Saturday, May 12, 2012

Lee Vanden Sleaze Strikes Again?

Not that long ago, we noted that Lee Vanden Brink, hereafter known as Lee Vanden Sleaze, was stealing other people's work and slapping his name on them. He took a lot of it, if not most of it, down, and I thought that was the end of it - Internet plagiarist gets smacked down, lesson learned.

Not entirely. While it seems he is now loathe to erase the names of the creators and replace them with his own, it appears that he believes anything he finds without someone's name is his for the taking, without acknowledging from whence he may have gotten it or whose it is. (Be sure not to leave your car parked in front of this guy's house. He might "find" it on the street!)

Case in point: I saw this image over at Full Metal Patriot and left a comment at 3:26 PM CDT.
Image and video hosting by TinyPic


I remembered thinking to myself, the "mom jeans" quote was a nice touch.

Mirabile dictu! Lee Vanden Sleaze posts the same image, the same day at 5:39 PM, without attribution or a link back to where he "found" it. And while thankfully he is no longer plastering his name all over work he did not create, at the very least it is extremely rude and boorish behavior not to acknowledge the creator of the work, or at least where you found it.

Public shaming apparently isn't enough to keep Mr. Vanden Sleaze honest. Public caning, perhaps?

In case Mr. Vanden Sleaze wants to drop that page down the memory hole, you can see it here:
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
...or here.

You may note that I left a screen shot of my attempt to leave a comment, which his site will not accept, except from the echo chamber of his friends, who, presumably will not out him for his indiscretions. Such courage ought to be recognized. /sarc

Mr. Vander Sleaze: If I have erred in any way, please remember that I did try to contact you. Please feel free to write and correct me, if I am wrong, and I shall issue an apology and a correction, but I won't be holding my breath.



Update : It appears that the Mega Independent Post Dispatch was the originator of the P'shop. 'Netiquette requires that even if you don't know who created something, you certainly know where you found it. If you think something is worthy of re-posting, you should at least give a hat tip/link to the place you found it.

6 comments:

  1. I don't know if Lee Vander Brink created that image or not. I do a lot of Photoshop parodies, but can't take credit for that one. I just saw it being passed around on Google+ and nobody I asked knew where it came from.

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    1. I knew he didn't create it, because it didn't have his name on it. He used to slap his name on all sorts of stuff he didn't make. Most of the stuff on his site these days that has his name on it are more his captioning of pictures. I can't recall anything he has done that required anything approaching Photoshop skills.

      Like I said, I probably would have cut him some more slack had he not just been busted for putting his name on tons of stuff that wasn't his.

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  2. FWIW, I'm doing some searching on Google Images and the earliest post I'm finding for it is the Mega Independent Post Dispatch (Friday at 10:09am).

    http://megaindependent.blogspot.com/2012/05/obama-graces-controversial.html?showComment=1336856126711#c770099812511264672

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    1. I appreciate the work you did in tracking this down. I don't mind anyone re-posting my work, but courtesy requires that you should acknowledge where you find the good stuff.

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  3. This guys is SELLING my design on T-Shirts and products at Zazzle.com and CafePress.com -- he's moved beyond simple bad etiquette and into the realm of unethical business dealings. He has made MONEY off of our designs... I think it's time to nail this guy's hide to the wall... Who's with me??? [I'll Private Message you if I find a link here in a moment with my contact info.]

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    1. I know Zazzle is very conscientious about intellectual property. Have you tried contacting them about this guy stealing your stuff? You might try reporting him to both Zazzle and CafePress. I think that's where I'd start.

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