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One of the members here made a post regarding a graphic request for his clothing line , so i contacted him to get the job.After the we talk he asked for one piece of artwork to see if my style suits his needs.It was all ok....he liked the first one and he asked for ten more.Since i am from Romania, i am not too much into that legal stuff cause if someone want to screw me i dont thing i have too much options to take care of him and chase him over the ocean (i have 80% US customers).So every time i like to believe i deal with honest people, but not on this one, cause after i finish aprox. the job he was starting to behave strange, and suddenly he did not like my work anymore , and i belive so since he never responded on my emails anymore.After 2 months i saw him posting on guru.com
the same project, asking for the same images again.Even i was very upset, i haved the strenght to contact him again and ask if i can bid and why he did not answer to my mails at least to tell me the reason for that action.He responded me back and he told me that i can bid again and make new ones maybe this time will be better.
The question is : What to do with the images since he does not want them anymore.Can i sell them to other people....?
Maybe he's just annoyed that he had to create them in the first place...
I know I end up making a lot of lame designs for my clients, simply because I am creating to THEIR specifications. I have tried taking artistic liberties in the past to improve people's designs, but you would not BELIEVE how much they fight any advice from someone with an aesthetic sense!
So I end up making ugly crap that a high schooler with Photoshop could do, simply because that's what the client wants. Hell, sometimes the client is a high schooler with Photoshop. And sometimes, in those situations where I end up creating the awful art, the client ends up not printing the shirts at all, which means I did an awful design for no reason whatsoever... I tell ya, it breaks my heart sometimes...
Now it comes the interesting part (cause i wanted to share this after)....so when i saw his intention not to pay me for my work i participate to a tee contest with those designs and i a won the 1st place.After i took my price the customer who initiate the contest promise to print some tees with the 1st place design and maybe start a colaboration.
My fault was when i decided to tell this guy that someone did appreciate my designs and i send him the j peg i received from the tee contest with me as a 1st place winner.Right then this guy behavior make a 90 degrees turn and, he contacted me immediately and we talk online for about half hour.The first request, he ask me if i can contact the tee contest customer and to claim back the design.He also offer me twice of his price just to get the design back.Also he sended me by mail a NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT requesting to sign it and send it back, for a second time job which i did not do.And after that, when he realize i will not sign anything we never talk again.
The nasty part is that he contacted also the tee contest website and he threat them that will sue them if they will try to print that design.
So i put the same questions again
He has the right to claim the design if he did not pay me a cent for my work and also we did not sign any kind of NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT for that job...?
No, he cannot do anything about it, the designs are yours and by the looks of it, you might want to put some copyrights or trademark or whatever on the design before he gets a copy of it and does it first, cause if he does and steals your design.
So yeah, you can do whatever you want with the designs, you can sell it, keep it, print it, destroy it or anything else you might want to do, but make sure no one steals it from you, like i said, if the design is that good put a copyright on it, just to make sure.
also contact the contest people and tell them about the situation, so they don't think you are stealing or using someone else's design
you might want to put some copyrights or trademark or whatever on the design before he gets a copy of it
He already have a jpeg with the desing i was trying to finish for him.When i participate on the contest all i have change was the text.The contest guy have it in vector format and the first customer have it in jpeg format.I spoked with the contest customer and explain it to him the situation but he tell me he is a very big brand (and he really is, that is why i did not tell the real brand name), and he did not want a scandal or a sue for such a small amount of money that he gave me as a reward.The fact is i am feeling a little bit sorry for that knowing that he paid for something that he will not be imprinting.
Unless its a large, high resolution .jpg, what you gave him is probably useless as far as screenprinting goes. If he doesn't have the vector art, I wouldn't worry about it.
From what I understand by reading info. about copyright stuff is that if your client did not pay for it and this was in fact not an actual job created for a client then it is your artwork and belongs to you. This guy has nothing to do with it at this point and it belongs to you for whatever you would like to do with it.
if he commisiond you to creat art work and gave you any amount of money he owns it and you have lost all rights to that work. If you did not get any money from him then you created it and can use it any way you want.
if he commisiond you to creat art work and gave you any amount of money he owns it and you have lost all rights to that work. If you did not get any money from him then you created it and can use it any way you want.
Depends on local laws / the nature of the work, but with commissioned work you can lose the copyright even if the client doesn't pay.
This is a problem that we beat in court. The person had an idea and wanted us to do some artwork. He did not wat to produce the product. We did. He sued us. We won and he paid court cost and lawyers fees. We produced the shirt and sold 15,000 of them in less than 6 months. He came back and bought the design now for $50,000.00. We made out both ways. We still print this for that client although in smaller quanties.
So...i am from Romania....he is from USA like 90% of my customers.Wich law you mean local ,Romania....or USA...?
I'm not a lawyer, let alone a lawyer who specialises in international law: I don't know. Actually jurisdiction is one of the things that is usually set out in a design contract. In this case, I think US law would be applicable.
I know of a few specific ways in Australian copyright law in which the client can own the work without having paid a cent (legally they owe you the money, but you can't hold the rights to the work until they pay). I don't know whether or not the same would be true in US copyright law.
In this case, I very seriously doubt you have anything at all to worry about: I'm just cautioning designers in general about making assumptions. In Australia at least, if you don't have a contract there are default legal terms defined by our copyright laws. Designers might not bother to form a contract thinking it won't matter, only to find the law protects their client more than themselves.
In this case, your second client (the large t-shirt company) is basically taking the same stance that you are: it's not worth the cost or effort of pursuing legal matters. It doesn't mean he isn't in the right, it's just not worth it anyway.
Copyright issue...pls help 
And sometimes, in those situations where I end up creating the awful art, the client ends up not printing the shirts at all, which means I did an awful design for no reason whatsoever... I tell ya, it breaks my heart sometimes...
