[1348] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Chronicle article: Comic-Book Artists Say MIT Misappropriated
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Peter Shulman)
Thu Aug 29 07:44:38 2002
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 07:20:27 -0400
From: Peter Shulman <skip@MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
This article from The Chronicle of Higher Education
(http://chronicle.com) was forwarded to you from:
skip@mit.edu
The following message was enclosed:
From this morning's chronicle: from nano-soldiers to
mega-problems....
--**Peter
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This article is available online at this address:
http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/08/2002082904n.htm
- The text of the article is below -
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Thursday, August 29, 2002
Comic-Book Artists Say MIT Misappropriated Their Cartoon
Soldier in Grant Proposal
By RICHARD MORGAN
The creators of a Canadian comic book have accused the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology of using their
conception of a futuristic soldier to help the institution win
a $50-million defense contract. The soldier that they say has
been misappropriated is the heroine of Radix, a comic book
that sells for less than three U.S. dollars.
The comic-book artists' Web site
(http://horizoncomics.com/radix/) notes overwhelming
similarities between sketches of their protagonist, Valerie
Fiores, and an illustration credited to "H. Thomas" that was
part of MIT's 100-page grant proposal. In MIT's version, the
phrase "U.S. Army" was written on the futuristic soldier's
gun, which is also from the Radix comic.
MIT will use the grant, awarded by the U.S. Army in March, to
create the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at the
university. Edwin L. (Ned) Thomas, director of the new
institute and a professor of materials science and
engineering, told CNET.com, a technology-news Web site, in a
March 27 interview that his daughter had provided the
illustration used in the MIT proposal. Mr. Thomas was
traveling on Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.
Radix debuted as a bimonthly publication in December 2001 and
had published three issues before fans in Los Angeles alerted
the comic-book artists in March to MIT's use of their image.
The artists -- brothers Raymond W.C. and Ben W.P. Lai, in
Montreal; and Brian Reber, in Orlando -- halted production in
April because, the artists said, they "didn't want to do all
the work" for MIT. About 30,000 copies of each issue were
distributed. The artists do not plan on resuming publication
until they are certain that their work will not be used
without their permission.
"At first, we were surprised that someone cheated MIT," said
Raymond Lai. The brothers sent a letter in April to Charles M.
Vest, MIT's president, notifying him of MIT's unauthorized use
of their character. The Lais received a letter in May from
Mark A. Fischer, a lawyer for MIT, who said that, although MIT
had "reproduced" the Radix image approximately 25 times for
the grant proposal, the institution's "limited use [was] in
connection with its educational activities" and therefore did
not qualify as copyright infringement. Copyright law allows
nonprofit and educational institutions to use otherwise
protected images.
Raymond Lai said that the Radix team was "shocked" that MIT
would defend its use of their artwork. "Would [MIT] take a
picture of Robocop and put it in a grant application?
Basically do a book report on a comic? I don't think so," he
said, adding that "we're designing the U.S. Army without
knowing it. How are we supposed to explain that?"
In a statement, MIT officials said that they were "not aware"
of the comic-book connection when the proposal was presented
to the Pentagon and dismissed the "incidental" use of the
image. "The selection of MIT for the nanotechnology research
grant by the Army was peer-reviewed and was based on the
technical aspects of the MIT proposal and the Army's needs,
not on the use of any one image," the statement read, adding
that "MIT strongly supports the rights of creators and MIT
regrets the use of an image that was apparently derived from
another source."
The Radix designers are seeking advice from legal counsel
about what they should do. Raymond Lai said that the artists
aren't looking for compensation as much as a simple apology.
"If you have any respect for art, you don't just take someone
else's art and put your name on it," said Raymond Lai. MIT
"didn't even bother with the effort to redraw [the image];
it's just scanned, cut and paste."
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Copyright 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
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