Beware KoutaOni.

[xianjaguar.livejournal.com]

KoutaOni, http://koutaoni.deviantart.com/ , is an artist over on DA offering commissions.
However, she does not actually create original art for her clients once they fork over money.
Instead, she TRACES OTHER'S ART for the money.

I found out about this through someone who commissioned her for a picture of his character, and was shocked to have her give him a direct trace of my art!!! He tried to get his money back, but she refused, and he contacted me to let me know about it.

His note to me about it:

"I have something important to tell you.
last month, I asked a girl from the DA to do a picture of my fursona, and she did it...

http://koutaoni.deviantart.com/art/Aniki-Commission-92719129?offset=25#comments

exactly like your pic: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1398303/

it was a paid job, she copied your artwork and she doesn't want to give my money back.
I just thought you should know, sorry about that."

Link of my original art that doesn't require a password, for those of you without Furaffinity accounts: http://xianjaguar.artspots.com/image/19303/sun-your-buns---roo


And here is the OTHER 'commission' i found on her site, that's a tracing of my art.

Her tracings:
http://koutaoni.deviantart.com/art/Khan-Order-90998939
http://koutaoni.deviantart.com/art/Orders-Khan-91218402
http://koutaoni.deviantart.com/art/My-Tiger-Order-90658403

MY ORIGINAL: http://xianjaguar.deviantart.com/art/White-Tiger-23143945

The funny thing is that when I originally did this tiger, I planned the picture poorly and ran out of paper, so his elbow is cut off on the right hand side of the page. She traced the entire mistake 'as is' and didn't even bother fixing that, LOL.

I (tried) to confront her in DA, and she's been deleting my comments and hiding comments.
I also privately noted Khan, the guy who ordered the tiger that she traced from me, and let him know it's just a trace of my original art.

I've also reported the above pictures to DA, but it's a crap shoot as to whether they respond favorably or not. Sometimes they'll pull art for being traced, sometimes they're A-OK with it. Although DA's general policy favors tracers, I'm not impressed with it, especially when they're tracing other's art for money.

She's also traced/copied/eyeballed from other artists, such as WolfNymph, Redrumwolf, and Goldenwolf, to name a few.

So, BEWARE, do NOT commission KoutaOni, or else you'll just get a cheap tracing of XianJaguar art, or WolfNymph art or someone else's art. :/

Comments

[sarakazi.livejournal.com]

I've noticed also hides comments from people warning others about her and calling her out for it.

[casteddreams.livejournal.com]

And sometimes blocks people from her page too, and makes sarcastic remarks back. :P

[lavendergem.livejournal.com]

Ew. And they aren't even good tracings. >:-\

Sorry she's using you in her feeble attempt to mask her lack of skills/imagination.

[the-lest.livejournal.com]

That is pretty sad,

I don't think there is anything wrong with tracing art, as it can be helpful for learning, but my personal opinion is that traced art should not be uploaded and claimed as the artist's own work, and if it IS uploaded it would be at least polite to get permission from the original artist first, and certainly credit them.

But she certainly should NOT be tracing other people's art and SELLING it. That's definitely WAY below the belt. What a ninny. Hopefully more people will begin to notice it now and she will lose business because she doesn't deserve the money she makes off other people's work.

[xianjaguar.livejournal.com]

Heh...I agree. I don't mind people tracing my art and uploading it, as long as they credit me...they don't even have to ask permission first. As long as they credit my name, and provide a link back to my archive, and the original pic, (and letting me know about their pic would be nice), I'm cool with it. I even 'fave' said pics in DA. It's mutually beneficial for both artists, as I get advertising from them, and they get advertising from me, and everyone knows the original source of the picture.

But this? Telling people that you're an artist offering commissions for money, taking people's money and then giving them a TRACING from another artist? Oh NO. No no no. This is just flat out deceit and thievery. Like you said so perfectly, it's "definitely WAY below the belt."

The part that eats me is that she KNOWS she can get away with it easily, since 1) She's in Brazil and I'm in the USA, so legally, it's near-impossible for me to do anything, and 2) DA fully supports tracing! It's ok by their TOS. :/

As long as DA is backing her, and I can't do anything legally, she's near-unstoppable! The only way is again...like you said... is if people notice that she's tracing and quit commissioning her. But how do you get millions of potential customers to realize she's tracing, when she's able to hide all negative comments on DA? :(

[idess.livejournal.com]

As I've said before, I've been dealing with Kouta for a long time. Like an old nemesis.
While not exactly tracing, she's 'copied' an image of mine as well:
http://koutaoni.deviantart.com/art/New-ID-Koutas-Oni-XD-89376176
http://idess.deviantart.com/art/Furry-Paws-blogthingy-13684575

So far I have reported her to the DA admins asking for banning. I also am noting every single person who is interested in buying anything from her, alerting them of her theiving habits. Call me over-the-top or obsessed, but I am not going to allow this girl to earn more money on her wrongdoings. 9.9 Hopefully someone on DA will deal with it soon, because as far as I know there's at LEAST 4 artists asking for her to be banned.

[alcyione.livejournal.com]

No, I don't think you're obsessed.

I think that it's gonna take a friggin' mountain of reports and complaints to get her banninated. I went through and reported every single piece that was a ripoff, plus I left some nasty words for Miss(?) Kouta.

I vote we encourage everyone to report her until she's gone :3

[sekhmet.livejournal.com]

Ugh...rediculous.

[jademare.livejournal.com]

Reported her. That's ridiculous she's stealing people's money like this. What a joke.

[jademare.livejournal.com]

Also, sending notes out to other deviants. I linked to this journal and with more people aware of it, hopefully she'll get banned faster.

[wyna-hiros.livejournal.com]

Reported her.

Edit: Also might be better to warn more people by having this not under a f-lock?

[xianjaguar.livejournal.com]

Oh! We're allowed to? I'm so used to communities asking that all entries be community-locked.
I just went and looked, and yeah, it seems entries are allowed to be 'open' in this community. I'll go unlock this.

EDIT: Ok, it's unlocked!
Thanks for the suggestion! Had you not said anything, I wouldn't have realized that we were allowed to have 'open' entries in this community.

[starcharmer.livejournal.com]

Possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen (http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6498/forgreatjusticepj1.jpg). I had to screenshot it because I know when she realizes what she's done it'll get hidden.

ETA: Yah, about two seconds after I made this comment, I refreshed her page and my comment is gone. ;)

[casteddreams.livejournal.com]

LOL!

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

So, normally I can't really get behind the "oh noz tracers!" wagon, even if the person isn't properly crediting, because really they're just hurting themselves (even if it is annoying).
However, using traces for commissions is another story entirely. I hope DA bans her butt, and if not, if you have the time/money/inclination, you could probably get her pretty solidly on copyright infringement.

[xianjaguar.livejournal.com]

*nodnods!*

Had she just been tracing my stuff and not crediting, this post wouldn't even exist. I probably wouldn't have even bothered to make a post about it in the Art_Theft community either. I'd just roll my eyes, be irritated, and know that she's not getting anywhere.

But man, she's actually making money doing this! More than just once!
Unfortunately, I can't "get her" for anything. She's in Brazil, I'm in the USA. Legally, this is a nightmare, and like I've pointed out to others in other journals and such, she KNOWS she can do this, legally unchecked, due to the international barrier.

The only way that she might bother to stop is if everyone publicly calls her out and boycotts her. And even then, with the millions of people on this planet, there will always be a customer who's never heard of her and will give her money for a commission, not realizing they're going to get a tracing.

[gizmo-nine.livejournal.com]

Reported to DA as well.
hey, if enough people send report notes to DA, eventually it should annoy them enough to do something about it.

[blondierule.livejournal.com]

so its ok to trace? I thought it was up to da to decide case by case :(

Can't she get banned for copyright violation? ;)

[daughterofhavok.livejournal.com]

I don't think eyeballing someone else's art is a bad thing..as long as credit is given to the original artist. It can be considered a learning tool, and I used to do it myself. (Tracing, on the other hand, I don't think helps a whole lot.)

However, doing it for commissions is NEVER okay. I'm glad the person who contacted you recognized it and was just as appalled. Hopefully dA will take notice/do SOMETHING about it.

[kuwaizair.livejournal.com]

80% of those people don't give credit and when asked to they scream at you to 'get off their back' or "don't like it stfu" kind of comments

[dreamaria.livejournal.com]

I honestly cannot even believe people are stupid enough to trace art this day in age. Five years or so they could get away with it, now, when one person finds out, it's all over the community.

I know she doesn't speak much English (but enough that she obviously understands which comments are calling her out and hides them) but really, not an excuse.

Report her to DA, if you haven't done so already. You have all the proof you need.

I think that it's okay to use other artists as references when you're learning (in a personal sketchbook) but NOT for commissions, or even anything you'd post on a gallery (unless okay'd by the artist, but even then...:/)

That was really nice of that commissioner to point that out to you, btw.

[xianjaguar.livejournal.com]

I have reported her to DA, a few days ago! They still have not gotten back to me yet. They may just have a lot in their queue, or...they may just not care. I really hope it's the former and not the latter.

You're right...it was very nice of the commissioner. I'm very grateful that he pointed her out to me. 0_o

[dreamaria.livejournal.com]

I called her out on in in a comment and she MARKED IT AS SPAMMMMM

[taasla.livejournal.com]

http://img1.nnm.ru/imagez/gallery/c/c/d/f/9/ccdf924a2e2ec5dc9b955d487a53008f_full.jpg

?

I know even that cover art is ripped from two photos. If I remember right, the artist can't do anything but over paiint.

[tyrrlin.livejournal.com]

Reported.

This makes me so steamed.

[xianjaguar.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I should write him again and ask. That's a good point.

[kuwaizair.livejournal.com]

yeh i said 'oah i saw this on the internet before'

[tech-rex.livejournal.com]

She has an FA page too:

http://www.furaffinity.net/user/koutaoni

[xianjaguar.livejournal.com]

oh my ....THANK YOU.
Looks like she just jumped on that bandwagon and got registered this month.
I may have no power on DA, but FA is much smaller. I think we can get her ass banned from there.

THANK YOU for pointing this out.

[annakitfox.livejournal.com]

As I keep saying when I talk about stuff like this with friends, I am glad my art's not good enough to be stolen like this. I am sorry it happened to you. :(

[hossblacksilver.livejournal.com]

Same here.

[sushidragon.livejournal.com]

http://koutaoni.deviantart.com/art/Badge-KoutaOni-Dead-XD-94133570

http://shadow-wolf.deviantart.com/art/Pelt-badges-round-1-87743931

[xianjaguar.livejournal.com]

Off-topic, but your icon made me giggle. =D

[zooty-snowpaw.livejournal.com]

lol what a loser xD She marked my comment asking her to kindly come clean as spam too :P

[zooty-snowpaw.livejournal.com]

Can someone tell me how to report her? :3

[zooty-snowpaw.livejournal.com]

Never mind I've submitted it :D To those who don't know they need to contact the DA help desk at http://help.deviantart.com/contact/ and select the category to 'ban inquiry'