Russet Noon Cover Art Controversy Resolved

PR Log (Press Release) – Jun 20, 2009 – According to an official statement issued today by independent publisher AV Paranormal, the talisman image currently being used as the cover art for the novel Russet Noon will be the same one featured on the book cover when it is released as a paperback this Fall of 2009.

Numerous allegations of "theft" and "copyright infringement" have been made against author Lady Sybilla for using the talisman image "without permission" from its creator, artist Stephanie Lostimolo.

On May 11, 2009, Lady Sybilla responded to these accusations with the following statement: "I have every intention of giving credit to the copyright owner of the talisman. I made a reasonable attempt to track down the artist by writing an email to Michael Delahunt, the webmaster of Artlex.com, but I never got a reply to my email. On his website, Delahunt refers to this image as a "talisman of unidentified origin and meaning," so obviously he doesn't know who the copyright owner is."

On June 1, 2009, a fandomwanker made the following claim on Journalfen.net: "Sybilla's still using an image cribbed from artist Stephanie Lostimolo, who created the talisman in 1999 for a Michael Whelan Fan Art Contest (for which she got an honorable mention - scroll down and look in the right column). You can't find the talisman image on the current incarnation of her site, but she has reused it since (worn by a character). Lady Sybilla is using this image as the new cover of Russet Noon on her website and in press releases, despite not knowing the image's origin (and therefore neither crediting Lostimolo, nor obtaining permission to use it)."

Upon learning about this post, Lady Sybilla immediately contacted Stephanie Lostimolo by email, requesting permission to use the image as the official cover art for Russet Noon.

On June 19, 2009, Ms. Lostimolo replied to Sybilla's request.  Her email is as follows:

From:   Stephanie Lostimolo
Subject:   Re: Your talisman image   
Date:    06/19/2009 12:21 PM
To:   ladysybilla@russet-noon.com

Hi Sybilla,

All I require is a credit line in the book. "Cover Artwork by Stephanie Lostimolo. www.lostimolo.com"

That should be fine. Thank you for choosing my image for your book cover. :)

Stephanie

End of email

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Please support Stephanie Lostimolo's art by visiting her website as listed above.  

Russet Noon is a tribute sequel to the last installment in the Twilight Saga book series by bestselling author Stephenie Meyer.  Lady Sybilla has also written a letter to Stephenie Meyer's publisher Little, Brown, requesting permission to publish Russet Noon officially, but, so far, there has been no response.

According to laymen interpretations of copyright laws posted on various forums around the web, Lady Sybilla and her independent publishing company, AV Paranormal, should be sued for copyright infringement.  However, no legal action has been taken against the novel as of yet.  Furthermore, there has been no attempt whatsoever on the part of Stephenie Meyer or her publisher, Little, Brown, to stop the publication of Russet Noon.

As of today, all attempts to ban the publication of Russet Noon have failed.  It appears that the much defamed fan-fiction piece is destined to go down in history as "the little novel that could."

For daily updates on Russet Noon, visit Lady Sybilla's Twitter at www.twitter.com/ladysybilla