Metafizzypop
From what I know, the spread is in fact copyrighted. It appeared in two
e-publications that are themselves copyrighted, so the spread must be, too. And it still got used without permission!
I've been snooping around the web, though, and I've found that the problem is more widespread than I had realized. Pinterest doesn't appear to be the main offender. It's reallly Tumblr. That's where most of the pins on Pinterest came from.
I searched Tumblr and found this image. My spread is the one on the right, with the orange box.
http://www.tumblr.com/search/The+Haunted+House+Tarot+Spread
That is the artwork that I've been finding all over the web, on anything tarot-related on Tumblr or Pinterest. It always has that same orange background, with that black line drawing of a haunted house (either Clip-Art, or something stolen from another source). Right now the spread has 194 likes (notes). But people aren't just liking it. They are reblogging it from one Tumblr site to another. There must be a dozen different blogs with this spread, always with the same artwork.
The person who originally appropriated the spread (and did the art for it) most likely got it from AT, and did not know it was copyrighted. I am certain that it did not come from the copyrighted sources that the spread appeared in. The person was most likely an unscrupulous lurker.
At this point, I don't know what to do. It bugs me, though.
ETA: The link I gave above no longer shows my spread. It shows the spread that replaced mine on the AM website.
e-publications that are themselves copyrighted, so the spread must be, too. And it still got used without permission!
I've been snooping around the web, though, and I've found that the problem is more widespread than I had realized. Pinterest doesn't appear to be the main offender. It's reallly Tumblr. That's where most of the pins on Pinterest came from.
I searched Tumblr and found this image. My spread is the one on the right, with the orange box.
http://www.tumblr.com/search/The+Haunted+House+Tarot+Spread
That is the artwork that I've been finding all over the web, on anything tarot-related on Tumblr or Pinterest. It always has that same orange background, with that black line drawing of a haunted house (either Clip-Art, or something stolen from another source). Right now the spread has 194 likes (notes). But people aren't just liking it. They are reblogging it from one Tumblr site to another. There must be a dozen different blogs with this spread, always with the same artwork.
The person who originally appropriated the spread (and did the art for it) most likely got it from AT, and did not know it was copyrighted. I am certain that it did not come from the copyrighted sources that the spread appeared in. The person was most likely an unscrupulous lurker.
At this point, I don't know what to do. It bugs me, though.
ETA: The link I gave above no longer shows my spread. It shows the spread that replaced mine on the AM website.