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2000 Words Postings for July 2007
Boston
Posted Tuesday, July 31, 2007
"For Boston"
For Boston, for Boston, we sing our proud refrain for Boston, for Boston 'tis wisdom's earthly fane for here are all one and our hearts are true and the towers on the heights reach the heavens own blue. for Boston, for Boston 'til the echoes ring again
For Boston, for Boston thy glory is our own for Boston, for Boston 'tis here that truth is known and ever with a right shall our heirs be found 'til time shall be no more and thy work is crowned for Boston, for Boston thy glory is our own
"July 22, 2007 -- It was a sneaky thing to do, and now a Long Island tattoo artist is suing Converse for allegedly ripping off a unique design and mass-producing it on sneakers that sell for $60 a pop.
Anthony "Zam" Zambito is suing Converse and Kinway Industries, a shoe store, in Manhattan federal court for copyright infringement and misappropriating his work.
The suit also wants Converse and Kinway to disclose how many shoes were sold.
Zambito and his wife, Laura, were on vacation in Barbados in March when they wandered into a sneaker store and saw a pair of the offending shoes.
"I've been wearing Converse since I was a kid," said Zambito, who runs the Visionary Tattoo Studio in Centereach. "At first I thought it was a bootleg copy; there's so much counterfeiting going on. But I checked with the store manager and he said no. I was pretty surprised, to say the least."
Zambito, who caters to customers seeking specialized, large-scale tattoos, added he was "definitely a little frustrated, but more so for my client than myself. It's a one-of-a-kind design. It's not like we took it out of a book."
Carlos Flynn, of Ronkonkoma, paid at least $5,000 and spent more than 40 hours having an original depiction of Bishamonten - a Japanese god of war - inked onto his back.
It took Zambito, who usually works on just two clients a day, seven or eight hours just to draw the piece, he said.
Flynn said he was relieved when the body art was done after four months.
"I commissioned an artist to make a design for me, and you just took it and walked all over it," Flynn complained in addressing Converse's alleged rip-off.
Zambito's lawyer, Jeremy Richardson, said Converse told him an intern got the tattoo image off the Internet. The attorney believes it was taken from the artist's Web site, zamtattoo.com, which displayed a photo of the tattoo.
"As soon as an artist puts paintbrush to canvas, or in this case, needle to skin, the artwork is fixed in a tangible medium" and considered protected by copyright, he said.
Converse declined comment, saying it was reviewing the lawsuit.
Dearly beloved We are gathered here 2day 2 get through this thing called life Electric word life, it means 4ever and that's a mighty long time But I'm here 2 tell U there's somethin' else... the afterworld A world of never ending happiness U can always see the sun, day or night So when U call up that shrink in Beverly Hills U know the one - Dr. Everything'll Be Alright Instead of asking him how much of your time is left Ask him how much of your mind, baby Cuz in this life things are much harder than in the afterworld In this life U're on your own And if de-elevator tries 2 bring U down, go crazy Punch a higher floor!