“Boys Are Stupid” Products Designer Caught in Plagiarism Scandal
May 1st, 2007 by Glenn Sacks, MA for Fathers & Families
My longtime readers will remember our successful campaign against “Boys are Stupid” children's products back in 2003-2004. Our protest against the products--which were designed and created by Todd Goldman and his company David & Goliath--gained international media attention and drove the products out of 3,500 stores, 95% of their worldwide distribution.
Dr. Laura discussed the campaign in her book Woman Power: Transform Your Man, Your Marriage, Your Life, and the campaign was covered in Time Magazine, People Magazine, and over 300 newspapers. Afterwards, Bernard Goldberg ripped Todd Goldman in his bestseller 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America, referring to the protests and putting Goldman at #97 on his top 100 list. To learn more, see our campaign page here and read my column Why I Launched the Campaign Against 'Boys are Stupid' Products (Los Angeles Daily News, 2/4/04).
Recently I have been contacted by numerous artists, cartoonists, comic strip artists, and others concerning a scandal over Todd Goldman's alleged plagiarism. Goldman is accused of stealing artwork from other artists--centrally Dave Kelly--and using the cartoons on his company's merchandise. Many websites and publications have discussed the alleged plagiarism, including here.
The Goldman camp has responded by saying that Goldman “has mistakenly used the design of another artist in two of his recent paintings.” Goldman himself claims, “I made a judgment error and didn’t research the background of this particular submission. My intention was not to copy Mr. Kelly. I have never seen his work before and would never intentionally knock-off someone else’s idea.” Goldman's full media release can be viewed here. The situation is also discussed in Fur flies over squirrel: Sale of plagiarized cartoon unleashes brutal online attack (Las Vegas Sun, 4/12/07).
As bad as this sounds, to be fair to Goldman, in some of these cases the line between plagiarism and an honest mistake can be thin. Goldman claims that one of the major designs he is accused of stealing was brought to him by one of his employees and Goldman was unaware that the employee had filched it. Also, according to the Sun:
"Artists and bloggers say Goldman has taken characters from other cartoons. Goldman disputes that, saying that some of the characters in question are his own and have been licensed, and that in the past year he has sent 50 cease-and-desist letters to artists doing knockoffs of his work."
I know nothing about the artistic world, but Goldman's claim here sounds plausible. Goldman also told the Sun that "This is just a bunch of hater artists trying to take me down," and that part of the reaction against him is driven by envy of his success. This claim also seems possible.
I've never had any personal contact with Goldman, outside of our debate on CNBC in 2004, when Goldman seemed rather annoyed with me. However, if he would like to offer his perspective on the plagiarism scandal I will make sure to include it. Input from Dave Kelly or other web artists is also welcome.
At the top of this blog entry and on the next page are several examples of Goldman's alleged plagiarism, as detailed on Dave Kelly's website. In all cases the original design is on the left and the Goldman/David & Goliath design is on the right side. Kelly discusses the issue at length here.
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May 1st, 2007 at 8:25 pm
Amusingly, it's this very same scandal that introduced me to this site and the work you do. While doing research on the Goldman allegations, I saw frequent mention of you as a men's rights activist and, curious, came here.
If there's one good aspect of the whole thing, it's that it made more people aware of you, Glenn.
May 2nd, 2007 at 4:56 am
In the second and third cases I could accept that Todd Goldman had a very similar idea independently. The first one I've seen often enough here in the UK for that to be highly unlikely.
May 2nd, 2007 at 6:24 am
I believe that you will suffer for the company you keep and if you sleep next to thieves don't be surprised when they steal from you. This man has no honor and tried to make a buck at the expense of good men. I have a feeling his associations have come to haunt him. Consider the possibility those dealing with him just want to make a buck too so seeing his tendencies to profit at any cost they felt the same way. Why worry about honor when dealing with thieves?
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:22 am
Glenn, I know you're giving the man the benefit of the doubt, but the sheer number of allegations against Goldman are too numerous to ignore. If he, personally, is not responsible for the rip-off, then at the very least he has created a company where there is a culture of acceptance of filching ideas.
For example, Penny Arcade (a popular gaming comic and blog) posted a long list of images that are blatant copies of popular Threadless.com images - and that's just one source he was ripping from.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2007/04/25
Coincidences and accidents happen. This is not the case - if Goldman was not directly responsible, then at the very least there is something severely wrong with the company he has constructed under himself, for which he must bear the blame.
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:34 am
Whoa, just did a look into it.
See this:
http://www.miketyndall.com/todd_goldman/
A lengthy catalogue of Goldman's shenanigans. Plus, when the allegation broke, he defended himself by claiming "Here’s my inspiration! Every month I paint the works of a pedophile." Yep, he called his accusers paedophiles.
Class act, all around.
May 2nd, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Please, don't list Bernard Goldman as a credible source. It is like listing FOX news as unbiased reporting. Both are utterly full of crap.
May 2nd, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Glenn, you were way too soft on this guy. Some of his copies (including the "Dear God, Make Everyone Die" kitty) are so close in design that if you overlap them, it becomes evident that portions of the art were traced. This is not a mistake made by his underlings, unless the art itself is a fraud that is actually done by underlings. Either way, some outright scam is being perpetrated here. Todd Goldman is either a thief, or a fraud, or both.
May 2nd, 2007 at 8:49 pm
All this seems internally consistent to me: we have an individual who (allegedly) exploits others to his own advantage without compunction. In one instance, it is (allegedly) exploiting boys. In another instance, it is (allegedly) exploiting the work of others.
If these allegations are all true, then we are dealing with a person who appears to demonstrate a consistent lack of conscience across multiple activities in his business.
In otherwords. The new allegations are behaviorally, an (im)morally consistent with the past allegations.
May 3rd, 2007 at 8:39 pm
George Harrison accidentally plagiarized The Chiffons' "He's So Fine" when he wrote the music to "My Sweet Lord", but he still had to pay damages. Just because Goldman's plagiarism was "unintentional" doesn't let him off the hook!
May 9th, 2007 at 12:40 am
[...] artwork from other artists--to see the allegedly plagiarized designs and to learn more, click here. The St. Petersburg Times has a new article out about the Todd Goldman Plagiarism [...]