Post #162867 by Tipsy McStagger on Wed, Jun 1, 2005 3:28 PM

look, bamboo is right -it's out of hand, however. kahiki never approached me about the necklaces - I approached them, there was nothing done on commission here. I designed a sculpt based on my interpretation of their already existing tiki, which existed only in 2-d form prior to my developing one in 3-d. yes the image belongs to them, but not my sculpt, especially when they haven't bothered to alter it in the least, just cast it directly from my originals!! had they used a different tiki or did something to it to make it more their own rendition(i.e change his shape, expression, etc.) I would not have a beef. ....They didn't. I did all the legwork and development to create the necklace and the magnets, only to have kahiki waltz on in, pay nothing for the original sculpt and start selling them like no one would notice. This is what gets my goat. Had they reimbursed me for the sculpt and molds i would have had no problem either, as they would officially have owned the rights to it. let me give you another example of this. I produce the elvikis for cindy crowell, as most of you know. That particular sculpt of him belongs to dsk designs. not even cindy can legally produce elviki in that particular form. he's my interpretation of her 2-D character. If she wanted to make these herself she would need to make an entirely new sculpt with a new pose and all, not just take my design, cast it and start selling them.... anyway, I choose to be optimistic about this having known the folks at kahiki for a few years and having a good relationship with them (up till now..) Besides, if i don't get paid, i can always start reproducing them again myself and sell them until i make back what is owed and not a penny more-not a penny less. It's just as easy (and unethical) to use their name to sell my product as it is for them to use my art to sell theirs...but for now, this is all i'm going to say on this subject. Hopefully the kahiki and i will come to some arrangement to rectify this nasty situation. This isn't the first time I've had to defend my designs and probably not the last, just par for the course.....