World Record Holder?

I wonder who holds the record for being the victim of the most crimes. I might have a shot at that record. Here’s my list.

- Assault by pistol (1)
- Robbed by large knife (1)
- Death threats (1)
- Apartment robbed (2)
- Garage robbed (2)
- Embezzled (2)
- Robbed at gunpoint (3)
- Car stereos stolen (5)
- Service people overcharging, scamming (approx. 25)
- Customer theft at my restaurants, e.g. stolen salt shakers (approx. 500)
- Employee theft at my restaurants (approx. 1,000)
- E-mail scam attempts sent to scottadams@aol.com (approx. 50,000)
- Dilbert comics stolen (approx. 250,000,000)

I’m probably leaving out a few things. The Dilbert comic theft might be an underestimate. I have documentation of 25 million thefts from the Internet alone in the past 12 months. It adds up.

Famous musicians get downloaded a lot. But they don’t produce a new song every day, as I produce a new comic. So I probably have the edge there because I create more items to steal. And some big corporations probably get robbed a lot if, for example, they own a chain of convenience stores. But those are companies, not individuals. If you divide those thefts by the number of stockholders, it’s not so much per person.

Seriously, who gets robbed more than me? I’m not complaining. My life is great. But I wonder if I hold the record.

[Update: Just to be clear, the comic theft is only the people stealing it for financial gain. Yes, the number is that big. No cartoonist minds someone making a copy for personal use.]

Comments

[soubriquet]

What a pissy lot of commenters.
I recommend setting Ratbert onto their mean-minded cases.

[K]

Congratulations on making it this far. Obviously youʻre something special.

Iʻm thinking that if you equate your experiences in this post to a hotel visit youʻve done very well-feeling good to be alive and able to tell the tale.

But I do hope you donʻt come up against any threatening people anymore. I think youʻve had your share.

Enjoying your blog.

A Kiwi in Kyoto

[sali]

In Iran, Putin Warns Against Military Action:
http://salihome.info/show/index.html

[erikjheels]

Greetings Scott,

See also:

http://www.erikjheels.com/2007-07-27-legal-dilbert-reprints.html

Regards,
Erik

[Gawell]

Wow, that's a lot. Thank god that's not me, Scott.

But in fact, I'm robbing you too, since I've put some clips up on YouTube. But since my last sentence kinda' rhymed, I don't consider it a real crime. Please don't make me do the time!

If you want me to remove the clips, just know I really like the strips. Just send me an email, and not to jail. Otherwise I may have to get out on bail.

DogbertRocks@gmail.com

But once upon a time, I bought a lime. This would later turn out to be a really bad rhyme, so I'll stop now. But now that I've confessed, and finally got it of my chest, I feel really at rest. No more bad rhyming!

I certainly think that might be a record. You could notify Guiness World Records. If it's not a world record, I could start stealing comics to "help". But that is "price of success".

[Becca]

You own a restaurant? wtf?

[concatenator]

I don't get that death threat. What do you threaten a cartoonist with - "Make Dilbert gay/woman/Left-Wing Liberal, or else you die?" And what kind of death were they planning? I mean implement-wise, were they specific about large knives etc?

Why would anyone threaten you first - wouldn't it be easier to just try and kill you without warning? It just shows they are not serious.

Now you can relax.

[Eric]

My car in high school was stolen 9 times in a period of 7 years...

[Amit Maroo]

How can you tell by your internet reports how many people used your comics for 'personal use' and how many did for 'financial gain'?

If a guy in India downloads a comic, prints it on a mugs and sells them, how the hell would you come to know he used them for 'financial gain'?

[Sajid]

Thanks for the awesome comics man. I cant afford them, so I steal them for personal use. But you dont seem to mind that, so all is good. :P :D

[Archdeacon Pilot]

Hi Scott, if you served me up rubbish food i'd threaten to kill you, stab you, steal your pepper mill (I don't use salt shakers), leave a turd on the chair and exit your restaurant without paying!

Oh, and once outside your restaurant, i'd smash your car windows, slash you tyres and steal your stereo.

Does this make me a world record holder for an over the top response to robbing me of a decent meal?

PS Tell me where I can steal/download your comics for FREE (or i'll kill you)!!

Have a nice day

[pazi]

Whew! Glad I read the update before deleting my Dilbert collection. Earliest ones are from 1992, and it's pretty much complete since 1995 (minus a few missed during holidays). Every once in a while I come across a situation that reminds me of a Dilbert comic I've once read, and need to go back to find that. Which is no simple feat since I haven't stored any keywords with the images. "Qwertytis" being one recent example.

Glad to hear you're cool with us hamsters.

-zi

[jerry wolfe]

Hey Scott,
You seem a lot like the character in the old "Lil' Abner" cartoon strip who always walked under a small dark cloud, where ever he went it was raining only on him.

http://boskolives.wordpress.com/

[still working it out]

[No cartoonist minds someone making a copy for personal use.]

That's great. Sometimes it would be hard to make my point at work without doing this.

[JBange]

This reminds me of one account I heard of someone who'd managed to experience all manner of dangerous and deadly mishaps, but had come out largely unscathed--- plane crashes, car accidents, robberies, etc. My immediate thought was "does that make him lucky, or unlucky?" Hard to say...

[rd]

http://www.harpers.org/TheEcstasyOfInfluence.html

[adrian monk]

Wow. Scott, please tell about all of these times. I would love to hear about them, and I'm sure they would be outrageously funny.

I mean, not that I'm GLAD that they happened to you. I'm just sure you would tell them in an uprourously funny way.

Then again, maybe not!

[Cody]

[If free will doesn't exist, then how do you attract so many criminals who want to attack and rob you?]
He looks like a relatively wealthy white man who is unlikely to be able or willing to defend himself physically if threatened with a weapon.

[Cody]

[And how can someone use Dilbert for financial gain?]
Print a comic on a coffee mug then sell it without licensing it.

[ethan]

so what constitutes a "LARGE" knife?

just wondering

[Don]

Hey, I just steal your salt and pepper shakers to compensate for the lousy pay.

PS
Add one for the chair I stole yesterday.

[Robert Hamilton]

Cuse me,Cuse me Senor, I hope that you're not including your restaurant employees eating a meal without paying for it, even though you would be legally correct. And how can someone use Dilbert for financial gain? I must be really slow today, because I can't figure that one out. This, I gotta hear. If you say that people post Dilbert on their web sites and draw advertising to their otherwise bland sites, you can make that 2 death threats. Not from me, I'm not THAT angry and stuff.

[ymal brucker]

I hope you'll permit a small correction. Neither an apartment nor a garage can be 'robbed.' Only humans. An apartment can be burgled (or burglarized), but not robbed. A car can be stolen or burglarized, but not robbed.

[Arne]

I sincerely wonder how the documentation of 25 Million thefts of Dilbert comics for financial profit looks like?

[Mr. Wampus]

Everyone seems to focus on the comic theft statistic, but there are problems all up and down your list.

First, I can scarcely believe that you were assaulted by a pistol or robbed by a knife. Those things don't have legs or eyes or even a mouth. How did you know it was even talking to you? Maybe you hallucinated it.
Do you often see inanimate objects walking down the street by themselves accosting people?

Death threats. I mean is that even a crime anymore? Oh sure, you can get a ticket for that, but big deal.

Apartment/Garage robbed. Well now, you're just being picky. Maybe you shouldn't keep nice things in places that tempt people to steal them. My home is decorated with cinder blocks and plywood and I almost never have problems with robbery. All of my good stuff is locked safely away in a high-security storage facility in Yucca Flats. I'm not even sure where that is but I'm told it's safe.

Robbed at gunpoint. Now you are splitting hairs. Is there THAT much difference between being assaulted by a gun and being robbed at gunpoint? And you have been robbed by a large knife which is also a weapon. It looks like you're just trying to pad your "resume" by splitting similar events apart just to make it look busier.

Stolen stereos. OK, you got me there. Point for you.

Being over charged for service? That's a crime? That's just the American Way. (Sign here and you'll be agreeing to let me change the air in your tires. Only $39.95. You need to do it at every oil change, or after every rain.)

Customer/Employee theft. If someone is stealing your customers and employees, you do have a big problem. But you can get new ones, and you didn't actually "own" those people anyway. (Unless the rules are different for celebrities... you don't ACTUALLY get to own other people do you?)

Finally, email scam attempts don't really count because they aren't specifically aimed at you. They are just sort of tossed to the ether(net) and they wait for gullible people to scam themselves. If you never respond back, you aren't really a victim of crime, and if you do, well then, you're just too stupid to live.

So there you have it. You aren't nearly as bad off as you think you are, but you should check into that hallucination stuff before you start to believe that you have been accosted the mailbox.

[dargaud]

About the salt shakers... A colleague complained at the cantina where we eat our daily meal that his steak was too tough. Sent it back twice before having an argument with the manager where the manager said that he had no say in the choice of the quality of the meat (hah) !
My firend: "then at least give us better knives"
Manager: "no, because people would steal them"
Friend: "so if people stole tables we would have to eat standing ?"

[SudeepBhaskar]

2 Quotes from a memorable movie

Run Forrest ! Run !
Life is like a box of chocolates ...

[SudeepBhaskar]

I know a sure shot way to prevent all this crime. All you have to do is write it down on a piece of paper " I will not be a victim of any crime" everyday, you need not believe in it, it works like a law of science. I have it on good authority that this will work, I found this mantra in a book written by Scott Ada...... ooops !!!

[FreeWilly]

If free will doesn't exist, then how do you attract so many criminals who want to attack and rob you?

[Lars Kjær]

Well it sure is as lot I'm most impressed with the Robbed under threath thing- is this normal for the US or are you just really unlucky

My list
Pick pocket (1)
Asaulted (fists only- no serious damage) (2)

[Paul C]

Hmm, interesting....

I served in the British Army and made several visits to the top right-hand corner of Ireland.

Which to people of a certain terrorist bent makes me, in perpetuity, a "legitimate target" (however remote the possibility is that an Irish accent with a gun faces me down on my own doorstep, and I'm happy to concede this is a VERY remote possibility and I'd have to be unlucky - but it has happened in the past)

If you have served in the British Army whilst having Irish ancestry yourself, this makes you a priority case as they don't like this at all. (On the Jackie Charlton principle*, I'm one-eighth McEoin from Kildare)

So in theory, if not in immediate possibility, I have a daily chance of being assassinated, as I suppose do two or three million other former Toms, Crabs and Bluejobs! (If PIRA choose to ask us to form an orderly clue, my surname places me near the head of the list, always assuming they go about it in alphabetical order)

So how do we grade this, then.... having a general unspecific "to whom it may concern..." death threat hanging over me from the day I joined up, aged eighteen to the day I die, age seventy-plus...

* Jackie Charlton: formerly manager of the Irish national football squad, who took advantage of diaspora and loose nationality qualifications to stuff the side full of people with only the most tenuous connection to Ireland (in the manner of an American president at election time looking for family links in the ould sod so as to garner Irish-American votes). Charlton's most famous coup was to get one Antonio Cascarino in the Irish national side when this player might have had a better claim laid on him by Italy...

[Martin]

Dalebert, Thailand is a democracy they just also have a monarch. He has very few powers but has huge influence because of his popularity. A bit like the queen in England, she' can't make laws either but she has the ear of the Prime Minister and the backing of the people.

The insult law is strange but even in the UK it's illegal to Deface images of the Queen, apparently it's technically illegal to rip up a £10 note as your tearing up an image of the queen.

"So you mean that some crimes are only crimes by virtue of the fact that some silly law created by a government of questionable authority made it so? That's just goofy. For a leader's authority to truly be valid, we must all be given at least two choices and roughly 50.01% of the population must choose one over the other"

[Mikester]

Can i go for the record of committing the most crimes?? it must be a tough one to beat but here's my "crime sheet"

Assault with pistol (1)
- Robbing with large knife (1)
- Death threats (1 reported)
- Apartments burgled (2 - same one)
- Garage burgled (2 - again same one)
- Embezzling (2)
- Robbing at gunpoint (3 - same person)
- Car stereos stolen (5 - same car)
- Overcharging, scamming (approx. 25 - same person)
- Theft from restaurants, e.g. stolen salt shakers (approx. 500 - alternate between two of them; made loads on ebay)
- Theft during my days working in a restaurant (approx. 1,000)
- E-mail scam attempts sent to scottadams@aol.com (approx. 50,000)
- Dilbert comics stolen (approx. 250,000,000 - probably closer to 500,000,000 though)

[Oliver]

I did not know that you lived in South Africa. : )
I was under the impression that only we get robbed, stabbed, shot and raped that often. At least in the US it seems that if you get robbed and hand the stuff over, you will most likely not get shot... as in SA you will most likely still get shot. And if you are lucky... that is where it stops. Africa is not for Sissies. : )

[Bob]

Last week a childrens slide was stolen from the new playground in the park near my home. Seriously. It had a concrete foundation.

[Chris]

Wow, I can't believe how many times you've been a victim of violent crime. I'd seriously be thinking about moving. That's kind of sad. Still you seem to be able to laugh about it so that shows good strong character.

I have always enjoyed your comic strip. And having just discovered your blog I love your spin on daily events and the reflections of your twisted brain.

[Karen]

You guys have got no idea. I am trying to leave the country I love because it is just too dangerous to live here anymore (South Africa) People get tortured, raped and murdered here at an alarming rate. Five of my friends/colleagues have been murdered. The latest trend is to attack families in their homes and torture them, official police stats say 10 000 of these per year. We live in gated communities behind electric fences, barbed wire fences or spikes around our houses and alarms linked to private security companies. I find these comments on crime quite flipant. If you knew what it is like to live like this, in constant fear, you would think very differently. Enjoy your freedom - I wish I had mine!

[Evoke]

yeah, copyright infringement isn't stealing as movie ads would have us believe.

but how can dilbert comics be used for financial gain? - everyone knows they're dilbert comics! it's crazy that that many people tried!

[Anuja]

What? No Elbonian death threats in that list?

[Chief of the Cubicle Police]

Sweet jesus, Scott.

I can't imagine anyone with your kind of money volutarily staying in a crime infested craphole like the USA.

You can draw comics and blog from ANYWHERE in the world. Do yourself a favour and find a nice, safe country to emmigrate to.

[Bob Smith]

Only one death threat? That's pathetic. I'm going to kill you for being so lame.

[Kevin Carson]

How can something be stolen from you if you still have it? Your work was COPIED. There's no such thing as "intellectual property."

[Jai]

Were you subject to or indulge in "accidental theft" anytime (like forgetting to take the change)?

[Penny]

I've been transcribing Dilbert for months and sending it to friends...is that stealing? I'm sorry!

[n]

You guys make USA seem like a wonderful place!!

[Rick]

Do you still own the comic once you submit it for publishing? If you sell the ownership of the comic, does that not make it a company being stolen from each time the comic is taken by another for financial gain, rather than you as an individual?

[adam]

How does someone steel a comic for financial gain? Do they say, "Hey, look at this comic I drew," and nobody notices that it looks just like Dilbert?

[Jenni]

What do people do with your comics for monetary gain? Make unauthorized T-shirts? Or do you count people who post your comics on a business site, because it is being used to help promote their business?

[just_guessing]

>> I've done searches and I haven't seen products being sold with dilbert on it without coming from you.

More likely the "financial gain" is from advertising revenue. Post some funny comics, or videos, or good music, that you stole from someone else - and sell ad space next to it to make a quick buck. It's a popular business model on the 'net.

[Kristina L.]

Only 1 death threat? I just always assumed you'd have gotten more from people, at least from e-mail. Hmmm.

[Billy B]

People make money stealing your stuff? Why, why, those greedy fucking monkeys. But you are also greedy, so maybe turn about is fair play?

And you are not even close to being a record holder. I've never been robbed at gun point but on the other hand I'm not stupid enough to live were you live.

[D. Mented]

I was just drifting off to sleep when my (big, tough, half-siamese) cat jumped up on me very stiff-legged and poked his head around the curtains, growling (he learned that from the dog he'd grown up with)
As this was not normal behavior for him, I peeked around the curtains myself and saw a prowler checking to see if anybody was still moving in the house.
This was a bad neighborhood, and I had lived there long enough that people knew a woman lived alone in that house...Couldn't be good to have a man wait 'till the lights went out and then come up to the window.
I had an old sword I'd bought at a thrift store, so I got that and roared "get the F*** off my porch!" as deep as my voice would go, and threw the door open (wonderful attack cat at my side)
The man seemed to have got the whim to try to set a new sprinting record.
I got a gun the next week.
It came in handy a few months later when some bum tried to kick in my bathroom window as I was getting dressed one morning. I didn't have to use it...just show it to him.
(I wonder how many other times a gun has prevented a crime, but it didn't get recorded in anyone's statistics because nothing happened)
(and I would give everything I own plus ten years off my life to have that cat back. Ninteen years wasn't enough)
D. Mented

[wa]

(1) Shot in the face

[Patrick Havens]

Well if you wanted a contriversy, noting you've had 250 millions comics stolen is a good way. I've done searches and I haven't seen products being sold with dilbert on it without coming from you. (Maybe I just don't know how to search) And most cases the cases of people posting your strip not in a newspaper its atributed and in relation to something else... which may go under fair use. I guess I'm struggling at finding the 250 million products for sale online for dilbert that are for sale. I mean, I can't find your comics online for sale except from your distributor (comics.com). Most cases the comics I see archived I can't find price tags on, so it can't be for profit.

Correct me if I'm wrong... because I'm sure I am. What am I missing?

[Nick]

Every day since early 2002 I have downloaded the daily Dilbert strip from Dilbert.com I have about 2,000 Dilbert strips saved on my computer. Am I stealing?

I really only have these to guard against you going batshit crazy and taking it all down one of these days in a grand display of Internet drama. That and it's nice to be able to whip one out when it suits the occasion.

That said, considering that you commercialize Dilbert and related material, I would say that the "amount" "stolen" from you is far outstripped by Waterson's loss. He never wanted his work treated that way, and as such his loss is greater than you will ever face. It's one thing to complain that somebody "stole" an image, it's another to be confronted with the whoring of your work every day.

[B. Ross]

Damn dude...move!

[Ziggy]

To the person who commented about how we Canadians leave our doors unlocked, Scott2, where abouts in Canada do you live? Not in Ontario by any chance?

[james]

Your naughtiest comic just went to todays from the one about the boss being a womb invader. Unless, of course, i'm mistaken about what the PHB is supposed to have a firm grip on, but i think i'm right on target given wally's (and your) supreme moral characters. It proves yet again your postulate on naughtiness to humor ratio.

[Clayton]

I live in Detroit and I avoided a mugging and beat down from the 8 Mile Posse when one of the guys that was about to take me down recognized me. "Yo man, don't you know Ron J.?"

And my mother told me hanging out with thugs and partying all the time would never pay off!

[Chris Brown]

I got a paper cut once.

[TrevOverT]

Scott, stop your whining and start spending your money or something, we'd all like to be so popular that the bottom feeders start feeding off us! Why don't you run for president or something, just imagine the fun ideas you can come up with around the (off)Whitehouse and think of all the blind minions you would have to beat up on!

[Ken]

Hi Scott:

I paid $25 to United Feature Syndicate in 1996 for the rights to use a Dilbert strip in my master's thesis! What was your cut on that?

[Jamie]

Yeah you're pretty much going to have to tell us about the pistol thing.

[Ross from Brisbane]

If I download a Dilbert Cartoon in the forest, does anyone know?

[Monique]

I was going to comment more but the internet downloads of your Dilbert TV cartoons just finished and I want to watch them :P .. I'll see if we can make it to the restaraunt nearest your place. You can find us at that corner table where alot of the salt and pepper shakers disappear. It works really well to steal them before the waitress comes and claim there weren't any when we sat down. That puts the blame on the people before us who lacked free will.

Just Kidding :)

[Omni]

Oh, and I should add that that was one of your funniest strips ever-my husband and I screamed laughter for about an hour when we read it. xo

[Omni]

I've covered a wall with cartoons whose punch lines apply to my husband; he calls it his "Wall of Shame"... and screamed bloody murder when I took it down once for company, btw, so don't feel bad for him. Anyways, there are plenty of Dilbert strips up there... and today's strip, aka "the firm grip one," will be joining it, for reasons I'm sure no man needs to ask. hehehehehe

[Chris]

Re: stealing vs. copyright infringement. Yes, I agree wholeheartedly that copyright infringement is NOT the same as stealing, even though it can still be wrong. No, I wouldn't steal a car. Yes, I would happily drive away in a car just like yours and leave yours where it is parked.

Big consideration that many don't think about is that copyright holders MUST defend their copyrights, agressively, or risk losing them. Scott can't lightly ignore infringement if he wants to claim that the copyrights have any value to him.

[NotNasser]

Scott,

You could use help in grammar. You were neither assaulted by a gun nor robbed by a large knife. I'm pretty sure you were victimized BY a human being in both cases, WITH a weapon.

Okay, this is trivial and pedantic. Still, having no free will in the matter ....

[Simon]

[Update: Just to be clear, the comic theft is only the people stealing it for financial gain. Yes, the number is that big. No cartoonist minds someone making a copy for personal use.]

When I was a teenager, I set up a web site that had my favourite Dilbert cartoons on. There was absolutely no financial gain in running this website for me whatsoever. I got nothing out of the web site. I set it up for fun and so that a few other people could see some of the stuff which I, as a teenager, thought was cool. This was in the days before free decent internet hosting so I had to pay to run the site.

Your lawyers (or United Media's lawyers, working for you) decided to contact my ISP rather than me and have my site pulled down for copyright infringement. The whole site, that is, not just the parts that had Dilbert cartoons on.

[bruce]

- Apartment robbed (2)
- Garage robbed (2)

Unless you were there while it happened:

it would be:

- Apartment burgled (2)
- Garage burgled (2)

robbbery is a crime against a person
burglery is a property crime

[Tarandon]

I thought you said you sold your comics to some sort of syndication company, and that they are then distributed from there. Wouldn't that mean that the 250 million comics stolen were actually stolen from the syndication company and not you as an individual?

Just curious

[Larry D'Anna]

Actually most of those copyright infringements are
probably only civil offenses, not crimes.

[Cyrus]

Phew, I'm glad all those dilbert comics I right click saved and posted to my half-off-dilbert-comics.com site were all for personal use.

Scott, I think you do have the record....execpt maybe for anyone living in Baghdad...but after them it's definitely you.

Cyrus
http://blogging4burgers.blogspot.com

[Bane]

Gee, Scott, ya think God's trying to tell you something?

[Linda Leisz]

I would have guessed way more death threats than that. ;)

[Tom]

- mugged, e.g. being cut off in traffic (20 this month)

Stealing and copyright infringement are not the same thing either.

[Slag]

Can't believe you've only had one(1) death threat - surely yesterday's post generated a few?

[Hacker Kitty]

in our first week at uni, the chaplain in a talk, quite a cheerful non-threatening guy, proved to us he was a real life guy by listing a series of knife wounds, robberies whilst he was in the house, being tied up during some of these robberies, death threats, beatings, being held at gunpoint many times etc. etc. all related to us in a cheery "cest la vie" kind of tone

I seriously couldn't help wondering why his god seems to hate him so much!

Also we have Heinz Wolfe the (very VERY eccentric) inventor here on campus, he's a legend here, who rumour has it shot himself in the leg during a lecture once, to prove a point. What the point was has been lost to student mythology.

[MartinHeidegger]

I don't think that issue is so much that the comic is being passed around for personal enjoyment but that the image of Dilbert is being appropriated for the enrichment of another entity. Think about that problem before you get all up-in-arms about Scott complaining about it: he has a right to charge to use his brand!

[RJP]

Jeez, I *said* I was sorry about robbing you at gunpoint! Are you ever going to let that go?

[Mr Bongo]

ah evolution at it's best....I think on the streets they call this "survival of the fitness"....stalking the weak links in society as prey......buy a Taser or some pepper spray.

[Hughbert - IP lawyer]

To "JOHN THE BAP":

The "Happy Birthday" song is in fact currently protected by U.S. copyright laws. See:

http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/birthday.asp

This is why restaurants almost always have a different song for their wait-staff to sing to patrons celebrating birthdays.

[Ned]

I don't think I can top yours, but I can come close. How's this:

Checked in to the room across the hall from a "mad" bomber - a laid-off software engineer with a grudge. He'd brought two pipe bombs, a sniper rifle and a couple of pistols. Gave himself away by shooting at someone in the parking lot - local cops (this was Emeryville, near Berkeley) got spooked when I opened my room door to see what was going on and damned-near shot me (I hate looking down the barrel of a gun, really I do).

Witnessed a man in a parking lot with a shotgun blow the leg off a man with a large cudgel-like stick who was about to attack him - the shot-gunner saw me, saw my Nikon and came after me, apparently with the intent that there be no witnesses - I ran like hell into a store with no back door (oops) but the store owner with an Army Colt M1911-A1 scared him off and called 911.

Four drunk rednecks (am I being redundant) didn't like "hippie joggers" (this in South Carolina in '76) so as they drove by, they popped me with a beer-bottle stuffed with wet sand (ouch) - which knocked me 15 feet into a neighbor's yard and unconscious. I came to with this vision: My neighbor was straddling me, holding a .38 revolver, and facing down the four rednecks, who understood enough math to know that six bullets vs. four rednecks were not good odds.

My wife heard a noise in the yard at 2 a.m. - I pulled on my jeans, slipped a home-defense 9mm pistol into my waste band (behind me) and went out ... to be damn-near jumped on by the world's biggest COP DOG, followed by the world's biggest COP with the world's biggest COP GUN (he was chasing a bad guy through my yard ... talk about bad timing).

Last summer, some guy claiming to be me went into an Indian Casino and cleaned out my checking account - naturally, nobody (least of all the tribal police) gave a damn, but the bank gave me my money back in a few days, so it wasn't the worst thing to ever happen to me.

In what has to be the worst - this is really theft - my ex-wife made me trade MY coin collection and stamp collection for MY record collection ... jeesh!

A guy on a moped chased me and a business college two miles through traffic, then when we got to our office, proceeded to beat the pure-cane crap out of the other guy (he was the driver). By the time I got to my car (looking for a tire-iron or something with more bullets than a tire iron) the assailant decided to boogey.

A guy on a motorcycle (turned out he was a fugitive on a felony assault warrant) decided to pass me on the right just as I was turning right into a 7/11. Wiped the mirror off my car, did a header over his handlebars into a cinderblock wall, breaking something important in his shoulder. I reached for my cell to call the cops (it was an accident) and he told me (in a manner that made me a believer) that he'd kill me if I tried to call the cops. Fortunately about five concerned-for-his-health citizens came up to help, so I stepped away and called the cops. The cyclist boogied, and the cops caught him at Sunrise Hospital 30 minutes later. Even though he'd been a fugitive the judge gave him bail and he boogied again.

A redneck in a disreputable Ford F-150 cut me off in traffic, going across 7 lanes (I had to stand on the breaks to keep from broadsiding him). I honked, he gestured, I returned the gesture ... and he slammed on his brakes, hopped out of the truck, tried to force his way into my car (doors locked), deposited an immense green loogie on my window - then hopped on the hood of the car and tried to kick the windshield in. Fortunately, he looked to weigh about 110 pounds dripping wet and had only one arm (seriously) - so when the light changed, he had to hop off. The next day, I applied for a concealed carry permit (and, oddly, for 8 years, nothing much has happened ... like I'm sending out "don't mess with me" waves or something).

There is more, but I just thank you for the opportunity to both get this off my chest and to realize that maybe YOU DO have it worse ...

[M James Hunt]

Stolen comic strips?

Uhmmm... I'm dreading the answer to this one, but how do you have 25 million documented thefts? I mean if someone stealing all these strips from you perhaps you ought to go to these thieves and ask for them back. And then lock the comic strips away safely so they aren't stolen any more.

[Scott2]

I will also comment on intellectual property.
The line between what is and is not theft there is completely arbitrary. It completely entails onf what benefit is made.
Japan has much mroe lenient copyright laws than the USA if I wanted to publish a manga about Dilbert I could withoutpaying any royalties as long as I was in Japan and it did not circulate outside of Japan. Anime and manga artists in Japan generally do not seem to mind these fan publications based on their work as in the long run it increases the popularity of their work.
Music and writing or art are not the same thing, neither are movies.

Writing and drawing generally has much lower production costs, and tend to be based on a more long term financial return. Exposure as a result becomes extremely important so wide distribution leads to long term profit and popularity. They tend to sell on names.

Movies spend incredible amounts creating their own exposure and they tend to focus more on immediate profits then moving to long term once that balance is addressed.

Music is sort of a mix, as the aim is immediate profits but long term is equally important.

Music and movies tend to sell on a combination of names and product value. For music names is more important than movies.

The previous is completely a matter of opinion and probably lacking in various areas. It is based on generalizations and conceptual methods. Specifics may elaborate but the ideas are important. I could be completely wrong, if so feel free to elaborate as I would enjoy expanding my understanding.

As Scott once mentioned he is a business man first and foremost. A business man is more concerned about making sure they profit from their endeavors. An artist should be more concerned with others enjoying their work and it being widely available to enjoy. ALl a matter fo what is important to you.

[Tommi Vilkamo]

Scott,

I tried buying rights to use your comic strips (just for fun). But buy was just too darn complicated, and too expensive. So I didn't bother.

Why don't you upload your comics to www.istockphoto.com? Or set up a similar site, where people could legally buy your strips for $1 or so.

I'm sure the math would add up.

[Scott2]

To the person commenting on people leaving their doors unlocked.
Its actually fairly common in many areas and neighborhoods in Canada. Not just quoting Micheal Moore, I am Canadian so I know it from personal experience.
There are still plenty of places you would be a moron to leave your doors unlocked in though, just not early as sweeping as the USA. There are many "safer" communities or areas of communities.
Before you ask my address and what I own, I lock my door.

[tajna]

may i complain/boast of my own personal record..?

27 years old - 17 car accidents, 14 temporary (if to trust my doctor on the last still lasting) disabling injuries due to them. never me a driver during the accident.

that could be easily explained by suggesting, that i choose idiots for friends and sometimes i just happened to sit there while they are driving, but not a single accident was of a drivers in the car i had been sitting in fault.

[ringbark]

Well, Scott, I love your work. But I think Jim Davis gets his stuff stolen more than you do. And Gary Larson would do, if he hadn't stopped. And Schulz would do, if he wasn't dead.

[rd]

I can't help but notice that no one has sexually assaulted you yet.

[ND]

Wow. In case it hasn't already been made abundantly clear, Scott, let me spell it out for you.

Calling the fans who enjoy your work and have helped to put you where you are today thieves is poor public relations. I think you get a pointy-hair for that one.

[Half a Bee]

I'm having trouble getting my head around that "theft of cartoons" thing.

Do newspapers refuse to carry Dilbert because the cartoons get photocopied (or - gasp - downloaded) and passed around? Or does that inspire more newspapers to carry your stuff because of the obvious popularity?

I could understand whining if Bil Keane was stealing all your ideas and running them in Family Circus a week before you.

[Jeffro]

Those must be some quality salt shakers. I know where I'm going for dinner tonight.

[LA Clay]

5- Assault by pistol (1)
8- Robbed by large knife (1)
14- Death threats (1)
57- Apartment robbed (2)
2- Garage robbed (2)
8- Embezzled (2)
6- Robbed at gunpoint (3)
39- Car stereos stolen (5)

Scott I win! I've done these thing WAY MORE than you have! Stick to comics and leave the crime to us professionals!

[Fuzznsmoo]

I thought gocomics (calvin and hobbes) had a clever idea using flash instead of a jpg file, so you couldn't just simply save the comic and pass it around. But I just found I could get a clean copy by cut and pasting a screen shot, so I guess that's not the solution after all. The digital dilemma.

[Dee]

Posted by: NickyMouse | March 15, 2007 at 10:35 AM

EXCELLENT comment! Still wiping coffee off the monitor!

[Dee]

Would you be a little more forthcoming with the details, please? The pistol assault, the knife thing and the death threat all seem totally lacking in detail and might be interesting stories in and of themselves.

And spam IS a crime. People have actually been convicted for it.

[New Mexi-cow]

As a fellow restauratuer, I feel your salt shaker pain (and glassware, bowls & plates, etc). If there were a purse/backpack big enough, the whole restaurant would disappear!

I comfort myself with the thought: at least tonight they are here taking advantage of me, and not my competitor. And if I have enough in the bank left to cover the payroll & other bills, then it's a good week.

[Bill]

So crime does pay?

[Rick]

Those 'stolen' cartoons are what made you who you are. If your stuff didn't appeal to the copying geeks ten years ago you would still be sitting in a cubicle. They help put money in your pocket and increase your fame - and that isn't a crime where I come from.

If stealing from a company you partly own is stealing from you then Bill gates or Walmarts have you beaten a million times over.

If war is considered a crime then anyone in Iraq would make you stats look like paradise.

And just remember since you have no free will you don't exist anymore than a rock does. Can a rock have a crime committed against it?

Sorry - your stats shows your ignorance - not what crimes you have endured.

Now an ignorance contest ....

[Carl]

Jeez, man - where do you hang out? I've lived in urban California (Bay Area, LA, Sacramento) my whole life and have never been robbed at gun or knife point.

Of course, now that I've said that...

[George]

I love all these people who say
"Our neighbourhood is SO safe, we even leave our doors UNLOCKED"

Yeah, well where do YOU live, eh? No really, whats your address cos I think I should come round some time. Preferably when you're out.

[Theodore Nugent]

I send a check to Dilbert.Com every year. Those comics are mine. I'll do whatever the hell I want with them, as long as I don't resell them.

If you want commiseration, call Lars at Metallica. He whines about theft, but fails to consider the billions of times "Enter Sandman" has been given away free over the radio as a 'loss-leader'. You gotta' figure, if you send things out indiscriminately to the entire world, you've given up your control of the intellectual property.

As an occasionally creative person, I sympathize whole-heartedly with the creator. But, I personally believe that DRM and intellectual property litigation, is mostly about the lawyers and MBAs in suits.

[NickyMouse]

You got robbed by a large knife? What did it say?

[JOHN THE BAP]

whoever wrote about the happy birthday song, i think it's public domain...
as for your concerns scott, i know some thugs that can help increase your stats just in case you find someone else out there does hold the record!

[LA Clay]

"Stealing is taking something of value and not paying for it. Copying is making an image of something of value and not paying for it. Although the government would like us to believe that copying is stealing, to support their rich lobbists in the entertainment industry, copying does not deprive the owner of anything, so it is not the same crime as stealing.

"Thou shalt not steal" absolutely did not refer to copying Dilbert Cartoons. God does not recognize intellectual property law. In Moses' day, it was considered to be an obligation to copy material, and copyright law was non-existent. The main reason why we think that copying something is a crime today is the billions of dollars the Disney corporation has invested in our Congress."

Gee Tim, what an original thought, I think I'll use it as mine from now on.

If you actually ever created something original you wouold be able to see how it's theft.

[Sean]

I have to take issue with a few items:

If you are going to count your businesses then you will lose. All businesses suffer in this way, and so whoever owns the largest chain wins.

With regards to email scams, you may have one of the best known email addresses in the world, but the actual act of sending the mail to you is almost never a crime. (it would be if the sender were in the U.S., but he rarely is) Also, if you combine this item with your desire to include your business, you definately lose as large companies, especially ISPs and email providers get way more email than your one address.

Finally, with regards to your comics being "stolen". Yes there are lobby groups that are working hard to make us all think of copyright infringement as theft, but it isn't. It is a seperate, civil, matter. (and I can't help but wonder how many of the 250 million might fall under "fair use")

All that being said, I think you have suffered from crime more than most, certainly more than me, and I hope you don't have lasting scars from it.

[Jason]

technically I would call the dilbert comic crime, "violation of your copyright" Not really theft, although it does have an economic impact on you, just not the same as theft. This is because you can't prove that you would have made money if they hadn't, but you can file a civil suit for damages. The RIAA is trying to train us to think copyright violation=theft, which it doesn't, although it's still is illegal. The reason for this is that because of copying technology since the 70's being affordable to everyone, they have had to move laws originally intended for industry for the past several hundreds of years to apply to the individual. People understand the phrase "you stole" better than "you violated their copyright" even tho it's not at all accurate for what is happening. Also, fair use only makes sense for copyright, not theft. Are we saying that it's alright to steal property for political, critical and satirical reasons? Of course not, we just say that copyright does not protect against that type of use.

[Walt K.]

Scott wrote:

"Dilbert comics stolen (approx. 250,000,000)

I’m probably leaving out a few things. The Dilbert comic theft might be an underestimate. I have documentation of 25 million thefts from the Internet alone in the past 12 months. It adds up."

Hmmmmmm, let's consider something for just one moment:

If "approx. 250,000,000 comics stolen," (my use of quotes so as not to plagiarize/steal)

Then your comics have a “reproductive advantage,” i.e., natural selection!

Ipso facto: just one among many examples of evolution occurring in our everyday lives.

Hope this doesn’t set off anyone’s “bullshit filter”

[eclecticdog]

You must be an easy 'mark'. Toughen up.

[Diana W]

The stollen salt shakers reminds me of a funny incident in college. As an old person, I was a college freshman living in a dorm during the Iran hostage crisis. During mid-terms, everyone was stressing over exams when a few guys decided to lighten the mood. They dressed in sheets wrapped to look like middle-eastern wear and fashioned large, curved swords from cardboard and tin foil. Then they raided the cafeteria one evening while everyone was studying and took all the salt and pepper shakers "hostage".

The next morning, the cafeteria manager, Ira, found a note addressed to the Ira-tollah warning that the food must improve or the hostages would be killed. There was a picture attached with the shakers jailed in a hamster cage with one of the cardboard swords poking one threateningly. A couple days later when Iran released the black hostages, the dorm terrorists released the pepper shakers. The whole thing definitely lightened the mood.

[PatBOB]

Jeez, I once got my garage broken into and had a couple of things stolen, but you've got my vote. Since I moved to a rural area 100 miles from a metropolis, I haven't had any problems. Hell, we leave our doors unlocked and the keys in our cars. And I have to confess, I once took a panel of Dogbert telling Dilbert "Shoo, go away." , laminated it and used it for the back of my ID badge when working for a large corporation. Sorry Scott.

[DML]

I just borrowed those salt shakers, I swear! :)
As long as the crime committed against me doesn't involve maiming or dismermberment, I consider myself getting off pretty easy. :)

[Mark Thorson]

Does the number of unlicensed
jars of Skippy peanut butter
exceed 250,000,000? I think
so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skippy_%28comic_strip%29
http://www.skippy.com/skippy1.html

[Rick]

Don't live in California, and most of those go away. Most midwesterners like myself have never had guns, knives, or even pens pointed at them. I've never been robbed, although my car was broken into at one apartment.

The other stuff comes from being a business owner, whether the restaurants or Dilbert franchise. I'm sorry to see those, but I suspect those are more common.

[JMH]

I'm sorry to hear of your misfortunes, Scott.
I may have been robbed once, but I'm not sure. I left my old and well holed hiking boots on the tailgate of my truck while I went kayaking in a state park. I returned to find my boots gone. They were either stolen by some miscreant or disposed of by some good citizen.

[David]

I'm a waiter. People rob from me, in a manner of speaking, every day. We have this thing called "tip out," which means you have to give some of your tips to the bus boys, the bartender, etc. And how much you have to give them is based on your sales, not your tips. So the short version is that my tips for the evening are always 6 and 2/3 percent less than I actually got. Which means every time somebody leaves me a tip of less than 6 and 2/3 percent, I actually LOST money waiting on that table.

Okay, that's not in the hundreds of thousands of robberies yet. But I think the emotional strain of it gives it greater weight. Like when that seemingly nice lady who was all by herself orders a $28 dinner, and she's nice to you and doesn't complain the whole time, and then you get the check back from her, and she left you $2.00. AAAAAAGGGGHHH!!!!

[Paddy Dwyer]

Just a guess here but I'm betting your next post will be on copyright. Well done sir. Way to stir it.

[niCk(mem beth)]

Life is indeed good.

How do I return the stolen Dilbert strips? I have not profited from them, they have been the subject of many conversations, and you get free advertising, I figured I was doing you a favor. If you still consider them stolen, I will take them down and destroy them.

[skraps]

Scott, could you please elaborate on the 25,000,000 thefts. Are you counting people who keep a copy of the daily strip posted online? I just go there every day to look at it (and also see the ads, so I'm paying for the experience) but internet explorer keeps a copy in its temporary files cache. Do you consider that a theft?

[Tim Shepard]

Stealing is taking something of value and not paying for it. Copying is making an image of something of value and not paying for it. Although the government would like us to believe that copying is stealing, to support their rich lobbists in the entertainment industry, copying does not deprive the owner of anything, so it is not the same crime as stealing.

"Thou shalt not steal" absolutely did not refer to copying Dilbert Cartoons. God does not recognize intellectual property law. In Moses' day, it was considered to be an obligation to copy material, and copyright law was non-existent. The main reason why we think that copying something is a crime today is the billions of dollars the Disney corporation has invested in our Congress.

[Will]

You're debasing the language when you conflate theft and copyright infringement. They may both be morally wrong and illegal, but they're distinct things.

Do consider yourself a thief when you sing "Happy Birthday" without sending a royalty check for it?

[good or bad idea?]

500 salt shakers? Sounds like a demand. And aren’t you the master of giving people what they want?

Your menu is hysterical. Perhaps add a line at the end about the cost of non-edibles? If people are going to take the salt shakers anyway, why not set a price for them (and the pepper too – the comment about a matched set has a good point)? This puts everyone on notice that you are aware of your shaker count and might deter their theft, and if the shakers are still wanted you might actually *sell* some.

You can make it real interesting by signing some stickers and having your staff randomly put them on salt/pepper shakers on the tables once in awhile, with a different price set for a shaker with your signature, if one appears on your table. If people want them, they might keep coming back to sit at “a lucky table”. Or something like that.

[Lamark]

Man, Someone stole your appartment, That must be one large Swag bag the burgler had. ( or one very small appartment).

[Laughing at Adams]

"He's at it again and it makes great television watching Scott Adams' world end" The lost lyrics from Green Day's Governator.

[Josh]

Actually, the theft is infinite. If you download a Dilbert comic and don't pay for it, you're stealing (by Scott's logic). It's not a huge logical leap, then, to assume that if you read a Dilbert comic in a newspaper you didn't purchase, you're stealing. So, by extension, if somebody cuts a Dilbert out of a newspaper, pins it up in his cube, and you read it and don't mail Scott a check, you stole it from him since you were depriving him of revenue. But really, even the people who don't read Dilbert at all, and also don't mail checks to Scott Adams are also depriving him of potential revenue. In addition, all future generations who don't mail checks to Scott's heirs are depriving his heirs of potential revenue, whether they read a Dilbert comic or not. Therefore (as long as you're comfortable defining theft as "something that is not theft"), every person alive now or who will someday be alive has stolen from Scott. However, he can't claim that his victimhood number (infinity) is the highest in the world, because every other copyright whiner can claim the same number.

[Joan]

I'd say it's time to move. Nowadays there's nowhere safe so your aim should be somewhere safer than where you are now. Problem is, of course, in beautiful downtown California the ritzy areas are only 5-10 minutes away from the drive-by shooting ranges. (5 shots $10 -- free bricks with every $20 purchase)

[dany]

"Dilbert comics used unlawfully (approx. 250,000,000)"

There, I fixed it for you. (But I'm still not sure if it's believable.)

[MikeJ]

I think you forgot about Bill Gates. Everyone steals Microsoft software. i.e. 6 Billion People * 10 Average Microsoft products stolen per person * .092( current percentage of Microsoft that he owns) is 6 hundred million give or take.

Plus Office is worth a little bit more that a average Dilbert comic. (Although it is much less than when you are on your game)

[Jeremy Cook]

"The cartoons are all copyrighted individually, so I don't think there's any way of claiming fair use of them"

Huh? The whole point of "fair use" is that one is allowed to "fairly use" something that is copyrighted.

[Adam]

I am the record holder! A group of thugs stole my bag of rice! There goes 50,000!

[Freddy]

Hey scott when you say "Dilbert comics stolen" I assume that means you or United Media has a way to track direct linking like any good website with easily stealable content. Does it just say how much bandwith is being used, or where it's being used? Maybe you could post it or something. Thanks! BP

[Bill]

You left out the 35 or so robberies that you've suffered every April 15th. Adding those together and subtracting the lost investment gains, you're easily into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Then if you add in the ways that stolen money was used to make you less secure (e.g., supporting dictators, blowing up civilians with cruise missiles etc., all of which increases the number of revenge-crazed people bent on your destruction), you might be up to a billion dollars worth of damages.

Kind of puts the stolen salt shakers into perspective.

[~C4Chaos]

"- Dilbert comics stolen (approx. 250,000,000)"

doing what you love while making money and blogging about it: priceless.

~C

[Miles Archer]

Mike Tyson

[canajian]

Scott: You need insurance

[Sam Thornton]

[- Employee theft at my restaurants (approx. 1,000)]

Cool! Where do I apply for a job?

[Dave thA]

Have you tried carrying one of those mechanical tool whatchamagig that launches small lead thingies at very high speeds?

With that much crime around you it might be a good idea.

I hear that after you use one, the bad guys with the holes don't tend to bother you so much.

[Shawn]

Maybe you should move to Utah. I've have lived there for 41 years and have the following stats:
Assault by pistol (0)
Robbed by large knife (0)
Death threats (0)
Apartment robbed (0)
Garage robbed (0)
Embezzled (0)
Robbed at gunpoint (0)
Car stereos stolen (0)
I haven't tracked the other crimes as close as those above, but I can't think of anything else.

[TRavis]

I think if people didn't steal your comics you would be out of business. Think of every theft of your comic as free advertising, and you will sleep better... Do you publish a daily comic desk callender? The Far Side stopped, and I have a void to fill on my desk.

[Jenny]

I have observed that when some employees feel they are underpaid/underappreciated, they will make up the difference themselves. This can be done by either helping themselves to stuff or slacking off. I'm sure this isn't the case with your employees though. Maybe they were helping to pay for their mom's surgery or feeding starving children or something.

[Madmarleyboro]

Things stolen.

It's probably the only real proof, that the item (whether it be salt shaker or intellectual copyright) was worth a penny at all.

Some give you pennies for your thoughts.....the rest just find ways of believing, "What? What's the big Deal? It was only a "penny" ".

And I even noticed on the blog replies a few tried to go religious in their explanations and answers. Though not a single one of them mentioned anything (children) beyond Adam & Eve, was obviously a copyright violation, and probably not condoned by the original creator (Creator? Chuckles).

I imagine one day way back in creation, God was fuming that someone had now illegally duplicated his work, and those individuals were now running around on this planet making hundreds....no, wait...now billions of inferior copies.

That tickles me, if it were really about that. But equally so you could go the bacteria route...evolution...and still say "Hey, who stole my DNA this generation?".

It's just proof of something of value.

Nobody misses the saber-toothed tigers, or else the police would've been involved by now. Nobody misses them, because they don't wish to be dinner to something else anymore. Being an item on the menu is certainly not of "value" to any other living thing.

T.V's Unsolved Mysteries never asks, "What killed the dinosaurs?" and is that killer still on the loose (for fear of one of those Jurassic Park movies becoming reality).

But yes, I've had things stolen from me as well. I'd like to believe to myself, "Cool, I didn't buy junk for once....somebody else wanted it". :-)

[jakesdad]

Mason - nail, head, smack!

I've had various Dilbert strips pinned to my cubes since the mid 90s... I've also bought several Dilbert books (& Scott's non-fiction), watched the TV show (pre-tivo w/commercials) & bought a stuffed dogbert. if he thinks he'd have a fraction of his current wealth w/o people having pinned them up he's in serious need of a reality check. how can a guy w/a degree in economics call something "stolen" that has zero scarcity? I'm for reasonable, sane copyright laws but that ship sailed back in 98 (think that was the year).

I'm all for artists making a living/getting compensated but if Scott's going to go **AA on us it might be time to move on...

[Sam]

I have to say. I've only been robbed once. Like 5 or 6 years ago, by 5 or 6 guys. And somehow I managed to make a deal with them.
They wanted my watch, and I under no circunstance would give that watch away. It wasn't expensive, but I loved it, I would never get one just like it. So, when they took my watch out, something happened along the way of "Ok, take this 5 dollars and my t-shirt, but give me the watch back, and your dirty t-shirt."
True facts.

[Kevin K]

I moved from England to the States partly to escape rising crime and police ineffectiveness. Example:

Guy parks his nice, but old-ish BMW 3-series in the multi-story parking garage near work. Comes back, window broken, stereo gone. Over the next five weeks, this happens four more times. Eventually, he bought a Walkman and put a sign on the dash saying "No stereo fitted".

Came back to the car, window broken, someone's written on the sign "Just checking".

[Gary]

Have you considered moving to a safer country? Afghanistan for example?

[mollishka]

- Robbed by large knife (1)

I now have a quite excellent image in my head of a Large Knife wearing a bandana saying, give me all your money! Hehehe.

[Joshua]

Somebody asked who steals salt shakers,

a lot.

We used to have Corona bottle salt shakers where I worked, they took feet a couple times per day. We ended up changing to regular ones, and they still get stolen, people hate buying salt I guess.

Worst thing is when people would steal our fancy bar glasses, they would just shove them in their purse while the glass still was dirty from the banana daquiri they just drank.

[Danny]

I'm amazed by the number of times employees have stolen from you. Do you recruit from San Quentin?

[David]

"Dilbert comics stolen (approx. 250,000,000)"

Given the number of Calvin and/or Hobbes window decals I've seen, especially versus the number of Dilbert window decals I've seen, I'd say that Bill Waterson has you way beat on the "comics stolen" category.

[RPK]

Do they only steal the salt shakers? What about the pepper? If you're going to steal, you have to get a matching set...

[German]

Didn't you recently (on your blog) say you had been armed-robbed twice? If so, have you recently been held up again? Also, that was the funniest thing I've read in weeks, zorro.

[rob]

The cartoons are all copyrighted individually, so I don't think there's any way of claiming fair use of them...

But viewing the webpage with the cartoon on creates a copy on your computer, so that is a technical violation of copyright. To get arround this lawmakers have used 'implied consent' - by making the image available on a website, permission to view the image (and thus make a temporary copy) is implied.

Printing images is a different issue. It's unlikely that anyone is going to sue you for doing it, but it's probably illegal. Cutting an image out of a newspaper should be fine, just like you can cut a novel up if you want, but there could be an issue with displaying it - you are allowed to turn the volume up on your ipod and thus let your fellow bus passengers hear it (whether they want to or not...) but you can't plug it into a speaker and play it to a concert hall, not without paying royalties. I suspect public display of images would have similar guidelines as to intent, number of people and whether or not any money is made.

PS: IANAL

[Anton Raath]

To repeat what a lot of lucid minds here have been saying: I don't see how it's theft when people copy Dilbert cartoons. For theft to occur you would need to lose something, either a physical copy (I presume you keep the originals) or a penny in payment. I doubt whether any of the publications who publish Dilbert will stop doing so because I (or any of the millions of Dilbert fans) publish a single cartoon which appeal to us on a blog or website. Copyright schmopyright, if it's not theft it's not wrong.

3 times at gunpoint? Whoa!!! I have seen real gun in my life once or twice at all. And I live in crimy suburb area! Right to have gun really makes differenc