Contest-Winning Poster To Promote Copyright Protection... Copied From Another Artist

from the define-irony dept

Fri, Sep 24th 2010 11:22am — Mike Masnick

Reader A alerts us to this amusing story out of Taiwan, where it turns out that a student who won a contest put on by the country's Intellectual Property Office, involving creating a poster to promote strong copyright protection, has been stripped of his prize after it was discovered that the poster was copied from a Dutch artist. The student has been ordered to return the approximately $1,600 he was awarded. What's not clear is if the student was really just pranking the Intellectual Property Office or what. Separately, there's this conundrum: if the Intellectual Property Office felt that a copied poster was the most successful in promoting respect of copyright, by taking away the prize are they actually harming their own case?

Filed Under: copying, copyright, taiwan

29 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 24 Sep 2010 @ 11:52am

Or it could actually be a stunt.

They get a contest "winner" to copy some guy's work so they can come up and say "We take intellectual property so seriously that we won't tolerate any kind of copying/plagiarism/whatever, even if it was done by the contest's winner" so they can claim that they are, not only useful, but essential to defend artist's rights.
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 11:59am

Are they that afraid of copying?
Are they so afraid of this Dutch artist that they won't even post a picture of the winning poster? Every single article I click on has the same picture of people on the subway, but no one has a picture of the poster or the original.

I'll let Dark Helmet take this conspiracy.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Sep 2010 @ 12:08pm

At the end of the article the IP Office warns that the former winner could be on the hook for statutory damages should the Dutch artist sue. They conveniently leave out their contribution to the infringement.

Also - if an official IP protection office wasn't able to discern any infringement at the time of the award, how is anyone else, like YouTube or an ISP, supposed to do it, as so many rightsholders demand?
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Sep 2010 @ 12:14pm

They can't win. Copying is so prevalent that trying to stop it is like trying to boil the ocean. Time and time again it is shown that even those who say copying is the most evil sin in the face of the world will copy from someone else without authorization. Copying is part of the human nature, it is how our culture and technology evolved and will continue to evolve.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 12:26pm

Re: Are they that afraid of copying?
"I'll let Dark Helmet take this conspiracy."

I can only assume that the picture in the poster includes an embedded image of the Prophet Muhammad fondling a quadriped.

Tasteless, tasteless Dutch....
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Sep 2010 @ 12:27pm

Re:
Yes, copying is an integral part of human nature. To wit:

Copying test answers from the person sitting next to you.

Copying a term paper.

Copying information shared in confidence and then disclosing it in violation of the confidence.

Copying your co-worker's work product and then passing it off as your own.

Copying.....

Copying.....

Copying.....

And for those who will inevitably say "But it screws your reputation.", it is useful to bear in mind that this only happens when one is caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

Lots of things are human nature, but as a society we have determined that some are acceptable and some are not.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Sep 2010 @ 12:29pm

What does "Held for moderation" mean when it comes up after uploading a comment? I thought comments here are unmoderated.
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drewmerc (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 12:37pm

this guy can have a hundred internet's if he did this as a joke
if not he's just a thief trying to scam some money
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Sep 2010 @ 12:37pm

This is what's called performance art.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 12:40pm

Re:
"this guy can have a hundred internet's if he did this as a joke"

A hundred internet's what???!!! Come on, the suspense is killing me. What belonging to the internet are you giving away!!!???
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Travis, 24 Sep 2010 @ 12:42pm

Re:
They have a spam filter that scans all the comments. Anyone can have them double check its results though. They don't permenantly remove non-spam comments though.
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Greg G, 24 Sep 2010 @ 12:46pm

Good artists...
Picasso once said, Good artists copy, great artists steal.

This kis is apparently a great artist, destined for bigger and better things.

But, I kinda hope he was pranking them. Serves them right.
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Comboman (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 12:58pm

Re: Are they that afraid of copying?
You can see a picture of the poster here. The article is in Dutch, but from the Google translation, apparently the Dutch artist was amused by the situation (the name of the original artwork is "Truth").
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Mike Masnick (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 1:05pm

Re:
What does "Held for moderation" mean when it comes up after uploading a comment? I thought comments here are unmoderated.

It means your comment got caught in the spam filter, which we check every few hours. I went in and released your comment. I think the key thing that triggered it was the use of the phrase "term paper" as we get a ton of "buy your term paper" spammers here.

The spam filter weighs a bunch of factors, but certain phrases really are closely associated with spam.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 1:19pm

Re: Re:
What does the term "paper" mean?

;)
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Dark Helmet (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 1:22pm

Re: Re: Are they that afraid of copying?
"apparently the Dutch artist was amused by the situation"

Jesus Christ, why the hell are the Dutch watching Jersey Shore?
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Sep 2010 @ 1:24pm

Re: Re:
There is a huge difference between "copying" and "passing off as your own".

All your examples except the third one include "passing off as your own" (copying test answers but saying it was you who answered them; copying a term paper and saying it was you who wrote it; and so on).

The third one (leaking information) is a different case: breaking someone's trust on you. People also do that all the time (see Wikileaks), but a digression on the ethics of "leaking" is beyond the scope here.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Sep 2010 @ 1:26pm

Re: Re:
Thanks for saying this, because my answer to him just got caught in the same net, and since you mentioned the cause I know why.
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drewmerc (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 1:42pm

Re: Re:
here just for you http://knowyourmeme.com/system/icons/1732/original/winternet.jpg
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Dark Helmet (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 1:48pm

Re: Re: Re:
Right back at you, cuz: http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/apostro.asp
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 2:02pm

Re: Re:
The consequences of copying are grater then being caught while one is doing it. Being put on the spot latter on in life and not being able to perform is one hell of a consequence. This is the main reason why we discourage copying test answers or co-worker's work. It's effects are grater then "you've been naughty".

Continuing others work is something different and should be differentiated accordingly.

A violation of confidence shouldn't even be brought up in this conversation, quit bringing up completely unrelated things.
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AW, 24 Sep 2010 @ 2:12pm

found the artist
Artists original is here :http://www.damnengine.net/
Actually seems like he's pretty damned level headed about it.
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Sep 2010 @ 2:24pm

Re: Re: Re: Are they that afraid of copying?
Pot's legal there, maybe Jersey Shore is entertaining when stoned out of your mind?
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Angry Puppy (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 2:30pm

Re: Re: Re: Are they that afraid of copying?
Well, there's nothing amusing about "The Situation" in Jersey Shore.
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Karl (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 5:44pm

Jail time?
Note the end of the article:

if the Dutch artist filed a lawsuit against Wu, he could face a jail term of up to three years or a fine of 750,000 Taiwan dollars.

Exactly how much more "protection" does copyright need in Taiwan?
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The Groove Tiger (profile), 24 Sep 2010 @ 8:59pm

Re: Re: Are they that afraid of copying?
Well, they do share a border with the Belgians...
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Sep 2010 @ 1:25am

Re: Jail time?
They'd like to be able to cut off his hands. See how much copying he does then.
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Johnny, 26 Sep 2010 @ 3:15pm

Original
I guess this is the original:
http://damnengine.deviantart.com/art/Truth-73963882

The Malaysia News story assumes a lot. For one that it was copied without permission. Even if it was without permission, who's to say the Dutch artist wouldn't be happier to take a share of the prize money instead of having the poster pulled.
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anothermike, 27 Sep 2010 @ 12:00pm

Re: found the artist
Hey, it's award-winning artwork. Why wouldn't he be proud of it?
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