Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Mario Russo Apologizes for Stealing, Changing and Presenting Elena Espina's Cartoons As His Own: "I really didn't know this was really wrong."

Arifur Rhaman held a Women's Rights Cartoon Exhibit. He's the publisher of tOOns Magazine, which is sponsoring the Exhibit. One of the entries was a plagiarized cartoon that was originally drawn by Elena Ospina. The cartoon that was submitted, without her knowledge or approval, now had her name wiped out and another name, "Mario Russo," written in.

I asked Arifur, whi is also known as "Cartoonist Arif," if he knew about this, and he quickly removed the cartoon from the exhibit and the catalog. He responded via Facebook:

"As you know, 567 cartoonists from 79 countries have submitted 1625 cartoons, and it was not possible for us to investigate individuals. 
"And I like to mention that, It was not our fault. Please don't misunderstand us.  
"Because, we're not responsible for participants fault. Which Mario did, he did very bad. 
"I just removed Mario's name form participants list and from the catalog. This drawing no longer part of the exhibition. Mario apologizes to Elena Ospina and to tOOns MaG
"Let us know if is there anything more we can do."

He also posted an apology from Mr. Russo to tOOns Magazine:




And there was also one from Mr. Russo to Ms. Espina:

My thanks to all of you out there, especially Wayno and Anne Hambrock, who shined a light on this theft and got it righted. 

And thanks to Cartoonist Arif, who immediately reacted and, I believe, was instrumental in getting Mario to understand what he had done and apologize. 

8 comments:

Gianfranco Goria said...

Ehm... Dear Mike, just ask some of your Italian speaking friends what really does it mean "Mi hai rotto il cazzo - me rut o caz"... In Italian it does not mean "kind regards", it seems... Mh...

Ian Ellery said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gattozeneise said...

Yes, it means "You bother me"... maybe, it's a joke?

Ian Ellery said...

http://context.reverso.net/traduzione/italiano-inglese/Mi+hai+rotto+il+cazzo+-+me+rut+o+caz

Possibly!

Mike Lynch said...

Huh? What? Who is saying this? Very confused about the context here.

Gianfranco Goria said...

Ehu: http://context.reverso.net/traduzione/italiano-inglese/Mi+hai+rotto+il+cazzo - glom...

Gianfranco Goria said...

"Me rut o caz" is dialcetal for the Italian "Mi hai rotto il cazzo"
Google translates as: "You broke my fucking" - strange way to say "I'm sorry" and it's not "kind regards" at all... At least, so it seems. ;-)

DBenson said...

Past 12 years of age, "Didn't know it was wrong" generally means "Knew it was wrong but assumed there were no consequences."