Art theft

I just thought this would be a good example of how no matter how small or unknown you or the other artist is. If you use someone else's work either directly or near the same and either claim it as your own or don't give credit. You will be caught.

This is the original image.

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/20...y_satiiiva.jpg

And this is what someone decided to do with it.

http://photos.modelmayhem.com/photos...f37551ed7d.jpg

Art theft is not cool and there are many people (including myself) who will inform the original artist of the theft. Has anyone else reported stolen art or had their art stolen?

There's a picture of a girl photoshopped over a picture of Hannah Mermaid somewhere.

Really? That would be interesting to see.

a LOT of people photoshop over top of Hannah Fraser it drives me nuts. My work is also stolen A LOT.

That's so annoying. And so disrespectful to the artists and/or models :mad: It's sad how so many people have no sense of honor anymore...

I think its possible that a lot of people don't even realize there's anything wrong with it. A lot of people simply think of all content as just floating around, and are unaware that anything they do with it might negatively affect its creator. It's kinda upsetting. People have always used existing content, but they used to be aware where it was coming from, and gave credit. That isn't how it is today.

Fun fact: did you know that while it is not legally necessary, Weird Al Yankovic gets permission from every artist he parodies?

I'm afraid you are right that it just occur to people that what they are doing is illegal.

Bonus points to Weird Al Yankovic.

Aww, man. I hate it when this happens. Similar thing happened to me D:

Anair what advice to you have for other mers in avoiding and or dealign with art theft?

Aela I would be interested in seeing what they did with your photos, were you able to resolve the situation without to much drama?

Sirena - It was actually video footage that someone had used without my permission, who then gave it to a third party agency who hosted it and also put their business name on my video. So I made a complaint to the appropriate authorities, who took the footage down. The person who then took my footage in the first place then gave my personal details to the third party agency, who harrassed me for several weeks, threatening legal action if I didn't retract my complaint. It only stopped when I read them the ToS of the hosting site and told both parties they were breaching privacy. Neither the third party agency nor the person who took my footage takes responsibility for the incident. Both have said I was the one with the problem.

How on earth could they blame you? That is ridiculuse! I'm glad you were able to work it out though eventually.

I brand everything I have with my copyright symbol but since I refuse to watermark the entire image, some people have the gall to crop it out. I have to place it where you really can't crop it out but people still do it and it bugs me to no end.

I just don't post things online :/ That may change later, but right now this works for me.

Here's another perfect example:

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/20...05-d4n07yz.jpg

look familiar? oh yeah, it's this

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...C_8317crop.jpg

Not sure how long the 'artist' will leave the comments so everyone can see them, but she swears she hand drew this, didnt trace or manipulate anything *rolls eyes*
http://florajean.deviantart.com/#/d4n07yz

Maybe she's claiming to hand draw the piece from a reference picture ... definitely looks manipulated though. You can find out for sure by looking at the code encrypted in the images, if you want.

There's the phenomenon of crytomnesia, in which a person fails to recall memorising something and later mistakes it for an original memory or idea (a guy I know in a band would regularly play a "new" riff he'd come up with only to have another member of the group play it for him on their Ipod and suggest he'd heard it on the radio), but that's pretty obvious theft!

I'm not on the side of the art thieves, but I do think that the rapid expansion of editing software and the fact that anyone can rip off and image and post it somewhere else on the net has resulted in many incidents of this happening with no knowledge of wrong being done on the part of the person responsible.

I'd refuse to accept innocence in cases where stuff has been used commercially and the original owners have been disadvantaged and then harassed when they have acted to protect their legitimate interests, but common knowledge of copyright on the internet is woeful at best.

I learned this the hard way when I made the mistake of posting some images from a site on a forum some years ago now. At the time I had no idea I was doing something wrong, I just wanted to let other interested users know that there was a pretty great site on the internet that they should really visit. The owner of the images posted on the site with a mixture of scolding about the images and gratitude about the traffic it had generated for them. I was mortified to have committed such a faux pas, but a small part of me was amused that the owner of the images was trying to be annoyed at the act while appearing to brush it aside for the attention it got them.

That to me is the great irony of the issue, that to really be affected by it you have to be good at what you do and worth ripping off. It shouldn't happen, but at the same time it's good to know that you're hot enough of a property to attract the attention in the first place. As Oscar Wilde said: "The only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about."

But just for the record, art theft is naughty and wrong.

I also think issues of ownership and copyright can also get very hairy, and are not always so clear cut. For example, verbal agreements between friends to use an image, when one person decides they have changed their mind but the image has already been used and published, can be VERY difficult to deal with.

In general though, I agree with all of the above. Especially in the age of Google - someone can find an image created by someone they've never met in seconds. I guess it doesn't occur to some people that that's not okay, which is really sad for the artists.

I think the answer has to be better education on one side and an understanding of the difference between innocent wrong-doing and malicious theft on the other.

This isn't an issue where a broadbrush approach will have a good outcome for anyone concerned.

this was posted on an art website that has a LOT of info about copyright. When you upload something you have to select a little box saying it's your work! I emailed back and forth with the woman- the art site removed her work so the link no longer works. Originally she swore she drew it by hand then digitally coloured it. In the email she admitted to manipulating Hannah's photo. I think people try to play dumb sometimes...

And some people just absolutely do not have a clue what personal property and personal privacy is. Theft is theft. There is no "mean-well" theft. It's stealing. Even if a third party takes it they still need permission from the original owner.

And some people are just young and very naive.

There's no use trying to tart the meaning up to suit you. Follow the rules or GTFO.