My drawing stolen

[thagirion.livejournal.com]

Hello everyone. Since you allow posts about art theft I figured I'd post here what I posted on the other forum Art Theft. They didn't help me and I got no responses. I'm asking you to please help me get through to these people. Here's the post.



There's this site in some other country, I think it's in Hunry, that is talking about Thagirion as mentioned in the song To Mega Therion by Therion and using MY picture of Thagirion as the reference. I'm both flattered and angered at the same time. I'm very happy that all these pagans like my artwork so much. What bothers me is that this girl, I think it's a girl since I looked at the 'fotoks' of her, didn't credit me. She should mention the artist and link back to my site. I've already emailed her. Let's hope she'll understand English. Here's what I said.


Subject: My drawing of Thagirion
To: info@wicca.hu


Hello. I'm the artist that made the drawing of
Thagirion you have on this page.
http://www.wicca.hu/osara/therion.html
I hope you understand me since this is in English.
I'm very happy you liked my creation enough to use on
your site but I must ask you that if you are going to
use it that you must give me credit. Please say that
I, my name is Des, am the artist and link back to my
site.
http://www.fortunecity.com/tatooine/eventhorizon/345/des.html
How did you find my drawing anyway? I noticed you
changed the colors and inverted it as well. The
drawing you have is one of my best of him, but it is a
shame you can not see his wings. Well I do hope to
hear back from you soon.

Des

Notice she changed the color which was originally a black background and made him white and a gif when it was originally a jpg. I've got such mixed emotions about this. I'm flattered and I'm angered. The drawings of him are on my site and in various sub-sites all listed on my main page.

I've already emailed them about three times then found this other address that is for the web designer. It is osara@wicca.hu Seems Osara is the one that made the page that has my drawing since her name is in the url too. I created Thagirion back in 1999. The drawing she is using is the first I ever drew. They can use the pic as long as they don't change it and give me credit. If not they need to take it down. I don't know if I'm being ignored or if they just don't understand English. If you guys can please help me reach these people somehow I would really appreciate it.

Comments

[ilea.livejournal.com]

I'd email the people that host the page.

[minimalismo.livejournal.com]

patience... it happens all the time (its happened to me, too) and i just wait for the e-mails to get back.... hmm, yeah, not too sure really... since your drawing isn't officially "copywritten" or what not, it would be silly to sue or whatever (i know some artists do, but meh). good luck! i hope they take the picture down, or credit you or something.

[alaitallon.livejournal.com]

Actually, under U.S. Copyright Law, anyway, a piece of artwork is protected under copyright law the moment it is created. From www.copyright.gov:
"Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created in fixed form. The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work. Only the author or those deriving their rights through the author can rightfully claim copyright."

Just a common misconception I wanted to clear up, since most people think you have to pay and register to protect your copyright. While that'll certainly give you a better chance at winning a court case since there are official documents proving you're the owner, it's not required. But I agree that it wouldn't be a good idea to try sueing over this. Though copyright includes the right to distribute, a case like this where no money is being lost or made probably wouldn't stand well in court. Good luck to the original poster, though! :) I know how frustrating it can be. as my art's been stolen many times before.

[minimalismo.livejournal.com]

except that these people aren't in the USA.... and neither am I.... :D

lets hope these people (website owners) respond soon :)

[encroach.livejournal.com]

[thagirion.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. It's greatly appreciated. I've had a few friends from my journal email them as well. I'll probably write them again for a 4th and 5th time.

[thagirion.livejournal.com]

Well I DO still have the original drawing on paper that I drew back in 1999. Unfortunately I didn't date it.

[thagirion.livejournal.com]

Really? Thank you for clearning that up. But I should probably have my original characters notorized. Some of them are old from the early 90s and I don't know how I'd prove that I created them back then. I'm not going to sue because I don't have money to afford a lawyer anyway, but I do want them to be annoyed with lots of emails about this.