Celtic Crest

[RockyR]

THIS IS NOT AN ATTACK ON MACLACHLAN... he was just reporting a very well priced shirt company and HE did NOTHING WRONG.

That being said...

I emailed the owner of Gaelic Themes to see if celticcrest.com was a liscensed user of the Clan Crest designs that THEY (GT) took time to design (the design itself already exists, but the ARTWORK was done by GT). Gaelic Themes is a vendor of mine and generally nice people as well as a SPONSOR of Xmarks (tartan web), so I thought it was relevant.

I got a reply from the owner... it looks like this company copied GT's entire line of clan crest designs (without permission) and use them to sell their own shirts.

IF this is true, all I can say is "WOW". That's dispicable. Changing a design by 10% or so (to avoid copyright laws) or DRAWING YOUR OWN design isn't that tough. Why do people feel the need to copy others work?

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

THIS IS NOT AN ATTACK ON MACLACHLAN... he was just reporting a very well priced shirt company and HE did NOTHING WRONG.

That being said...

I emailed the owner of Gaelic Themes to see if celticcrest.com was a liscensed user of the Clan Crest designs that THEY (GT) took time to design (the design itself already exists, but the ARTWORK was done by GT). Gaelic Themes is a vendor of mine and generally nice people as well as a SPONSOR of Xmarks (tartan web), so I thought it was relevant.

I got a reply from the owner... it looks like this company copied GT's entire line of clan crest designs (without permission) and use them to sell their own shirts.

IF this is true, all I can say is "WOW". That's dispicable. Changing a design by 10% or so (to avoid copyright laws) or DRAWING YOUR OWN design isn't that tough. Why do people feel the need to copy others work?

The artwork was done by Romilly Squire of Rubislaw, Heraldic Painter to the Court of the Lord Lyon for use in his book The Encyclopedia of Scottish Clans. The book is quite clearly copyrighted, and the people who stole Squire's work for their own economic gain are beneath all contempt.

Frankly I hope they are sued, go bankrupt, and lose their house into the bargain. Theft is theft, whether it is of property or intellectual property.