Virgin Mobile and the Red Ballooon
p2pnet news view Advertising | P2P:- Alan McDermott was strolling down a lane in Dublin, Ireland, “when he spotted a visually stunning piece of street art -– a young girl releasing a heart-shaped balloon,” says the Toronto Star, continuing:
“A hobby photographer, he snapped a few pictures before the mural was scrubbed away. He later touched up the picture using a computer program and uploaded it to the photo-sharing website Flickr.”
But, “While he knew the photo was good, he was still shocked to learn this week that the same picture was being used by cellphone giant Virgin Mobile in its latest Canadian ad campaign.”
Now, “Hello Toronto Star readers (and Virgin) … this is the source of this stolen version,” says Alan on his Flickr page, also stating »»»
27 Aug:- Virgin Mobile is taking photos off Flickr again for their advertising, this time in Canada. This is a printed booklet they sent out to the Canadian media. I haven’t been contacted by Virgin yet to request permission or offer payment for its use.
But this wasn’t the first time Virgin, hot on copyright infringements, cynically used someone’s work without paying for it or acknowledging it.
As Alan also notes, “Virgin Mobile in Australia did this before,” linking to stories in CNet and the New York Times on the case of Alison Chang over in Australia.
Her Flickr pic similarly showed up in a Virgin ad without her knowledge or permission.
Now, “Virgin’s Ad Agency has contacted me and wants to ‘make it right’,” says Alan today, adding:
“Correspondence has been started.”
Stay tuned.
(Cheers, Marc)
showed up in a Virgin ad – ‘Stolen’ pic: Virgin to virgin, September 24, 2007
Toronto Star – August 27, 2009
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August 28th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
What Virgin Mobile did in Australia is totally irrelevant. This Virgin Mobile in Canada is 100% OWNED and operated by Bell. Blame them instead.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Yes. Virgin Canada IS Bell Canada. Bell Canada owns Virgin in Canada.
In effect it was Bell Canada who pirated and who infringed copyright.
They should lose their internet, pay 2-million and maybe the exec’s spend a year in jail.
After all, it is Bell Canada who is throttling everyone and using DPI because 5% of the population are pirates and copyright infringers.
The example should be made starting with those accusing others of “crimes”.
Maybe an full audit of Bell Canada computers and a confiscation of their computers for analysis should be performed.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
The title should be changed to “Bell Canada’s Virgin Mobile and the Red Ballooon”
August 28th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
No chance of them getting dragged throught the courts on piracy charges then. What is the matter, have they got too much money.
September 1st, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Has the original “Street Artist’ been contacted concerning your use of his work? I don’t know the etiquetee. Does the fact that the original painting was done on the street mean that the artist has no rights regarding its usage? Just curious.