Elvis Presley typography art calligram Copyright Joni James 2011 All rights reserved.
This calligram typography design of Elvis Presley was painstakingly drawn by hand by me, Joni James, using pencil, pen and ink, and many hours of my time in the year 2011. It was one of my earliest calligrams which were sold on Etsy from 2009 though 2015. At that time I shut down my shop and am the sole owner and copyright holder of all calligram designs seen HERE. (and many others) Some even published on Deviant Art HERE (including this Elvis art)
Without granting license agreement or my consent, this particular illustration was taken from an uploaded image on my blog, or scanned from a print, my signature was erased out, and the watermark was removed in order to be sold as a download so that the buyers could then reproduce this design onto any thing they wanted, royalty free!
Thank heavens for Google Lens! This feature on Google allows the user to right click on any photo or image and discover other places the image resides on the internet, with the option of finding the source file as well. With this new knowledge of discovery, one of the merchants I found selling my design is a small embroidery design group out of Houston Texas called Thelander Design. The owner, Gina Thelander Schafer, actually has the audacity to claim my design as her own, and after many attempts to contact her with emails and facebook messages, she refuses to delete the listing of my art. No telling how many images she has sold of a stolen drawing claiming it to be her property, while smuggly sitting back enjoying what she thinks is smart business at the hands and talents of hardworking artists.
Other sellers were also discovered on Etsy offering Elvis downloads from this stolen property, but Etsy was quick to remove the listings as I was able to prove this is the property of me, Joni James. One dishonest and irrational etsy seller, Christianna Nicole, still refuses to remove my art from her personal web site and continues her illegal activity here: DigitalCraftingDesigns. Makes me wonder how blatent dishonesty is so easily tolerated in ones own throat. Karma will find you too, Nicole.
On another less deliberately profitable side to copyright infringements, this tiny coffee shop in the Philippines, Caffera Photo and Cafe, made a large vinyl wall decal from an illegally acquired blog image of my camera calligram which you can see in this photo:
Innocently, they may have had a friend who actually purchased a matted print from my shop around 2012, but those prints specifically stated that they do not come with rights for reproduction. If I ever make it to the Philippines and buy myself a cup of coffee at Caffera Photo & Cafe, I'll be sure to sip with delight knowing that their use was not intentional in making a profit, though still a no no in the art world.
So, with all this awareness now, what kind of advice would I have given myself in the past? Probably something like this; Never upload a piece of artwork without a large watermark over the top and never remove the first publishing location showing the date, which can help in an infringement claim case. Fortunately, I hold all the original drawings on paper, and nothing can beat that! Internet thieves stealing other's art and claiming it for their own, beware! Google Lens is the new hero in my book.
Joni