A few years ago Andrew Martin created fan art of the tiki drummer from Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room. He says he has loved the Enchanted Tiki Room since he was a kid and wanted to do something inspired by it. So, he made a miniature sculpture and he posted it to his social media accounts. His viewers were fellow Disney fans and loved his work. Many were asking him to start selling the piece, but Martin didn't want to go through all the hoops he'd have to go through in order to sell something like this. So instead, he released his exact 3D model online under a creative commons license for fans to be able to make one themselves. This license means it would be illegal to use the model for any sort of profit.
Last week, Martin got a message from a fan that showed his exact model being sold in the Disney parks as an official 50th Anniversary commemorative music box. He know's it his exact copy due to small flaws lining up exactly.
“Disney Stole & Is Selling My Work:”
Martin explains that even though it is fan art of a Disney owned character, it still does not give Disney permission to directly steal his work. He gives the example of a cover song:
“When Lady Gaga does a cover of a Beatles song, that doesn't mean that Paul McCartney can come along, take her recording, put it on his own album, and sell the crap out of it,” he says. “In my particular situation it would be even more egregious. It would be as if Paul McCartney also claimed that he was the one singing on the recording [and] playing all the instruments.”
Explaining the copyright:
Since his original video calling out Disney for the theft, he's posted an update. Initially, Martin didn't blame the company for the theft thinking that they probably unknowingly hired a freelance artist who stole his work. But upon further investigation, he discovered that the artist taking credit for his work is actually Disney's official product design manager, Costa Alavezos. Martin pointed out on Alavezos' LinkedIn page that he has apparently worked at Disney since the ‘90s and has been the product manager for six years now.
With such a senior employee very blatantly stealing an artist’s work, Martin wonders what else could have possibly been stolen art that is now being sold and making money for the Disney corporation.