USENIX T-Shirt and DEC Poster

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2 total messages Started by David Levine Fri, 18 Oct 1985 16:58

Author: David Levine
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1985 16:58

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Can anyone point me to the people responsible for the Tenth Anniversary USENIX
T-Shirt and the people responsible for the DEC ULTRIX poster, both of which
feature the comical "pipes and demons" cartoon done ten years ago by Phil
Foglio?  Neither of these features the artist's signature (prominent in the
original T-shirt), and I recently discovered that he has received no benefit
from these unauthorized reproductions of his work.

David D. Levine       (...decvax!tektronix!teklds!davidl)    [UUCP]
                      (teklds!davidl.tektronix@csnet-relay)  [ARPA/CSNET]

Re: USENIX T-Shirt and DEC Poster

Author: Michael O'Brien
Date: Sun, 27 Oct 1985 19:32

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I'd better reply to this one right quick.  I'm the one who got the
original artwork from Phil, and he was compensated by barter.  The
original idea was to make only a couple of the original shirts
(for Ken and Dennis).  The explosive popularity of the image is a
tribute to Phil, certainly.  But I DID do him a (non-trivial) favor
in return, commensurate with the effort he put into his work at
that time, and commensurate with the expected use and popularity
of the work.  It's indeed a pity that he hasn't received compensation
commensurate with the popularity of the work; had I known how
popular it would become I would certainly have at least attempted
some sort of royalty arrangement.  I turned the artwork and all
rights over to DEC at Armando Stettner's request, with the understanding
that he was going to make more T-shirts.  I had no idea they'd
mount an ad campaign around it!  I did specifically request that
Phil's signature be included so that he would get proper credit.

	I confess to failure of vision on my part, and counsel
artists never to relinquish copyright on a work (fat chance in
today's market for commercial art, I bet), but Phil was NOT
uncompensated no matter what he says.  It's just that the early
full payment was not commensurate with the work's later popularity.
Remember, this was all back around 1976. Dickens didn't get much
money either.

	I'm sorry, Phil, but I had no idea.

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