Once upon a time, a ginger tom cat lived in Tobermory on the Scottish isle of Mull. The tourists loved him; a local artist even set up a Facebook page collecting photos of him lounging on walls, soaking up the sunshine. A Scottish publisher decided to commission a children's book about the Tobermory Cat, and asked a well-known author to write it. Everyone lived happily ever after. The End.
Except it wasn't. The idyllic town of Tobermory – and an innocent ginger cat – have been drawn into an increasingly surreal copyright battle, which has rumbled on for months and become ever more vicious, featuring hate mail, "screams of abuse" over the telephone and cyber-bullying. And all over a cat that does not seem to care at all!
The dispute boils down to this: the local artist, Angus Stewart, says it was his Facebook page that made the Tobermory Cat famous, and that by writing a book about the cat, the publisher and the author are taking his idea.
The publisher, independent Edinburgh press, Birlinn, says the cat has been known to locals and tourists for years. Local bookseller Duncan Swinbanks agrees. He says he's taken pictures of the cat, lying on the beach with a crowd watching it, dating back to before Stewart's Facebook page started.
"The idea was arrived at with no knowledge of [Stewart's] website," says Birlinn managing director Hugh Andrew, a visitor to Mull for 20 years. "I've published a lot of books in Mull but haven't done anything recently … I was thinking away in Tobermory when I was there last summer, and walking along the road I saw a huge ginger cat, with four or five people photographing it. I went to [local bookseller] Duncan [Swinbanks] and he said that's the Tobermory cat. I said let's do a children's book, and he was very enthusiastic. As I was going he said 'the cat's quite well known – there's a Facebook page'."
"This whole book was done because we're suffering on the island from the recession – our visitor numbers have fallen," says Swinbanks. "Hugh and I talked about this, and he said let's do a book on the cat."
Andrew approached author Mairi Hedderwick to write the book; she wasn't keen. He tried Debi Gliori, and she got on board. They decided to visit Mull for Gliori to meet the cat, get a feel for the place and, "as a matter of courtesy", to "go to see the people that were involved with the cat, and explain what was going on", said Andrew.
This included Stewart, and, as Gliori recounts in a lengthy blog post from late last week – the first time she has spoken out about the situation – the meeting did not go well.
"We would never have heard of the cat had it not been for the Facebook page. It was his idea. If he hadn't put in all the work into the Facebook page, nobody would ever have heard of the cat," she says he told her and Andrew. Andrew offered Stewart the opportunity to advertise his gallery and paintings on the back of the book, but he wasn't interested.
Time passed. Gliori had an idea for her story: all the villages of Mull have their own special cats, which draw visitors from near and far, except for Tobermory, because its cats aren't special. One ginger tom, however, wants to change this. "Ideas are 10 a penny. You can't copyright them," Gliori told the Guardian. "There was no stealing of ideas whatsoever."
Stewart turned to Facebook. "Dear Facebook friends," he wrote on a dedicated open page. "SHARE or LIKE any posts will REALLY HELP MY CAUSE – as it could virally create a MONSTER CELEBRITY CAT which can fight off any Edinburgh Publisher intent on taking all of my creative work. If Facebook can overthrow dictators it can pee on a publisher."
Then he named Gliori and Birlinn on Facebook for the first time. "Sadly this Tobermory Cat is shutting up shop … I honestly believe [Gliori] is taking my idea and title. There are half a million cats in Scotland and lots of towns – so their claim to have come up with the same idea and title independently of my existing work seems 'unlikely'. Their action means I will have no rights over my creative property, how it is used and deprives me of the right to earn an income from it in the future."
The post prompted an outpouring of fury on Facebook, where Stewart's supporters shared contact details for Birlinn and Gliori. The story was, as one put it, that the "corporate bastards are grinding down the individual", and plans were made to express the "disgust" felt to Gliori and to Birlinn.
The publisher received hate mail, and aggressive anonymous phone calls from members of the public. "It was scary for us," said Andrew. "There were screams of abuse to our intern and people in the office. I've had hate mail … We've had to get Amazon to remove defamatory comments. They set out to destroy the book, and I've had no real redress … To accuse us of theft, of plagiarism, is absolutely the most serious charge you can make about my business, and to Debi. It's absolutely devastating to our livelihoods if it sticks."
Gliori, meanwhile, was drowned in vicious Twitter messages. As she writes on her blog, "I became aware that my name was almost trending on Twitter. There were multiple mentions of it, and none of them good. Several people went further and got into my account and started firing off tweets to all my followers, informing them that I was a thief … Some of the tweets were nasty. Little fantasies of what the lovely Facebook friends of the Artist would like to do to me, if they got up close and personal … the 'friends' of the artist were massing on Facebook. They were leaving me messages. They knew where I lived. They were digging around on the internet, googling me, digging up whatever they could find.
Her illustrated children's book, The Tobermory Cat, has just been published, but Gliori is still shaken from her encounter. "I keep thinking I'm fine now, I'm over it, and I go out in public to do an event, and I'm thinking who's out there, who's going to stand up in the audience and do something horrific," she says.
Stewart has also just published a book, a collection of photographs of the cat. He did not wish to speak to the Guardian – he is "being cast as some sort of bully and it is very dangerous stuff", he said in an email – but did point towards his numerous posts on the subject, in which he explains his reasoning.
"I don't claim copyright of a real cat – that would be foolish," he has just written on a writers' forum on which writers have been expressing their outrage over Gliori's treatment for the past few days. "I claim copyright on my fictional work called Tobermory Cat and a fictional celebrity cat character entirely of my making. My star is not one cat, he is a construct, I use three cats, none of which has the given name Tobermory Cat … Their book is out, same ginger cat, same title, same car surfing antics, extracted details, the story of a cat becoming a celebrity cat – a graphic story, the prequel to my story but ending with a celebrity cat. If this book is the first of a series, they have occupied the ground. They brush me off, preferring to spend thousands on lawyers rather than supporting my work – but I try to secure the future rights or they will own the lot."
The nitty gritty details of this extraordinary story are being picked over endlessly online. Nicola Morgan, an author, former chair of the Society of Authors in Scotland and friend of Gliori's, points out that "there is no copyright on ideas or on titles, and that "creative people are creative not because of where they get their ideas but because of what they do with them". Other writers suggest that if the idea belongs to anyone, Saki might justifiably lay claim to the first Tobermory cat.
And the cat itself? It continues sleeping in the sun.
Except it wasn't. The idyllic town of Tobermory – and an innocent ginger cat – have been drawn into an increasingly surreal copyright battle, which has rumbled on for months and become ever more vicious, featuring hate mail, "screams of abuse" over the telephone and cyber-bullying. And all over a cat that does not seem to care at all!The dispute boils down to this: the local artist, Angus Stewart, says it was his Facebook page that made the Tobermory Cat famous, and that by writing a book about the cat, the publisher and the author are taking his idea.
The publisher, independent Edinburgh press, Birlinn, says the cat has been known to locals and tourists for years. Local bookseller Duncan Swinbanks agrees. He says he's taken pictures of the cat, lying on the beach with a crowd watching it, dating back to before Stewart's Facebook page started.
"The idea was arrived at with no knowledge of [Stewart's] website," says Birlinn managing director Hugh Andrew, a visitor to Mull for 20 years. "I've published a lot of books in Mull but haven't done anything recently … I was thinking away in Tobermory when I was there last summer, and walking along the road I saw a huge ginger cat, with four or five people photographing it. I went to [local bookseller] Duncan [Swinbanks] and he said that's the Tobermory cat. I said let's do a children's book, and he was very enthusiastic. As I was going he said 'the cat's quite well known – there's a Facebook page'.""This whole book was done because we're suffering on the island from the recession – our visitor numbers have fallen," says Swinbanks. "Hugh and I talked about this, and he said let's do a book on the cat."
Andrew approached author Mairi Hedderwick to write the book; she wasn't keen. He tried Debi Gliori, and she got on board. They decided to visit Mull for Gliori to meet the cat, get a feel for the place and, "as a matter of courtesy", to "go to see the people that were involved with the cat, and explain what was going on", said Andrew.
This included Stewart, and, as Gliori recounts in a lengthy blog post from late last week – the first time she has spoken out about the situation – the meeting did not go well.
"We would never have heard of the cat had it not been for the Facebook page. It was his idea. If he hadn't put in all the work into the Facebook page, nobody would ever have heard of the cat," she says he told her and Andrew. Andrew offered Stewart the opportunity to advertise his gallery and paintings on the back of the book, but he wasn't interested.
Time passed. Gliori had an idea for her story: all the villages of Mull have their own special cats, which draw visitors from near and far, except for Tobermory, because its cats aren't special. One ginger tom, however, wants to change this. "Ideas are 10 a penny. You can't copyright them," Gliori told the Guardian. "There was no stealing of ideas whatsoever."
Stewart turned to Facebook. "Dear Facebook friends," he wrote on a dedicated open page. "SHARE or LIKE any posts will REALLY HELP MY CAUSE – as it could virally create a MONSTER CELEBRITY CAT which can fight off any Edinburgh Publisher intent on taking all of my creative work. If Facebook can overthrow dictators it can pee on a publisher."
The post prompted an outpouring of fury on Facebook, where Stewart's supporters shared contact details for Birlinn and Gliori. The story was, as one put it, that the "corporate bastards are grinding down the individual", and plans were made to express the "disgust" felt to Gliori and to Birlinn.
The publisher received hate mail, and aggressive anonymous phone calls from members of the public. "It was scary for us," said Andrew. "There were screams of abuse to our intern and people in the office. I've had hate mail … We've had to get Amazon to remove defamatory comments. They set out to destroy the book, and I've had no real redress … To accuse us of theft, of plagiarism, is absolutely the most serious charge you can make about my business, and to Debi. It's absolutely devastating to our livelihoods if it sticks."
Gliori, meanwhile, was drowned in vicious Twitter messages. As she writes on her blog, "I became aware that my name was almost trending on Twitter. There were multiple mentions of it, and none of them good. Several people went further and got into my account and started firing off tweets to all my followers, informing them that I was a thief … Some of the tweets were nasty. Little fantasies of what the lovely Facebook friends of the Artist would like to do to me, if they got up close and personal … the 'friends' of the artist were massing on Facebook. They were leaving me messages. They knew where I lived. They were digging around on the internet, googling me, digging up whatever they could find.Her illustrated children's book, The Tobermory Cat, has just been published, but Gliori is still shaken from her encounter. "I keep thinking I'm fine now, I'm over it, and I go out in public to do an event, and I'm thinking who's out there, who's going to stand up in the audience and do something horrific," she says.
Stewart has also just published a book, a collection of photographs of the cat. He did not wish to speak to the Guardian – he is "being cast as some sort of bully and it is very dangerous stuff", he said in an email – but did point towards his numerous posts on the subject, in which he explains his reasoning.
The nitty gritty details of this extraordinary story are being picked over endlessly online. Nicola Morgan, an author, former chair of the Society of Authors in Scotland and friend of Gliori's, points out that "there is no copyright on ideas or on titles, and that "creative people are creative not because of where they get their ideas but because of what they do with them". Other writers suggest that if the idea belongs to anyone, Saki might justifiably lay claim to the first Tobermory cat.
And the cat itself? It continues sleeping in the sun.
Hi Nancy, Wow! All that fuss over a ginger cat, and the stories it generated. For sure this cat was destined for fame. The folks that were up in arms over it -- an idea stolen -- that's crazy-making. It gives one "paws." Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your cute comment! It is a wild story and one I just couldn't pass up. For the Guardian to run a whole story, tells another...
Deletelove it
ReplyDelete