Copyright infringement fursuit photos

[thaily.livejournal.com]

I'm Dutch and I'm happily walking down the street in Rotterdam when suddenly *BAM* poster with fursuiters on it makes me go "Whuttufuh?"

As some may know there's an international film festival in Rotterdam every year and apparently the past few years there has been a "reject" festival showing films that were rejected from the actual festival.

This year these people who claim to be all artsy fartsy trolled the intarwebs for photos of fursuits and then used them, most likely sans permission, for promotional material. Please note that they are receiving funds for certain parts of the festival, ergo this can be considered commercial exploitation of copyrighted material. I've seen a large poster on their door and there's a booklet-format PDF with multiple photos of various fursuits from seemingly various conventions.

If you are a fursuiter or have photos you took of fursuiters on-line it is worth looking at these sites.

Myspace, always classy.
Link to PDF download.
At the bottom of the PDF a person called Silas, nicknamed "Roodkapje" (little red riding hood) takes credit for all the hard work he did Googling up material, his site is here.
More info on the "Reject festival" and another photo here.

Fursuiters, you have rights, Dutch law has a thing called "portrait rights" that allows you to oppose publication of photos that contain your person, even when dressed up -if you are recognizable by fursuit- (example; unique character design you own). Unless you have specifically signed away those rights (unlikely), you are legally able to object against the publication of these photos if you are in them.

This "Reject Festival" is running from January 23 to February 1, if you recognize your photos or yourself in the photos, please mail these people soon. Be sure to reference the DMCA which is an international agreement to protect copyright and "auteursrecht" which is a similar but more extensive Dutch law that also entitles the photographers to royalties.

What to do:
Contact Silas/Roodkapje and inform him that he is using your material/likeness without your permission and tell him to knock it off. I can virtually guarantee he speaks English, most Dutch people do. If he plays dumb or refuses to address your concerns, go over his head and have the material taken down.

Myspace copyright violation information
2shared's copyright violation contact.
Roodkapje.org's provider abuse contact - abuse@protagonist.nl

Additional note, he's using the photos because one guy's work features "furries". The.. Artist.. Is called Michael Cogliantry and he has 10 photos of a supposed "furry kama sutra" so the photos featuring shitty wanna-be fursuits are his. He's supposedly making a statement about hpw furries retain their internet anonymity by going to meets and conventions in these suits (even though 90% doesn't) so if they give you some faux-intellectual argument about how removing photos would reflect on the artist's statement or something.. Just tell him he's a pretentious dick who, as someone who works within artistic circles, should know better than to infringe on other people's work.

Have fun ripping them a new one ^_^

Edit: Don't tell me "You should contact so-and-so!" because I have no idea who these people are. If you know who these people are, please let them know!

Comments

[candychic125.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks for letting us know. Thankfully I don't see any of my costumes, but I recognize Oz Kangaroo. Maybe you should let him know.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

Maybe you should, as I have no fucking clue who this person is ^_^

[winail.livejournal.com]

I didn't see any of mine luckily... but yeah, I saw oz. >>; Send him a note about this thing. It's complete bullshit.... I read the artist statement and it's all about how we are sexual and live in our fursuits -_-; Only 8% of the fandom has suits, and we *MOSTLY* wear them solely at CONS, not meets. Fucking ignorant prick.

/sends email/

[aj-hyena.livejournal.com]

*blinks* Only 8%? I thought it was much more than that. Or maybe it's because most of the people we hear about have suits. I thought it was closer to half the fandom.

[beastcub.livejournal.com]

lets see from what i gather further confusion had well over 5000 attendies and the parade had 530 suits in it
so like 10-ish percent

[kuddlepup.livejournal.com]

The convention had 2500 attendees and 530 suits in the parade. Was about a 20% ratio.

[beastcub.livejournal.com]

oh...er...well i assumed the numbers on the badges were equal to the number of attendies and my friend registered saturday and her number was over 5000.

still its not half the fandom

[lastres0rt.livejournal.com]

You also have to keep in mind the "% of the fandom who don't do cons" ratio, so it's even smaller than that.

It's a safe assumption that if you've already spent several hundred / thousand on a suit, you're a hardcore fellow who goes to quite a few of these cons, ergo I imagine fursuiters are also overrepresented at cons thanks to double-counting if you try to lump several cons together.

[baja-hyena.livejournal.com]

Actually, last credible furry-wide survey I saw showed fursuiters at 18% of the fandom. I wish I had saved the link. But, I think it's fairly accurate.

[kayfox.livejournal.com]

The numbers are out of blocks based on the type of membership.

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

Those images are from the Anthrocon fursuit parade. You should send an e-mail to Uncle Kage and see if he approved it.

[snarky-fox.livejournal.com]

I agree. (I doubt he did) And that man seems like a scary guy when angered. XD

[stripedpony.livejournal.com]

I saw Cobalt the blue lion in his myspace.

[actonrf.livejournal.com]

I may be missing somthing but the pictures on My space come form an art installment furry Kama Sutra. The rest form some con.

[rhari.livejournal.com]

The rest from the con is what needs to be taken down. They have NOTHING to do with the installation which is what the film is supposed to be about.

[ron-overdrive.livejournal.com]

Didn't see my suit anywhere thankfully, but I did see a suit or two that I've seen before. Looks like a lot of it was taken from AnthroCon.

[tisket-wolf.livejournal.com]

Found my suit in the group pics from FWA (not AC) and reported them to myspace with the following message:

"I am in this picture along with many, many others. None of us gave permission for this to be posted. This user is attempting to take credit for the picture as well as making a profit, it is not their photo."

[kuddlepup.livejournal.com]

Other suits I was able to identify in the last link were: Pockitfox, Nova Zax, Snowie, and Inaki.

[kar-nemmie.livejournal.com]

wait was that the guys running around at fwa last year? or was it 2 years I cant remember. they was doing a small thing on the fandom?

[ozkangaroo.livejournal.com]

Wrote a kind email, (So did Uncle Kage it seems)

Got a quick reply back stating they will take the images down and appologized for any problems this may have caused the persons involved.

No harm done. :)

I'd like to thank those who mentioned me above, I really appreciate the thought that the community can look out for each other like this. Thanks guys and girls.

[joecifur.livejournal.com]

Also received a quick and polite email in reply.

Problem easily solved.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

Excellent, I'm happy.

[candychic125.livejournal.com]

Glad its being handled

[pippinbear.livejournal.com]

Seems I'm included in one of those big group shots in the PDF.

However, I should mention that (I'm pretty sure) the DMCA is an American law and doesn't apply in the Netherlands. You might be thinking of the WIPO treaty or the Berne convention or the Universal Copyright Convention which are international treaties and are listed on the Wikipedia page you linked to.

If Dutch law is like UK law, the moral rights will include a moral right to object to derogatory treatment of a work. If so, the designer or maker of the suit, or of the character the suit's based on, could object on that basis, as well as (under normal copyright) the photographer and (under portrait rights) the performer.

[lastres0rt.livejournal.com]

Berne Convention is still a pretty widespread document.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

There is a European equivalent of DMCA called EU Copyright Directive or EUCD. Additionally the Dutch equivalent of copyright is even more defensive towards the original creators and people represented in artistic work than even DMCA is, there's no doubt that these people are in breach of Dutch auteursrecht and they know it too.

[chesshiress.livejournal.com]

*upsets with tiny kitten hate.. which happens to be a lot* The ones on Reject's page, are mostly from FWA. o.O

[susan-rocket.livejournal.com]

I'm Dutch as well, and agree with Thaily. There is indeed a copyright violation. But I just saw from Oz that they apologised and will pull the pictures off their site, thankfully.

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

I can't see the PDF, it says it's broken.. but I do see myself in the picture from the FWA fursuit parade on their page.. D=

[baracudaboy.livejournal.com]

Dammit, they got fucking everyone in there.
/growl/