The St. Petersberg Times has an interesting and informative article on Todd Goldman::
Jim Benton, a fellow T-shirt designer, said Goldman’s fans bought into his image as a creative, original artist.
“If you’re in the business of ‘clever, ‘ there’s sort of a promise, a covenant: ‘I promise to be clever, and you promise to love me and my cleverness, ‘ ” explained Benton.
By copying another person’s art, Goldman betrayed that trust, Benton said. “It’s like if you find out a rock star is lip synching.”
Goldman’s art dealer, Jack Solomon, sees it differently. Goldman made a mistake, he said, but he doesn’t deserve to be pilloried.
“The real story is that with the Web, anybody can go out and ruin someone, ” Solomon said.
Goldman declined to be interviewed for this story, first dismissing the controversy as “false accusations and blogging, ” then hanging up the phone on a reporter.
Goldman’s art dealer also explains what happened in the whole David Kelly affair:
Reached last week, Solomon said his client had made an honest mistake. Many of Goldman’s designs legally incorporate existing art, Solomon said. Sometimes he licences designs from artists or uses art that isn’t owned by anyone. In this case, he said, Goldman just didn’t check to make sure the image was in the common domain.
“The guy knocked it off, but he didn’t do it on purpose, ” Solomon said.
Although Goldman and Kelly have reached a settlement, some damage was done.
Solomon said that several galleries stopped showing Goldman’s work. And the wholesalers who buy Goldman’s posters canceled their orders and asked for refunds for unsold stock.
“I lost the three biggest poster distributors in America, ” Solomon said. He wouldn’t say how much money he and Goldman may have lost.
From the St. Petersberg times article:
“Goldman declined to be interviewed for this story, first dismissing the controversy as “false accusations and blogging, ” then hanging up the phone on a reporter.
But he was happy to give an interview to the St. Petersburg Times in 2004.
“I just keep coming up with ideas and ideas, ” he said then.”
I’m sure this is all very hard for Tom. As hard as, say, finding out that some idea-free, originality wasteland of a douchebag has been using a lousy tracing of your art to make thousands of dollars.
“The guy knocked it off, but he didn’t do it on purpose, ” Solomon said.
How does one copy something without doing it on purpose?
I saw one website that overlapped the two images. The similarities were so striking that conceivably one image was traced from the other. How does this happen except on purpose? Accidental plagarism? “Act of God” photocopying?
Goldman copied someone’s work. He got caught. Just own up to it and move on. But claiming that you accidently appropriated someone else’s work is pretty damn weak.
What Goldman needs to do is look on the Internet for a heartfelt apology somebody made to somebody else. He then needs to change the names so it looks like he came up with it and then send it to David Kelly. Case closed.
That will enable Goldman to spend time on his newest “creation”. An overweight cat named Taft that loves lasagna.
Oh, Todd. I’m sure none of those false accusations are half as inflammatory as calling someone a “huge infantilist furry.”
“or uses art that isn’t owned by anyone.”
Todd Goldman Boldly Re-interprets Copyright Laws.
Film At 11.
Todd Goldman’s Copy Of That Film At 12.
Goldman needs to change his name and move to upstate New York and start a comics convention.
As if this is the only instance of Goldman swiping other designers’ art. Boing Boing has been following other “coincidences.”
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/04/25/more_todd_goldman_ar.html
Thank goodness.
I hope everyone is able to support themselves some day, but the ‘copying’ of others’ previous works is not and should not be the way for a person to make money.
My cartoon FRANK LLOYD WRONG is hanging in art galleries for $3K, $4K, and $600 with the name TODD on it, as in Todd Goldman. Note: I gave Todd permission to use my cartoons in exchange for royalties which were supposedly stopped when I quit working with David and Goliath, Todd’s company. Where’s the fairness in that? Todd is allowed to keep using my images and selling them for thousands of dollars with some minor changes to the original like the addition of color and the removal of a ladder, but I’m not allowed to get compensated? To see my FRANK LLOYD WRONG cartoon in all its glory, visit my Web site.
http://www.StephenKramer.com
I am seeking an intellectual property attorney ASAP! I’m not a happy cartoonist!
Goldman HAS been taking a lot of other people’s designs over the years. There are a handful of articles on the net that talk about this, many of them with side-by-side photos showing the similarities.