Digital Art Copyright and Reproduction Rights

[mikelucid]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Oregon

I am writing is regards to my rights as an artist when dealing with a company reproducing my art and selling it.

We have been working with them for around 8 months and are trying to pull our art from their site as it is not profitable for us and they are not being transparent about the amount of sales they are making. Back in February, I tried to do the same thing, but because we were using their "clothing mockups" in our social media and elsewhere they said we needed to continue being an artist unless we took down all of their art. I regrettably agreed to continue, I should have just ended it there.

I have never signed a artist agreement with them, they have sent me one, but I never signed it and sent it back.

Fast forward to now, I emailed them yesterday stating that i would like my designs pulled, they again replied with the removal of their "clothing mockups", but I had already gone ahead and created my own, so that is no longer an issue. Now they are saying the following:

"You guys committed to joining artist threads and we do not work for free. We will need to sell your artwork via our website reimburse our graphic team for the time they spent building your product line. "

Its true that I told them "I think it would be wise to move the production for our site elsewhere, but keep us as a signed astist on your site."

But I never signed artist agreement to allow them to sell my art. I told them I would send a cease and desist and he responded with:

"We know about seize and desist, although, nowadays a contract can consist of email threads. "

Is this true? I have never signed a contract just by responding to emails. They are saying that I will owe early opt out fees if we don't continue with them or 3 months or them using my art.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Oregon

I am writing is regards to my rights as an artist when dealing with a company reproducing my art and selling it.

We have been working with them for around 8 months and are trying to pull our art from their site as it is not profitable for us and they are not being transparent about the amount of sales they are making. Back in February, I tried to do the same thing, but because we were using their "clothing mockups" in our social media and elsewhere they said we needed to continue being an artist unless we took down all of their art. I regrettably agreed to continue, I should have just ended it there.

I have never signed a artist agreement with them, they have sent me one, but I never signed it and sent it back.

Fast forward to now, I emailed them yesterday stating that i would like my designs pulled, they again replied with the removal of their "clothing mockups", but I had already gone ahead and created my own, so that is no longer an issue. Now they are saying the following:

"You guys committed to joining artist threads and we do not work for free. We will need to sell your artwork via our website reimburse our graphic team for the time they spent building your product line. "

Its true that I told them "I think it would be wise to move the production for our site elsewhere, but keep us as a signed astist on your site."

But I never signed artist agreement to allow them to sell my art. I told them I would send a cease and desist and he responded with:

"We know about seize and desist, although, nowadays a contract can consist of email threads. "

Is this true? I have never signed a contract just by responding to emails. They are saying that I will owe early opt out fees if we don't continue with them or 3 months or them using my art.

I know this is a bit complicated am I am willing to pay for some legal advice. The problem is I am in Bali, Indonesia for the next month, and this needs to be taken care of asap. I have a phone here, so i can give you a call if necessary. I really just want to know if I am obligated to that contract just because of my email response.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to read this,

Mike

Where is the company located (what state or country)?

As to contacting any of us here by phone, we do not provide personal service. For a personal review of your emails/contract, you will need to seek out assistance from an attorney in Oregon (or Bali, if you can find an IP attorney who can help you there).


edit to add: I see that you removed the Bali, Indonesia information and your offer to pay for legal advice. My advice for you to seek the help of an IP attorney in your area still stands, however.

I can add that even if you did not SIGN an agreement, you probably agreed to the terms and conditions of the website that you used to help you with your artwork. Many websites that contain contributions of works from others will state that, by using the site, you grant the website an irrevocable worldwide license to use the material contributed (to communicate, distribute, host, make modifications and derivatives, to publicly display, to publicly perform, to publish, to reproduce, to store, to use). Although you retain copyright ownership in your work and you continue to have all rights to your work that you can exercise as the copyright owner, through the license to the website you also give rights in your works to the site. Any work that has already been submitted by you, therefore, has essentially been given to the website to use forever. An agreement to the terms and conditions of a site can (generally) be legally binding.

This is assuming the terms and conditions of the site you used is similarly worded. It is pretty standard website terms-and-conditions language.

You will want to have the terms and conditions reviewed by a professional in your area, along with the email exchanges, in order to determine if you have any legal grounds to stand on in attempting to remove your work from the site.