Google Deletes Aboriginal Flag After Copyright Dispute
An 11 year-old “Doodle 4 Google” winner has seen her artwork changed by the search giant after the Aboriginal flag it features was the subject of a copyright claim by its creator.
To celebrate Australia Day, Google invited people to enter artwork for their 2009 “Doodle 4 Google” competition.
The winner was 12-year-old Jessie Du, whose artwork adorns Google’s Australian homepage today.
Sadly her work has now been graphically adjusted due to a copyright dispute.
“You may have noticed that the Google Doodle on the homepage today is slightly different to Jessie’s original entry, because that one contained copyright imagery that we weren’t able to publish on the homepage today,” said Google product marketing manager Katharina Friedrich.
The problem lies with the inclusion of the Aboriginal flag in the center of the artwork, notably missing in the adapted version in the second image you see above.
Harold Thomas, who designed the flag as a symbol of unity and identity for the Aboriginal people, refused to give Google permission to reproduce the design without payment.
Too right – damn Global mega-corps indulging in copyright theft infringement. Power to the Little Guy
Be warned Pirates – right is on our side
# Guy Sum, you’re a fool.
I think the second one looks better anyway.
Happy Bloody Australia Day, Huh?
I think they should sue the child for a few million dollars, that would teach it early on about copyright infringement and how serious of a crime it is.
Pretty soon we won’t be able to fart in case it makes the same sounds as the farts of some jackass with money who found a way to copyright them.
What a disturbing world we live in.
Ironic, that a symbol designed to promote unity is unable to do so due to the severe limitations a narrow-minded person has placed on it.
lol to copyright a red and black square…
Well, this makes it that bit easier to pretend they don’t exist.
What an idiot. At least it’s obvious what he really cares about; surely not the unity and identity of the Aboriginal people.
Maybe somebody should sue him for literally ripping off the German national flag. All he did was taking out the yellow stripe at the bottom!
Instead of removing it whole why didn’t they just flip it? Or simply say its not that damn flag it just happens to look like one.
I think he needs to sue Jack Spicer’s hair from Xiaolin Showdown too. It uses the same design…
http://thumbs2.modthesims.info/img/7/3/5/7/6/8/MTS2_Mimsy_595096_JackSpicerXiaolinShowdown.jpg
Why would a national flag be copyrighted?
@g – It’s not a national flag, but rather a flag used to represent the indigenous people of Australia. Hey, they were whinging, so we gave ‘em a flag. But it’s not a national flag at all.
That said, I always thought it was public domain. Why the hell would it not be public domain?
Also, technically, the yellow circle (ie, the second “o”) is part of it.
Thanks. Shouldn’t the Aboriginal people own the copyright then? Presumably, they would be happy to see it being recognized and honored. This makes no sense.
WTH? I didn’t even know the flag was copyrighted until now. This needs get more publicity – it’s an excellent example of how copyright can be used to stifle free speech.
Indeed – I do not see how a flag, designed as a symbol of UNITY (so it was stated) can be copyrighted by an individual. If it is supposed to represent the Aboriginal people, then THEY should be suing this moron?
This copyright bullshit has GOT to stop somewhere. PLEASE will some attorney take up the fight for this child and set a nice precedent to stop idiots like this guy?
(And in the meantime, maybe we can have some hackers target the jerk with some bots and nuke him off the net? :)
The point of this story is not whether it should be copyrighted or not. It’s that a large corporation expected to use something copyrighted for free. As somewhat of an artist myself I’m absolutely with the copyright holder on this one and applaud him for standing up for his rights.
Ill be damned if I have to pay to see a damn flag
It shouldnt be sheltered away, to protect copyright
Damn you Sir, and Damn your Copywrongs. Your a Greedy and Selfish Person if you just want to make money
Money is materialistic mate, your not taking it to heaven with you. Douchebag.
Wow, really?
I assume you must also be okay with patents on human genes and copyright protection on building codes (they are laws). Those rights holders have rights too!!
Ass.
I’m suddenly reminded of an Eddie Izzard routine…
Looks better without the aboriginal flag anyway :P
They had a chance of having there flag on one of the biggest search engines showing and acknowledging the aboriginal community, and they refused to allow google to use it due to greed and wanting money
FAIL
AFAIK the Aboriginal people in general are not too happy about the copyright thing at all. Well that is being generalistic but the problem is one person holds the copyright so in effect his them by the. short and curlies. IMO he is just a greedy bastard. I was think of buying just such a flag for Australia day but the local flag shop won’t make because of the copy wrong. So the political point is lost and yet another greedy person ruins it for the rest of the world
Hark the cries of “you robbed us of our culture”
Seems now Harold is ripping off the American culture. ;-). If it were some small local shopping centre competition he wouldn’t care less.
He should be proud to see his culture acknowledged. Greedy bastard. He owes that little girl an apology.
We totally agree with you that They had a chance of having there flag on one of the biggest search engines showing and acknowledging the aboriginal community, and they refused to allow google to use it due to greed and wanting money.
FAIL
Stopping people Climbing Uluru is another problem too.
Closing your world does not do you people any Justice.
In Germany, we have a limitation of Copyright called Schöpfungshöhe or Threshold of originality which means trivial works like this flag which only consists of two rectangles of 2 different colours sticked together are EXEMPT from Copyright protection and are automatically Public Domain (though trademark protections can still restrict commercial usage etc.). Australian Copyright must really suck if they don’t have something as common sennse as this included! …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_of_originality
the flag was also used by polticals parties in africa exemple is CDR in Rwanda in 1990′s.
Goggle, you pirates!
can you actually copyright something like that? it’s just like the strike flag used in countries such as Mexico but with a yellow dot on it