http://bravia.sony.eu/bravia.html

Click on Play Doh

-parlo

However, the question is, did they copy your work? Sony’s ad illustrates chess mate with CGI of a decapitated king with bloody guts showing, which is not quite what you did. It’s possible that the artist did see your work and was inspired by it, but that’s outside of the scope of copyright.

http://www.kozyndan.com/assets/Usa_chan.jpg

Have a nice day.

-Brady

A: Why, yes. Yes it did.

http://ewarwoowar.typepad.com/25letters/2007/10/bravia-bunnies.html

Via Gothamist

“Sony Bravia Ad rip off Artists work The Sony Bravia ad that we were so fond of earlier this week has started to come under some controversy. It turns out that LA based artists KozyNDan had created a panoramic with bunnies taking over NYC a number of years ago. They were contacted by Passion Pictures, whom produced the spot, for samples of the working (including the panorama) but never heard from them again. Two years later, this amazing ad is released. It’s hard to not see the blatant rip off of KozyNDan’s work, and we hope that something positive comes out of it for them. Read this article on Gizmodo as they go into a bit more detail.”

Also, creativity is often associational. The creative mind often works laterally from one idea to another, collaging concepts together to make a new and striking juxtaposition. If an artist doesn’t go far enough from the original inspiration, the work can be trite or derivative.

The Sony ad seems derivative to me. They could have filed off a few more serial numbers, imo. There’s a qualitative difference between being inspired by something and just ripping it off. Perhaps they were seduced by that maximum bunny cuteness.

The Sony video begs the question, in that it describes how the ad was made, rather than where the idea came from. It’s noise.

Eileen

Kingdom of Awesome (11), that’s just strange. The exploding paint ad was nothing like the 9/11 attacks.

it rankles me more when fine art pieces get misappropriated like this, but i guess i’d feel differently if i were an illustrator.

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/10/sony-explains-h.html#more

The link isn’t working right now, but if your photograph was lifted and used (not a similar type of photograph, but hte actual image), you can go after Sony very easily. It’s not a copyright issue, it’s simply usage and clearance. You were not asked nor paid for your work, and therefore are owed money.
I work in advertising (as a creative, not an evil corporate imp thank god), and this is not that uncommon. It has little to do with being non-caring ad folks with tons of money, and more to do with being a moron.
Chances are it wasn’t even Sony, but the ad agency who did it.
Also, as a side note, stealing an “idea” has no reppercussions really. It’s stealing an “expression” or replicating something verbatim where you get into copyright issues. If Kozyndan could argue that their expression was stolen, then they have a case. But most likely not.

A few years ago, I noticed that television commercials for a certain birth control pill were clearly and fairly blatantly copying Andy Goldsworthy sculptures. Given what I knew of Goldsworthy (especially the fact that he had successfully sued a British furniture store chain for “borrowing” his imagery), it seemed surprising he had licensed his images to a big pharmaceutical company in the US.

I got in touch with his US representatives, their lawyers apparently got in touch with the drug company, and within a few weeks all of the borrowed images had quickly and quietly disappeared from the ad campaign. All I got out of it was a thank you note from the gallery and an unsigned copy of one of Goldsworthy’s books, mind you, but I’m pretty sure that the drug company had to write a check to make sure it didn’t turn into a lawsuit and news story. Sometimes people are innocently inspired by images that have accumulated in their subconscious or elsewhere … other times they blatantly rip off the work of others because they think no one will notice OR they’ll just be able to bluster their way through it and get away with it.

http://i13.tinypic.com/4cnavqp.jpg

i didn’t copyright this photograph so i assumed i had no case. any thoughts?

Sireture, your photo wasn’t even close. You are not the first or last to make a bleeding chess piece, you can’t copyright an idea like that.

And the agency who made the play-do ad is called Fallon.