Many may remember that we shared the story of a Canadian band called The Devil’s Rejects who stole the logo of a Norwegian band with the same name. They didn’t plagiarize or copy it; they used the exact same logo. Despite the fact that the Norwegian The Devil’s Rejects contacted the Canadians to explain that this was their logo and that the vocalist of the band had drawn the logo himself, they were ignored. Things changed when the story leaked to the press. But what happened to the logo thieves? Well, they got themselves a new logo, and it is suspiciously similar… yes, you guessed it right… suspiciously similar to the stolen logo.
The story begins in April 2024 when the vocalist and guitarist, Runar Pettersen, of the Norwegian The Devil’s Rejects searched online for his own band to see if anything new had been written about them. The band’s debut album “Blood Feast” was released in 2020, so it had been a while since the last check. In the image searches, posters with the logo he had created appeared at various concerts where they definitely were not playing. Another band had simply stolen the logo. They had done this since 2021 when their Facebook page was created. Naturally, the band was contacted but also ignored.
Runar explains: “I contacted the Canadian band via Facebook and explained that I had created the logo and that my band uses it. On Messenger, you can see if someone has read the message, and they had. But no response. I decided to give them some time and check later if they were still using our logo. A month later, I checked their Facebook page, and our logo was still in full use. I decided to go to the press and social media with the story.”
On April 26, 2024, the band posted about the stolen logo on social media, and it spread quickly. Followers of the band started writing on the Canadian band’s Facebook page and sending them messages. Suddenly, the Canadians could no longer ignore their theft. They explained the theft by saying they just found the logo on the internet and started using it. An interesting explanation. Is it that logos just create themselves and are uploaded to the internet for anyone to use? Isn’t it obvious that someone must have created the logo and that it is being used by someone? Well, not for this group. They think logos grow wild on the internet and are there for the taking.
Despite people writing to the band, they were unwilling to stop using the logo. Initially, they responded that they were not interested since they had spent money printing banners and stickers. In fact, one person who messaged them received a reply stating that if the Norwegians paid for new banners and stickers, they would change. So not only had they stolen the logo of the Norwegian The Devil’s Rejects, but they also wanted to be paid to change it. Fantastic!
Eventually, the pressure became too great, and they decided to change the logo. Runar then contacted the Canadians again to check on the situation: “I wrote to them and asked if they would now change the logo. They said they would and wanted me to delete the posts as they did not want to be harassed by our followers anymore. But there was little I could do about that since the story had gone viral. Even the Canadian wrestler Chris Jericho had shared our story on his page. The girlfriend of one of the band members even sent us aggressive messages like ‘Your fans are being wicked disrespectful’ and ‘degrades keep leaving comments after both bands have discussed the issue.’ But the Canadians wanted to phase out the use of the logo since they had an upcoming concert. I agreed to be understanding and kind. After I replied, they blocked me, so I could no longer message them or see their Facebook page. Incredible!”
A few weeks later, the band changed the logo. However, it is not entirely different from the logo they had stolen from the Norwegian The Devil’s Rejects. Most noticeably, the V in the middle is shaped like horns, which the Canadians made sure to include in their new logo, though with a different font and without the tail present in the original Norwegian logo. The new logo for the Canadians was first posted on June 6, 2024. But despite getting a new logo that is dangerously similar to the one they had stolen, they continued to use the Norwegians’ logo as late as on a poster dated June 27, 2024.
So there you go; the strange case of The Devil’s Rejects’ stolen logo. A truly bizarre case that we did not expect. And even if the Canadian band might not be evil criminals, they sure could use a lesson in copyright and a crash course in how to use the internet.
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