Multiple Humboldt designs being sold by RedBubble.com
An Australian website which has stopped selling a T-shirt featuring a misappropriated Halifax newspaper cartoon about the Humboldt bus crash tragedy is facing scrutiny.
Bruce MacKinnon of the Halifax Chronicle Herald said earlier this week that he was notified his cartoon was on a shirt selling for $42.63 on Redbubble.com -- adding the seller was crassly trying to profit from a tragedy.
The cartoon shows hockey players representing other provinces supporting a hockey player from Saskatchewan after 16 players and staff with the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team were killed when their bus collided with a transport truck.
Redbubble has issued a tweet saying that in line with its policy, it will be donating all company profits from work related to the Humboldt accident to charity.
The web site is still selling multiple Humboldt t-shirts with common phrases like Pray for Humboldt or Humboldt Strong that would not be subject to copyright. They are also selling designs that appear to be Humboldt Broncos' official team logos, and it is unclear if anyone is actually licensing them.
The business model of Redbubble is to recruit artists (anyone with Adobe Photoshop and/or Illustrator) and give them portions of the profits of the t-shirts that they design. They're like Zazzle 3.0.
Essentially anyone with Photoshop can sign up, design t-shirts, market them on social media and by whatever means that they choose, then get paid royalties from Redbubble.com after their designs are sold.
The designs shown above were submitted by a number of different artists who are signed on to the platform. It is unclear if the company will be including the artist royalties in the money that is being donated, though it seems unlikely from their statement.
We've reached out to the company for more specifics but have not yet received a response.
With files from the Canadian Press
