Matt Buck's Hack Cartoons

Blogs and digital publications are starting to experience some growing pains about who owns what imagery and how each publication can use other people's digital content. The particular case I want to talk about concerns I and my colleague at Channel 4, Beau Bo D'Or, but there have been lots of other recent cases*. In ours, some of our work has been hotlinked on very popular blogs, notably Paul Staines’s Guido Fawkes’s Diary. There's a clip of one of the front pages of my animations here.

I want to make clear at this point that as far as I know, no one has complained, legally, about what he did, although I know Beau Bo D'Or (Neil Hepburn) exchanged several emails with Paul about it. The screen grab above of Guido Fawkes is interesting here (double click the image and look at the orange circle bottom left). There is also plenty of technical evidence he was hotlinking to Channel 4's servers, which is using** their bandwidth instead of his own. I was slightly surprised at this behaviour as Paul is reputed to be wealthy, or to have, access to the sort of funds which would allow him to pay for his own bandwidth. Bandwidth is the telecoms capacity which supplies us the pages we see on the web.

Tim 'Bloggerheads' Ireland has done a thorough job on explaining what has happened. Unfortunately, his initial investigation has got mixed up with the personal emnity which he and Paul Staines share. Paul responded by sending a threatening solicitors letter to Tim. This was a shame as it obscured the more important matter and this may, of course, been why he did it.

Paul and I, and other people like us, who are successful publishers and who are actively promoting our work for commercial gain have a responsibility to think about both what we are publishing - and how we are publishing it. I'd expect better behaviour from a man who chooses to associate himself with someone who wanted to reconfigure parliament.

Follow-up links: Technical
What is hotlinking? from Wikipedia

* Previous cases
Famous theft of images from digital to print from The Great Architect

** UPDATED: I have edited out the previous reference to stealing bandwidth after a comment from blogger John B who made comment 5 for this piece. Thanks for pointing that innacurate use of language out John.

UPDATED UPDATE
Why do all this writing about something so small? Perceptively skewered here

Personal:
Bloggerheads Tim Ireland
Guido Fawkes Paul Staines
Beau Bo D’Or Neil Hepburn

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Well after all that, nothing is decided at all. It looks to have been a costly night for the Billaries for despite confident and widely publicised expectations, they have not knocked Obama out of the race for the Democratic nomination. They can't be happy about that, and if the stories about the amount of telephone polling Hillary's campaign used in the last few days are true, she must have used a lot of money to try and fight the momentum Obama had clearly developed. For Obama's part, he must be disappointed he didn't do better yet. The Republican race looks clearer and has clarified the split in their ranks, Mike Huckabee, the former preacher did well in the south, where I used to live, and this seems to have hurt the wealthy Mitt Romney's chances. So, John McCain it looks to be. (I wonder how Ming Campbell feels about the apparent attitudes to John McCain's age?) There is an updated Channel 4 News animation here.
UPDATED:
Wonkette has a great description of the night as a pretty much a grim $100-million stalemate.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Published on America's Super Tuesday. Or, click the picture.
UPDATED: All about Hillary and all about Barack.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

From Nick Davies via Lloyd Shepherd and the UKPG. I am indulging in pure churnalism here, but this bit is worth it because the original source, is original.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Published here.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

One of the most difficult things about making things is knowing what your rights are when you try to sell them. I know lots of very experienced professionals who are in ignorance of this basic business issue. This ignorance can lead to a lot of difficult financial and legal problems. The most basic confusion I come across is that between possession of copyright and the licensing of rights.

Briefly, at any time an artist makes a piece of art he has copyright automatically, without doing anything. It is an 'implicit' right earned by the skill and time and labour which the artwork has taken. There's a link explaining more about it here. You can download a pdf factsheet here. Importantly, before any self-employed artist has no legal claim to copyright, they have to have signed it away, in writing. Once this basic legal idea is understood, things can seem a lot clearer.

Essentially, what creative people like me sell are the rights to use our artwork, usually, exclusively. I will write some more about this.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Coming soon...

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Returning visitors may know that from time to time I like to think about changing forms of creativity in drawing, and now is one of them. Some good and interesting things are starting to happen in the UK media which are really encouraging to see. Patrick Blower, who used to work at the Evening Standard when it still believed in publishing print news cartoons, has developed a method for drawing in a video which you can find, weekly, on Friday's, at the Daily Telegraph website. My colleague at Channel 4, Beau Bo D’Or has been branching out from his still photomontage into moving photomontage and is having a good deal of success with it. I have my own explorations in a hybrid form of print and simple animated cartooning and it must be working, as the notorious Guido Fawkes is starting to 'borrow' stuff - see below's screenshot web clipping from his site.

I am absolutely positive we three won't be the last either...on either issue. I note Mr Fawkes's support of the open digital rights group with a sort of smile.
UPDATE: Beau Bo D’Or writes (and comments)It's Guido's second offence. He used my Channel 4 animation without permission from C4 or myself. He ran it directly from my server which nearly crashed my site.

Matt Buck’s animated drawing

From the Toronto Star photographer Lucas Oleniuk. Well worth a watch.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

There's an interesting response to the end of Peter Hain's ministerial career from Mick Fealty at the Telegraph’s Brassneck blog. He praises the work undertaken by Guido Fawkes's diary, which is run by Paul Delaire Staines.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Some excellent reporting, photographs and jokes from Lou McKeever who was at the policeman’s pay protest march in London yesterday.
24th January 2008

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

"The rise of blogging and opinion outside of the mainstream has caused newspapers a problem, because quite often these blogs are more interesting than the editorials in the newspapers."
Former editor of the Sunday Times, Andrew Neill to the House of Lords Communications Committee. Quote via Journalism.co.uk

More cheerfully, The Independent newspaper has relaunched, at long last, its website, In doing so, it has finally recognised the genius of its regular editorial cartoonist, Dave Brown. He has a proper cartoon gallery full of marvellous stuff, right at the top of opinion. The joke for December the 24th is a particular treat.
23rd January 2008

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

22nd January 2008

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

The Northern Rock bank rescue plan is announced to the public by Chancellor of the Exchequer Alastair Darling. Published here and here.
21st January 2008

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Coming soon...

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

What fame will do for weight loss. Cartoon caricature of film star Keira Knightly at the London premiere of the film Atonement.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Published here and here

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

When your boss states that you are responsible for an incompetence, you might be excused feeling for your neck to make sure it hadn't already been cut.
Artwork coming soon...

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

The forgetful Peter Hain featured in this animation about Labour's dubious donations which I made for Channel 4 back in November 2007. Peter is the orange one.
12 January 2008

UPDATED: 15th January 2008
There's a good short analysis of how untransparent Mr Hain's financial arrangements were here



Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Absolutely terrific news from the USA where Ann Telnaes has become the Washington Post's first animated political cartoonist. Well done Ann. They've picked their time well with the primary season in full swing. I'd like to think the UK media will be up to speed with this sort of thing by the time our election comes around. Do you think it will be?
11th January 2007

Matt Buck’s animated drawings