(no subject)

[kierstal.livejournal.com]

EDIT, Again: He seems to check out legit. I could be wrong, but after much communication and doublechecking, stuff seems to work out. So, no worries here.

EDIT: I emailed Bruce asking what was up. He claimed to be Rommels agent at one point and that due to Rommels needing money for a wedding, he sold the character and the rights to her. Even gave me Max Blackrabbit's and Rommels supposed current email addresses, and forwarded this claim to them both. I have emailed both Max and the email he said was Rommels, and have so far not recieved a reply.
My only response to bruse was, why does the copyright name on the reference .pdf differ from the name he's used in his other transactions with me? So far I have no answer to that, either.

---

I think I have a problem.

Recently I was commissioned to do a full-color picture of Tamara Christiana Fox.

The name on the email of the commissioner is "Bruce Whilite"...
The name on the copyright in the .pdf he sent me is "Cody White"... AND I just now got an IM from someone who tells me that the real owner of the character is "Rommel Ignacio"...


So... what on earth is going on?

I never thought to doublecheck on the character's ownership because for one, I'd never even heard of Tamara Christiana Fox until I was presented with the commission, and the guy seemed honest enough...

Problem is that the commissioner, Bruce, has already paid me for this commission, and It's nearly done, and I'm *just now* finding this out.

Can someone shed some light on this for me?
And what about payment? Do I owe the guy a refund even though the work is almost done, or do I keep the money because I already did the work?

I'm so confused >_

Comments

[drake-anaya.livejournal.com]

The only Cody White I can find related to online art is on DevantArt under the name "plurrrrrry", but there's nothing vaguely resembling furry in there.

There are however instances of Rommel Ignacio being linked to a Tamara character as far back as 1999/1998, according to yerf.

I hope that helps you some.

[ironbadger.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Tamara fox is a character of Rommel's.
(His favorite one, I think.)

Sounds a lot like he likes the character and wanted a commision of her- possibly doing something Rommel would not draw her doing?

Is it an adult commission?

If so, there might be your answer right there.

Tamara from what I can recall is a fairly generic looking vixen though, so just doing her without writing in any names or copyrights would make her just a vixen.

(I could tell you in a heartbeat if I could see the image- Rommel's art is extremly distinctive because he has a rather unique style.)

I'd go ahead and finish the art and send it to him, sans any copyright info or names on it.

If he has a problem with that- confront him over the character having been lifted from someone else and tell him he gets it this way or not at all to avoid infringing someone else's work.
Because without the names, and done in a style other than Rommel's....its not the same character.
Only a generic vixen.

You were paid for the art.
The art is nearly done.

You are entitled to the money for doing the work, but because he is infringing someone else's character and you did not know it-
Refuse to add any copyright info or names to the finished work.

It would also be an idea to email Rommel over it as well.
Hes a nice guy from what I know, so just explain it to him.

If you feel guilty over any of it- ask Rommel what he thinks you should do.
My bet is, he'll tell you to do what I'm suggesting.

Remember that you personally are not responsible for the behavior of the commissioner of the artwork, and you took his money in good faith and did the work; so are due just compensation for the effort.
Thats reasonable- all art-snobbish hystrionics about copyrights aside.

Hope this helps.

-Badger-

[sorrows-crow.livejournal.com]

If she doesn't add names to the artwork and it'd look like a generic fox, can't she still place a copyright on the art to herself? Or would that cause trouble if the guy claimed it was the Fox he wanted and someone noticed the copyright and that she wasn't the original creator?

[ironbadger.livejournal.com]

Its a grey area, and in furry art; which is prone to insane levels of over-reaction to copyright issues grey areas are easy sources of trouble from trolls and would-be troublemakers looking to score points (IE, brown-nose) with artists by claiming to defend their honor for them in absentia.

I tend to avoid these kind of issues- especially over one questionable commissioned image.

-Badger-

[kierstal.livejournal.com]

Hm.. how long's it been since you've been in touch with rommel? Know anything about the sale of the rights to Tamara for a wedding..? in the initial email, Bruce mentioned "If I might ask, who doesn't know that Tamara has moved on in her life?" Seems to me that a LOT of people don't know.

[ironbadger.livejournal.com]

Rommel is a fellow SFA artist, I think-
But I've never had direct contact with him.

I don't recall anything about him surrendering the character or his rights to her.

Which means this could be legit- or it may be very, very fishy.

I would now urge contact with Rommel over the matter.
(He lives in the phillipines, but is reachable by email- I'd have to hunt the addy up, but my publisher may have it.)


-Badger-

[n30ngr3yw0rds.livejournal.com]

if you find out for sure that the commission is for someone else's character, screw them! I'd keep the money, shame on them for wasting my time and asking me to draw someone else's character without permission.

[arphalia.livejournal.com]

I've been contacted by Bruce as well, about a commission with a Tamara Fox who belonged to a Cody White. I did a google search and found most links and ownership of Tamara Fox was Rommel as well.

It was to be an adult image that was for an online story. He mentioned two sites in which it would be displayed. His, the link of which only led to a domain name site. But before telling me it would be there, he said it was to be on a sexyfurs.com.

I have to ask, did you also get the paragraph about not being able to display the image anywhere for 10 years, or was that special addition just for me? I figured he wanted image rights exclusively due to the fact one of the sites was a pay site and I'm guessing his story site-to-be would proably have a similar pay dealy. That in and of itself wasn't an out of place request. However.. 10 years seemed like and awfully long time. For me anyhow, at this point in time. (Still trying to get my work OUT there so I could use to be able to you know, display them in some fashion.)

Not trying to dog on Bruce, but I feel he should have been more upfront about what the contract of the image rights would be. I had to ask for clarification and what I got didn't clear it up too much for me. I was left a bit comfused as well. I opted not to the on the commission.

I'd be curious about the end result of your commission experience with him. He was quite willing to toss a lot of money at me but I wasn't about to seal it until the details got worked out. Seemed a nice enough guy overall. But nice guys still try and pull crap so.. Yeah, I'm curious about your experiences. He seemed willing to get the character permissions thing worked out but at the same time it didn't mention Rommel at all. Could be a chance happening as far as similiarity but Rommel's character Tamara Fox seems to have been around long enough. Long enough so that this just doesn't sit right as a whole with me.

For all I know everything could be just fine and the issue is just a wrench in how communitcations are going. Until I saw this, I was wondering if it was just me being confused. o_O

[kierstal.livejournal.com]

After several days of communication and checking things out; it turns out the guy is legit, or at least as far as I was able to find out. He works with an artist that I have never, ever known to have shady dealings (though I could be wrong about that, I don't really know the guy personally).

I got the rights/exclusivity thing too.

I do agree that he could have been more up-front about the previous ownership of the character; I suppose in the circles he moves in, it's common knowledge and he doesn't have to mention it every time anymore; either that or it could be that mentioning it could drive potential artists away.

But yeah, He really seems to check out legit, so good luck with the commission :)