Company that sold controversial Cosplay body pillows bows out

English: A pile of pillows. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is a win for the Anime Cosplay community, but 2 image solutions has backed down and decided that they will no longer carry any products based on the photography that they have done in the past at shows. So this is a win for the community after 24 hours of heated commentary on his Deviant Art page, as well as blowing up in the news. It is likely that there will still be a legal test, at least I know I would have issues if I was a parent and found my kinds picture on a pillow when no rights had been assigned. My take, but here is some interesting follow up to this that is worth reading.

Carrie Wink has posted a beautiful commentary video on the whole situation over here on YouTube. She is one of the people who from our understanding was featured on one of the pillows. She is articulate and sums up her opinion in a little over six minutes. Well worth watching.

2 Image Solutsions has posted a note on their DA that their business model is changing, and they will no longer engage in the same business behaviors as before. They state on their site:

You may remember the booth we set up at Steampunk World’s Fair or AnimeNEXT where we took pictures that showed your costume in a really cool, three-dimensional movie you can rotate so you can see your costume from all angles.

The unique service that 2imagesolutions offers is to provide the attendees of these events with a 360° record of their costumes. It’s a fun way for the people we photographed to be able to remember how they dressed at these events. We still believe that is a fun way to see and show off our costumes to our friends and family.

At our booth, we had pillows and prints of a few costumes that were available for purchase. We were VERY selective with the ones we chose, and out of the hundreds and hundreds of panoramas we have taken, only a handful were used (about 10 of them). We chose the ones that we felt were the best of the best and exemplified the spirit of the event. Although each of the people we used signed a model release, some of people were upset that we used their images. We did not mean to upset people, and felt that people chosen would be flattered to be among the few chosen.

As a result, our business model has changed:
In the past, we were selling products with images of others as well as custom-ordered prints of themselves. This was meant to inspire people to elevate the level of their own costumes. We would like to assure participants that any pictures of them that we have taken WILL NO LONGER BE SOLD AT OUR BOOTHS OR AVAILABLE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. The products will be available ONLY to those of whom the pictures were taken. Any future products will be special-order so that the attendees will be able to order prints and merchandise of themselves and themselves only. We would like everyone to know that their privacy is of utmost importance to us and that we did not intend to violate their privacy in any way.

2imagesolutions will still honor our commitment to send the attendees the 360° pictorials by email in a Flash file, but would like to reemphasize that they will not be distributed in any way to anyone other than themselves without their express permission.

We are instituting this change as a result of feedback we received. We appreciate your understanding and assure you that our intentions were to celebrate the events and attendees of these events for their enthusiasm and the efforts they put into creating fun and unique costumes.

As a sign of good faith, we will send any prints and pillows we have already created to the people printed on them free-of-charge. This will enable them to decorate their rooms with them or share them with friends and family as they see fit.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us

Thank you,
Your friends at 2imagesolutions

The outhousers have some really nice follow up via e-mail from other people who were impacted by this, specifically Pixie Belle that is also worth reading.

While this rolls up this one event, as a photographer who does this for fun, parents and people being photographed, you have the right to say no, always ask for a photo card, ask where the pictures will be posted, and if you find yourself in a place you don’t like or a photographer who makes you uncomfortable you always have the right to say no. And if you have found yourself in a spot you don’t like, walk or run away get help. Cosplay should be fun, don’t let someone take that away from you, it is your expression of yourself and what you love, you should do it often.

Photographers, I am one of you, do the right thing always. It is your professional reputation on the line, and right now no photographer wants to have anything to do with 2 Image Solutions. The association could be bad, let this one blow over, but don’t use your Cosplay pictures for products. Simple enough.