Plagiarism and doing the right thing

Last night I received an email from the captain of the Otautahi Rollers , a roller derby team from Christchurch, New Zealand. Here is an exerpt from the message that she sent:

"when we first started last year a member (who is no longer with our league) 'designed' us a logo. We've been using it with a new background ever since. However, it's just been brought to our attention that this wasn't her original work, and was in fact copied from your blog. I am contacting you to apologize for our league's plagiarism of your artwork. It's not something we would knowingly do, and it's something we're embarrassed about now and we sincerely regret giving the impression that your excellent illustration was the work of one of our members. We're removing the current logo from all league publications until one of our current members (a tattoo artist) can design us a new, original one."

Here is the original illustration that I posted a few years back.

Now check out the logo that is using my image.

Interestingly enough, this is not the first time that my artwork, specifically Roller Derby art, has been ripped off. A few years ago I designed this award winning poster for the Philly Roller Girls.

A portion of the artwork was stolen by a team in Florida that reworked (butchered) it into their logo. On a separate occasion, it was brought to my attention that another dishonest person was using the same image on products that they were selling on Etsy. In both cases, I had the unpleasant task of contacting the offenders with a "cease and desist".

Some people may not think that artistic plagiarism is that big of a deal. When you make a living off of selling your illustration to clients who buy exclusive rights for the work - it IS a big deal. It doesn't just effect me, but it effects my client. Imagine paying a buyout to use a piece of artwork that someone else just goes ahead uses for free? Think about it.

All this aside, I am really thankful that the captain from the Otautahi Rollers contacted me with the apology. Her team is on the other side of the world. I would have probably never found out that my work had been stolen. She did the right thing and I admire her honesty and integrity.

Do you admire yours?