Cartoon plagiarism and toast

I've had an absolutely crazy week. Lots of stuff going on, mostly positive, some surprises, nasty news and a nice way to end the week. After an eventful 5 days, I can honestly say I was toast.

Let me explain how it all started...
On Monday, I heard about a new job role that looks very interesting which I think I will be applying for. This made me excited but also anxious as I haven't looked at my CV in ages and I've not done an interview for even longer.

But all of that became old news because on Wednesday two things happened. Eurostar announced that I will be displaying my cartoons at the conference during Autumn (get in my son! Come on! You beauty! Yeah baby!) and in the evening I attended the London Test Gathering for the first time.

To get to London, I ordered train tickets on line. Guess what? There was a bug in the web app that screwed up my order. I ended up with two sets of tickets. Man did I get angry once I realised I wasn't going to get back my £32 back.

After a while my anger subsided, and anyway, there must be a rational reason why there was a bug in the s/w, surely. 
Lesson learnt: sympathise with users. Some bugs can make users very angry.

I got myself down to London with two sets of tickets. One ticket for me and the other for... me.
At the event, I found it a bit hard to "network", going up to people that I've never met and striking up a conversation.

After a few drinks though... it suddenly became much easier.

It was good see Michael Bolton speak for the first time. He's probably not aware, but a couple of years back, he once said to me on a test forum that he would buy me a testing book (perfect s/w) if I couldn't get my manager to buy it! Wow! Incredible, don't you think? Anyway, meeting him makes you realise that this man breaths, eats and sleeps testing. I hope people see some of my passion in testing through my cartoons, but there's no mistaking it with Michael.
During the event, I got to meet up with Alan Richardson, the man behind the Evil Tester. It was great to meet him for the first time as we've exchanged emails in the past discussing test cartoons. At a future LTG, we might do something together cartoon wise for a bit of fun...


Unfortunately, I ran out of time and had to run to the train station so I wouldn't miss my journey back. I was hoping to "network" with Anna Baik (an organiser for weekend testing), Michael and Phil Kirkham (does work for Software Testing Club) - although I couldn't spot him on the night. It will have to wait for another time.
After three hours travelling I got back home soon after midnight but couldn't sleep very well. Still buzzing from the networking and my old, tattered and extremely uncomfortable bed didn't help.

The following day, Thursday, was fairly uneventful.
Friday was different. To begin with, work was really busy. I'd organised a group testing session where in the space of an hour, 5 (ish) testers were on the chase to find bugs.

Later on Friday, the bomb shell dropped... I found out that someone in Russia had taken one of my cartoons ("the bugs have feelings too") and created mugs with them to sell at a Test Conference. I found out through an eagle-eyed tester (Roman Tverdohlebov) who had spotted this unethical behaviour. Can you believe it? Someone had taken my cartoons, printed them on mugs and was selling them!
Part of me was saying:

"Wow, someone must really like my cartoons if they think they can make money out of them."
Another part of me was saying:

"I can't believe they beat me to it! I was going to do that. Are they going to sue me now if I steal the idea of printing the cartoons on mugs?"

And yet another part of me was saying:
"The cheek of it. They stole my cartoons. There will be retribution. First, a train line steals my money, and now, my cartoons have been plagiarised. What's next?!!!"

Actually, what was next was going home to find out my new, well overdue bed mattress had arrived. Thank you God! I was toast and I needed a nice bed.


Good night



Updated Tuesday, 18th May 2010
After a few emails back an worth, the people who took the cartoons were very apologetic. They've agreed to include the copyright information on the mugs (rightly so) and also promised to send me a copy.