Intellectual Rights

Maneki Neko Cat courtesy of Andrew Zhebrakov of http://www.icojam.com

While I’m on the considerable subject of Copy Rights, Intellectual Rights, Piracy, and such, I wanted to reee-iter-ate something I posted some time ago, Namely the source of my header art, avatar, gravatar and all that.  I did not draw this cat.  The guy that DID draw this cat is Andrew Zhebrakov of http://www.icojam.com

Several years ago while looking for those cutie Japanese Maneki Neko cats, I came across his cats in icon form at http://www.icojam, and emailed him asking permission to use his cat icons on the web for my sites.  He graciously agreed to let me do that.  And for years his art has graced whatever thing I did to represent myself on the net.

He designed the cat, and I just incorporated it into my design.  He is really very good at what he does.  And I really like Maneki Neko cats.  I will do an article on their history later.  But the point of all this is that it is a good example of what you should do if you want permission to use someone’s artwork on the internet.  Sometimes they might refuse, which is within their rights, sometime they might ask for a fee (small or large), and sometimes, like Andrew, they just say go ahead they don’t mind.  I was flattered and real happy, because he’s a great artist, and his cat is real happy too.

Now I’m an artist, and could have done my own art for the web, but wasn’t ready to publish on the web, so he did me a great favor.

Be Real, Don’t Steal.