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Comment by SilasX | Hacker News Reader

Do graphics agencies (don't know the standard term) have some general solution to this problem? I imagine the legit ones that are serious about IP would have to be (and I'm surprised Netflix isn't run like that).

I'm guessing you'd have to do something like, require every artist to list the resources they used for their image with some link to the source and license rights. But I'm also not sure how expensive that solution is and how widely it's used.

Anyone know what measures big companies take to ensure they're not accidentally putting themselves on the hook for major IP infringement damages?

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Nope. There’ll probably be something in the contract that protects the client against this sort of stuff, and the agency is in hot water now. But beyond that, there’s no real process in place. For big projects the cost of sourcing images will be billed back to the client and so everyhing works like it’s meant to. But I imagine in this case, the DVD packaging was a last minute ad hoc peice of work where the client asked a bunch of agencies (or the clients main agency asked a bunch of smaller agencies) to pitch a design for a fixed budget on a short deadline. And probably a small budget.

The agency asks a junior designer to turn the brief around in a day and says “there’s no budget, but we need to keep this client happy (if they’re the main agency) or we need to impress this client (if they’re a subcontracted agency or an agency not on the clients book).

And that’s where things went wrong. No money. No time. And a junior designer eager to impress.

Yes, certainly that's what happened. Not an excuse for anyone, but a plausible explanation.

Still the agency should have processes in place to avoid this. Every professional designer I've asked about this sort of thing is very aware.

I would add that the the client was not in fact protected. Netflix might be protected from legal action, but the reputation damage here all accrues to Netflix.

Often when you're creating something like this, you don't know if it will be the final selection. Some people can't visualise, so the designer may end up creating something without knowing it will ultimately become the final product. Given that they might make a number of attempts, it's very easy to throw in an image thinking it's temporary and forget about it in hitting deadlines and getting a project over the line.

Then unless there was a meticulous review process, I can see how someone might overlook a very default, straight on view of a generic product.

I haven't thought of this, but I indeed saw something like this happen.

Quick mockup of how it could look like, but because the client saw this first and said "this is the one I want", they actually like the mockup better than the final version with similar but not quite the same graphics.

or you make a draft or concept and they use that as the final

Yep, happens all the time. Or you say "I've used a placeholder image. Can you please select and buy a stock photo that you like?" And they never do, and it all gets forgotten.

Having been on the "creative" side of several of these kinds of graphic design projects, with some fairly large clients, I can assert that it's likely that the agency who did the design signed something to the order of "indemnify and hold harmless" for any copyright infringement suits, and has insurance for that eventuality.

That insurance is likely to get a lot more expensive unless Netflix and the agency can come to an amicable resolution with the OP.

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