Take him...
for every penny he's got and then lock him up and throw away the key! The dirtynogoodscroungingfreetard!
It's come to our attention that California "retail boutique" Primitive Shoes - owned by professional skateboarder and thesp Paul Rodriguez Jr, aka "P-Rod" - has been playing it a bit free and easy with our beloved El Reg Vulture logo: The Register logo seen on Primitive Shoes t-shirt Ahem. Much as we'd like to raise a red …
As it is facing the other way and is a different colour.
But never fear get your lawyers from the same place as the RIAA and they will sue their ass of guilty of not. But if you do will you become the thing you despise most.
Of course copyright seems to be a little more important now!
I want a
'As seen on El Reg' T-shirt
Natalie,
It's always worth checking before you comment and look silly.
http://www.cashandcarrion.co.uk/frame_reg_heritage.html?i=7624391&t=Reg%20Logo%20Tee%20White
Or if thats not big enough for you to notice the obvious plagiarism, try this one.
http://www.cashandcarrion.co.uk/images/pure_reg/pure_reg_vulture-blk.png
Or infact I could be wrong and flipping an image and using it in this way does not breach copyright.
Go Reg Go!
you got your logo from vultures in cartoons... your logo isnt exactly something you thought up 100% is it? its like any vulture in a cartoon you will ever see. i can see that is bloody close to yours (i guess they could have even copy/pasted and mirrored) but still.... a vulture is a vulture ;)
Hi n00bs! <waves> It's easy to think you're being clever when you're actually merely ignorant of the facts.
That's the old El Reg logo, from before the redesign, that they've ripped off utterly blatantly. You probably aren't old enough to remember back that far, but see here for comparison; it's identical:
http://www.cashandcarrion.co.uk/reg_heritage.html
'tch. Kids these days don't know their history. Bah!
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Because its the land of the sue and if you ain't sueing someone you ain't nobody. and turning the graphic around and adding a semi cicle doesn't make stealing right.
I'm sure if they sent an E-mail to El Reg requesting the use of the graphic the old farts would be happy to be associated with the yoof of America.
Not saying that your farts just passed the display date, not quite at the best before date though
http://www.cashandcarrion.co.uk/frame_reg_heritage.html?i=7624419&t=Reg%20Logo%20(Black)%20Tee%20White
@dunncha - Your attitude disgusts me. Copyright has always been important since it's inception it was there to protect artists and writer's from those who would steal their work.
@ Don't be daft. By Natalie Gritpants Posted Thursday 16th July 2009 12:35 GMT
> It's a logo of a vulture, what do you expect it to look like. Besides, their logo has a shoulder and is facing the right way.
It's a vulture in exactly the same style & proportion as our beloved ElReg, and facing the WRONG way! -- with a shoulder.
The placing of the eye is 'stylised' too. Ooh! But it's red!
Sheesh! Next it'll be okay for hungry-bird pie-search websites to misspeel themselves There Gister
It is an infringement of copyright (if it can be proved that it has been copied - i.e. the potential infringer had sight of the original - given the likeness this seems likely.)
It is also potentially an infringement of El Reg's registered trade mark (which is for publishing etc, not clothing):
US Registered Trademark: 3531038
Community Trade Mark (EU): 3348381
I say "potentially" because (at least according to UK / Europe TM law, and this stuff is pretty well harmonised supranationally; any US IP attorneys reading?) El Reg will need to prove that consumers are confused into thinking that theses 'fake' T-shirts were made by El Reg.
In any case, a strongly worded letter should do the trick.
Tux, because all good software engineers need to be IP lawyers, nowadays.
El Reg's official Vulture story goes thusly:
"Our logo is the brainchild of Reg co-founder John Lettice. Many years ago - 1995, or 1996 - The Register produced a small newsletter to dole out at CeBIT. John says he chose the vulture for the masthead as an ironic take on the eagle used so often on newspapers. We think it was because his clipart CD didn't have an eagle." -
As per http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/30/el_reg_vulture_found_in_bag_of_crisps/ (other old reg logos here, also).
Other 'classic' vulture logo stories worth an airing:
-> Preposterous Strategy Boutique-athon @ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/04/09/logowatch_the_vulture_laid_bare/
-> Stalin in an El Reg T-Shirt @ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/09/11/readers_gallery/
-> High geekery (arf) @ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/09/08/vulture_hits_new_heights/
Makes no matter. If you own a trademark and you do not vigorously defend it's misuse then you risk having your trademark diluted and rendered effectively in the public domain.
Look at "Hoover". Although Hoover are just one manufacturer of vacuum cleaners the word "Hoover" has now come to mean vacuum cleaner and due to Hoover (the company) turning a blind eye to this they are no longer able to prevent people using "Hoover" in this way. It is quite legally acceptable for Dyson (say) to refer to their latest model as the best Hoover around.
Take Rolls-Royce as an example. If you refer to your product as the "Rolls-Royce" of whatever your product does you can expect a snarky letter from RR's lawyers requiring you to cease and desist - no matter what your product is.
Long story short - if you don't defend your trademarks you lose them.
if you /must/ use Google Images in your designs, at least redraw them!
My 'Arm The Whales' gear at CafePress was based on perusing Google Images to get an idea of what shape looked good, hand-drawing a combination of the best couple of examples I found, scanning it back in and then GIMPing it back to life and more. IANAL but I am pretty sure I have created original work inspired by others rather than duplicating. Maybe I should offer my services.