Blogh | Pittsburgh City Paper: The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and cartoonist Joe Wos have reached an agreement over Wos’ use of the image of the giant rubber duck that’s part of the Trust’s Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts.
The gist is that the Trust won’t object to Wos’ “Quack N’ At” T-shirts as long as all of the proceeds benefit The Toonseum, the nonprofit museum of cartoon art he runs Downtown.
5 comments:
That's really nice of the Cultural Trust to share. I do think that the Trust, being part of the city of Pittsburgh has rights to the duck, considering they commissioned it. Therefore, I think that it was fine for them to ask this guy to stop infringing on their own sales. I also think that allowing him to continue selling as long as the proceeds go to a non-profit is flat out generous. I hope the Trust gets some kind of compensation for that.
This whole argument kind of defeated the whole point of the duck, it is good they came to an agreement. The duck was commissioned as a symbol of peace, and a way to bring people together. I do not think the trust had any right to lay claim to a rubber-ducky in the first place though. The rubber-ducky has been in the public domain for awhile now, and anyone has the right to use it. I do see the point that Wos was capitalizing on the Trust's success but I think it was too abstract.
And in response to Ruben I think the article is saying that the Trust and thew Toonseum have the same mission and so the Toonseum's success is good for the Trust
I am glad to hear that they came to a peaceful agreement. Ever since I read about this sue going on, I was upset how Cultural Trust was not being cooperative each other. However, reading this article, I become more understandable for Cultural Trust's stand point. I did not know that Cultural Trust also had a booth selling duck buttons, hats, and t-shirts. I understand that seeing another booth selling products related to their exhibition would certainly be upset for them. Still, as Isaac says, the rubber-ducky concept has been widely used for a long time, so there is no right for it to sue Wos for the copyright. It is great how Cultural Trust made a wise decision and I hope that rather than trying to consider profits, they should really know how many people actually valued and enjoyed the giant duck installation. I also wish that they should continue to bring wonderful exhibitions that everyone admires.
So stupid. Why is the trust trying to make enemies, isn't the whole point of the trust to support artists and help them to grow and flourish... Also everyone is totally right, rubber ducks are in the public domain... the cultural trust nor the artist have a copyright on that symbol. From what I have heard both parties really just want things to be amicable so they are just letting it go. Also, what was the Trust going to do if the Toonseum didn't stop? Sue them? That was never going to happen... It's just ridiculous.
I was excited to see this article after reading the one about this conflict last week. I'm glad to see how everything was resolved. While I think that Wos should have had the right to sell his shirts, I do think it may have been a little immature of him to sell them at the Cultural Trust's party after they sent him a cease and disist. I think the agreement that they ultimately reached was very reasonable though. The cease and disist made it appear that the Trust was not being a good supporter of local artists, contradicting their own mission. This agreement works very well because Wos is able to share his art and support his Toonseum. And it now looks like the Trust is on the right side.
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