RIPPED OFF BY PAUL RILEY (WINSTON FROM 'STILL GAME') - COUNTERFEIT MERCHANDISE EXPOSED!
PLEASE DO NOT BUY!
Hi Folks.
This is a public service announcement for fans of my 'Still Game' inspired caricature range entitled 'Auld Pals'.
Paul Riley - the actor who played Winston in the Scottish comedy 'Still Game' is going on tour this month in March 2023, with more dates to follow in the months ahead this year, around Scotland and some in England.
This post goes out to anyone who may be attending any of his shows, or knows of someone who is, so I'd encourage you to please read on and share to raise awareness.
It's come to my attention that Paul Riley has been selling merchandise at his shows featuring my caricature of 'Winston' on his goods- without my permission.
I'd like to ask everyone who may attend his shows to please 'think twice' before parting with any of your cash to buy any of his merchandise which features my caricature.
Paul Riley has been using my artwork entirely without my permission and is illegally profiting from sales of these unlicensed counterfeit goods.
I can assure you all in good faith that Paul Riley has not been granted permission or a license or agreement from me to use my artwork in any way, shape or form.
As the artist who created the caricature, I am not getting a penny from any of these merch sales. I am being ripped off.
Here’s my experience with Paul Riley :
Paul got in touch with me in March 2022. I'd already met him personally in 2020 before lockdown with regard to supplying him with caricature merchandise to sell at his live shows. I gave him lots of free samples of my caricature merch. He told me that he already had a design team of people that could print his stuff for him and all he needed was the artwork of Winston -which he wanted to print on his own merch.
I politely explained to Paul that as the artist who created the work (back in 2016), I retain full copyright of the 'Winston' caricature and if he wanted to use my image, it could be licensed to him for a reasonable fee in accordance with terms and conditions in relation to what he wanted the image for, for how long, etc....
Also - out of loyalty to my friends and colleagues at www.pureminted.co.uk (who do all the printing and distributing of my merch) I explained that if anyone was printing my artwork then I wanted it to be my guys, as we already had a full range of goods which we knew sold well. And - since I’ve known the Pure Minted guys for over 10 years, and they’re friends of mine, I couldn’t ‘switch teams’ and let some other company do the job. Paul said all that was fine and he understood where I was coming from and things were amicable.
So by the end of March 2022, Paul bought some stuff off us for his first couple of shows. This was a 'tester' just to see how sales went with fans who were going along to see him. It wasn’t a lot of stuff really...some t-shirts, coasters, mugs, etc…We gave him a really great deal on the price of the items and our graphic designer at Pure Minted even knocked up some posters and new t-shirt designs for him for his tour at no extra cost. The goods were also personally delivered free of charge to Paul at his address. To date, Paul has only ever bought one lot of merch from us.
We never came to any 'licensing agreement' for use of my artwork on any future products. That conversation never took place.
He went very quiet on us from March onwards. We never heard back from him.
A few months later, around July 2022, I was contacted by 2 professional caricaturist friends of mine saying that Paul Riley and his agent had been in touch with them asking them to draw an image of Winston for him to sell on merchandise for upcoming live shows. This was a bit of a surprise to me. I had no idea Paul was shopping around looking for another artist.
Both my artist pals immediately suggested that they ask me to do the job, as I already had the full range of Still Game caricatures. Both my artist friends also turned down the job out of loyalty and respect for me.
I messaged Paul to say that I was disappointed to hear that he was looking around for a new artist but that was fair enough. I told him I wouldn’t be drawing him again if that was the case and I wished him well with his shows.
A week or 2 later, in August, we see that Paul Riley has opened a website and Facebook merchandise page selling all manner of goods with my caricature of Winston on it. We were rather shocked!
It was clocks, hoodies, key rings, boxer shorts, etc…. This was all unlicensed counterfeit goods....None of it was produced by our Pure Minted team. He’d stolen my artwork, snubbed my merch team and was creating illegal goods for his own profit. Not cool.
I wasn’t happy, so one of my colleagues rang Paul to point out what he was doing was illegal and a breach of copyright. I wasn't privy to the conversation, but as I understand it, in his response, Paul clearly had no respect for me as the artist or any copyright law.
Thankfully, he removed the counterfeit goods from his online sites.
In late July / August, we see online that Paul Riley has now teamed up with another caricaturist (who I won't name) and a new caricature of Winston appears on his social media - touted as the ‘OFFICIAL CARICATURE ‘ of said character (see photo included here).
Fair enough then, we thought.
Personally, I was actually happy to be free of Paul, after how he had treated me. As far as I was concerned, he could be someone else’s problem. We knew that we already had a really successful range of merchandise and we were happy to keep on selling our stuff to Still Game fans, as we’ve been doing over the years and move on to other projects. No big egos to deal with.
We thought that was the end of the matter, until a friend of mine was at the Edinburgh comic con in October 2022.
Paul Riley and some other Still game actors were guests at the event and were signing stuff and selling merchandise. My friend sent me some photos of the actors table. As you can see here in the photos, he has my Winston caricature printed on clocks, boxer shorts, hoodies, water bottles, t-shirts etc.… Some items were going for up to £40 each. Paul wasn't selling the stuff online, but now in person, at live events instead!
To reiterate and assure you - NONE of these things are items that we produce at Pure Minted. Paul Riley did not seek or was granted any permission to do this and we did not exchange any contracts. These are ALL unlicensed counterfeit goods.
Another friend of mine was at his Dundee show in October 2022 and he was doing the same thing.
I then emailed Paul and issued a 'cease and desist' but he has chosen to ignore me. I have commented on his 'Wally Dugs Events' Facebook page, but he deleted my comments and has blocked me from his page. I have warned him that I would expose him and this behaviour if it didn't stop.
As time went on, Paul Riley continued to make lots of posts online crediting the new caricaturist he'd teamed up with and that his caricature of Winston was the 'official' one for all his products. It's worth noting that Paul Riley never gave me or the Pure Minted team a single 'shout out' online even when he bought stock from us featuring my artwork back in March. Funny that.
Then - after Paul Riley did a string of live dates in November, a 'one night only' special event took place on the 18th of November 2022 at the Glasgow Hilton, Cambridge Street, Glasgow, (entitled 'Auld Pals') featuring him and some of the other cast from Still Game. It was a dinner / dance type event with the chance to meet the cast and buy merchandise, etc.
Paul's new caricaturist is announced to be one of the 'official sponsors' of the show and was invited along to the event. A few days before the show, I emailed the other artist to ask if he knew that Paul Riley was still selling merch with my artwork on it and not his. I suggested he speak to Paul about the matter and asked him to remind Paul from me, that what he was doing was illegal and totally out of order.
A few days after the show, I heard from a source that counterfeit merchandise featuring my artwork on it was STILL being sold at the event! There was also a big sign on display featuring my caricature of Winston. Gift baskets of merch (with my artwork on it) were also being given away as prizes to guests (see photos here).
I really can't quite get my head around this!
So, just to recap then -
Paul Riley buys some merch from us; then asks around for another artist to draw him as Winston, drops us, starts printing his own merch with my caricature on it without permission, sells it at events, pockets the profits, offers me no explanation or apology, blocks me from his Facebook page when I object, teams up with another artist, does multiple posts online that the new artist is his 'official' guy, makes him an official sponsor for his big end of year live show, then (in front of his new artist) STILL sells unlicensed counterfeit merch with MY artwork on it at the show..... and I don't get a penny!?! Wow. What the actual.....?
I also wonder what the other artist makes of all this as well? I wonder how he feels about it all? My treatment aside, this is a very low and disrespectful way to treat him as well! If it was me; and if I had created new artwork for merchandise for a client, and I was the 'official artist and sponsor' of the clients 'big event' and then I get there and the client is selling unlicensed merch by some other artist.....? Well, I would be furious and the client would have a lot of explaining to do!
This really just goes to show how little respect Paul Riley has for self employed artists.
Personally speaking, I'd like to add that it's incredibly difficult to try and make a living from being a self employed artist. It takes years and years of graft to try to even get good at it. Like anyone else who is self employed, a tremendous amount of effort; sacrifice, risk, rejection, resilience, expenses, work, blood, sweat and tears goes into making a success of being a professional artist. And being an artist is not always financially rewarding! Most of the ones I know with families to feed and bills to pay (like me) have a part time job on the go as well to make ends meet. I myself have took on a part time day job during tough times. We are a working class. Same applies to actors, musicians, poets, comedians, singers, writers, sculptors, crafters, etc...basically anyone who works in the creative arts industry has had to struggle.
You'd perhaps think that a 'BAFTA award winning actor' who has been part of a massively successful TV comedy and OVO Hydro stage show like Paul Riley would be supportive of fellow artists trying to make a career for themselves, or at the very least, pay for the artwork he's using on his merch eh? Especially in these tough economic times, but no, that's definitely NOT the case, as I have found out.
I'm turning off the comments for this post, as no doubt I'll get some ill-informed folk piping up with some crack-pot theories like:
"Aye Edd, but you've made money out of drawing Winston...and he's the guy who played him, so you owe him!"...or some such guff.
Let me address that here: It's worth remembering that actor Paul Riley doesn't 'own' the character of Winston from Still Game. He played the part, but he didn't create the character or write any of the scripts. Indeed, he told me himself when I met him in 2020, that he's been instructed that he cannot appear dressed up as Winston at any live shows or show any clips from Still Game at his events as the copyright to the show and character belong to the BBC and Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphil (the creators and writers of the show). He didn't seem happy about that, but seems to have respected their copyright rules nonetheless. A pity then, that he doesn't respect the copyright rules when it comes to artists like me and my art.
Also please remember - I didn't draw Paul Riley 'the person'. I drew a caricature of a character from a well known TV show. I created a piece of art. I'm the guy who sat down one day with a blank piece of paper and drew a caricature of the character of Winston. I created the artwork out of nothing. It is entirely my artistic interpretation of a character from a show. It's 100% mine and I retain full copyright. It's pastiche. It's a 'parody portrait'. It's a 'spoof'. It's a caricature. It's a piece of my art and I owe Paul Riley nothing. Had I printed an actual photograph - not a drawing - of Paul Riley / Winston on any of our products and was selling them, then that would be a different story. But I didn't....and the bottom line is, if anyone should profit from sales of my artwork it should be me and my wee family. Not actors who can easily afford to pay an artist for use of an image.
Paul Riley's live show 'products' would not exist without me, the artist, therefore I am entitled to be paid for use of my artwork.
If he wanted to use my artwork on his merch, he should have gone about it the correct and legal way as was explained to him.
So, like I say, if you are going to any of his shows and you see my caricature of Winston on any of his merch, please DON'T buy it!
It's poor quality, unlicensed, fake counterfeit garbage and me and the team at Pure Minted don't get a penny. I assure you all in good faith that what I write here is true.
Please support a small business and self employed Scottish artist and buy goods from www.pureminted.co.uk (or from any of the stores who officially stock our merch).
Please don't give your money to someone who rips off artists.
Please share this page. Thank you.
Finally - if Paul Riley is reading this and isn't happy.....all I can say is - you were warned.
- Edd Travers.
Caricaturist.
March 1st 2023.
PS - Photo disclaimer: I don't know who the photographer was who took the 'live event' photos presented here. I found the images online and there was no credit with them. If the photographer who took the pics would like me to credit them, please drop me a line and I can sort that out for you.
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