Advice for dealing with art theft?

[volmise.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely sure I'm going about this the correct way, and while yes I have reported the offender to the proper people, I really don't know if there's anything more I should be doing. For now I'm going to be avoiding naming names, especially since the name they're using is actually one of my own, which only complicates things.

About two days ago I was searching through some artwork using DeviantArt's search feature and came across one of my own pictures posted by another person. I figured, okay, probably just someone who doesn't understand what they're doing, I'll just ask them nicely to take it down and be on my way.

...getting to the person's profile, I see something, weird. All of the art they have posted is my own! Scrolling down, I see they've even taken my profile info from FurAffinity and pasted it onto DeviantArt as well. To top things off they've even taken my OC's name as their username and are using my pieces as examples for Point Commissions. They're taking also complete credit for my work in their artwork comments. Said person didn't even bother to crop out or remove the watermarks from my pictures.

I did what any sensible artist would do at the time - reported each and every one of their Deviations to the HelpDesk, with links and other proof proving that they're mine. I then reported the account in general for identity theft and scamming. After that I went through their comments, and favorites one by one and warned everyone who had any contact with this person what-so-ever what they were doing and who was really the owner of the pictures.

Recently on another journal of mine they've come back and began calling me names and insulting my artwork for "ratting them out". I've mostly ignored these comments and even the private Notes they've been sending me, minus one comment I replied back with telling them that it's my right to defend my artwork.

I just want to know, am I handling things correctly? Can I do any more to warn people or make sure this doesn't happen again? All of my artwork does have a signature or watermark, but lately I've been making the watermark less obvious - maybe in the end this was a mistake.

Any advice for the situation would be lovely, as I'm really not sure what to be doing at this point.

Comments

[growly.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you handled it well, especially because you're on the whole, refusing to talk to the thief.
Good luck getting this worrying issue resolved, what a nightmare.

[volmise.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It is rather a nightmare - I've dealt with theft before, but nothing like this.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's good not to engage this thief/copycat directly, just block/hide/delete stuff they post on OP's page and report them to administrators.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you're handling it well.
The only thing I can think of to help protect yourself, is to have your watermark/sig link to a site that you know you control (FA page, website, whatever). That way any imposters have to either cut out your sig or send viewers to you, and you have an easy way to prove you're the originator.

[volmise.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I should get to designing a new watermark then. My current one is quite literally just my username, which sadly wouldn't help too much in the end.

Thanks, this'll help.

[taelifoe.livejournal.com]

Yeah if it helps, I use a symbol as part of my watermarking that is something I created specifically for my art. And I try to stamp it across a place in the picture that would be difficult for someone else to edit out unless they're cropping the picture down to a partial. I know it doesn't help with what's going on here, but I thought I'd throw that out there :| Hope you can get this resolved. What a nightmare!

[crssafox.livejournal.com]

This is what I do, too. I don't use a symbol, but I do use a rather fancy font across the bottom of my image, transparent enough to not really interfere but inconvenient enough to make it too time consuming for someone to really want to nick it, and in a place where, were it to be cropped out, it would be obvious that it was cropped.

I also save my .jpgs at less-than-top quality, not super pixely but not completely clean, either. Less to worry about that way.

Then again, it sounds like this particular thief doesn't really care if there are watermarks there or not, they're reposting images as they like. I agree that adding a web site link might be a good idea, in this case.

[slyminera.livejournal.com]

So far, I'd say you are handling things right. You reported them thoroughly, and didn't incite attacks on them. If this happens again though, don't respond to them at all, not even in self-defense. The staff will be more likely to do something about it if you completely ignore the other person and just report them silently.
I'm not entirely sure what else you could do at this point other than wait and see what the staff does, though they do usually handle cases like this pretty well, so I'm sure the imposter will be dealt with soon.

I think the only advice I can really offer is that I've seen other artists in similar situations post a journal entry that lists where they have other accounts and what they go by on other sites, so their watchers know if they spot someone on a site not listed saying they're that artist, it's an imposter and can report it immediately.

There's really not much you can do to prevent it from happening again, but you can always put a stop people who do steal from you, since your work has signatures/watermarks on them.

[volmise.livejournal.com]

I didn't incite attacks on them, no, just a comment letting them know that I know what they're doing, and also another being all "Seriously?". Can't say the same for my friends/watchers though... told them to keep to themselves about it, but, well, you know how white knighting goes.

A journal entry about my accounts would be rather easy to follow up with - I am quite literally Volmise everywhere, even on Ponychan and 4Chan, where I have my own trip.

Thanks.

[slyminera.livejournal.com]

Might also be a good idea to let your watchers know to follow your example and if this happens again, not to go raging at the other person and just report silently. The White-Knighting could potentially hurt your case against the thief in the eyes of DA's staff, which would be bad.

The reason it's not a good idea to return comments at all to people like that is based on my own experience. I've had a user who was stalking and harassing me, and because I responded to a few of their comments, DA staff decided they wouldn't do anything about it. >__>;

[volmise.livejournal.com]

Bluh, that's upsetting. Yeah, I should really let my watchers know.

[mpd-84.livejournal.com]

Nothing useful to add,just wanted to /salute you for not encouraging people to flame them...

[slyminera.livejournal.com]

Completely agree with this.

[jadinerhine.livejournal.com]

You're handling it way better than I would have. :D


One thing I remember reading once, and that could possibly be helpful, is that the "real artist" will have the originals of their artwork -- something that the copycat never had in the first place. So maybe if the situation possibly worsens, you can scan in your original sketches and watermark it well. That way, it will help your position more :)

[bailzzararco.livejournal.com]

Funny, I was just discussing with a friend today "how can people live with themselves when they blatantly STEAL art. I mean, the chance of getting caught is very high."

I think you did all you could reasonably do, and I think you handled it well.

[megumi-kitten.livejournal.com]

You handled it well, though I am BOGGLED over the other person attacking you!

Where do people think this is ok?

[skittlewolf.livejournal.com]

Maybe the whole "I'm actually promoting your art and getting you more watches/faves/commissions" mindset?

[megumi-kitten.livejournal.com]

You know, I had someone try that on me. He printed my work out and claimed it was his to his friends, who called him out on his BS.

He was surprised I was angry.

[leoprincess.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of this chick who was posting Princess Mononoke art book work as her own fan art. When I called her out, I got every excuse and insult in the book - that I'm being mean, that she worked on it with her brother*, that her brother drew it before he died and I'm insulting his memory**. *side-eye*

*To which I replied, "Unless your brother is Jesus, there is no way all the lines would match perfectly with the original."

** Quickest and most convenient death ever.

[wereguitar.livejournal.com]

e621 in a nutshell.

[china-kitty.livejournal.com]

I think it's more of revenge; I had someone who is like that after he was banned from FA.

[megumi-kitten.livejournal.com]

That's horrible. :/

[china-kitty.livejournal.com]

It is. That person is a somewhat popular artist who used to watch me and commented on my artwork. For some unknown reason he thought it was funny to create a trolling sockpuppet to harass me and other people and get away with it.

When I reported the sockpuppet, I thought it was some random stranger, but I then found out that it was that artist until was too late. Since then that guy was holding an obsessive grudge against me. Now I am wishing that none of that have NEVER happened, if he haven't created that trolling sockpuppet.

[techno4tomcats.livejournal.com]

Your actions have been more than reasonable; but I would ALSO report the person to the DA mods for harassing/threatening you. That behaviour should not be tolerated anywhere, especially if you are not engaging the harasser.

[linksage.livejournal.com]

I really hope dA helps you out; their track record for dealing with stuff like this has not been the greatest lately. If nothing happens in a month, I'd say get a hold of Realitysquared directly. I had to resort to that once in my own case.

[techno4tomcats.livejournal.com]

Really? I've had spate of abusive users and users editing and selling my art on DA, and the admins were fast and responded within 24 hours.

FA on the other hand... Submitted abuse reports months ago (repeatedly) and I got so fed up I nuked my gallery.

[slyminera.livejournal.com]

It depends on who handles the case, really. Some staff are better at their job and nicer than others.
It's one reason the moderation system over there tends to suck most of the time.

[magickitsune.livejournal.com]

How disturbing O_o; I'm just boggled by how ANYONE could think this is a good idea.

Grats on being so level-headed about it. Hopefully the admins will take care of it quickly. I second trying to contact Realitysquared, since this isn't just common art-theft but identity-theft and harassment.

[china-kitty.livejournal.com]

I've been in your shoes before, so I could relate to this situation. However, I too am bamboozled at why anyone thinks it's a good idea to do something like this.

I am happy to hear that you kept your cool about the whole thing by not engaging the harasser. I made that mistake one time and it got worse.

[kriscynical.livejournal.com]

Ugh, God, I just told this story on this comm yesterday (I'm catching up on my flist after being out of town), but I had to deal with an impersonator on DA, too! They posted over 250 of my pictures and were talking to other people/critting artwork/answering questions posing as me. They were even copying my LJ entries over into their DA journal. They even fooled some of my friends from outside DA who had the fake DevWatched on their own accounts!

I didn't find out about it until I joined DA myself and had my gallery cleaned out for being stolen because the impersonator had been there for four months prior to me joining. People didn't believe I was the real me until I drew something to prove it and put a note on the front of my professional website saying that person was a thief. It was a huge mess and the person ended up deleting everything and got away with it scott-free before the admins did jack about it. They maintained I was the thief until the very end, leaving nothing but a journal entry saying "Too much theft, off I go. Check the website - [link]" with a link to my professional site.

All of that being said, I think you've handled it correctly. It's a huge pain in the ass and I feel for you. :/