Urban Outfitters Probably Sucks

Yet another t-shirt illustrator is claiming he got ripped off by Urban Outfitters. This case is a little different than all the hoopla that went down with UO rebranding Crown Farmer shirts but it does sound vaguely familiar nonetheless. 

It appears like Urban Outfitters is starting to have a pattern of being a shady company, but more than that, it raises a lot of questions about intellectual property and how gray the lines are in that area right now. In the case of this Johnny Cupcakes business, is he really being ripped off? Can he claim that THE IDEA of an airplane dropping cupcakes is his, and therefor UO is stealing his intellectual property (even though the images of the plane and the cupcakes are different)? I’m guessing he’s got a pretty good case, but is it worth the legal fees and drama?

I tend to hate the sort of scarcity mentality that holds on so tightly to ideas as if they are so very original (which they rarely really are) but at the same time, as an illustrator, i’d be pissed if I saw an UO shirt that looked like something I had done, too.