John Unger
November 7th, 2009 @ 12:04
Posted by: John
is a good friend. We’ve had many conversations about copyright and he called me for opinions near the beginning of this nasty copyright battle he’s now embroiled in. It’s a big one. In having those conversations in past years neither of us expected he would end up with any kind of problem like this because he had filed all the proper copyrights. Most people don’t. He’s a well known name in Internet circles and a good writer and good at Internet communication so I urged him, as I’m sure others did, to use those strengths and put the whole story out there, just the facts, and get some support going among artists. It’s a compelling story – John’s adversary in this deal wants to continue producing art pieces just like his and to do that he’s suing to overturn the existing copyrights. I didn’t hear from him for a month or so but he called last week – saying “I did it” and yes, he did…… he did it very well, it’s all over the Internet. Hundreds of thousands of people are buzzing about it. There was more than a hundred thousand tweets on Twitter alone. I don’t go there but I’ve been forwarding the info to my contacts in an attempt to help him keep and increase the momentum. If you know anybody who might be interested in this issue, tell them to go to John’s page about it, make a donation if they can and then pass it on.
Lots of big blogs are leaning in on this subject; just do a search for “John Unger copyright” and see all the coverage it’s getting. You can verbally just pass the word onto people you’re talking to by suggesting they Google “John Unger” to get the story – I think it’s on hundreds of websites now so it’s easy to find. Here’s one; you can listen to John tell his story in a recorded phone interview.
I’m going to be talking to John here soon and I’ll let you know what’s new.
November 7th, 2009 15:19
Very interesting. The story has definitely permeated the blogosphere/internet. Last week, it had even popped up on one of the news aggregates I frequent — Reddit — but I only saw the headine and didn’t realize it was about JohnT.
I haven’t read much on the particular issue yet — just John’s site — but I found this Consumerist article (blog owned by Consumer Reports) to be well researched and balanced. My heart is always going to side with the original artist and the little guy, but it seems like the law may not be all that clear. Perhaps John’s experience will change that. I do hope he is successful and I’m sorry he’s having to go through this.
http://consumerist.com/5390539/copycat-company-sues-original-artist-to-void-copyright-claims
I’ve been a fan of John’s work since you guys introduced me to it. If nothing else, this makes me want to buy an original John Unger firebowl.