A Pirate isn’t always on the sea

I’m sure we have all been a victim of piracy at some time in our career, especially in the graphics industry.

Ever innocently left artwork with the client on the promise of work, only to find it being ‘shopped’ around to other sign shops?

Usually happens to us when we are new in the game, but not so much as experience is gathered over time.

Then of course, we get the pirate who can see an easy buck. The sign company with few morals that sees that someone else has done the hard yards, and all they have to do is copy it. There are pirates in all trades of course, but we seem to have more than our fair share.

Shane Drew has been involved in the sign industry since 1992.  Before that he had a very successful career in sales, winning several Sales Awards before deciding on a career change in his early 30’s. Shane has been writing freelance articles since 2002 and is a sign industry mentor for sign shops both in Australia and Europe, is a regular contributor to Europe’s biggest sign industry forum, and is well known in local circles for his passion about the Australian Sign Industry.  Shane is Managing Director of Drews Sign It Pty Ltd, a family business who are supporters of several major charities and not-for-profit organisations. A recent highlight is his appointment as a Green Guardian for his support of Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, on Queensland’s Southern Gold Coast

I still fume every time I drive up the M1 in Brisbane to see my artwork – colour, fonts, design etc – on the side of a large building that I had quoted on. I spent 2 days measuring, scaling and consulting with the client to get it ‘just right’.

I was given the verbal OK, but the client said he needed to confirm the final art with his wife.

Several weeks went by, the client didn’t return my calls. Then driving to a job one day, I see work starting on the signage. Win some lose some was my initial thought.

Several days later, I drive past again, and there is my artwork, reproduced perfectly. Even the kerning error in my artwork was reproduced exactly. I couldn’t believe it.

I swung into the drive, found the client and asked him ‘what gives?’

He looked at me in the eye and said, the guy that did this beat your price by $500!

Why wouldn’t he, he didn’t have to do any artwork!!

I’m sure others can tell similar stories.

But you know, I don’t blame the client, I actually blame the sign shop.

If the sign shop had any morals at all, he would have seen my copyright info and told the shop owner he ethically couldn’t copy another shops design. He could have offered to ‘improve’ on the design. He could have come up with his own interpretation. He could, heaven forbid, spent two days doing his own artwork.

But its not only about stealing design.

The other day I got a very nice email from a sign shop looking for a font that he knew I had.

My reply was that he could spend $au28 at Myfonts.com and buy it himself.

His response? “Not for one job. Can’t you just copy it to me?”

Err… no… Sorry.

You see, my father and sister produced, in the 1980’s, a couple of business software titles for the Commodore C64 and C128. They were very popular, had rave reviews. They had distribution throughout Australia, New Zealand, England and America.

Unfortunately the software was so popular, it came to the attention of the software pirates. It was estimated that for every 3 programs in the market, 2 were probably pirated. This was well before good sturdy encryption algorithms were developed to prevent mass duplication. The law had no teeth either as software was one of those areas that was grey. We found stores that had pirated programs on the shelf, with photocopied manuals. Piracy was almost a sport at that time.

Although incredibly popular , the software had become a victim of piracy, eventually costing my family our house and the staff their jobs.

As a result, I am well aware of the cancer that piracy has become.

Fast forward to today. We have the Smartartz Fastcars Library, Smartartz Safety Signs and the UK based Impact Vehicle outline Library. There is a lot of investment in these packages and they are, without doubt, quality gear.

Do we see any harm in giving a copy to a ’mate’?

Some people argue that they are an overpriced item, and it may be hard to argue with that until you consider their value in the overall scheme of things. How long would it take you to digitise a different car outline every time you want to use one? Probably easier to buy a disc don’t you think?

What about fonts? Do we see any issues with ‘giving away’ a font that is not actually in the public domain?

Sure, there are free font sites like dafont.com. These of course generate a whole lot of new considerations. Do we download the ‘personal use’ only fonts and use them for business? Who is going to know? Does it really matter?

If you attach people to the fonts though, it takes on a whole new dimension.

Consider this.

Robert Arnow who among other fonts, designed a very popular and brilliant script font called Mustang. It only sells for $au25 for a commercial license. Could you honestly tell Robert that all the hard work he put into type design was not worth paying $25 for? Even though you may be using it on a job that will return many times the font value? And you can use it over and over again?

A mate of mine in Canada designed the font called Garner. An authentic hand-lettering circa 1950’s old sign painter’s gothic. 3 fonts are included for only $US42. Only $US14 ea. Is that really worth stealing?

Chuck Davis is another prolific designer. So is Dave Correll. Simply brilliant designers selling very affordable type. Ray Larabie is another excellent designer making a living from font design.

By copying these fonts for our mates, like it or not, we are participating in piracy. Theft by another name. It is akin to someone letting us do a sign and not paying for it.

Letterhead fonts (LHF) are prepared to chase pirates too. They have seen the need to change their purchasing systems as a result of piracy. It is a system I don’t really like, so prefer to support myfonts.com.

LHF has decided that you need to log on to their website to use the fonts you have purchased from them. They no longer reside on your computer. You’ll want to hope they don’t go broke because your fonts will be lost forever. I’d much prefer to store my fonts on my PC, but I can see the reason why they have gone down that path. Piracy, theft, whatever you want to call it is the reason. (Before they embarked on their new purchasing system, each font purchased was encrypted with the invoice number, so they can trace back to the original purchase. If it is not you, you are in trouble.) LHF have seen the need to protect their business. I wonder if those that are happy to pirate fonts or artwork, consider the costs.

Probably not. Pirates in any industry aren’t known for their ethics or morality.

So, whilst we may get high and mighty about someone stealing our own designs, our concepts and ideas or wasting our time, perhaps we should think about these talented designers that make our life that bit easier when it comes to selling our services.

Aren’t they entitled to make a living too?

No doubt we have all made innocent mistakes, and I’m certainly not perfect. But being a pirate is a crime in anyone’s language.

Any thoughts? Tell us at [email protected]

Shane Drew
http://www.dsi.net.au/