Founder Mark Harbottle of 99designs issues an image takedown notice

It was not long after @designerdepot tweeted my article that Mark Harbottle responded.

I find it strange that instead of defending the actions of your company, you attempt to attack me, by accusing me of theft. If we all adopted the mindset that we are stealing by simply using an image as a refer point then all bloggers would be guilty.

It also does not take long with your mindset to see that your beloved SitePoint is guilty of theft as well by using company logos to refer to the companies themselves.

Your idea of theft is simply childish.

Furthermore, when I refer to theft within the article, I am not accusing your company of directly stealing imagery for your own website.

I am writing about the theft that is accruing within contest. Unlike many of your users I am not claiming stolen imagery as my own and directly profit from it.

Image take down notice and threats with legal action

Not long after posting this response. I received an email from the legal department at 99designs requesting that I remove the image of the team.

I want to show good faith and continue a constructive discussion about the topic, which has lead me to remove the image of the team. I intended to use the image to lighten to mood of the overall article. If I would have known it was going to completely direct all focus from the post itself then I would have never added it in the beginning.

I never targeted Mark or his team personally.

My issues are with the model of 99designs, starting with it all being based on spec work. Secondly, with the current model, massive amounts of concept and imagery theft are taking place on the part of many users. I understand that is very difficult to combat this and they have taken the step to add a blind contest feature to cut down on such theft.

I did not feel it become necessary to write the article before they release the logo marketplace. I believe it is the worst service they have ever offered. They remove the reasoning in hire a designer and they support multiple companies using the same logo.

To be honest, I am surprise with the attention I received with all of this, the good and bad.