I have been informed that James Shipman and Outlaw press Inc. have used one of my art-pieces, “The Troll and the ravens” (done in 2005) for the cover of The Hobbit hole #13 Magazine without my permission and I have not licensed that piece of art to the publisher. There is a term for this kind of abuse and it is art-theft.
More than over 25 artists have been used by this pulisher in the same way without their approval by using unlicensed art on their products that infringe on the artists copyrights.
The discussion about copyright infringement by this publisher started and has been ongoing on this thread at RPGNet: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=483885
I'm not going to lie, I want to get paid! I also want this person to stop selling the products with my unlicensed art in them, whether through Amazon, Lulu or his own website, and for everyone to be made aware of his practices. And I want him to stop profiting from the art of fellow artists that he is using without a license or permission.
I know for a fact that the publisher is ignoring e-mails and moreover, Outlaw Press recently removed their e-mail address from their main site. If the publisher don't give in for our demands I'm pretty sure this may end up in a lawsuit.
I got a hold of a pic of the product where my art was featured and it's on display in the beginning of this post along with my private photos of the painting in question in different stages of creation.
who is their distributor? The way to move forward is to let their distributor know. You could also send an email to whom they get their T&T license from: Flying Buffalo Games.
SvaraRaderasucks man.. there's a bunch of people retweeting this story. Please let us know how it, if it, gets resolved.
James "Con Man" Shipman doesn't have a distributor. He sells out of his livingroom over the net, using a paypal shop on his site (here's paypal's copyright violation form), and eBay (user name actionseller99).
SvaraRaderaHe's hosted by Yahoo!, so that's another target for a cease-and-desist letter.
He's brazen, and has basically said "screw you" when told by copyright and license owners that he must stop. He's printing Tunnels & Trolls material despite having his license revoked, and in the past he's printed and sold bootleg copies of Gamma World books and Mazes & Minotaurs. He's been ripping people off for decades, but the audacity and scale of his recent antics has finally got significant attention.
Man - that sucks. What sucks worse is the idea that "even bad publicity is good publicity". As Jonathan said, I would suggest notifying anyone and everyone he's dealing with that he's a thief.
SvaraRaderaHopefully that will get the job done.