The Way of the Shadow Blade Music Contest--click here for more! You could win a free commission by SheezyArt music star Fox Amoore!
Deadline: 5 April 2007...please look and submit your entries!
One of the people I watch, , brought it to my attention that she's seen art theft going on, on Sheezy. Sadly this is unsurprising, but I thought this occasioned some words about the need to be on the lookout for art thieves, as well as what to do about them when you catch them. The only way to combat art thieves is by sticking together as a community...kind of the same principle as a neighborhood watch.
The first thing that I think we all need to do is to watch out for our own art. In my case, I Google key phrases from my works every so often to make sure the only hits I get are in places where I have posted or authorized my work to be posted. It doesn't hurt to make it publicly known that you do this. Of course, depending on what an art thief does, this is still not a complete guarantee that you'll find all unauthorized uses of your work. Still, it's an important line of defense and a deterrent.
The next thing is to look out for your friends. In many cases, you'll be quite familiar with the art style and subject matter of the people you watch, and be able to spot a fake if somebody should post it. However, from this point, it becomes extremely important to take care in how you deal with the situation or you could end up destroying your own case and letting a thief go free.
The first thing to do, whether it's your work or someone else's that you recognize as stolen is never confront the thief yourself by comment or PM. This might seem irrational at first, but there are two ways contacting the thief can go wrong for you. Either the perpetrator will remove the stolen works before site administration can respond to any reports (thus leaving no proof and no way to stop them until/if they steal again), or a dialogue has the potential to turn into a flamewar. Very often when a flamewar erupts, both the thief and the victim/witness will be held responsible--and in the worst cases, the thief may even be able to spin things around to appear as the victim of an unjust attack and get away scot-free. There is no justice in this.
The best thing to do is, then, to not let on to the thief that you've noticed anything. Instead, use the Report button to alert the mods to investigate. This way the thief has no chance to destroy the evidence of his/her thefts, or to blame the situation on the angry commenter who pointed out the theft.
It's very important that we all do this in order to protect each other--some artists here make their living off of their works, and stealing their art is just as bad as stealing from their houses. Even those who do not wish to make money from their work have a right to be known for the uniqueness of their work without any others trying to take the credit. I hope that you will help spread this message--feel free to link this journal in your own journals so that we can be united in our response to art theft!
------------
Now Reading:
La guía esencial de la Biblia
Murder by Magic: An anthology of twenty short stories including magic and a murder mystery. Includes stories by Diane Duane, Debra Doyle, James MacDonald, and more! There's some good stuff in there... (Only one more story pending...I'll be reading it someday now that I've finished the Mageworlds series.)
;___; I'm not an art thief, I swear! I take ungodly amounts of time into my shit!
Anywho, I'm having this issue right now, actually. I dunno if I wrote about it or whatever already, but this girl I know, she doesn't actually submit stolen pieces, but since I know her in person, she's printing out images and claiming their hers. How do I know? Because I've seen her draw in real life. I know what's hers, but I went on her dA username, and the two pictures she printed with a dA link on the bottom (one human and not her handwriting, she draws anthro strictly, and the other one being a huge watercolor painting) and she tells me, "Don't you believe I drew this? Nobody believes me." So I went under her dA name and theres the two pictures in her favorites, by two different artists. Oh hell, I was pissed. She has a huggeeeee folder of printed works I thought she really drew.
I believed her because everything I draw is done in Flash 8 with a tablet, obviously, so I figured somehow maybe she did the same. She always told me she scanned things in and made them pretty online, however, with a mouse? She told me she's tabletless, but there's no way you could do the things she "does" with a mouse. So, aparently, everything in that giant folder was "stolen", whether it be in an online gallery (which it isn't) or verbally.
People didn't believe I drew my last two pictures (Hopefully you've seen them. My two Jango Fetts I did.) I remade them from the comic book, but it took me like 4 hours on each, and it breaks my heart no one believes me. Oh well, people will be stupid.
But god, I dunno what to say to this girl, if anything. I mean, she's not stealing things and claiming them to be hers and submitting them into her submissions on Sheezy and dA, but nevertheless, she's stealing them verbally in person. I can't believe it.
That's pretty bad of her whether she's submitting it or not...in some ways it's even more brazen that she'd lie to your face. If I were you, I'd definitely keep an eye on her because who knows...if she finds it so easy to lie to people right in front of them, who knows what she'd do with the anonymity online?
A lot of times--including in my gallery--someone's work with a reference versus without can be very different. The coloring style still looked like yours, though, so I didn't see any reason to doubt.
Actually, I found this journal rather helpful, see, I was already cited by an art theif before, who got away with a SINGLE chapter from an old work I called 'Warzone - the Game', now, I was very, very pissed off for a time, but since then I've found it fairly effective to battle these guys off in the ways you just mentioned. Of course, the BEST way is to make a copyright policy, legally <shrug> some people can't do it that easily, though, that's the drawback.
--
Shame that this guy couldn't make "Warzone" into a very good story at all, seems he gave up on it after three chapters. <smirk> I've written fourteen
that would be an option. Normally I am the person for the direct approach and it worked in the most cases. Many thieves are reasonable and see their error, but many not. I am glad that I only to deal with two of that kind.
You definitely got lucky, especially since the quality of your art can make you into such a target for those kinds of people.
I guess for me, I don't want to do the direct approach because I think that in a community where everything is based on trust, such people should not be given the chance to re-offend, or should at the very least know that they're being watched by the site's administration.
yes, in a community your way of approach is a very good way. The most peoples who stole my work where not in communities. That has been websites and such, that's why I am doing the things myself. I have seen my art stolen, but never have seen them postet on community sites like DA, SA, AU or Storm-Artist. If this should ever happen I know the community is a better way than the lonesome way :)
Unfortunately I have seen people get caught posting stolen work to Sheezy in one case, and I know others here who said they've seen it. But that's why I also recommended Googling to see if anybody had posted your work elsewhere. That's something I check for every so often myself.
I do check on google every month, but most of them have my permission to use my work, the asked me nicely so I allowed them. I am not much moving through Sheezy, because I have not the time to do so. But when I have I do from time to time. That's why I never saw an arttheft on Sheezy by now. It's good to know to have watchful people on Sheezy.
I imagine you do have friends who would say something if they saw work of yours that was stolen. I know I would, anyway, and I imagine others would too.
Yes. Please please do listen closely to everything minstrel says in here, especially the part about keeping it secret and reporting to the mods. We have tools that allow us to investigate much further, and we can contact site staff from other communities or artists to discuss the issues of cross-site theft, to build up more evidence.
I really don't have a problem with theifs, its that my art looks a lot like a girl i'm watchtings art. (if that makes sense ) But she thinks i am trying to rip he off. Thats not my intention, honest. I look at her art, to improve mine, but i am NOT trying to steal and/or copy her art. you don't happen to have any ...ideas to help me get things strait with her right? if not its ok...
Not having seen both sets of art, I can't say what the issue is for sure...but I think for starters, you may need to credit her if a piece of her art inspires you (and if you're on rocky terms with her, asking permission before posting might be nice--and if she says no, respect her wishes because that's the only way you'll be able to prove yourself), AND I would suggest trying not to follow her art too closely.
Also, what is it you're finding yourself needing a reference for? There was recently an article by a person on dA that mentioned some good books to use as references for poses and anatomy, depending on what you're trying to do. That might help you avoid having to use another artist's art as the reference. If you'd like, I can give you those links.
Good luck! And let me know if there's any specific kind of technique you're trying to get a reference for, and I'll see if I can find you any books or sites that can help. (I may not know for every style, but there are some tutorials I do know of that I use.)
Always worth a look. Thankfully it's a little easier for a writer because there's only so much a thief can change without completely destroying the very thing they're trying to steal.
Submit Artwork 
Manage Journal 
Messages 
Watch List 
Settings 
Logout 
Comments
(rofl
) But she thinks i am trying to rip he off. Thats not my intention, honest. I look at her art, to improve mine, but i am NOT trying to steal and/or copy her art. you don't happen to have any ...ideas to help me get things strait with her right? if not its ok... 
