funkyfacestudio has found that another website is using RB images – clearly without permission. see the posting...
funkyfacestudio has found that another website is using RB images – clearly without permission. see the posting
So everyone knows a little more where we stand, and what is happening with “the polyvore affair”, I will post here the “communication” th…
So everyone knows a little more where we stand, and what is happening with “the polyvore affair”, I will post here the “communication” that has happened between “them” and I. I personally am not done with this. I want Polyvore to respect ALL Artists’ copyrights. Here is a collection of what was said and done, at the end of this writing, I will explain what remains. It is not over yet. / _____ @Polyvore, I am really concerned about the fact that you have dissabeld your own tags, and thereof, you can no longer find new works that are being directed to your site. / I can proove very well that I can still upload pictures form redbubble to your site. / I just did it once again… / I chalenge you to take your own responsibility and find the works that I have uploaded… (as you would have to find lost works that are just still around on your site.) you are the one(s) in charge of your own network, it is for you to fix the mistakes that you have allowed to be produced here. / Perhaps you should also think about removing all works from other similar sites (but I think that it would be much easier on you to tell your members to upload their own products from their computer… If they have copyrights (like we do here) they must have it on their own computers. When I started to be a photographer, I did it on my own time… I did not “steal” any equipment nor copyrighted materials from more experienced people. How can we teach our children to be their own selves if we can’t even let them produce their own works? What is the message you want to carry? But let me tell you that if you can find my work, and you do remove it as soon as you do, that means that you can do the same with ALL of our works… this is YOUR responsibility. It is disgraceful to see that you allow young people to upload “anything” to your site, and then wash your hands clean of it for letting the whole world use it. I am very deceived. and I demand that you do no longer allow ANY directing from other copyrighted sites… I am watching you, and there are a few people that are too… you just won’t always know who we are… nor which site we come from… deviantart, redbubble, photobucket… or any other sites… theft is theft, and it is not acceptable to profit (in any forms, and you sure do profit from getting original works to be played with to attract your clients.) Please do not sing me a sweet song, for you haven’t even replied to half of us through our complaints… I want to be kept updated here as to know what it is you are doing to ensure our rights. Crokus Label, creator of the petition to which you didn’t really reply but to cut and paste your message from here to there. We have a petition of 181 + yourself there, that states that WE want it all removed. It was your mistake in the first place. Fix it. Show the young ones on your site that one must take responsibilities for their own actions. It might help them trust adults, and learn to accept their responsibilities too. Work on changing how your images are getting on your site(get them to upload from their own computers), because I promise to not give up the fight, and I am willing to go to any length to achieve the respect of our copyrights. Our copyrights MUST be respected anywhere. Redbubble memebers or not. Copyrights are OUR rights as artists, anywhere we be. Regards, Crokus Label Photography, creator of the petition to which you should probably look at carefully, for we are many to ask you to remove our works, and not allow it to be posted on your site. So I leave you to the cleaning up of your infringement mess, and I will be back in the morning to see if our petition was well understood. (I too will be copying and pasting this elsewhere so everyone knows where all this is at now.) __ Polyvore, I am somehow deceived as how you have been avoiding me. My account was deleted yesterday and reinstated today (I never have been abusive in my journey to copyright assertion. So I assume this is why you reinstated my account on your site.) Now, I would have thought that you would have got something to reply at least in one of my messages/requests. But even after sending you messages to your site, messages here and on the other thread here at RedBubble, and a link in your Bubblemail to let you know I had left you a message in both threads, you never respond to ANY of my writings… And that either in private. I am still looking for explanations of how things will be handled from your site to stop this violation of copyrights. Still waiting for you to give me a sign of life. Crokus Label Photography. Crokus: i just replied to your bubblemail. As of last night, we have blocked imports from redbubble.com (because redbubble.com staff requested that we do so). You managed to import your image before our site software was updated with that change. We have taken down your image and sets that you mentioned in your message. (Although, we did not understand why you uploaded something only to request to have it removed a few hours later). As we have mentioned several times: we would be happy to comply with take down notices as long as they come from the person who owns the rights to the image and lists which URLs need to be removed. Please allow a reasonable amount of time for us to respond to your request (we usually respond in a few hours, but please allow 24 hours before you hit the panic button). Also, please note that different people have different opinions about how their images should or should not be used online. We would be happy to service group take down requests as we did with RedBubble.com but please don’t send us request to take down all image from site X unless you are sure everyone affected shares your views. I hope this is not construed as lack of cooperation or respect on our part. I hope I answered your questions. _ Polyvore, I have uploaded these to see how your site was “working,” and what will happen with my images, so I precisely know what and how to make sure copyrighted images are not still being used. As for standing up for all artist that have their rights to copyrights of their own material, I can not stay there and do nothing about it, for copyrights are made to be respected, and the very big majority of your images were taken on the net “randomly” by users that do not have them rights; Therefore, I will maintain my position at asking that everybody’s copyrights be respected. If you do not remove them you might have to deal with the consequences of your “inactions”… Most people form other sites can’t ask you to have their works removed, for they are not even aware that they have been imported there. It would only be fair to refuse to respect their copyrights because you believe that they should all come and warn you to remove stuff that they do not even know is on your site. Copyrights are made for EVERYONE to be respected, and I do not believe that when you say that everybody has a different opinion on the issue, you seem to forget that copyrights are the same for everyone, and that includes your site. By refusing today to take care of the real problem, you expose yourself to lawsuits in a near or far future. I must say that you have made some great efforts to remove to remove redbubble’s member’s works, and I appreciate this. I would really appreciate if you would let us know how you will make your best so your members really understand what are copyrights, what consequences there might be to infringe them, and what changes you will/might make in a near future so all artists/photographers works be protect as best as you can. Thank you for this first reply, I appreciate that you finally found time to respond to part of my concerns. Crokus Label _ What do you think? I am not done… but let’s keep pealing the onion… ;) (here are some key words so people can find this form a search engine: polyvore.com, polyvore, action, copyrights, rights, copyright, internet, infringement,Pasha Sadri, violation, fraud, theft, thief, mission, respect, honor, ceo, founder, community, innovator, thieves, scandal,blog, concern, concerned, Unite, unity, help, violator, law, trust, refuse, refusal, blame, )
Chris + Helen + Insanity = AwESomE!!!! !http://imag…
Chris + Helen + Insanity = AwESomE!!!! You guys are officially SO FUNNY! And Chris isn’t a first time offender either! And since we’re playing show and tell, here are some other miscelaneous “jo inspired” artworks I have been alerted to… And Andrew Walker has of course entertained us with Soap Bubble Episode 1 / and Soap Bubble Episode 2 And Andrew Lowther’s I have a love thing for Jo O’Brien Should I be worried?
The Myths and Realities of Digital Image Theft / ...
The Myths and Realities of Digital Image Theft / By / Jon D. Ayres Being involved in digital art and photography for many years I have seen many misconceptions about digital image theft, especially lately. Of course any photographer and digital artist should be concern about having their work stolen and at present to only sure fire way to prevent digital image theft is just not to place your work on the internet, but lets be honest, image theft just does not happen as much as some people claim it does. For example, look at the number of people who are members of Red Bubble who post their work, how many have been caught using work they stole or have been caught stealing work posted on Red Bubble? Only one or two that I’m aware of, how many do you think are uploading work they stole? Considering the number of posters and the number of new members and post made every day, I would say the number of digital image thieves is very small if any at all. I read where one poster stated that they would no longer trust what she sees on Red Bubble because one person was caught uploading work that he stole from other artists and that is sad. I tend to trust people until I have a reason not to and when I see art work on different sites of the Internet, I will give the artist the benefit of the doubt until I have a reason not to because I consider myself also an artist. I take my own photographs and do my own post processing and conversions and I can prove that fact at any time to anybody, I want people to appreciate my art as I appreciate others art. From the forums of Red Bubble, it seems that some seem to think as Red Bubble becomes more popular, it will attract more image thieves. I can not argue with that, but let’s take a look at the types of image theft. Too many artists as I have said many times before, fail to even consider the business side of selling their art, they want to place their work on the Internet for people to see, admire and purchase, but are so afraid that somebody may steal their work and this fear many times lead to them taking actions that may protect their work in a small way if at all, but the price they will pay will be in lost sells and less admiration and appreciation for their work. Business is risks and gambles, both in a brick and mortar store or an Internet store and unless you’re willing to take some risks, you really have no business trying to sell anything. Lately on the Red Bubble forums I have read where a few people are saying that they are seeing more and more work submitted by people who are using work and photos which are not theirs. I somewhat wonder just how true this really is, because very often, things are not the way it seems, yes, this also applies to digital art thieves. But like I said before I like to give the person the benefit of the doubt until I have reason not to. Of course, f you think somebody has stolen another artist’s work, you should bring that to the attention of the directors and administrators of the site so they can look into it. But often times what looks to be somebody else’s work in reality is not anybodies else work but the submitter. A good example of this is on several of the larger stock agencies. When I first started looking for a stock site to host some of my photos, I always do a search to see just what my competition was on the site and who are posting work like mine and what they are posting. Often I was in shock by what I found when I did a search for photos of Moscow. One every large stock site, looked as if the people posting photos of Moscow were all on the same tour, taking photos of the exact same things almost in the exact same locations, standing in exact same spot. That was how close most of the photos of Moscow matched each other, of the 30 or 40 people posting photos taken in Moscow; they all looked as if they were all taken by the same person. So you have to be very careful in making accusations against somebody. Also if an artist buys a photo they like from a stock site or photographer, many times they can use that photo in their art as they see fit and I have given other digital artists to use my photos in their art for free. I retain the copyright of the original photo and the artist has copyright on their art. You have to be very careful with making accusations against somebody. Of course we artists all have to lookout for each other, but that also is a responsibility to try and be absolutely sure before making n accusation against anybody. When I first started working in photography and digital art, I learn the importance of having a good attorney retained to handle situations such as this, its sad that in today’s world, every business or individual involved in business needs an attorney, but that is a fact and I have one. If anybody steals my work or other legal photo and digital art issues that may arise, then I let my attorney handle it, that is one of the reasons I have retained her. In the early days of the Internet, I remember people only uploaded their images to show what they could do and many times the artist would be flattered if you said I would like to use your photo or art and they would let you use it for free, you only had to give recognition to the artist. The Internet was a gold mine for the ad agency, magazines and post card companies looking for digital art to use and in many cases for free. Even today there are many free graphic arts sites, one of the stock agencies I use even has a free section where photographers can donate work that can be downloaded and used for free. Though not as common as it used to be, businesses, companies, publishers sometimes seem to think they can download and use photos and graphic arts from the Internet for free. Case in point, here in Moscow a couple of years ago, a phone card company took a liking to the work of a local Moscow photographer and downloaded some of her photos to use on phone calling cards. The photographer just happen to be walking by a shop that sold phone cards in the subway and noticed several cards for sell with her photos on them, so she bought one of each and when she got home called the phone card company who tried to tell her that because her photos were on the Internet, they could be had for free, and they refused to pay for the work they took. Luckily the young lady knew an attorney who called the phone card company and told them that unless they were willing to pay for the work they stole, the matter would be settled in court. The young photographer ended up getting $500 per photo, which was about twice what she would normally get. That is why today, most businesses and publishers do not steal photos and art work from the Internet, because it is a no win situation for them and they know it. Yes, some businesses still take photos from the Internet, but they generally are small businesses who think they can get away with it without it being noticed, larger businesses and publishers know better and if they do not, they legal team will remind them. But this still does happen from time to time, consider Rebekka Guoleifsdottira, one of flickr’s most popular photographers. She’s posted the above composite to her flickrstream and written a post about how she’s been ripped off by Only-Dreaming, a London based print-selling company. Rebekka says that this store stole her photos, sold them for thousands of dollars and now will not pay her for what they stole from her. Rebekka tells how a friend of hers came across their store on ebay and recognized one of her prints. Rebekka looked into the matter and discovered 7 more of my photos being sold there. “I spent a good many days researching, going back thru their customer feedback, and was able to track back the sales of at LEAST 60 prints made from my images. These prints sold for a total sum of 2450 british pounds (around 4840 US$ )” said Rebekka. So far Rebekka’s attorney has only been able to get her images (which are all right’s reserved) off of Only-Dreeming’s website. Rebekka is an art student and single mother and could not afford a long drawn out legal battle. Only-Dreaming claims they bought the high resolution photos and did not know they were stolen. I tried Only-Dreaming web site and only the main page works, so maybe they are out of business now. The second group of image thieves and the largest group are individuals and make believe artists and photographers who steal other’s work and claim it is their own. It is these thieves that I find the most disgusting. But even though lazy no talent sewer rats like this make the largest number of digital art thieves, considering the number of talented true artists today who post their work on the Internet, the number of lazy sewer rats will always be small. They seem to think that because there are so many digital artists posting their work on the Internet and there are so much digital art that they can help themselves to what ever they choose and nobody will notice, famous last words. I did a web search for that person who caused such a uproar on Red Bubble who was caught steal digital art, named Donkeyass or something like that. I noticed their web page is gone now, but that person still has artwork posted on quiet a few digital art agencies and sites. But word is getting out about Donkeyass. Thieves are not known for being smart, that is one reason why digital art thieves are pretty easy to catch. Just look at that fool Donkeyass, posting his stolen art all over the internet, as if nobody would notice it. Just how do you catch digital art thieves? To a small degree its luck, as in the case when you accidentally stumble onto your work being used without your permission by another, most stock agencies are like large families, the membership generally look after one another. If you’re a member of a stock agency, then you generally look at other members photos and art and you have your favorite artists. I generally also look at other art and photography sites and have my favorite sites, if I notice a photo or art work on another site that looks like something another member of the stock agency I’m a member of that another member may have done, I will let them know about so they can check it out, same if I notice a photo or art piece in a magazine or advertisement, I will mention it the member I know, at least congratulate them, so they at least know their work has been noticed and if it is unauthorized use, then they are aware of it. Most stock agencies take image theft very seriously, both the thieves who steal members art and members who steal others art, so make the stack agency aware of images which may have been stolen. Some stock agencies use digital finger prints, each photo or art work uploaded to the site is digitally fingerprinted, then if the photo is right clicked, downloaded or saved, it can be traced right to where it was downloaded and by whom. There is nothing wrong with saving a photo you like, its how you use it that can cause trouble. Here is a very interesting link on digital fingerprinting: http://www.blogherald.com/2007/12/03/digital-fingerprints-for-images-detecting-image-theft-for-free/ / Canada has a new digital police force whose job is to search the Internet for digital thieves. Canada Seeks Digital Cops to Catch Digital Thieves / http://secondliferesearch.blogspot.com/2007/07/canada-seeks-digital-cops-to-catch.html / This is only a few of the many ways to catch digital thieves. How not to protect your work The methods vary, but remember, there are ways around most methods of protection if a thief knows what they are doing. Some mistakenly believe that disabling right click saving will protect their work, but I’m afraid these people only have a false sense of security. All a image thief has to do is use a screen capture to save a photo or art work. I have an Adobe program that I use to save web pages to make my own reference manuals (for my own use), I remember not long ago on one of the Red Bubble forums a lady saying how well protected her photos were on her site because she had disabled right click saving. Well, I copied her complete web site in less than 30 seconds, then extracted all the photos from the pdf file, nothing any easier than that. In less than 30 seconds, I had a copy of every photo and art work on her site. There are programs where all you have to do is enter a web address and it will download every photo or picture that are on the web site. So you can very well see that disabling right clicking does nothing. As a matter of fact enabling right clicking has helped me make sells. Many of my clients like to save my work and show their clients if they are interested in having my work, so I have no problems with right clicking as long as the person doing the right clicking does the responsible thing. I’m against disabling right clicking for several reasons, first, it does not work, second, I make sells by allowing people to right click and save a low resolution copy of my work and third, I live in Moscow, Russia, my family likes in the US, I want my family to be able to right click and save my work. Now if you right click my work and save it then use it yourself for financial gain gain or claim it is your work, you better hope that I do not find out about it. Watermarking is one of the best ways to protect your work, but many people not only watermark their work wrong, but also have no idea of the real reason for watermarking. Most people feel that watermarking is to make it hard for an image thief to use their work, well guess again, a good image thief knows how to remove most watermarks. Some think that by putting a big watermark across the middle of your artwork will protect it and in most cases it does, but it also makes your artwork look very bad and unprofessional and could very well cost you sells, that is why it is not bothered with by most digital thieves, they only want good art. In my and a lot of other people’s mind, a big bold watermark across a photo or art piece completely destroys it. Faded watermarks or transparent watermarks are better, but faded watermarks still take away from the photo. But this really is not the purpose of watermarks. Watermarks are for showing that a photo is copyrighted and how holds the copyright and in my case to show that I am the artist who created the art and that in a lot of cases keeps image thieves away. The purpose of watermarking is not to make it hard for an image thief to steal your work, but to show who owns and copyrighted the work. Then if the case ends up in court, the image thief is already sunk because even if they remove the watermark, that only makes your case stronger. The image thief has lost before they even began, that’s why most professional image thieves stay away from watermarked photos. And for this purpose, a small watermark is all it takes. Remember, if a professional image thief wants your digital art, they can remove a large watermark just as easy as they can crop a small watermark on the corner edge of a photo. Watermarks are for showing who owns a photo and the copyright and this is very strong in courts of law, especially when you show that the watermark has been removed. For this reason, watermarking is one of the best protections for photos. But only if you do it right will it help your sells, not take away from your sells. There are many digital arts now, the competition is very strong and if your going to make sells, you have to provide a pleasing to the eye product, do not let your watermarking take away from your work, if you do, a buyer will go somewhere else to find their art. As I said, most professional digital art thieves and businesses do not try and take watermark photos because they are copyrighted and if caught, it could be very expensive for the business or pro image thief. But the lazy make believe digital artists are the main ones who steal watermarked work for their own use or to claim as their own work and in a lot of cases the individual make believe digital artists can be the hardest to catch because they can hide among the true digital artists, but they are also the easiest to catch, because they are stupid. How do you protect your digital master pieces? Every stock agency, every art site, every web page where photos can be posted, should make it clear that digital art theft will not be tolerated, either by people downloading art (by downloading I mean for their own use) or by artists who are members of the agency. That all work is copyrighted. That fact alone is enough to make most people leave your work alone. And that if caught, the agency will take what ever actions needed to rectify the situation and by legal means if required. This warning should be placed on every page which has a photograph or art work is found. Do not make threats that only encourage image theft, its like waving a red flag in front of a bull. The digital image thieves who know what they are doing are few in number and will not be stopped no matter what, but thankfully they only concentrate on photos and artwork that big money can be made on, not art work like on Red Bubble or other stock photo sites like this. Face facts, if your work was truly good enough to make big bucks, you would not be here, would you? Your stock agency should refuse to use hot linking, hot linking is one of the easiest way for the digital image thief to steal images, all they have to do is copy the code and place it on their web page and whola, look at what they have now, your photo or photos all for themselves. / If you’re more worried about people stealing our masterpieces than you are about selling them, then do not list your gallery or portfolio on the Internet search engines. The less people who know about your work or where to find, the lesser number of digital image thieves who can find your work. If your more concerned about selling your work and being an successful artist, then submit your gallery and portfolio to Internet search engines. Business is risky, just look at the number of businesses robbed and broken into each day, even on the Internet, but you can make your Internet business safe if you choose to. Use numbers instead of letters or place a number somewhere in the photo name, misspell the photo name, but be careful if you want customers Using low resolution photos as examples is one of the best ways to protect your work, I know some have said, “Oh I downloaded a photo from Red Bubble and made a post card with it” I mean really, now how about trying to resize that photo to a more useful size, you may be able to get a 4 inch by 6 inch card made using that photo if your lucky, but any larger forget it. Having low resolution examples is the best way to protect your work and one of the ones I prefer most. Make it 4×6 inches (or smaller) at a resolution of 72dpi and that’ll make it near useless for printing purposes, unless the user wants to shrink it to half the size 2×3 inches to get a good resolution for printing. Watermarking your photos, some believe they need a big watermark across their photo, I do not, and a small watermark is all that’s needed. Some like me place it in a corner of the photo, some place it in the middle and others somewhere like curved around a car wheel, on a church steeple or in another unnoticeable place in the photo or art work. The reason for this is to be able to prove that the image belongs to you. But to ruin the image in an effort to save it, defeats the purpose of having the image for sell in the first place. Digital art is now very competitive, will no telling how many artists doing it now. You have to keep your work appealing and a big watermark across your work just is not very appealing to most people looking to buy a piece of art. Though watermarking can make it a nuisance for the person to steal it, but watermarking is ugly, and you’d pretty much have to destroy the photo before someone like myself would have trouble removing it, is that the type of work you want to present to prospective clients, I sure do not. You may want to consider copyright protection or registering your copyright just in case you ever have to go to court. There have been a few cases where the court has ruled against the artist who created the work because they were unable to prove that they took steps to protect their copyright. Cases like this are few and far between, but they do happen from time to time. Some stock agencies mark their photos with digital fingerprints. Digital Fingerprints allow a photo to be tracked, who downloads it, time it was downloaded, where it was downloaded to. Stock agencies have found that just mentioning that their photos are digitally Fingerprinting scares away most digital thieves. There is only foolproof way to protect your digital art and that is just not put it on the Internet at all. No matter what means are developed to protect digital art on the Internet, it will only be a matter of time before a way to defeat it is found. Just last month in St. Petersburg there was a hackers convention, one of the sites hacked was one of the larger popular stock photo sites, the hackers were able to bypass the security of this stock agency and download every photo on that site. If you so paranoid that you think that your masterpieces will be stolen, then you should not place them on the Internet at all. If it can be seen with a browser, it can be taken, plain and simple. How do you find out if your work has been stolen? / 1. To find stolen text or articles: Check any search engine using exact original text near the top of your page and put it in quotes, also search for the title of your work. / 2. Find stolen images: Use Google’s Image search or any other search engine that allows you to search for images and use any word that would describe your image. You can also search for the image file name but if they are smart (luckily most digital art thieves are not) they may have changed the name. / 3. Use CopyScape http://www.copyscape.com/ which allows you to enter your web pages URL and it will bring up any site with your content on it (this often results in directory listings with a list of your menu links or other text) so look for listings with a significant amount of words being copied. —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-——- / Steps to Remove Stolen Content / This information comes from Lori’s Web Design http://www.loriswebs.com/stop-stolen-content.html I used this information as my source for this part of my article, so I can not and do not in any way claim this to be mine, I rewrote the indo like I did in school when I had to do a report. So I give full credit to where I found this info. J. D. Ayres / Try and find the contact information for the web site where you find your stolen work. Most thieves are trying to sell what they steal or claim it as their own and usually always have contact info on the page. If they have no contact email on the website which is rare, then contact the sites hosting service. / Check their domain Whois for contact information. All registrants are supposed to provide contact info. Use InterNic Domain Names Search to search for the registrant’s or administrator’s contact info. There are several ways to search for contact info, Mapquest, USPS (United States Postal Service for those who do not know), Whitepages, Yahoo’s People Search, name search on Google or Yahoo, and the phone company where the thief is located. Many cities have online phone directories all over the world. If all of the contact info for the domain is false and the phone company says there is no person by that name listed in that city then this domain was likely purchased for illegal practices which is against the law. You can report them to the org that regulates registration of domains with Internic’s Whois Data Problem Report. They will then try to contact the owner of the domain and if this is not resolved within 15 days they will remove the domain. You will have to provide proof that you own the content in question and include all valid info to support your claim in your letter. / You have to be able to prove that you actually own the work. It is best to have your work registered with the US Copyright office, but not necessary really. You will then need to use proof from a third party online, for example, an electronic copy (save a browser copy) of Google’s cache of your page or website with a date. I generally make .pdf copies of every web page I have material on, so there is no question about when I posted it. I also never use my original photos for my work, only copies, so if needed I can provide the original photo with EXIF data and meta-data. Hopefully you have already done this from the start so if your wrk is stolen, you can prove who had the work first and posted it first. If your website with the stolen content has been online more than 1 year you can provide a link to the Way Back Machine which keeps copies of websites and will provide 3rd party proof who had the content online first. This does not prove who owns what, only who published it first. / Write the owner of the site with the copyright infringement and send a cease and desist letter. Even though you can do this yourself, it is best to have an attorney do it because attorneys are not brushed off as easily as individuals are. You may want to try writing and sending the letter yourself before contacting an attorney or just skip this part all together and contact the Internet host of the thief. / First look for the hosting company’s Terms of Service, every host site has them on a web page with rules about using the site. Most Internet providers (at least in the US) have strict rules about copyright infringement. Quote those rules which apply to your situation in your letter. The thief’s website will probably be removed if you can prove that they have content on it that belongs to you and is there without your permission. Some hosts will take the stolen content down immediately and possibly even remove the whole website. Some hosts will insist on your sending a DMCA report by certified mail according to their rules which are either on their website or they will send you by email. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law which implements two 1996 WIPO treaties. It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services that are used to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works (commonly known as DRM) and criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, even when there is no infringement of copyright itself. It also heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet. On May 22, 2001, the European Union passed the EU Copyright Directive or EUCD, similar in many ways to the DMCA. / In rare cases contacting the offender or their hosting company may not provide the desired results, then look over their hosted sites and write all their advertisers, sponsors, membership organizations, subscribers, Internet Service Providers, Google AdSense as well as any other PayPerClick Services, Yahoo Directory, DMOZ directory, including those who are linked to their website. Inform them this person has stolen your copyrighted material. / If you have been unsuccessful so far, you have one more option left to you before taking legal action, to file a DMCA report with Google or Digital Millennium Copyright Act report. Also file a DMCA report with all the search engines this site is listed with. This is a very long and time consuming process and must be filed via regular certified mail. Make sure you have your facts correct and are completely truthful because if you are not, it could result in legal penalties for you. But this last method is very effective; outside of this your only recourse is taking the thief to court. / Of course all of the above really depends on the country where you live, the country where the thief lives and the country where the thief’s web site is hosted as to how you can deal with the situation. How many digital art thieves are caught and how many get away? I There really is no telling, most US businesses and publications no longer take images and use them without permission because of the legal ramifications, remember I said most, some US businesses still do. From what I have seen on the Internet, it seems that the largest group of business digital image theft goes on in Britain now. Only-Dreaming as mentioned before is a British company, Active Magazine another UK outfit, http://www.leelau.net/2006/activemagazine/activemagazine.htm / I guess UK businesses are like how US businesses used to be, if its on the Internet, then its free for the taking, US businesses pretty much wised up after a few lawsuits. But digital image theft happens all over the world and the only way to stop it is not with software or disabling this or that, but for the honest digital artists to look out for one another. Be careful and try not to jump conclusions, but when you see something that may not be what it claims to be, contact the stock agency or web page director and tell them, I’m not sure, but I think this image may belong to somebody other than the person who posted it here. I maybe wrong, but maybe you should check this photo. Also contact the artist you think the photo may belong to and tell them that maybe they should take a look at the photo and see if it is theirs or not. If all the true digital artists unite and stand together and start kicking some digital thief tail, it will not take long for people to wise up. Of course there will always be thieves, that’s a fact of life, but if we unite and say “enough is enough, we’re not going to take it any more” it will not take long for this problem to be a lot lesser of a problem. / Jon D. Ayres Sources: / Design http://www.loriswebs.com/stop-stolen-content.html / Lori’s Web Design http://www.blogherald.com/2007/12/03/digital-fingerprints-for-images-detecting-image-theft-for-free/ Digital Fingerprints For Images: Detecting Image Theft for Free Canada Seeks Digital Cops to Catch Digital Thieves / http://secondliferesearch.blogspot.com/2007/07/canada-seeks-digital-cops-to-catch.html
The current May 17, 2008 U. S. Senate version of the “Orphan Works” legislation is a nightmare for artists. Every country in the world…
The current May 17, 2008 U. S. Senate version of the “Orphan Works” legislation is a nightmare for artists. Every country in the world currently recognizes an artist’s rights to their own work, with or without a formal copyright; all you need to do in the case of a dispute is prove that you did it first. Leave it to the Legislative Branch of the USA Federal Government to attempt to pass a law requiring an artist to pay a fee to a Corporation in order to own something that already belongs to them! Can you imagine the revenue at $5 a pop? It boggles the mind. King George never had it so good. This is something that every artist in the USA must take action against. Read about it here and here Here’s a draft of a letter concerned artists can send to their U.S. Senators: Dear Senator __, I am one of your constituents, a professional artist. It is crucial to my livelihood that you oppose the “Orphan Works” bill, H.R. 5889, in its current form. If this bill’s current language becomes law, it would permit, and even encourage, wide-scale infringements of my copyrighted artworks while depriving me of many of the protections currently available to me under the Copyright Act, including the right to ask the courts to award statutory damages and attorneys’ fees. In the publication world, the reality is that most artworks will easily become considered orphaned, depriving me of a significant part of my income. I urge you to oppose this bill unless and until it is amended to contain at least the minimum provisions that are critical to protect artists, including but not limited to a notice of use that must be filed before the use is made, upon penalty of losing eligibility to claim orphan work status for failure to file the notice; an archive of the notices, to be maintained by the Copyright Office or an approved third party; and other protections that appear in the current (May 15, 2008) language of H.R. 5889. Please let me know if you have any questions or if I can provide you with any additional information. Thank you for your time. I hope that you will take the necessary actions to protect my interests and prevent the passage of this bill until it is amended to be fair and reasonable to all parties. Respectfully yours, / ____ Here is a web site that makes it easy to find contact information for your U.S. Senators.
Earlier this week, I sent in one of my images in the Challenge Cafe #21. The competition theme was “GREED”. / I just came home, and disc…
Earlier this week, I sent in one of my images in the Challenge Cafe #21. The competition theme was “GREED”. / I just came home, and discovered that I had won! I feel honored and humbled at the same time. Thank you everyone who voted for “Highway Robbery.” It was on impulse that I decided to created this image in my driveway one morning, not knowing what people would think. But I had just came home after filling my gasoline tank, and I was enraged. This photo is the result…
I don’t get angry very often, but I’m feeling a bit that way tonight. My son who is doing the ‘hard yards’, living and studying at Uni o…
I don’t get angry very often, but I’m feeling a bit that way tonight. My son who is doing the ‘hard yards’, living and studying at Uni on the Gold Coast, and working part-time at a local food outlet, had his “Mountain Bike” stolen in broad daylight while he was at work today. He worked very hard to save to buy his bike so he could ride to his lectures and his part-time job. He only had it about a month. It was chained to a tall post at the shopping centre where he works. The thieves would’ve had to lift it rather high to get over the top of the pole….and no-one saw anything. My heart goes out to my son, and being on a rather tight budget ourselves, cannot help him out. I worry sometimes as he has to walk home from his job at times late at night, and riding a bike, at least I felt his journey was a little more safe. Honestly, I just don’t understand sometimes why people do these things. He reported it to the police, they were sympathetic but really couldn’t do anything but suggest he goes down to the police station tomorrow and report it.
Not happy at all. Went to Warringah Mall today to specifically to buy a pencil case. I like the smiggle store and it seems they like m…
Not happy at all. Went to Warringah Mall today to specifically to buy a pencil case. I like the smiggle store and it seems they like me to. I wandered in, and all over the wall, on mouse pads, pencils cases, book covers, and every other thinkable item was their design called ‘samurai’ excuse the bad photo, it was taken with my iphone, but ill get better photos next time im at the mall. just needed to jump on to redbubble and vent. I have had someone from zazzle steal my geisha design but they didnt realise that what they were doing was wrong. this is an Australian company with lots of stores stealing from a local designer!! madness! / will get better pics very soon! / mikoto’s samurai what do i do now? I spoke to the store manager and they said that the designer is from Melbourne? Oh and for fun spot similarities! oh, here as better proof, thanks MarbiaStudios: http://www.smiggle.com.au/SM_navIWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=8&Section_Id=&pcount=&Product_Id=1321097:
An allegation that a/an RBer has “stolen” and then sold many RBers’ pics on Photobucket was recieved this morning in the cue of our “grou…
An allegation that a/an RBer has “stolen” and then sold many RBers’ pics on Photobucket was recieved this morning in the cue of our group, . This note was recieved from if you want to see the original writing. I don’t believe s/he’s been proven legally to have done this, so to avoid libelous accusations, I’m just saying this: On RB, go to your Account page, scroll to the bottom quarter and you’ll find choices of ways to protect your work from being copied off the Site. Copyright laws are in flux right now. The Senate passed a bad one (for us artists and photogs) while we weren’t looking, hooked onto a bailout bill, I believe. But the House of Representatives haven’t yet voted on it. So I’m going to send you what I know about Copyright Law: Sign and date your artwork (including drawings in any, including electronic media, photos and written works) plus the® in the circle (capital 9 and cap 0) and you should have a pretty tight International Copyright. / Source / For example, I sign my name, [and this is my true first name] and then the (R) info as such: / dayonda® / 3 Jan 2009 / The copyright “hangs” in RB as long as you leave your work in RB. Here is a Link to send your US Representative a note NOT to pass the bill. There are a long line of Illustrators’, Painters’, and Writers’ Associations who have come out strongly against it. This new legislation has a good side: videos, artworks, writings and poems can’t be brought out of museum back rooms and basements, because they’ll never find a copyright holder. So they can’t even digitize the material. Given that, we could be forced to take out a CR on every doodle we put up in a public viewing area, like RB, at whatever price each. Back when I was a kid, it was 6$ US, but that was close to 40 yrs ago. Prices must have gone up. If we keep what’s on the books for small businesses and individual citizens, we can still do the “freebee”, as above. Well, I hope this doesn’t bum you out. It does me- but do what you have to do to protect your art. / best- Dayonda
Hi all, please read this, theres some tosser on DeviantArt pass…
Hi all, please read this, theres some tosser on DeviantArt passing off an entire gallery of RedBubble Artists’ work as his own. If your work is there, you can contact violations@deviantart.com to report the theft. This guy calls himself “tropicalpassion”, the link to his gallery is here – name and shame people, this guy is taking credit for your hard work!!!
art theft? or borrowed art...
art theft? or borrowed art hmmmmm…. IF IT AIN’T YOURS buddy, THEN DON’T POST IT!!!!
http://schmid.wordpress.com/about/faq/
http://schmid.wordpress.com/about/faq/
Just found a glitch on how to steal pics on RB. When you put your pic for example in a journal the filter isn’t working … / Just did …
Just found a glitch on how to steal pics on RB. When you put your pic for example in a journal the filter isn’t working … / Just did a “save as target” and could open it in PS. / Found that now with a pic of a bubbler (and informed her of course). / With all thieves lurking around better safe …
Hi everyone! I thought I’d post a link to a great site that allows you to kee…
Hi everyone! I thought I’d post a link to a great site that allows you to keep an eye on your images, to see if anyone is taking them and re-posting them, claiming them as their own. Otherwise known as copyright infringement, or what I think of as art theft. It’s called Tin Eye and you can either upload imagery from your computer or copy paste the online image’s URL to search. You can also find a great Tin Eye search add-on for Firefox which allows you to simply right click and check your imagery. Much faster. There is nothing that makes me madder than art theft. Here is an example This member has NASA Hubble photographs in his gallery and famous work by Clark Little I have no doubt that most of his other work is stolen too. But I wanted to say most of all, that when you’re browsing someone’s gallery, and the images seem disconnected and different from each other, and there’s photos that look like they’re from a mobile phone next to others that look like they are from National Geographic, take a moment to check an image on Tin Eye and don’t be afraid to use the “Report a Concern” button under the image. The more we help each other prevent art theft, the better for all of us. Cheers! Simone Yvette
Decided to type in my name and found so many stolen images both mine and other RB artists on this person’s gallery at Scrapbook Flair. / ...
Decided to type in my name and found so many stolen images both mine and other RB artists on this person’s gallery at Scrapbook Flair. She has a blog with some images there too.. I have just started mining the Victoria_70 gallery and saw some people’s work from RB. / Looking at the childrens images I have seen some I recognise but don’t know who they belong to… Micklyn I saw some of yours… Jacqueline Roberts too S (sandra) Guzman deahna There are some fantasy images of women too… It’s enough to bring me to tears.. / . Go get ‘em guys… http://www.scrapbookflair.com/scrapbookergallery.aspx?userid=137442
Through my cyber travels i have come across many photographers work that has been stolen and used without their knowledge / And just recen…
Through my cyber travels i have come across many photographers work that has been stolen and used without their knowledge / And just recently i have found a site that tracks back photos and shows where they are being used on the net / http://tineye.com/ / you simply enter the image address (URL) or choose an image from your HD and the site looks for it in their archives / it even works for images that have been cropped after being stolen or partially photoshopped this is a good example / http://tineye.com/search/0ac89241ed4c8ccd104094f6412ded2e0acfc2d7 / The original is the profile pic of someone who friend requested me on Facebook as something seemed odd/funny about it I put the image through Tineye.com / and you can see the results Another image site which you might like (if you use flickr) is / http://clipyourphotos.com/FP / they serch through the Flickr Front page history for your photos that might have been featured there that you missed any way I hope these are useful for people Cheers Richard
Here and Here...
Here and Here If you see it, could you also comment on her so called stream. Thanks! Claudia
I seriously don’t understand people’s thought process when they rip off other artist’s works. They can’t imagine that someone wouldn’t fi…
I seriously don’t understand people’s thought process when they rip off other artist’s works. They can’t imagine that someone wouldn’t find them out. It is called the world wide web after all! Have a look through this Flickr gallery and see if you can spot any of your work.
Amongst many others here on Redbubble, I also have become a victim of Art theft! My Water Lillies – Batavia Downs...
Amongst many others here on Redbubble, I also have become a victim of Art theft! My Water Lillies – Batavia Downs has been stolen by Elena Harris on Flickr – See HERE Check out her gallery to see if any of yours are here too – Flickr Gallery I feel ashamed to have the same surname – No relation I assure you!!! See other Journal entries: Squealia / Philip Johnson / Barnsis / Richard Veal / Irene Burdell
Hi flks been diggin’ around re copyright thief and found this that I have copied from the twitterfeed of Cassie Peters (angelandspot) fro…
Hi flks been diggin’ around re copyright thief and found this that I have copied from the twitterfeed of Cassie Peters (angelandspot) from twitter. Relevance? Well, I don’t know? / Concerned? You tell me? Genuine? Someone please tell me? Direct copy of link:- ” But http://www.flickr.com/photos/flower_chick/4040840983/ is really Jacky Parker’s on Redbubble http://tinyurl.com/ybpr6p3 / about 16 hours ago from web / Reply Retweet I think all the works are stolen from other artists in this Flickr stream http://www.flickr.com/photos/flower_chick/ she doesn’t have mine / about 16 hours ago from web / Reply Retweet EEks! You better check http://www.flickr.com/photos/flower_chick/ I reconize the work of several different artists in that photo stream. / about 16 hours ago from web / Reply Retweet “ What’s going on folks?
I just came across this person on photobucket. They are selling one (that I …
I just came across this person on photobucket. They are selling one (that I have found so far) image of mine. You might like to check them out to make sure yours aren’t being abused. They have lots of images and I’m in no doubt that very few are actually theirs. http://s525.photobucket.com/albums/cc335/danielleguarino/ My image is in the top row on page 2 I have reported them. I just did a search on the site under “naomi frost” and found another of my photos, this time turned into some sort of movie poster – needless to say I’m not happy!
There’s been lots of chatter about theft of images lately…well, hey…like ever since I’ve been here. / So anyway, just for the heck of…
There’s been lots of chatter about theft of images lately…well, hey…like ever since I’ve been here. / So anyway, just for the heck of it, I googled myself and found one of my tees displayed at another website, called teenormous.com. / Thankfully, I’ve still got all the credit for the tee and the merchant is listed as redbubble but who the heck put it there?? I’m wondering if this is something that is possibly being done by the group hosts to whom I’ve submitted images..? / I’m all for marketing if I know about it....but this is kind of creepy. Or does redbubble share with others? Makes me really wonder about things…hmmmmm. / Has anyone else found their stuff (tees) at this site?? Maybe you might want to take a look….
With this journal my intention is to alert the whole community of RB artists regarding the care we all must have when showing our works o…
With this journal my intention is to alert the whole community of RB artists regarding the care we all must have when showing our works on a website, as well as to solicit help _ tips, suggestions_ regarding the actions to be carried out to try to lessen the impact of these illegal practices. / / It was just yesterday that I received an email from a friend currently living in Miami, Florida. He had just seen that copies of some of my works were being sold at $ 5 each on a popular Miami store. / / I immediately asked him to try to get more specific information regarding this store. One hour later he wrote me back with this info. / / MONZON BROTHERS (name of the store) / 318 W 21th Street / HIALEAH, FL 33010 / TOLL FREE 1-888-580-6363 / / TEL: (305) 885-6363 Local / TEL: (305) 885-3705 Local / FAX: (305) 885-6338 Local / EMAIL: monzonbrothers@hotmail.com / website: www.monzonbrothers.com / / He also attached a couple of photos that were taken in that store this same day. / / / Some of these images are mine; better said, most of them; these images belong to The Orishas Collection I´ve been working on all over this year. Please take a look at the original images for you to compare. / Yemayá / Oshun / Oshosi / Obatalá When confronted, a representative for Monzon Brothers replied this way. (sic): “… A gentle came by the store selling them…You may want to visit local store as well. People always come and try to sell everything in this business. / I did not know since they are offering this imagines not just to us… I am using it as wall paper to hide the showcase glass… since we are working there, so people do see the mess of paper work ,, we process ordered and answer phone calls.” I also asked them to please provide me with the name(s) and contact information of the people who are offering these prints to several stores so that I can warn them too officially not to repeat this act, and I still haven´t got any response on this matter from Monzon Brothers. Judging by the extremely low quality of these prints I assume they were taken from my RB galleries; they should have taken them from the standard view of the image cause I had placed RB big-centered watermark for larger views since these images were uploaded to the site. So this left me completely disarmed, and I don´t see any other option than to remove all images that are susceptible to be purchased from my galleries. Most probably you all know that I don´t live in the States. I´m currently living in Columbia, South America. So all tips, suggestions and positive HELP in general will be more than welcome. Also, I hope to have the active and enthusiastic support of fellow artists currently living in Miami, Florida, on this matter. Thanks for your kind attention. / Danilo Lejardi
What is creative commons, the licenses and how do you go about protecting your artwork from theft. When uploading or placing your art…
What is creative commons, the licenses and how do you go about protecting your artwork from theft. When uploading or placing your artwork up on the wide-world-of-web there is always the risk that someone will steal your artwork and claim it as their own, sell it or display it against your wishes. This violates your rights as an artist. / So what can you do to protect yourself? Be informed!! That is one of the key factors of art protection. Know your rights and follow precautionary measures. Creative Commons is a website that is dedicated to informing and providing registration of copyright to artists who use the internet to promote their artworks. There are six creative commons licenses that are available for registration of your artwork, via the creative commons website Attribution This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered, in terms of what others can do with your works licensed under Attribution. Attribution Share Alike This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. Attribution No Derivatives This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you. Attribution Non-Commercial This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms. Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. Others can download and redistribute your work just like the by-nc-nd license, but they can also translate, make remixes, and produce new stories based on your work. All new work based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also be non-commercial in nature. Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, allowing redistribution. This license is often called the “free advertising” license because it allows others to download your works and share them with others as long as they mention you and link back to you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially. Creative commons licensing is free, but the website will no chase up any legal action for stolen artwork. That is left solely to the artists discretion and purse. But it is a legal way to prove ownership of artworks for proof in a court of law. Watermarking your artworks is another way to protect your artworks from theft. With your name/artist name and website or a large C for copyright placed in the center of the artwork it makes art theft almost impossible. The removal of the watermark is laborious and in a lot of cases cannot be removed without destroying the artwork itself. Choose your Artist websites carefully!! There are websites out there that offer a protective clear covering to inhibit right clicking and saving. It is not fool proof, but it GREATLY reduces the risk of art theft. With Photoshop you can download a program and register with Adobe to have your artworks encoded with your information. Any theft of artworks can be lodged with Adobe and the artworks cannot be tampered with without your code? This method dose cost money. There are other copyright sites that you can register your artworks with, many of them require a fee. So once again, be informed. Choose your method/s of protection and you will reduced the risk of art theft!!
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