c:/win/eliza.dat (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} vebelfetzer) wrote,@ 2007-04-24 13:00:00 |
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Dave and Goliath: the Internet vs. Todd Goldman, Todd Goldman vs. Me
UPDATED MAY 3rd, 11AM: See bottom of post.
Crossposted to my website.Todd Goldman, aka "Goliath", maker of the eponymous "Boys Are Stupid, Throw Rocks at Them" t-shirt, stands accused by artists and the internet of mass plagiarism. His lawyers sent me and my editor at Wired a cease and desist in regards to an article I posted about certain allegations being made against him. That article has now been taken down, and replaced with an image of the C&D that I received. Here is a Google cache of the original post.
This was not my decision, it was the decision of the Wired higher-ups, who were advised to do so by their legal counsel. I have been firmly instructed not to post anything else regarding Goldman on Wired. The C&D does not address my website, LiveJournal, or any other venue.
This is the straight poop.
A few days ago I posted an article on the Wired blog I work for, Table of Malcontents. The post was on the subject of Mr. Goldmann's run-in with internet-famous cartoonist, Dave Kelly aka "Shmorky". Dave Kelly is the creator of the Purple Pussy webcomic and Something Awful's excellent flash animation column, the Flash Tub.
On April 6th, 2007, Kelly posted in the Something Awful forums about the stunning similarity between one of Goldman's recent paintings, and a Purple Pussy panel from 2001.
LEFT: Purple Pussy drawing from September 19th, 2001
RIGHT: Todd Goldman's painting, circa 2007
Goldman made at least two paintings of the same design, which were essentially similar. I am under the impression he sold both of them, almost certainly for several thousand dollars apiece, as this is the going rate for his work. A few days after Kelly contacted him, Goldman's publicist starting posting the following press release in forums and threads:
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.
However, no money has been issued and Goldman is stalling, claiming that he "needs to find out how many paintings were sold." Anyone contacting Goldman via his email, or through his official MySpace about the issue received the following reply:
Thanks for the inquiry!
Here's my inspiration! Every month I paint the works of a pedophile. This week, I chose the work of Dave Kelly, he's a huge infantilist furry. This is someone who draws baby anthropomorphic animals either wetting themselves or jacking off. I'm not kidding. Once again, his name is Dave Kelly and this is his FTP full of his lovely art, there are even some photos of the artist himself, handsome fellow isn't he?
http://seth.beepboopinternet.com/davekelly/
Next month, please look for my special pedophile/serial killer series when I recreate the works of Jeffrey Dahmer.
Once again thanks for your support and please help me with my cause by spreading the word and showing the world just how creative pedophiles can be.
Do it for the kids.
Todd
The "pedophile" art in question was a forgotten archive of commissioned work that Kelly had created, to spec, for various clients, as freelance artists sometimes must do. The owner of seth.beepboopinternet.com has since posted an apology in the SA thread for (however unwittingly) giving Goldman any sort of ammunition, voiced his unflagging support of Kelly, and deleted the directory in question.
It is notable that Goldman sent this email, with links to pornography, to several minors. This is in violation of MySpace's Terms of Service, and caused Goldman's account to be deleted.
The "toddharrisgoldman" profile address was parked by a goon and filled with comparison shots between Goldman work and the original work of myriad artists. The goon lost control of the account, which was then presumably handed over to Goldman, and filled with obscene material.
Just afterwards, many MySpace profiles of those who spoke out against Goldman, or who were fans of Kelly, were phished, destroyed (all friends and formatting deleted), and some even replaced with an image stating "TODD WAS HERE". This image was hosted on Goldman's server, as shown by this screenshot. The image has since been deleted, but the MySpace accounts cannot be restored. Victims who contacted MySpace abuse were sent a useless boilerplate.
Yesterday I was able to talk to a source at MySpace who assured me that the profile hijacking bore all the hallmarks of hacking/phishing, and were almost certainly not an inside job. Furthermore, he described the main MySpace abuse address as a "bottomless pit" and advised all those with phishing grievances to make sure and select "Reporting Abuse" and then "Phishing/Fake Logins" as the nature of the complaint on this page.
Meanwhile, coder Mike Tyndall is busily constructing a massive archive of all images, information, and links relevant to the accusation that Goldman is stealing. While the Dear God painting is most similar to its supposed source material, there is a vast trove of other parallels drawn between Goldman's work, and older material by other artists. These images and artists include Roman Dirge's goth comic book character "Lenore", Jim Bent's "Happy Bunny" slogans, Liz Greenfield's "Stuff Sucks" goldfish, Blank Generation Shirts, Threadless Shirts, Windows 3.1, American Apparel, School House Rock, a cartoonist named Kramer from Mitre Magazine, T-ShirtHumor.com, Busted Tees, and a dozen artists who've been lost in the seas of time and internet.
Tyndall was threatened with a C&D from the Goldman legal team on April 19th, and has altered the text of his page to remove anything that could be regarded as libelous. He continues to update.
But this, ladies and gentlemen, is the piece de resistance. As mentioned at the beginning of this post, Goldman's magnum opus is the "Boys Are Stupid, Throw Rocks at Them" logo seen on millions of babydoll t-shirts worn by 13-year-old girls. The Something Awful Goons have come through yet again, and decided to show us this image:
There are dozens of similar examples on Tyndall's site, but this in particular is shocking. Many goons are viewing it as the masterstroke, although the Purple Pussy similarities are stronger.
Additionally, it appears that Goldman may be Goldman's only defender. A recent comment on the Wired post reveals the IP address of the outspoken commentor known as "Totally Wrong", who has been frequenting the comment thread there since just after it was posted, attacking the credibility of me, Kelly, commentors, and generally cheerleading Goldman. Totally Wrong has also posted comments using other aliases, going so far as to invoke the holocaust and Nazi Germany. If Godwin's law were admissable in court, there'd be an airtight case against him.
Here's the comment that reveals the IP:
LINKS and REFERENCE
1. Purple Pussy [a webcomic by Dave Kelly]
--- a. Dear God, Make Everyone Die, Amen This is the panel in question.
2. Holy cow, Todd (Goliath) Goldman ripped me off! [Something Awful forums]
This gigantic thread is updated constantly, and is the best source for super-current information.
3. Todd Goldman: Art Thief? [Mike Tyndall]
This is currently the most comprehensive archive of Dave vs. Goliath evidence and information, and is updated regularly.
4. David & Goliath: Shameless Art Thievery, Ahoy [Wired]
See Google's cache of the original post here.
This is my post at Table of Malcontents, now replaced by the C&D image. Has a thriving comment section full of stuff by a commentor called Totally Wrong that seems like it is from Goldman direct.
5. Kind of a Big Dealio [LiveJournal]
Roman Dirge addresses the Goldman issues and relates the specifics of the Lenore case.
UPDATES
MAY 3rd, 11AM:
1. Goldman's "Goodbye Bambi" logo has been removed from his site, following a post by goons. There was much discussion on SA about the hair trigger of the Disney legal team, and the Disney "piracy hotline" was called. As reluctant as I am to reinforce Disney's megalomaniacal grip on ancient intellectual property, I think the ends justify the means in this case.
2. The giant Todd Goldman evidence repository located at Mike Tyndall's site is now being mirrored at ThirdProject.net.
3. What the fuck, can't he even spell "weenie" right?
4. Stickypig has suggested to me that Goldman is pulling the biggest performance art stunt ever devised. It is, in fact, more difficult to trace five images to create a shitty cartoon, than it is to simply draw a new one. Does this say something profound about the "remix culture", or is Goldman just a psychopath? Goon Mythrandir has a similar hypothesis:
It's no secret that he's an asshole, but I just realized that everything I've heard about this guy doing-- from his art thievery down to his bullshit interview comments and asshole behavior when cornered-- is complete douchebaggery. Which got me thinking; maybe he's actually a brilliant artist, and his real "art" is that he's become the ultimate despicable character and wants to see how the world reacts.5. Kelly states that he cannot discuss details of the case, and will not speak to the press at this time.
It's the only logical explanation for how someone can be "the perfect asshole;" down to the most mundane detail of their lives. That takes effort, and a real asshole would need to have at least a couple redeeming (or at least neutral) qualities. I'll bet he even has an "asshole" way of making sandwiches or starting his car or something.
6. The Consumerist is on board.
7. Kelly also confirms that Chris Wass of Wassco (original artist from which a great deal of Goldman's tracings have come) has been contacted about all this, and should not be sent any more email on the subject.
8. Goldman is now altering existing designs on his site, such as changing the face on this clipart fat kid, (original can be seen on the magnet, new face [taken from the Boys Are Stupid image] on the sticker) presumably to make them "different" enough to pass as original work in court.
9. The comment thread at Table of Malcontents is alive and simmering with rage, albeit with the absence of commentor "Totally Wrong", lone defender of Goldman, who had his IP traced to davidandgoliath.com.
10. In the case of Rogers vs. Koons, (thanks, goon ruth232) we find hope for a reasonable outcome, should Dave vs. Goliath go to court: The Court found both "substantial similarity" and that there was access to the picture. The similarity was so close that the average lay person would recognize the copying. Thus the sculpture was found to be a copy of Rogers' work.
11. On April 26, Kelly closes the thread and says there will be an update on the weekend or the following Monday (April 30). But...no update yet. We're rooting for you, Shmorky.
APRIL 24TH, 9PM:
More evidence that Goldman is sockpuppeting his own defense:
"Totally Wrong's IP is 216.199.39.18."
That's Tampa Bay, Florida.
Which by an astonishing coincidence is Todd's locality. See
for his email headers, showing that his mailserver is at 216.199.185.166 (smtp.davidandgoliathtees.com
Note that all 216.199.x.y addresses are part of the same netblock belonging to FDN:
http://geotool.servehttp.com/whois/?quer
y=216.199.39.18 BUSTED AGAIN ASSHOLE!!!!
As reported by goon Scaramouche, AnimationGallery.com, a fine art lithograph distributor, has removed their Goldman section, and posted this message:
Due to the recent postings regarding Todd Goldman's artwork,
we are not showing his art until we have resolution from the distributor.
If you have any concerns, please do not email us. Instead, contact S2 directly.
Totally Wrong's IP is 216.199.39.18.
This IP also posted comments under the following aliases:
- Totally Wrong Again
- Auntie Semite ("This link is funnier btw...")
- goon number 2 ("Believe everything after...")
- O.J. ("If the glove don't fit...")
- Shmorky ("I'm famous, dammit...")