Inktober Book Plagerism Accusations

[John Roberson]

Omg thank you! I just discovered this video today and at first I thought it was just a clickbait title having followed both artists for some time. But then I started watching. Dunn seemed so adamant in his accusations and the people in the comments seemed to mostly agree wholeheartedly. But I just couldn’t see it. It’s been on my mind all day.

Everything he was pointing out was stuff that I’ve seen or heard repeated over and over at various points in my art education. And Jake’s layouts, while perhaps a bit derivative in a broader sense, seemed different enough from Dunn’s...at least from a layout and design standpoint. I watched it 3 or 4 different times and kept pausing it at certain points trying to understand. Every time Dunn would point something out it just felt to me like he was claiming ownership of the art fundamentals themselves rather than outlining clear examples of outright plagiarism.

And sooo many people seem to be supporting his accusations without question. Beyond just empathizing with how Jake must be feeling, the implications of how Dunn handled this and the arguments being presented leaves me feeling very unsettled. By what it means for art education and for the overall art community. And it’s part of a larger unease I feel about our current cultural climate and how we address conflict on a fundamental level. But seeing that at least some people were feeling the same gives me some solace.

[Julia]

@Coreyartus don't appologize! I am the one who owe you an appology if I made you (or anyone else) uneasy!

You did make reference to the imperfection of your statistics in your first post due to the random and small sample of the profiles you looked at. You did a great job and you are maybe right! There might be a trend... but we don't know for sure. I am quite sensitive to generalisation and I thought, if someone young comes and read that thread, s/he may have a misrepresentation of the inclusive spirit on the forum!

Let me tell you a personal anecdote : I was born and educated in the French countryside. In France, American movies used to be dubbed and titles translated from English to French (for exemple, Die Hard became "Piège de cristal" litterally "the crystal trap" in reference of the glass building where most of the movie is shot). Once a famous and trendy Parisian journalist explained on TV that movies were not played in English and subtitled (as opposed to dubbing) because the French people in the countryside don't understand English. I was a teenager and I was learning English at school like anyone else of my age in France. And yes, my understanding was not perfect. And yes, in the countryside we don't have an easy access to culture (to museums, or even sometimes to movie theaters). But this journalist had sarcasm in his voice and made me feel dumb. It may seem silly but it hurt me. Since then, I have always been careful to treat people equally and I am mindful of generalisation. My motto is Socrate's famous quote : I know that I know nothing!

I hope you (and others) didn't feel attacked, that was not the purpose of my post.

I read here and there that people feel stressed. I am sorry to read this and I am glad we have a safe place to discuss the topic and release the anxiaty. I too empathise with Jake, whose level of stress must be up to the roof.

[Joey Wall]

If nobody gets sued, it will work out
good for both parties i think.

No such thing as bad publicity, ill buy both books now but had no plans too

[Shyam Sailus]

@Lee-White Hi Guys, a friend of Mr Jake Parker from India named Kesh Posted a Video titled "My Thoughts on the 'Inktober' Controversy" in his youtube channel check this out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdCffP8BBg8

[Geoffrey Gordon]

@Shyam-Sailus Just finish watching his thoughts..... I really like Kesh, someone I have found really approachable. He has a really balanced explanation that is fair and accurate. I love how he explains the mob and individual opinion contrast and why we need all the facts.

Personally I am behind Jake parker all the way, yes I am picking aside. To quote from Smallville Lex Luthor says "A person isn't who they are during the last conversation you had with them - they're who they've been throughout your whole relationship." - by Rainer Maria Rilke. Yes I love this show. Jake cannot be suddenly evil when his character has been kind and giving all along.

Its funny though... the more famous you become the more people tend to despise you too," its kind of a tear someone else down to make yourself feel better about your own mediocre life" syndrome. Why cant people just be happy for others. I believe we all blossom at the right time for us in our lives sometimes its sooner sometimes it's later.

On a side note, I have bought a few of his classes ...He currently is running a drawing camp 14 modules covering foundations, design, and creation. I got it at a steal of $55. https://www.keshart.in/drawing-camp1 I share it because his courses are really cheap but packed with good value for those who have not purchased art lessons.

Svslearn is great but I have found spreading my education between Udemy , Skillshare, 21 draw, Keshart, Mitch Leeuwe and a few other places help broaden your understanding when you see art taught from different viewpoints.

That's my rant on the situation, figured its probably safest here.

Ps @Jake-Parker I hope you are doing okay and this works out soon for you. You have my support.

[Joanne Roberts]

@Lee-White When all the dust settles and the time is appropriate, maybe a similar topic could be featured on Three-Point perspective on how to handle negative feedback on social media, professional courtesy, or online rights, and of course what to do when you think your copyright is being infringed upon (or vice versa). Thanks for taking my suggestion into consideration. By the way, thanks for taking care of this tough thread with such grace and level-headedness for your friend and colleague at a time when he needs it most. You are leading by example and it is much appreciated.

[Lee White]

@Joanne-Roberts Thanks! It's a tricky area for sure! I think that would make a great podcast. Maybe VERY far in the future! : )

[Pamela Fraley]

@NessIllustration you’re right. There won’t be any fixing this for some people. If Jake does have a case for slander and defamation etc, I hope he pushes for Alphonso taking down the video and posting a new one (linked to all of his social media accounts) detailing exactly how Jake’s book is not a plagiarism of his book. If Alphonso is wrong, he should publicly apologize, admit he jumped the gun, and recognize how destructive it is to respond emotionally on the internet, especially when you have a following as big as his. I don't doubt that a lot of people will still see it all the way they want to. But, Someone needs to try to help people learn something from all of this about the cancel culture of the internet. And about Generally seeing people in one dimension.

[VeronicaMui]

@hakepe I feel the same.. even if he had a real issue he went about it in completely the wrong way - gave no opportunity for a discussion with the artist and just went straight to blasting loudly on the internet. It really made me angry considering the trend to ‘cancel’ people online - no consideration for the possible repercussions of his actions in the case that Mr. Parker is found at no fault (and I do believe he is at no fault)

[A Former User]

This post is deleted!

[xin li]

@Shyam-Sailus thank you for sharing the video by Kesh. I really appreciate his message towards the end of the video To quote him here:
"People make mistakes. Does not matter who make mistakes. If any one of them came out to be right, I really hope you forgive the other person. Because we all make mistakes."

[dickdavid]

Personally, as it's been articulated here, I feel accuser has made an unwarranted proprietary claim on basic fundamentals of art that have been published over and over for years.

I've been trying to hold back my opinions (on social networks) and let the lawyers and copyright specialists work this out. I feel that this is clearly a situation about different points-of-view. The problem with sharing accusations like that online, is how quickly the information, especially the wrong information, gets spread and trolled through social media. It's the game of telephone, but with severe consequences.

For example, I posted the 2020 Inktober prompt list on my personal IG account, and one of my 'friends' posted this:

"Unfortunately the man who runs Inktober plagiarized a black artist in his book AND sued successful artists participating in this event for money. I won’t be participating this year."

I gave her clarification, but I feel the damage has been done AND on a larger scale.

[NessIllustration]

@dickdavid Exactly, people are getting their facts SO wrong and rushing to cancel a human being and Inktober over half-baked assumptions. It's maddening to see this unfold, and it's really scary to see how precarious all of our careers are. We're all one misunderstanding away from losing it all.

[Blitz55]

So far from what I've seen it seems that a lot of the people that think Jake is guilty of something already have a bias against him due to the issues with the rights to InkTober that Jake acquired. I don't know a lot about that, I know it caused some drama and some legal issues for some artists. But it seems that has primed a lot of people into thinking Jake is sleazy and would do something like this, instead of giving him the benefit of the doubt and waiting until more evidence was presented. They already seem to dislike him and I know from actual experience it doesn't take much to give someone a bad name on the internet, it's a mob, and all most people need is a reason, they don't actually look up the issue themselves or find the truth of the matter. Once it's out there, it spreads like wildfire and you're stuck with the consequences of that. This is why I really dislike how Alphonso went about this.

[StudioHannah]

@George-Broussard Thanks for watching the video and for the thoughtful response! You're right, and that's a pretty daunting future no matter what happens. I hope Jake will be ok

[StudioHannah]

@danielerossi Thanks for watching it! Ahaha, I got that bit from Ethan Becker, who is an excellent art YouTuber. Very funny guy and great teacher.

[NessIllustration]

@Blitz55 People seem to have a bias against Jake for 2 previous incidents/scandals that were really nothing burgers.

• The digital art vs. traditional art scandal. Several years ago when people started doing digital art for Inktober, Jake said that originally the point of Inktober was to make time to practice traditional ink techniques and so it's not the ideal time/event to do digital art. People ran with it and thought he said that digital art isn't real art, and was bashing digital art. No matter how many times he tried to respectfully explain that digital art is rad and he does a lot of it himself, it's just this particular event happens to be challenging you to ink traditionally, some still think he bashed digital artists.

• The trademarking controversy. A couple years ago, Jake trademarked the Inktober name and logo in order to protect people from using it to sell T-shirts and stuff, and also to allow him to create an Inktober book and partner up with different companies to create official merch. This eventually led to some artists receiving DMCA notices if they were using the Inktober name or logo to sell their Inktober related zines or other products. Jake worked with those artists to allow them to keep selling their products, just remove the logo from it. They were also allowed to use the Inktober name in a subtitle, just not the main title (for instance "Black and white: an Inktober zine by John Smith" was allowed). Sadly there was a huge outcry because of an overwhelming lack of understanding of the situation, of how copyrights and trademarks work and Jake's intentions. A lot of people think he outright sued people who participated in Inktober in order to make money off other people's art. Some people still believe you can get sued for selling your Inktober prints, or even just using the Inktober hashtag. It's of course ridiculous because a) DMCAs are not suing, to my knowledge Jake has never sued anyone and b) his trademark only protects the NAME (as main title of whatever you want to sell) and his logo, not the concept of Inktober itself. And still again some people believe that Jake did not create Inktober, the community built up Inktober and it is public domain, and Jake is trying to appropriate something that does not belong to him.

That in a nutshell is the explanation of the silly misunderstandings that people are using to base their whole opinion of Jake... The most ridiculous thing is that most people going after Jake for what they believe is copyright infringement of Dunn, also are the same ones thinking he is a bad person for attempting to prevent copyright infringement of his own Inktober logo. They're not making sense whatsoever. Most of these people have no understanding of copyright law, are only vaguely aware of rumors they heard on the internet and are using these tenuous "facts" to make up their minds that Jake is an awful person who has now been caught plagiarizing and they're not surprised. It's insanity. This could happen to anyone through no fault of their own...

[danielerossi]

I just ran into a kinda-sorta similar situation last night! I was working on a few thumbnail sketches for ideas for “Fish”, the first Inktober prompt. After trying a few different scenarios, I settled on a tiger looking into a fish market window. The sketch I drew is from the perspective of looking at the tiger from the inside of the fish market. I liked what I drew so I — of course — fire up Instagram to share with the world.

You know how Instagram shows you the latest photo in your news feed when you open it up? What I saw made my mouth drop. A friend of mine in Japan DREW THE SAME THING! Except hers is of a pig looking into a donut shop window. Both of our layouts were the same. Food at the bottom, hands on window, lots of white space above the animal’s head. Uncanny.

Neither of us knew we were drawing anything about fish or animals or donuts or whatever. We don’t even keep in touch on a daily basis. As far as I know, I don’t think she’s participating in Inktober (or at least, I haven’t seen anything related to a fish prompt in her illustration).

I admit, anxiety got the best of me as this reminded me of the Alphonso/Jake thing. So — to make sure — I sent her a private message with her illustration and mine along with a note saying how I had just made this drawing when hers happened pop up in my news feed.

[lpetiti]

What has amazed me is that, even though people say they aren't sticking around with Inktober and Jake, they feel the need to do just that and bash anyone who still participates. "I'm unfollowing you." or things similar to it run rampent in comments. My opinion has always been "Okay, that's your business..." Why people feel the need to make a big production about posting how they will no longer participate in anything has always baffled me.

[Blitz55]

@NessIllustration That is a great breakdown, thanks for taking the time to write that out. I may even use that info to pass on to others I know who don't understand the situation so well.

I typically feel that most of that had to have been a misunderstanding. I've seen it stated as "Jake sicking his lawyers on people" which sounds so misleading and wrong. I don't know Jake personally though I've had the chance to meet him a few times at ECCC and through that and all his public videos and work I have yet to ever see something that makes me think this is a shady guy, this is the kind of guy out to get his and to hell with other artists.

But, people take misleading information and run with it on the internet. I was part of something like that and saw first hand how a fabricated story by a random person on a forum completely destroyed the work of one of my best friends simply because people took this person at their word and never bothered to actually look into the matter. It's freaking pathetic how that always seems to be the case.

Thank you once again.
Gave you a follow on Instagram too, nice work. I like your mushrooms. haha