I sell on Cafepress, Zazzle and Printfection. Imagine my surprise when I get a copyright infringement notice from both Cafepress and Zazzle on my designs
Here are my designs.
The complaining artist is Hugh Bayer of epmgames and here is his "design".
Now Mr Bayer, before you go screaming and hollering that I'm robbing you by publishing this image to the left, don't bother. In this blog I'm writing ABOUT your image and a controversy surrounding it which is covered both by fair use and free speech.
I wondered what the heck was a copyright violation and I can't get a straight answer from anybody.
At Zazzle, I spoke with a "Tony" in content management who said the violation was that I have the same phrase. Ok.... "Instant Swim Chick, just add water" is NOT a registered trademark. Its a common swim joke and has been around for years and is therefore not a covered unregistered trademark. And notice that my design on the right doesn't even contain the word "chick".
I would understand Mr Hugh's argument if the chicks looked the same, if the lettering were the same, if the lettering had the same placement. But that isn't it.
This looks like a case of artist intimidation, where all Mr Hughs has to do is write a threatening letter on company letter head which includes the word "Entertainment" and Cafepress and Zazzle cower.
This isn't good. It makes artists lose confidence in Cafepress & Zazzle if they allow just anybody to claim copyright infringement on an idea, especially if the images are different and the phrase isn't trademarked.
