Todd Goldman caved in!

Wow, that happend faster than I thought! Check here for the previous post about how Todd stole art from Shmorky.

From Goldman's publicist
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

POST POP-ARTIST, TODD GOLDMAN, CONTROVERSAL PAINTING

CLEARWATER, FL, April 11, 2007- Popular post pop-artist, Todd Goldman who has made a career of making fun of the world with his sarcastic commentary and cartoon icons, has mistakenly used the design of an another artist in two of his recent paintings. Todd’s painting, “Dear God, Please Make Everyone Die”, was inspired from a drawing he received unbeknownst to him belonging to an underground web comic artist David “Shmorky” Kelly.

In addition to painting, Todd designs t-shirts for his clothing company, David & Goliath. Todd and his design team create and receive thousands of design ideas every month. It’s no secret that Goldman creates a lot of his painting ideas from his t-shirt designs. Goldman says “I made a judgment error and didn’t research the background of this particular submission. “My intention was not to copy Mr. Kelly. I have never seen his work before and would never intentionally knock-off someone else’s idea.”

Goldman has issued a formal apology to Mr. Kelly and has stated that he will not be using his design again in the future. As a gesture of good faith, Goldman has pledged not profit from his mistake. He will instead donate his proceeds from the painting directly to Mr. Kelly or his charity of choice.

First of all, how did he trace over a picture by mistake? By the nature of this press release, it's obvious Todd didn't fear being sued. What he feared was the damage to his reputation. He's supposed to be an original artist and now people are discovering he's a shitty poser who can't even draw a stick figure properly.

When this scandal was blown in the open, a lot of people were sceptical Shmorky could get his due. The justice system isn't very protective of intellectual property when you're not a millionnaire like Todd Goldman. But it seems what made the difference today is the Internets. Had something like that happend 20 years, there wouldn't have been much to do. It's also encouraging to realize that the indie web-comic community has power. Nobody took Todd's side, NOBODY. Usualy when there's a scandal, there's always someone to take the asshole's side (just look at Bush and Cheney). Even people who had problem's with Shmorky took his defense.

This isn't over though. Todd can't create for shit. He stole from a lot of other artists, so we'll have to keep an eye on him. And so many other artists do the same, especialy post-modernists. Let's hope they all think about this lesson.