In December of 2003 I became aware of just how vulnerable I was as a comics cartoonist. I developed the Ethereal War as a way to deal with the loss of not only control of my work, but the monetary income needed to produce the work! Most of the names involved have since vanished from the Internet and you will see after posting the fifth installment that I did make significant progress in defending my rights as a creator. Some of the material will anger you and confuse you. The anger will be apparent by the lack of support I received from publishers. The reason for the confusion is because it's the FANS of comics who are creating the websites designed to profit from their collections of books! Of course the views expressed are my own and I would like to thank Michael Netzer and Flaming Sword Productions for the opportunity to publish this series of articles.
-SB
THE ETHEREAL WAR part I
I was sitting in a Starbucks with an attractive model talking about our various creative backgrounds. EROS HAWK, an adult comic I produced, came up in conversation. I hadn't really given much thought to the comic book as it was something I did over ten years ago. Later I had Eros Hawk on my mind and the following day I entered the name in a search engine.
Then the WAR began.
I was shocked to find that several web sites were using the material that I created and owned (as well as the works of other artists) for their own monetary gain. I spoke with my attorney and he told me that, aside from the idea of a lawsuit, I had to be diligent and willing to harass anyone who used my work for his or her own profit. Through my attorney I realized I did have ammunition. First, I owned Eros Hawk, not the publisher of the series. Second, I had the Official Library of Copyright documents to prove it. And third, I had The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA) on my side. Within a day I had a short and very effective statement directed not only at the offenders but anyone connected and profiting from any monetary transactions. This would include credit card services, Internet service providers, etc. Emails were sent and before an hour had passed apologies were issued to me and the pages showcasing my material were removed. For a moment I thought the crisis was over.
A couple of weeks later I put Eros Hawk back into a search engine and there to my surprise were new offenders trying to profit from my material. There was even one repeat offender. Once again my statement was issued and once again apologies were sent to me and web pages were removed.
But there was one guy out there I couldn't get a handle on. He went by the name of Whyld Goose. I learned that Whyld Goose had actually scanned my work and was issuing it to anyone who wanted it FREE! He even had the audacity to catalogue the work in CSV (a data table file) form! Yet Whyld Goose was as elusive as his name implied and when I found an email address for him and sent along my statement it just came back to me as undeliverable. It became a quest to hunt down this felon (that's what he was) and have the justice I deserved. As this point I became an Internet Detective. Through a web site called Otacomics (no longer available) from Brazil I found the link that would prove to be Whyld Goose's undoing. ImagEvent.com was the web site where Whyld Goose displayed every page of my work (and the works of many other published artists). Because the web site providers were very accommodating and dropped the pages at my request (within ten minutes!) I harbor no ill will against them. Though they really should have known that the work wasn't the property of Whyld Goose. Not only did Whyld Goose scan every page of my four Eros Hawk books but he also scanned a caricature of himself and boasted that he scanned the work for people's enjoyment! The ironic thing about this is that while Whyld Goose did scan every page of the books he failed to note the copyright notice on the first page of each! After a phone call to the Internet provider not only did they remove my work but the works of other comics that Whyld Goose had posted for the world to see and download. I took it one step further and contacted the Brazilian web site and let them know that the links to my work were now broken and to drop all references to it. Of course the damage had been done. The black and white artwork (from the comic book) was scanned in very good detail and had been available for some time. It is also logical to assume that because of Whyld Goose's postings he provided several new and upcoming comic book web sites with material. This made me realize, even more so than before, that as a creator and owner it is up to me to protect my work and fight anyone who seeks to profit from it.
A few years ago I was talking with a group of comic book professionals and an editor said of the digital realm, "Work on the Internet is ethereal." It was a silly statement because when a web site uses images that an artist owns legally then this impacts on the artist's control and income. This is no different than the situation the music industry finds itself in today with MP3 technology. It is up to the individual who creates work of any nature to defend that work and fight anyone who infringes on his or her copyright. No one else will do it for us.
To Whyld Goose I have this to say, you disrespect every creator by posting works you clearly do not own. You have the right to purchase, trade or sell the comic book in question and that's it! You are obviously old enough, by your caricature, to know this. I am now aware of you and will track you down (I eventually did) as well as any further infringement made on my material.
To James at www.hentai-gold.com, you say you are a college student. Then you too must understand the concept of theft. Because you purchase a comic book it does not give you the right to publish the work and try to profit form it. I have caught you twice and will be monitoring you in the future (The site is still up and I can only guess that some of the books available are not his copyright).
To www.cartoonheaven.com (at this time it seems to have been shut down), you are obviously a fan of comics. But to try and profit from your collection in this manner is shameful. Do not attempt to profit from the hard work of the creators whose work you admire. You too are on my list to monitor.
And to all the new comic book related web sites offering stories and art for a fee, It had better be work you own or are paying the creator for it's use. The Internet is vast and largely ungoverned. As the tools for creating web sites improve in their simplicity and scanner prices drop to under $100.00 you can expect further instances of copyright infringement. I don't know about you but I'll be watching to see what happens next.
Steven Bové . NY 2003
The Ethereal War is Copyright © 2003 by Steven Bové
