Find the Unix Magic artwork.

September 14, 2007 8:30 AM

Unix-poster-filter. Help me locate the original of an artwork...

I ran across this nifty Unix poster on a blog discussion. I was able to track down the artist, and had an interesting conversation with him.

He only has a few copies of the poster left. He'd like to be able to reprint the poster, but he's concerned about the copyright.

He created this poster for a company, and part of the deal was that the company got the original. Everything I've been able to find suggests that simply transferring the original would not hand over the copyright, but IANAL and he's unwilling to risk getting sued in an unclear situation.

Contacting the holder of the original would seem to be the simple way to clear things up, but the company has changed hands/been absorbed/etc and he has no idea where the original is now.

I know this is a real longshot, but has anyone seen the original painting of this, or know of it's whereabouts? I'm hoping the power of the hive mind might be able to track it down...

Note: I'm doing this on my own, not at the request of the artist. I'm just hoping to be able to give him some information that might lead to this poster being put back in print.

posted by bitmage to computers & internet (7 comments total)

What was the name of the company?
posted by iconomy at 8:33 AM on September 14, 2007

Looks like it says "Unitech" at the bottom of the poster.
posted by bricoleur at 8:39 AM on September 14, 2007

This poster comes up every once in a while over on alt.folklore.computers (1, 2).
posted by nonane at 8:40 AM on September 14, 2007

The posters reference 'Unitech Software, Inc', but I don't know if that was the original client. (During our conversation he just referred to it as "a company", and I didn't want to press him for names of his clients.)
posted by bitmage at 8:40 AM on September 14, 2007

Could the 'Open Group' mentioned on this page be a lead, or have you already explored that?
posted by iconomy at 8:43 AM on September 14, 2007

I think they just distributed it at their conferences, but were not the original holders.
posted by bitmage at 9:00 AM on September 14, 2007

Does the artist have a written copy of the deal with the original company? A lawyer looking such a thing over might be able to give an answer.

Also, I'd suggest talking to the artist before making inquiries with entities that may have a claim to the copyright on the art. Convincing them there's demand (and potentially money to be had) in that copyright could affect their attitude toward claiming it.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 12:18 PM on September 14, 2007