Inktober Book Plagerism Accusations

lpetiti · 4 Sept 2020, 19:13

@Nyrryl-Cadiz the sad thing is it was one of my closest friends in college that said that. It's hard not to be made to feel "naive" in situations like that...hahaha

duttychai · 4 Sept 2020, 21:32

@CaseyKinseyArt This guy, Dunn, may or not have jumped the fence with his accusation, but he is generally respected. Unkindness hasn't seems so unlike him, not his way. But I do think he should have gotten publisher and legal inform before tossing like that on social media. Sets a bad tone. And he says in his video that he had not spoken with Jake at the time. If wrong move by Jake, I hope he will do the honorable.

Also I don't think he is fully acquainted with the standards for copyright or trademark infringement as applied to media. The physical design, the wording, and terms used by him, and the images all must be given a proportion of importance. Perhaps the closest to his complaint is some similarities in the Tools and Alternate xxx pages.

Otherwise, at a minimum of 30 years of reading art instruction material and class handouts, informs me that I've seen and heard these concepts before.The various words used to instruct on line quality to sculpt, shape, contour a 2D image have been here forever.

I've followed Jake and Alphonso for years. So sorry to see this happening. PS: They both have admired and recommended each other.

duttychai · 4 Sept 2020, 20:18

Thank you for the post, Lee.
Judge a legal issue by law rather than personality. If I don't like a book or the person I don't buy it. We all need to take the business side of putting our art out there more seriously either in our own hands or professionals we hire as gatekeepers, not social media. Beware of Karma.

duttychai · 4 Sept 2020, 20:27

@LauraA
I am here in USA. It's not you, it's US.

In agreement, at first I wan't going to participate in Inktober. My decision now is to buy both books as keepsakes. Also to compare. Two people whose virtual schooling and life outlook inspired me to come back to my art.

duttychai · 4 Sept 2020, 20:33

@pixel-dsp
His video did not mention that he consulted his publisher or legal. Also he had not spoken with Jake Parker before the blast.

duttychai · 4 Sept 2020, 21:30

@Geoffrey-Gordon
Good points. Thanks for the links to kesh etc.
Ironically his home page reminded me of svs fundamentals page.
Irony or just another example of similarities.

duttychai · 4 Sept 2020, 20:47

@lpetiti
Browsing his YouTube on that, you missed me and others who may have replied at top level or to other posters.

I had recommended that he should have tasked his publisher and lawyer before a public blast even if he was so certain.

duttychai · 4 Sept 2020, 20:56

@annegreenstreet
From his years on YouTube, he impresses me as a passionate teacher. These are frustrating times. Perhaps emotion took hold. He definitely should have fact checked with his publisher and legal.

And even if he hadn't spoke with them, it's always best to discuss with the other person before going on social media which is such an unforgiving medium for all.

duttychai · 4 Sept 2020, 21:04

@Julia Unfortunately democracy does not come with a built-in kindness default. And censorship in a democracy at its most democratic is to opt out.

duttychai · 4 Sept 2020, 22:37

@Lee-White
Isn't it common to start a book on even numbered page, and pen(cil)s angled down right to left as you look at the page. Mentioning it as a common design choice.

danielerossi · 5 Sept 2020, 00:15

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Glad I’m not the only one

jdubz · 5 Sept 2020, 01:16

@Molambo said in Inktober Book Plagerism Accusations:

yeah, i really wonder when the innocent till proven guilty thing changed. based on the last insta post from alphonso the thing will not be done in a shot amount of time. i really wonder how this will end, book itself is still listed on amazon.

It's really strange watching that change before my eyes over the last 2-3 years. Social media and cancel culture has really given a lot of people the sense that they personally choose what happens, and algorithms like we see where it only shows skewed comments on someone's profile do not help (on either side I might add). It gives people the impression that a small but vocal minority is the popular opinion and that simply is not the case.

I was genuinely concerned that Alphonso inadvertently opened himself up to a pretty big lawsuit. But thing have gone a completely different direction than I had initially thought. I was expecting Alphonso to tell people to simmer down and wait until he, his lawyer, Jake and his lawyer and the publisher to meet determine what actually happened. It seems it's going the other way. If his posts, videos and audience influence Jake's product and it's conclusive that Jake didn't steal anything, that's provably a huge amount of revenue not just for Jake but for for a large publisher. It's more likely the publisher themselves will go after Alphonso than Jake.

deborah Haagenson · 5 Sept 2020, 03:19

@NessIllustration Boy isn't that the truth. I've seen people lose their jobs in the workplace over a misunderstanding or something that was escalated that should have been squashed by a good manager, but Instead bullying and mob mantality too over.

deborah Haagenson · 5 Sept 2020, 03:23

@deborah-Haagenson typo - took over, not too over.

Nyrryl Cadiz · 5 Sept 2020, 10:10

@lpetiti really? I’m so sorry. I can only imagine how bad you felt when close to you tells you this stuff.

demotlj · 5 Sept 2020, 12:45

One thing that may be driving Alphonso Dunn is that, as far as I can tell, his Pen and Ink book and accompanying workbook are the only books he has published. I used to follow him on instagram and Youtube and with almost every post, he promoted those books. He's put all of his eggs into that basket and probably sees Jake's book as a huge threat to it. And there is no question that this controversy has increased his sales.

I have stopped following Dunn because as everyone has pointed out, his willingness to create an internet mob made me lose respect for him. I hope @Lee-White is communicating all of our support to Jake because I can't imagine how difficult this must be for him. I sometimes wonder if there have been times that he wishes he never started "Inktober!"

braden H · 5 Sept 2020, 14:20

@jdubz said in Inktober Book Plagerism Accusations:

It's more likely the publisher themselves will go after Alphonso than Jake.

That's what I initially thought, too. And who knows, it may happen (a spite suit?) But I think it's more likely that the publisher will ask 'can we even recoup our legal expenses, let alone our losses from the libellous actions'. And I'm willing to bet that they can't.

But yeah I'm on board with the fact that poking the internet beast and pointing it toward Jake was the wrong way to approach the situation. We got to see and compare two very different ways an artist can leverage their audience...

lpetiti · 5 Sept 2020, 14:49

@Nyrryl-Cadiz yeah, I guess we just grew apart in a lot of ways.

NessIllustration · 5 Sept 2020, 14:57

In other news, today a lawsuit was just greenlit against Taylor Swift for alleged copyright infringement of lyrics in her song Shake it Off. Plaintiffs allege that her lyrics "players gonna play, play, play, play, play, haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate" is a copy of their old song's lyric "Playas, they gon' play - Haters, they gon' hate". Cause you know, no one could have ever come up with these obvious phrases in isolation from one another.. Eyeroll. Seriously, what has the world come to? Common sense doesn't seem quite as common as it used to be.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/taylor-swift-shake-it-copyright-lawsuit-songwriters-lyrics-a9704541.html?utm_content=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1mvLE_9IaIrpXM1gZUid33AKFxz1hOUo7BBJV4gxXfaPinadpmhvxe2Bo#Echobox=1599290875

5 Sept 2020, 15:57

@NessIllustration
at least they go the legal way and its up now to the two parties to present theire case and let a real judge deicde, based on the law given in the country