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It may be too late to do much about this, but it can't hurt to ask.
I'm kind of fed up with what's being done with a graphic that I made and have allowed our non-profit group to use. No rights were ever assigned to the group, and I would like to exercise more control over what gets done with this graphic now. Is it completely too late, or do I still have a shot at keeping them from turning this poor little graphic into manure on a regular basis?
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do you practice law or sleep with anyone that does?
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Before anything else...I would ask/speak to them directly first about the issue (perhaps you already have though?).
It is not too late...you never assigned rights to it for anything specific...including being/not being able to modify some type of condition of the use at a later time.
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do you practice law or sleep with anyone that does?
Nope. Not even close. My brother is a lawyer, but this is not the kind of thing he deals with.
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Generally if you do not assign rights you retain them yourself. On the other hand if they fight you you have to be able to prove that the artwork is original and that when you gave them use of the artwork you did not give them rights to alter it.
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Trying to do this legalistically is not a very useful strategy. They'll just get a new logo or whatever done by someone else and quit talking to you because you caused them so much grief.
Do a very simple standards manual. Have quiet, sympathetic, and helpful conversations with whoever's misusing it. Offer to do the materials using the logo or whatever yourself. Tell them you'd rather they didn't use it at all than use it badly. But saber-rattling about some sort of legal control just makes you seem like a jerk to people who are earnestly trying to do good.
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We are all earnestly trying to do good in our small, dysfunctional group.
I want to have something to back up my contention that they don't have an automatic or assigned right to foul up my work. We are talking about people who are very graphically challenged. The quiet discussions don't seem to go anywhere, so I think I need to at least remind them, politely, that I have certain rights as the person who created this graphic.
Believe me, unless a talented designer wants to volunteer his or her time, they will not be getting a new graphic (it's not really a logo) anytime soon. I would actually be thrilled if someone GOOD or at least competent wanted to produce the materials in question. What is sticking in my craw is the use and abuse of the image by people who are producing really awful stuff. The chief culprit is a person who is somewhat new to the group who seriously overestimates her capabilities. She's consistently horrible with type, and her one graphic idea is to put a very large, dark drop shadow on every freakin' picture she uses. Pictures are typically scattered about to "fill up the space" and so forth. Imagine every mistake that people almost invariably make when they know nothing about laying out a page, and you will have the general idea.
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As Mr. Downtown said– put together a small style guide/manual and approach the perp. Tell her that she may not be aware that there are certain guidelines in order for the graphic to be used properly. And go over the manual with her. Explain that it dilutes the brand when used improperly. If she doesn't go along, go over her head, nicely. If they don't care what you think. Send them a nice letter stating that although your relationship has been fulfilling, you can no longer allow them to use your graphic if they refuse to follow the style guide presented to them, and to please stop.
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or they can pay you $5,000 and do whatever they want with it.
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These are excellent suggestions.
Take something they have written and published. Make a few eccentric modifications to it that change the tone and effectiveness. Perhaps inject some teen slang into a serious polemic. Or frame a friendly paragraph with thick bureaucratise.
Insist that their modification of your graphic is equivalent to your modifying their writing without coordinating the result with the original author.
Perhaps then they will understand why you care.
