man
i get to work on so many cool projects
im so lucky goddamn
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AVA’S DEMON
Very first update!! Thank you everyone who’s watched the making along the way,
and I hope you enjoyed the first ten pages, and that you stay for the whole adventure! It’ll be 4 pages every Thursday from now on.Updates every Thursday
Ok I said 8pm but I forgot it was PST
READ IT DUDES
REBLOG
TELL YOUR FRIENDS
TELL YOUR FAMILY
TELL EVERYONE
IT’S GONNA BE AWESOME
IT’S ALREADY AWESOME
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSYES
oh my god this is SO
GOOD
GODDAMN
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THEY SAID THEY WOn”T DO IT ANYMORE, THAT MEANS YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO MAKE THEM FEEL BAD FOR IT YOU BIG MEANIE. Nevermind that they didn’t even apologize.
im cyberbully
Anonymous asked: ....You must have completely MISSED the part where they said that now that they have been asked, they will no longer sell or make the hats, and they offered compensation for the hats already sold. There is clearly a difference in opinion on the legality of the issue, but in the end, Andrew's IP is being respected, so I think the time for calling them "shitty" has passed.
The fact that they’re apologizing now, well after the fact isn’t the issue. Their choices as people running a business and their combatative attitudes are the issue.
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Anonymous asked: Without even digging into the other issues of your response, do yourself a favor and read the link included in Athena's post about copyright and clothing, which also contains links to a reliable source. There WAS no licensing issue because that hat could not physically BE licensed.
I did, in fact read it, but I’ve also read everything Lexxy and Rachel have posted on the subject. I’m not a lawyer, and I’m not going to argue legality. The fact of the matter is that Andrew has publicly requested that people not sell Homestuck related merchandise, and the people at Athena’s Wink have ignored that in favor of making a profit. That’s shitty no matter which way you look at it. They’re operating on the idea that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission here, as they continued to produce and sell these hats even though they received no response from Andrew. That was their decision. They need to take responsibility for it and stop trying to villainize the people they’re screwing over.
I’m posting this to set the record straight on our sale of hats that where inspired by the character Nepeta from the Comic home stuck.
We first designed and made Nepeta hats in April of last year. We then sent you a message asking if you would like to officially sanction our hats for a percentage of our profits.
Since then we have never heard a peep from you or anyone else representing you so we went ahead and sold them as they are a product that many of our customers have been requesting and you do not manufacture them. We make them all by hand in our own homes.
This was well before the sales FAQ was posted. They have since then been part of the normal mix of hats we sell at conventions and have been sold in a normal way at our booths.
Our making and selling the hats is in no way shape or form illegal or copyright infringement because items of clothing are not something you can copyright. Please read this if you have any questions regarding this statement.
Our contacting you in an attempt to get your official sanction on the hats was honestly just an act of good will on our part, we are making money off of a design inspired by your character and while that is perfectly legal for us to do I would have preferred to work with you and create a product that you approved of.
I have stated that I would stop making these hats if Andrew or anyone representing him contacted me requesting that we stop, as making them past that point would be, to me at least, disrespectful if not illegal.
I was highly disappointed to see that instead of contacting us directly and asking to stop the sale of the hats you publicly posted a very slanderous entry on tumbler full of false accusations against our company.
We had never before been asked by you or anyone representing you to stop the sale of these hats, they are not illegal to sell, it’s not copyright infringement and we have not been selling them shadily “under the table”.
I’m sorry that I did manage to lose my temper last night, however when someone publicly post things that could very seriously hurt my lively hood I find it hard to maintain my composure.
We will stop manufacturing these hats as you have now asked us to, and I’m still willing to retroactively compensate you for the percentage of the hat sales I had previously offered for hats that we’ve sold.
We apologize if you feel that you have been wronged by us in anyway, we have a large amount of respect for Andrew and his creations and my business partner Carrie Wink is a huge fan of the comics.Any additional besmirchment of our company by you or anyone legally representing you will be considered harassment and will responded to accordingly.
It’s not actually slander to post that you’re selling a design you don’t have liscense to sell.
Also it’s really unprofessional on your part to keep dragging this into the public arena—if you had posted this as just an explanation or a public adress would be one thing, but to address it to the parties that you’ve actually legitimately wronged makes it weird and aggressive!
You knew you were doing something wrong from the start—that’s why you sent Andrew an email about it. If you really respected his requests not to sell homestuck related merchandise, you would never have sold these in the first place, especially so after you inquired about consent.
for today’s warm-up i sketched some dead girls
Hey folks, Athena’s Wink has responded to my emails saying that they have many Nepeta hats left in their inventory they would like to sell even though they’re aware it’s not legal. (And yes, I can provide a screenshot of this if necessary, but I don’t think it is.)
Please just don’t buy them.
Thanks.
Oh these are the people I saw selling them back at AUSA. The commentary overheard at the table was that Andrew is a hypocrite, therefore it was okay to disregard his wishes regarding his property.
Wow, that is… that honestly makes me feel really sad. :(
Man, fuck these guys
Hey folks, Athena’s Wink has responded to my emails saying that they have many Nepeta hats left in their inventory they would like to sell even though they’re aware it’s not legal. (And yes, I can provide a screenshot of this if necessary, but I don’t think it is.)
Please just don’t buy them.
Thanks.
What really gets me is the statement made that they would “stop selling them once [Andrew] bothered to contact” them and told them not to. If someone has the sense to e-mail a creator asking permission to sell a product, presumably because A) they realize that permission is something they should get first and/or B) the creator has publicly requested that selling something in this manner should not be done, then why would they think it’s okay to do until told otherwise?
It’s never a bad idea to exhaust every possible means of getting ahold of someone whose permission you think you may need to do or sell something BEFORE you do or sell that thing. Even if they never respond, after what is ideally more than one attempt, it’s up to you to make an informed decision, and even then it’s best to err on the side of caution (ie: not do it). Since Andrew’s stance on this is very well-known at this point, and even a cursory search on the subject yields many relevant blog posts, including an official FAQ page, I just can’t see how anyone can look at all the information readily available to them and think, “Yeah, this is a good idea.”
You just really need to think hard about the ramifications of what you’re doing when you decide to sell art or products based on someone else’s IP. Copyright law highlights the concept of impact under its Fair Use clause which is, in simple terms, a way to determine whether or not your use of that property is a big deal or not.
If you’re selling drawings or hand-crafted items based off characters in a cartoon produced by a big time studio like Nickelodeon, it’ll have little to no impact on the source. One or two sewing machine savvy individuals pose no threat to the image of, or profits, the real deal. It still doesn’t technically make it LEGAL, it just isn’t likely going to matter to anyone important, and satisfies the needs of the fanbase to acquire unique items related to the things they like.
But when the source is another independent creator, the impact is HUGE. Assumptions will and can be made as to whether or not the vendor is representative of the source. Their behavior and craftsmanship can and will reflect on people’s impression of the original content. In certain cases, it even represents potential loss of income, when people sell products that are similar to those being sold in an official capacity, or that will be sold and are still under development.
It’s still a very grey area, and as most of you probably know, I’m no lawyer, so none of what I say technically (or legally) matters. BUT in addition to being a matter of legality, it’s a matter of personal morality and respect. If you couldn’t give two shits about THE LAW or THE MAN, consider the individual behind the content you love, and how disrespectful it is to blatantly disregard their feelings and rights. It’s a pretty rude thing to do, and makes them feel pretty bad about it! Especially since they know the people who do it aren’t usually trying to be assholes, and just want to make and sell a product other people will like.
So uh… tl;dr please don’t buy those hats.
(via softowl)
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I am putting this out there just as an informative thing, and because what Lexxy said gave me confidence that this is an all right thing to do. (If it’s not clear, I have a ton of respect for Lexxy, dang what a cool person.)
There is a group of people out there who go by “Athena’s Wink” who have continued to sell Homestuck items despite being asked multiple times to stop; they have been given step by step explanations of why what they’re doing is not okay and they do not seem to care.
I am putting this out there because I have heard from more than one person who was at a convention this weekend that the people involved in Athena’s Wink have been pulling aside those people who are visibly fans of Homestuck and telling them that they can sell them Homestuck merch under the table. This shows extremely clearly that they’re aware what they’re doing is wrong.
Frankly, it doesn’t seem palatable to me to throw the book at a couple of fairly young people who are doing something like this, even though it’s incredibly disrespectful and quite a cut-and-dried legal case. So I’m just going to put this information out there and ask that those of you who come into contact with them simply don’t buy from them.
Please don’t harangue, harass or otherwise be unkind to these people. They don’t deserve that (and more importantly, you shouldn’t make or let yourself be the kind of person who does unkind things like that). Please simply ignore them, do not buy from them, and, if you absolutely must say something, tell them politely that you disagree with the disrespect they show creators.
Thank you.
(via allheliabreaksloose)