Facebook?

[zhivagod.livejournal.com]

 I don't know how many of you do the whole facebook thing but there is a HORRIBLY rampant art theft scene on there. I try to always remind posters to credit or I post a credit of my own in the comments wherever I can. Facebook furs just have absolutely no concept of the idea of art theft. They post hundreds of images to their profiles, use them as profile images, tag themselves and their friends, etc. I don't see very many of them credit the original artists either.

I stumbled upon a reposting of my own art, again tagged as people who are not in the picture and not credited.

I'm debating whether I want to request credit or to just report it for removal.

If I get credit, that's possible traffic later.
if I report it, the image goes away and nobody sees it...

This particular person I am not a friend of so I cannot simply comment a credit like I normally do. Friend request pending but I'm debating what to do in the mean time.

What would you do in my shoes?

Comments

[mandyseley.livejournal.com]

I think all you can do is ask for credit (you don't have to be a friend to send them a message) when you see it happening.

Facebook has notoriously terrible security settings that are constantly getting worse, I doubt they'd do much to help you. I ended up leaving that site outright in disgust, and this just gives me another reason to hate it.

[kuwaizair.livejournal.com]

what else did they do?

[mandyseley.livejournal.com]

I joined back when it was restricted to college students with valid school emails, as a way to connect with classmates. Their default privacy settings have been less and less private for years, (http://www.allfacebook.com/infographic-the-history-of-facebooks-default-privacy-settings-2010-05) to the point that you can't even list "likes" or "interests" anymore unless they're as a link to a public page that links to everyone else with the same "like" or "interest."

Employers use Facebook as a cheap and quick "background check," as do companies that process security clearances (and for government agencies, your privacy settings don't matter, they can still get Facebook to release the information to them). It doesn't even matter how carefully you monitor your own page, they check your friends too, and anything questionable about the people you associate with reflects on you. Not even illegal activities, there are companies who will burn you for any picture of you with alcohol, no matter how old you are.

There's a "post whatever you want and don't even think twice about it" mentality that's on Facebook and seems to be encouraged. See a picture online you think is rad? Post it! See a drawing you think is cool? Post it! Think your cousin has an awesome license plate? Post it with her full name! (I had to badger my cousin to take that down, once I explained to him how oh yes that is indeed personally-identifying information)

With my significant other still awaiting a security clearance and me in a state job with hopes of a clearance in the future, it just seemed like an unnecessary and frustrating security risk.

[grandioze.livejournal.com]

What about if you don't have a facebook page but there are other people on there with your name? Is there a possibility that an employer could think that they're you? In my case, those other people don't have icons uploaded so I don't know if they're super-active on the site or not. :/

I'd never join that site. Not only because I have no interest in it, but it's just too much of a risk. No thank you.

[mandyseley.livejournal.com]

No telling. I didn't have my real name on there to begin with.

If they've already interviewed you, it's as easy as matching up the photo, your location, your contacts, or other information they have about you. Even if YOU don't have that info, if your friends posted a picture of you and "tagged" your account in it, you're busted. There are ways to protect yourself, but it requires CONSTANT vigilance of pretty much everything on there...

[grandioze.livejournal.com]

If you don't have an account on there and someone posts/tags a picture with you in it (like with your real name), then what happens? Can they do that? I really don't understand how Facebook tagging works in the first place TBH. :/

That being said, I'd hate to lose a job opportunity just 'cause I have a dumb friend/acquaintance/relative/etc. who posts stuff they shouldn't be posting in the first place.

[mandyseley.livejournal.com]

"Tagging" means they put a link to your Facebook profile on that photo to show "this is the person in the picture."

With no account, they can "write in" whatever they want for a tag, but it won't link to anything and the text itself isn't something that can be searched for, so it's not as much of a concern. I haven't heard of companies being THAT paranoid about this, no worries.

(We might be getting a bit off-topic for this post, though, and while I'm a concerned dissenter to Facebook, I wouldn't say I'm the expert on this.)

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

This comment is a little.. inappropriate, so I'm going to screen it.

[kuwaizair.livejournal.com]

would making anti arttheift clubs count as "troble makers who might eventaly turn to cyberbullying, thus said group is made just to be a hate group and will be removed" so then it can be stoped?

[koisnake.livejournal.com]

That's the internet for you. Social networks like Face Book, Myspace.etc are known for people using art, photos.etc from people other than themselves. If the person claims it as their own work, I can definitely get why you are upset. If not, they probably will post something like "Look, a cute puppy!" (if the picture is a puppy, for example), and not intentionally know that they are committing art theft.

Best thing to do is to start watermarking your work. Now, there is no harm asking them to credit your work, but be prepared if they don't. Just report and move on.

[kuwaizair.livejournal.com]

just use theirs. I was going to do that to some iRL frinds who think uploading images to the web makes it "owned by public" and if one wants to protect art, don't show it or chage a membership fee for their website/portfoilo. because charging $30 a month to get people to hire you to make art is a good idea yo!

[ashleyvsdestiny.livejournal.com]

Facebook profile images are like half a step up higher from forum and livejournal avatars. You see material from comics, television shows and the like in such uses all the time. I think it's unreasonable to think of this as a forum of theft.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

So theft isn't actually theft if everybody else is doing it?

[ashleyvsdestiny.livejournal.com]

I think that even 20th Century Fox couldn't defeat the 'fair use' defense because someone has Homer Simpson as a forum avatar or profile image.

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

I honestly doubt they care. That said some people have gotten threats from company for posting material the company owns.

Erm Fair use doesn't work like that. It's meant to permit reuse for educational, critical and cultural enrichment, not so someone can have a homer simpson avatar.

There's some fairly stringent limitations on fair use.

[ashleyvsdestiny.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_v._Arriba_Soft_Corporation

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

I suggest you read your own link.

First a search engine =/= a forum avatar. Secondly since they lost the case by default since they went out of business, that precedent has been kind of quashed. In comparison however?

The example you gave a homer simpson avatar would not meet the first criteria, nor the second, nor the third, the only one that could be argued to fall in favour of such a reuse is four. Ergo 3 > 1 that's a lost court case.

[pentonville.livejournal.com]

I recently had a piece of my art stolen on Facebook, with the person that posted it claiming it as their own work.

I reported it and it got removed within an hour, although somehow i think the fast reponse was partially because the stolen art had my signature on it and that may have classed as identity theft/fraud on top of the art theft? Not too sure.

[claytronic.livejournal.com]

Ugh. The furry group on there is dreadful. It's full of those murry furs who are full of "FURRY PRIDE =^.^="

Personally, I'd report it. Then it shows them that no, you can't take people's art and use it just 'cause you want to.
Telling them "credit me" just tells them that they can continue to do it, but when the artist finds them they have to credit.

:\
A lot of the time they snag images right off of Google and don't know who they belong to.

I'd report it.

[kuwaizair.livejournal.com]

would it be aginst tos to make an anti murrypurry group?

[uozlulu.livejournal.com]

Personally I'd report the ones that won't give you credit because even if everyone's seeing it, they don't know it's yours so it's not realy more exposure in the long run.

[leswamp.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure facebook mgmt cares about that sort of thing but good luck.

[silverautomatic.livejournal.com]

I dealt with a kid on FB a while back that was using picture of my character and calling it his own. From what I've seen, Clayton's right, most of them are dreadful furry pride kids.

Honestly? The traffic from facebook is the same you'd get from myspace. Pains in the ass that you don't really need. I'd saw report it, and if it isn't gone in a reasonable amount of time, send a DMCA notice.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

I run into this a lot too, and if you're the owner there's a text link in the report window that allows you to mention that and have it removed.

I always report all the smut I find, I've even found kiddy diddling I'm sorry, "cub porn" there. Barf.

People are fucking disgusting as well as moronic.

[phantomapfel.livejournal.com]

It's not just furries. I have a friend on my list who uploads nothing but pictures from google. I've told her many times that she needs to start putting artists names, or at least some way of going back to the original, but she had ignored it several times, saying that it's not that important of an account to her because it's her "roleplaying" account.

Even so I know she has well over 300 images of other peoples work, and not just that, actual PHOTOS of other people that she is saying are actually her. I don't know much about RP accounts on FB, but I would assume that ethics and morals still exist, and my gut is telling me that what shes got going there is just wrong. : /