Internet Art Theft - Stolen Work

[Eriboss]

I have recently become a victim of internet art theft - Someone stole one of my pictures from Deviant Art and submitted it on Threadless as their own.
I only found out because some kind soul recognised it as my work and emailed me... god knows how many times it happens without us even knowing.. People stealing our work and making a profit from it...
What precautions can us artists take, without full blown expensive copyrighting to stop it from happening ?

>:{

[dogfood]

There's a squad of assassins that no one likes to talk about. If you put a hundred quid under the lorry (the large, green one) at the north end of Welsh Back, along with the offender's log-in, they'll ensure satisfaction. Usually we just PM each other about this, but there have been so many problems lately, that it's time to post in the open.


Gee, I hope they're OK with me outing them.

[look]

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=47013

just worry about making art good enough to be stolen

:P And if people are really making profit off your work, and you think it's worth the time and money, sue their pants off.

[egerie]

Just so we can plan the ninja attacks, you got the threads in question ?

[Eriboss]

heh thanks doods, Dogfood.. I have like £2.34 to my name.. im not sure thats enough for the underground anti-arttheft-army :(

I have since contacted threadless and "gave them a piece of my mind" and they have since deleted the little punks submission, but its crazy cause he was being accused of copying someone elses picture.. and that picture was a copy of mine.. its all very silly.
erm heres me actual pic he stole...
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/8994784/

I mean, it aint very good and its old n shit, but still, its the principle more than anything, makes me sooooooooo mad >:{

[Mr. Pale]

OH MY HELL!!! That's my artwork... you stole it from me... Ok just kidding. ( >:D or am I?)

Killin's not good enough for people who do that, I suggest ritual sodomy. It's the ultimate deterent. :$

[JARhead]

I demand satisfaction! :yayca:

PS You should feel good that someone thought your work was worthy of being stolen... Good times!

[Red_Rook]

aww boo, and i was hoping for a show, the conceptart assassins at work is a mighty scary thing, specially them elite irc cavalry

and eriboss, apparently waffles are legal tender, when dealing with them.

[Tully]

Yeah, same thing has happened to me a couple times, Eriboss. Namely by the people over at outwar.com stealing one old piece of mine. I made a stink and they took it down. Then another one who took another horribly old piece of mine and added something to it, but a kindly person recognised it and let me know. I contacted that person too and they took it down.

Generally a bit of posturing in a semi-threatening tone will get them to back down. Sometimes you get a real asshole that refuses, but most people just don't think you'd ever find out. These are not courageous individuals. They certainly don't want a legal battle any more than you do (unless they're messed in the head). Mostly because they know that they'd lose.

When you're a big enough artist, you can just ignore it. Until then, I wouldn't worry about it. It's going to happen! It isn't right, but at least someone likes your art enough to want it to be theirs.

[Mavrick71]

You might want to try this website http://www.digimarc.com/register/
It is a program that puts an invisible watermark on your pictures and you can get... well just read it, too hard to explain.

[Mr. Pale]

My joking aside, I do not understand what motivates people to do this.

If the reason is money, that I understand, I don't agree, but I understand. But if money is not a motivation, what makes people have the urge to take somebody's work and represent it as there own? What do they get out of it?


By the way, the Mona Lisa, yeah I did that. Where's my prize?

[Hayabusa]

just put your name across all your work, or in an area where it cant easyly be editted out without seriously ruining the piece...like a water mark if you will

[waronmars]

people want the ass kissing that seems to follow remotely good art around like a bad smell. They just want an egoboo without the work. just bluff them into submission.