UPDATED: Elena Ospina: Plagiarized for the Women's Rights International Cartoon Exhibition?

Elena Ospina's art is on the left, the plagiarized copy on the right. She posted this on her Facebook page.


Elena Ospina is an artist and illustrator. She published that work on the left side some time ago. It has recently appeared, without her knowledge or permission, with her name scrubbed out, and "Mario Russo's" name typed in, as a cartoon entry for the Women's Rights Cartoon Exhibit.

This is flagrant theft and needs to have the spotlight on it.

Here is my friend Juana Medina who put it so well on her Facebook page:

"This, my friends, is NOT RIGHT. Nor fair.

"Elena Ospina is a fabulous cartoonist and illustrator who works hard and has made her name by making original art for a very long time. This is also one of Elena's best known pieces, she published it a couple years ago. 

"Being creative is hard. Actions like plagiarism and appropriation, only make things harder. 

"To add insult to injury, this appears to be a male artist appropriating a woman's work... for the Women's Rights Cartoon Exhibit. Oh, the irony. 

"Commission artists, celebrate their (our!) work! Just don't butcher it and claim it as yours.
I'll always remember a really cool looking poster that was hung at school, knowing someone would probably snatch it, the author (a printmaking or illustration student) made a footnote that said 'whoever steals this poster, will be destined to a lifetime of bad sex.' Needless to say, poster remained on the wall.

"We might have to start thinking of similar footnotes for our work."

We have to ask the Women's Rights Cartoon Exhibit to respond. 

Does Arifur Rahman ("Cartoonist Arif") know about this? He arranged the Exhibition.

Arifur Rahman ("Cartoonist Arif") Facebook page

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