Just after some advice

[the-outcasts.livejournal.com]

Hi guys, long time watcher, first time poster. I'm not 100% sure if this belongs here but I've seen some advice posts similar in the past.

Recently a friend pointed out to me that some of my old art has been reposted onto a website without my permission. The thing is though, I remember the same site doing this to me years ago (I'm talking 12+ years ago), and I had requested the art to be removed, and they had oblidged.

So when I went back now years later I find that the exact same art is still there, along with some new additions (again old art, but I know it wasn't there when I had asked for the first removal).

The site has an FAQ relating to art removal requests, but when I checked it it says:

FAQ #7: I am an artist and someone told me my art is here.. how to i get it removed? Or, I asked my art to be removed, It _WAS_, but now it is back?
You contact one of the staff and let us know, we will take it down! This site does not condone art theft, all an artist need do is ask.
Any artist folders removed, get recycled back into the site at the beginning of each year. You want it to stay gone? You have to care enough to keep coming back.
If your art is here, it's likely because someone was browsing, found it, liked it.. and wanted to share it with more people, or preserve it if your site goes away. You should feel honored that they love your art enough to spread it, and instead, ask us to put a link to your site in your artist folder!

The bold part is what concerns, and quite frankly annoys me: my question is is such a thing allowed? I know a simple request isn't a concrete agreement, but when an artist says remove my art, it means remove my art, not recycle it for reupload a year later. And is there a way to make them permanent remove the art without them being sneaky about it?

I don't mind reposting, but at the same time I do want control over where my art goes as much as I'm able to. And I find it a bit rude that they're ignoring requests like this. I'm not honored by this in the least, it's not up to them to decide what to do.

Thank you in advance, I'm hope I'm doing this right and this is the only time I have to post here.

EDIT: Firstly thank you so so much for the quick response everyone! I'm at work now so I'll try to respond back as much as possible.

And yes the site is http://tails.kicks-ass.net/index.php?area=help&view=7 - the site has been around for years from what I remember, but like I said, I figured if I had asked them to take art down 12+ years ago it should stay down, but apparently not.

Comments

[the-outcasts.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean x.x For a good few years I would be chasing my tail trying to get people to stop reuploading my art until I just couldn't be bothered any more. It bothers me more though when they start claiming it's their work, or they colour over it - that I will keep fighting because I find that very unfair for someone to just take my work while I'm the one that put the effort in.

And I watermark everything with URLs of the host site (i.e. DA or FA) so one way or another it does come back to me. But I do hate the paranoia of uploading something I wanted to share, only to have one person screw it up for me and making it a chore rather than a hobby.

I'll keep my fingers crossed either way! I knew it was a silly policy, but I had to be sure first XD

[the-outcasts.livejournal.com]

Oh I totally agree! With sites like Tumblr out there it's impossible to stop it completely, unless I go to extreme measures and have my own site that only allows a select few in - which defeats the purpose of sharing art in the first place considering I don't think mine's good enough to ask people to pay to see it.

I still get that knee jerk reaction though when people recolour my stuff or just outright claim it's theirs. That's when I get annoyed and need to step in. Otherwise a simple redistribute is okay - except in this case when I had already asked for it to be removed and they did a sneaky and brought it back up.

[the-outcasts.livejournal.com]

That's the one! I've edited the entry to include it (of all the things to forget to add in!).

[the-outcasts.livejournal.com]

The site's been around for 12+ years as far as I remember - so a lot of the site's been written in a very "Hey dude, I'm a tough guy!" language that doesn't seem to have been looked into since.

But I'm not a big fan of the whole "If you don't like it not our problem" attitude either way.

[the-outcasts.livejournal.com]

It's this one here: http://tails.kicks-ass.net/index.php?area=help&view=7 I've edited the entry to include it (of all the things to forget to add in!).

[the-outcasts.livejournal.com]

It's this one here: http://tails.kicks-ass.net/index.php?area=help&view=7 I've edited the entry to include it (of all the things to forget to add in!).

And that's what I figured - it stays down, not "It stays down... until a year later"

[the-outcasts.livejournal.com]

That was my first thought, but I wanted to be sure about it XD

It's this one here: http://tails.kicks-ass.net/index.php?area=help&view=7 I've edited the entry to include it (of all the things to forget to add in!).

The site is mostly Sonic fanart, but there is some anthro art there, too. I don't think there's a danger of newer artists being on here, but if you used to do Sonic fanart in the past, might be worth checking.

[dingus.livejournal.com]

seems likely, since kicks-ass.net is also a free dns host.

that might be even better, since their isp is essentially their webhost. you usually need special permissions or a business line to run a server off your isp connection, so a complaint to the isp might get them booted regardless of their content.

re: you'll have to keep coming back

[goatparty.livejournal.com]

I don't understand how they think that's an okay thing to do at all. Not sure if they're trying to make artists think it's too much work to get their art taken down or what, but it's 100% not okay.

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing he does have a business line, what with all the traffic that site probably has.

[ljmydayaway.livejournal.com]

All the same. At least if you DMCA their ISP, they'll end up losing their internet connection for a while and actually have a feel of regret or upset about stealing. At least until they get a new ISP. :P

[fastbreak333.livejournal.com]

Off-topic here, but not all sites that are like ponibooru do that. I know a site I go to links to the source and has "artist:[name]" tags. And of course, if an artist doesn't want it there, it stays down.

[fastbreak333.livejournal.com]

Wait, you have to come back yearly to keep it off? Why? Is it really that difficult to keep things off forever? When you delete stuff, it stays deleted. Why have something complicated?

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

If what the_outcasts said is accurate, the site has been doing this for more than twelve years.

I don't think the owner even knows how to feel upset about stealing. :P

[kawaiipiepie.livejournal.com]

I still think all those kinds of sites should ask permission first. Credit isn't permission.

[otherscape.livejournal.com]

Oh this is hilarious.

Do they really think their silly little TOS is going to out trump copyright law?

[ljmydayaway.livejournal.com]

No internet = will feel regret. For at least one moment. Trust me. xD

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

If they say outright that they'll keep doing it, that sounds like a prima facie case for a lawsuit.

[the-outcasts.livejournal.com]

It's not so much that they're stealing, but I really don't like the idea of someone else speaking on my behalf to have my art "archived" illegally just because they won't shift their files to another folder, if they are indeed hosting everything from a home server. And my memory's a bit fuzzy, but considering my art on here dates back to 1999 - 2000, this site has been around for a donkey's age easily.

Though I'm a bit confused about where exactly would I need to file the DMCA to? If their host doesn't exist where do I go from there? (sorry, I just want to make sure I reading everything right)

[rivkahwinter.livejournal.com]

This is actually very useful, and... well... I personally hope that I don't have to send any notice like this to anybody... ever.

But thank you for posting this link!

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

In this case you'd DMCA their ISP (internet service provider) which would be Verizon, going by Foxhack's first post.

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

Considering it's still a case of taking without asking, that really doesn't make it any better.

[ocelotish]

I disagree with this. It would be nice if they would, but it's also hard to impossible to enforce (what do you need a note to be submitted alongside every submission?), hurts the site (it stifles growth, and you have to deal with non-responsive artists), and is quickly and easily resolved by removal and "blacklist" (i.e. you can't post art by these people).

I'm kind of assuming you didn't talk to Lauren Faust or Hasbro about drawing Fluttershy, even that's probably a violation of copyright. I'm sure you'd be happy to remove it if they sent you a note.

Copyright violations are common to ubiquitous online. If they're not making any sort of profit from the art and are willing to remove it when asked, what harm is done? The best thing to do is protect yourself: watermark your images with your name and URL, state in your artists comments that your work may not be reposted. If it really can't be reposted, include a "No reposting" watermark on the image.

[ocelotish]

Pretty much this.

I haven't had anything stolen, so take with salt. My thoughts are that it's going to be reposted without permission at some point, I can choose to let it bother me or not. I can choose to take precautions (watermarking, etc.), or watermark the hell out of something I don't want reposted, but the ultimate solution is accepting that things will be reblogged, or people will want to reblog my work: do I care, and if I care, what can I do to not worry about it?