for the large amounts of cash they pay for these 'original' & 'creative' campaigns, that can only be a good thing. - cadavreexquis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I don't care if he has a case, I hope he wins and takes their last penny, particularly Ogilvy's. I had the great misfortune of dealing with them when our idiot marketing director commissioned them to produce a homepage redesign for our company. They got paid $250,000 for 1 PSD file that nobody liked. And they took a year to do it.
That's right, quarter of a mil for a photoshop mockup of a single page. - dustedotnet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Pathetic. How about you read an article before you go commenting on the brief summary of the Digg.
Tard.
I also hope he wins. :) - neozeed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If he was employed by American Express their contracts take tottal ownership of everything you do, even at home. Im not sure about the contractor one, but I bet they take ownership of everything American Express & CC related. But Im speculating on #2.
Although the wages are low, its a good company to work for. It certinaly did have that brand name recoginition.
PS AESC-F rules! - sansbury, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1FWIW, this is why no respectable VC will listen to anyone who wants them to sign an NDA first, and why many TV/movie studios publicly state that they do not accept unsolicited submissions of any kind from the general public. They don't want someone to send a s*****y half-baked idea to them and a year later get sued because they do something similar.
Imagine this battle was the other way around--would you be taking Amex's side? - orangetiki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I would say that he got his idea stolen. shame it happens all too often
- AssultMonkey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I guess I will post the mandatory "This article is useless without pictures" comment then. :)
- rewqas, on 10/18/2007, -0/+1http://american-express-gift-cards.blogspot.com/
- jflint, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1AMEX site (mylifemycard.ca) is dead. Anyone got a screenshot or a cache of it?
- tazamore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Even though this guy has a very weak case this will be settled out of court.
- redrighthand, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Chances are his resume was seen by one or two people and somewhere down the road they blurted out the phrase and everyone thought them genius. Now it's coming back to bite them in the wallet because they didn't simply hire him then take his idea.
- ToeCheese, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@el jefe:
How is the RIAA having issues enforcing copyrights? If they catch someone stealing their materials they always win in court. (i.e. Vanilla Ice theft of Queen's (and Bowie's) Under Pressure signature bass line). The problem is the RIAA wants to quell all of it. They don't even want you to share your CD with someone. They keep lobbying Congress to make it legal to search your PC without a warrant. Of course, Ted "the Tubes" Stevens is all for this. - redrighthand, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's the price you pay for saying you got to work with "Ogilvy" lucky frickin you!
-
Show 51 - 81 of 81 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is