This is an update to an earlier post.

My artwork, along with the work of 92 other illustrators, has been stolen and published in a book titled “Colorful Illustrations 93ºC.” Please DO NOT buy this book. The publisher of this book lifted the majority of the content from The Little Chimp Society, a community site run by Darren Di Lieto that is dedicated to the promotion of illustrators and the illustration business. Not only does the book reprint, without permission, the work of 93 illustrators, it also reprints all of Darren’s interviews with illustrators conducted over the 3+ years of Little Chimp Society’s existence. This is a huge blow to Darren as it has taken him a lot of time and effort to contact artists, obtain interviews and promote the site.

Where was the book made?

The book appears to have been made in Hong Kong, China based on the information in the book itself. Although most of the information in the book is false, including the name of the publisher (Great Creativity Organization) and telephone number, the address appears to be a valid one, but I highly doubt the publisher is at this location. Darren tried calling the number and it was for a company that makes air filters. Below is the info from the book:

Art Director/Producer: Bernadette J
Graphic Design: Malcolm Lee
published by Great Creativity organization
ISBN 978-988-98142-0-5
12/F Chinachem Johnston Plaza Wan
178-186 Johnston Road
chia, Hong Kong
T:+85281324106
F:+85281324105

Where is the book being sold?

The book is currently being sold by Index Books in Spain, as well as a handful of other Spanish, Korean and Japanese retailers both online and with actual brick & mortar stores.

Where did the retailers get the book?

Index Books originally said they purchased the book from Azur Corporation out of Japan. But we now know that they made a mistake and say Azur Corporation DID NOT supply them with the book. Please DO NOT contact Azur Corporation because they are not involved (apparently they have been receiving a lot of e-mails.).

Even though Index Books has said they made a mistake by giving Azur Corporations info, they have not yet changed that information on their website.

Index Books’ real supplier is:

Sophia
Guangzhou Sendpoints Books Co.,Ltd.
Add: #80 Xin Ya Rd.,Haizhu District, Guangzhou, China
Tel: 86 20 89095121
Fax: 86 20 89095206
E-mail: spbooks@163.com
MSN:gzsendpoint@hotmail.com
Website: www.sendpoint.com.cn
(Please do not link to them)

For the latest information, please see Darren’s blog here.

Who are the 93 illustrators in the book?

I don’t want to list out their names because of privacy issues and I don’t know all of the illustrators personally, buy Darren has placed images of each page of the book online here.

Hey Jeff, why are you so upset about being published?

Many artists do just want to be published and are fine with not getting paid depending on what stage they are at with their careers. I’m not one of them! My work is my work to do with as I see fit and no one should have the right to steal my art, mass produce it and make money from my blood, sweat and tears. It seems many people forget about the human being behind the creation of movies, music and art when they decide to steal it. Creators, such as myself, rely on the income from the sale of their art to literally feed their families. I have three children. When someone steals my work, they are stealing from my children. And that pisses me off! No person or company in China, Japan, Spain, Korea, the United States or anywhere else should be making money from my work unless I have gone into partnership with them.

What do you want done about this?

I can’t speak for the other illustrators, but I personally want all those books destroyed and a recall of any books already sold. Will this happen, I highly doubt it. Since we are dealing with a “fake” publisher, it will be tough to find anyone to prosecute. Especially since the offenders are likely from China or Japan and the expense of going after them is too great for a handful of artists to endure.

Any money received by the publisher, which I suspect is just a small, mobile outfit of counterfeiters, should be redistributed to the artists and creators plagiarized in this book or the money given to a charity of our choice. Will this happen? Again, I highly doubt it.

The best we can hope for is that people spread the word and retailers become aware that this book is a copyright infringement and should not be bought or sold. It’ll be tough to get retailers to not sell the book since they may have shelled out money to buy the book without knowing it was counterfeit. So asking them to pull the books from the shelves will mean a loss of money for them. But let’s hope the threat of prosecution is greater.

Why don’t all you illustrators get together and make your own “official” book?

An “official” book is an option that is on the table. Frankly, I’m upset someone beat Darren to it. With Darren’s MailmeArt project, he made it clear from the beginning that a published book would be made from all the top entries. Maybe that should have been a stipulation with LCS from the beginning. The proceeds could go to help little chimps all over the world fight the evil PlagiaBots and Counterfeiticons!

I’m all for an “Official” LCS book if it doesn’t distract from us charging after the punks that made this “Colorful Illustrations 93ºC” book. We would have to find a legitimate publisher that would be willing to fund the production and distribution of the book. And that would be a long and expensive endeavor.

How can I help?

Spread the word about this book. Tell as many people as you can. Use your blog, MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook, forums, etc. The more people that know, the better. Eventually word will get around to the offending publisher and retailers if it hasn’t already. My fear is that this is just the beginning of this kind of crime against illustrators. We have to try and stop it now.

Where can I learn more about this?

For the latest information, please see Darren’s blog here.

Darren Di Lieto’s blog
Luke Latulippe’s blog
Drawn.ca

I want to give a big thanks to Darren Di Lieto for immediately contacting all the illustrators involved and keeping eveyone up-to-date with events.