Ripped Off

Well, this one takes the cake. I've had guests tell me they saw my caricatures on display on other artists' stands, I've seen photos of my oldest daughter, from my how to draw caricatures book, on other artists' displays, and good buddy Tom Richmond even saw a pic OF me by the legendary Belgian caricaturist Jan Opdebeeck on a display up in NYC. Yeah, you read that right...it was MY face on the display.

Then there was the time that a fellow NCN (National Caricaturists Network) member copied all of the "keywords" on my homepage and put them on his homepage (even right down to my company name, and the name of my wife and daughter).

BUT, awhile back I got an email from someone in Russia, who informed me of perhaps the weirdest ripoff of my stuff yet. Look at this site:

http://art-vip.ru/

Then, go to my company site:

www.caricatureconnection.com

See any similarities? Yep, ripped off the ENTIRE look of my site. The colors, the buttons, up till recently, he even had the cartoon version of my wife on the "contact us" link. All the art elsewhere is his (please don't think it's mine!), at least.

But isn't that just wierd? I did send him and the "designers" of his site an email asking them to come up with an original idea of their own, not just rip off mine, but alas, I never got a reply. They did recently take down the cartoon I did of my wife for the "contact us" button (and whatever that translates to in Russian), though.