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Design plagiarism?

M

marty1990

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 25, 2011
413
20
England
I've been contracted to design an infographic surrounding Star Trek. In my infographic there are cartoon versions of Kirk and Spock, however I'm a little concerned. For you see, the company I have designed the infographic for really like the look of my 'cartoony' versions of the characters, but, after looking on visual.ly, I've found an Obama/Romney infographic, and the style of Obama and Romney is pretty much the same as mine. If I keep that look on my infographic, could I be done for plagiarism, or would it be classed as just a standard design?

http://visual.ly/what-obama-and-romney-voters

That's the original, I shan't post mine as the company is hoping to use my infographic as part of an online campaign, and they don't want it live yet.
 
Drunken Master

Drunken Master

macrumors 65816
Jul 19, 2011
1,060
0
Just claim it's "an homage".

That's how everyone gets away with shamelessly ripping people off these days. ;)
 
M

marty1990

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 25, 2011
413
20
England
Thats the thing I didn't attempt to copy, I designed this infographic, sent it to my client, they liked it, then a friend showed me the Obama one, and now am worried.
 
C

ChrisA

macrumors G5
Jan 5, 2006
12,559
1,671
Redondo Beach, California
One cannot copyright a style, only content. If your web page can be mistaken for their web page then you may have violated copyright. If it is only a similar style but with different content then there is no copyright violation.

This does extend to sub-parts of the page, for example if you lifted a cartoon on Romney, but you did not do that.
 
M

marty1990

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 25, 2011
413
20
England
So, even though my Star Trek characters are in the same style as Obama and Romney, it's okay if this were to get published online?
 
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M

marty1990

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 25, 2011
413
20
England
yeah, everything is my own, even the characters. just the design of the characters is similar to the romney/obama on the above infographic.
 
rocknblogger

rocknblogger

macrumors 68020
Apr 2, 2011
2,346
481
New Jersey
I've seen other very similar info graphics but they had different content, like yours I'm guessing, so I have to agree with everyone else. You're good to go.
 
M

marty1990

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 25, 2011
413
20
England
sigmadog said:
Personally, I would be more concerned about the potential copyright infringement of Star Trek.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that was my concern too, but they aren't bothered, so that's their decision. The characters are my doing, but if there's similar designs, I'll just leave them as they are then.

Thanks.
 
1

12dylan34

macrumors 6502a
Sep 3, 2009
884
15
If general styles could be copyrighted, everyone, myself included, would be getting sued once a month. Like someone else said, I would be more worried about Star Trek than anything else. That's more of the client's concern, though.
 
L

lucidmedia

macrumors 6502a
Oct 13, 2008
702
37
Wellington, New Zealand
12dylan34 said:
That's more of the client's concern, though.
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree. You cannot absolve yourself of legal responsibility just by saying "someone else told me to / someone else paid me to...". The courts do not work like that (unless you can prove you were coerced).

If you drew it, you infringed it.

If a copyright lawyer comes after this project, both the artist and client will bear responsibility. Do you think your client will protect you? Pay for your damages? In my experience clients are pretty quick to throw designers under a bus.

I am not a lawyer, but I have hired copyright lawyers to protect my intellectual property and won. These guys make $800/hr and, in my case, hit the other guy so hard his book publishing company had to declare bankruptcy.
 
1

12dylan34

macrumors 6502a
Sep 3, 2009
884
15
lucidmedia said:
I respectfully disagree. You cannot absolve yourself of legal responsibility just by saying "someone else told me to / someone else paid me to...". The courts do not work like that (unless you can prove you were coerced).

If you drew it, you infringed it.

If a copyright lawyer comes after this project, both the artist and client will bear responsibility. Do you think your client will protect you? Pay for your damages? In my experience clients are pretty quick to throw designers under a bus.

I am not a lawyer, but I have hired copyright lawyers to protect my intellectual property and won. These guys make $800/hr and, in my case, hit the other guy so hard his book publishing company had to declare bankruptcy.
Click to expand...

You know, I wasn't really sure of that statement. I probably shouldn't have put it. I've never had to design something with content from one copyrighted entity for another entity, so I really have no idea what I'm talking about.
 
R

R1PPER

macrumors 6502
Oct 1, 2008
360
62
The bottom line is...dont worry too much. There might be a 1% chance of there being any repercussions from this. Just answer the brief and if anything negative comes then pull it or adapt it.
 
steveash

steveash

macrumors 6502a
Aug 7, 2008
527
245
UK
You probably have nothing to worry about but seriously, I wouldn't take legal advice from an internet forum. If you have concerns then speak to a lawyer. If you can't afford to then raise your concerns in writing with your client and make sure you have indemnity insurance.
 
Belly-laughs

Belly-laughs

macrumors 6502a
Jun 8, 2003
871
42
you wish
You've made an infographics with star wars characters and are worried it may look too much like a list infographics with two faceless people? i wouldn't worry the slightest.

i think you will find plenty more examples of similar styled graphics if you do a search.
 
T

tgurske

macrumors newbie
Sep 2, 2008
25
0
It has to be damn close to be an issue. It's hard to protect a design. If you take text, a photo or an exact drawing, then you're screwed. But, an overall design has to be extremely close to even be considered a problem.
 
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