I've been confronted to an insane amount of art theft cases lately so I've decided to create this journal explaining some important points about this issue.

Many people think images are free because they find avatars, psp tubes, myspace layouts, signatures, etc… made out of some pictures, without credit.

If this happens to you, please DEMAND YOUR PICTURES TO BE TAKEN OFF OR CREDITED WITH COPYRIGHT AND TERMS OF USE INFORMATIONS ! This applies even for things you don't think could cause you any trouble, such as avatars or signatures. As long as your artwork is used without your permission and is not credited, you can be exposed to some troubles in a near future.



ART THEFT IS NOT ADVERTISEMENT. If you think you're quite unknown and you're happy to find your art somewhere, you're wrong ! This would only cause you troubles AND would encourage thieves to keep on stealing other artists' art.

If someone steals your art, it means he/she liked it enough to do so and maybe even needed it.
Remember you DON'T need these people to promote your art but they need YOU. They could pay for your art but they prefer stealing since they are almost never penalized.

When you find an artwork used without permission, contact the owner of the site where it's displayed (sometimes it requires a lot of work to obtain an e-mail address, but it's really worth it).





First, give a quick introduction to explain why you're contacting him/her.
Then, give a link to the stolen artwork, then to the original one.
Then, explain that it's wrong and demand your artwork to be taken off OR credited (with a link to your website, your e-mail address AND terms of use).

Then, wait a week and if your work has still not been taken off, send an e-mail again. Keep on sending e-mails until you obtain an answer.
Some thieves don't want to reply because they think nothing will happen and you'll stop claiming your rights. Just don't give up, there's always a solution to fight against art theft.

If the thief never replies to your e-mails, you can contact the website hosting service to get your work removed

FLAMING DOESN'T HELP. Stay polite, it usually works much better this way.






The Berne Convention protects your artist rights. As long as you've created an artwork, it's YOURS. No need to submit it to copyright registration or anything else. Something you've created is automatically ©you.

As long as you know your rights, you can fully explain what's wrong when you find a stolen picture.

Here's the Berne Convention : [link]

Have you heard about the "Orphan Works" bill ? If not, you should really do a quick Google search. The law has been rejected, but it comes back quite often and it may be adopted in the near future.

Here's a wikipedia article about Orphan Works : [link]

This could be really bad if used in the wrong way, since damages paid don't really cover the prejudice caused.

10 myths about copyright : [link]

R.I.G.H.T.S : [link] "created solely to provide the internet user with the tools for understanding online copyright based on specific legal definitions, the laws and principles."

What is Copyright Protection ? [link]

Plagiarism Today : [link]

Please watermark your art and don't upload large images ! I did so in the past and now I'm in big troubles…

You can use TinEye image search to find stolen images : [link]


The more we'll all act against art theft, the most it will tend to disappear.


.

I would like to suggest something that could help us all.
Since we can't all speak an insane amount of languages, I'd suggest helping each other by creating a list of people who are willing to help in as many countries as we can.
These people could translate your message when you need some help and you could do the same in return when they need help in a different language.

I offer my help since I can speak French. Do not hesitate to contact me if you've found your art used on a French website, so I can translate your message in French and send it to the thief.

If you're willing to offer your help for any other language, please tell me so I can make a list in this journal (or even create another specific journal). Of course, there can be more than 1 person for each language ! The more we are, the best it is !

The more languages we can handle, the more efficiently we can fight against art theft.

Someone sent me links of my work used for CD covers, etc… in Russian, but as long as I don't understand Russian, I couldn't take any action. This is quite frustrating and gave me this idea. Maybe it has been done before, but I've not found any information about this yet, though I did a quick search.


I hope this can help in some way. Thanks for reading it !


.

First of all, please let me say : YOU ROCK PEOPLE !!! Thank you VERY MUCH for your help, very much appreciated. I'm going to edit this list as often as possible. Languages will be classified in alphabetic order.


Afrikaans : ~IamMan
Arabic : *rerez
Belorussian : *HeartOfCrystal
Bosnian : ~Sbus
Bulgarian : ~AlexanderPeev
Chinese : ~magmanorn =capitolblueart ~AngelofDeathz
Croatian : ~Sbus ~Lorelei-Coral
Czech : ~Eiensama
Danish : ~Thitida-No-Chey =rincor `mizzdraconia
Dutch : =Cataclysm-X ~Almeruve =tsemalon ~Cast1tat1s-L1l1um ~Quinno
English : ~EchoSilver =joeiepaul ~Antgirl ~lildevy ~ModNight ~Clepsidras ~HarleySchizophrenica *XullraeZauviir *Datenshi-Vanyel ~AngelofDeathz *OpheliaFairie
Faroese : =rincor
Finnish : =zorm ~Coccis
French : `Dianae *NineInjections ~blob1 *HollyBell ~EchoSilver ~Choeur ~Moppal-Yun ~Narkya
German : =little-stock ~alisette ~Lisl89 ~SnowCentaur ~Moppal-Yun ~Narkya *nathie *hoevelkamp
Greek : *neurotic-elf
Hmong : ~lemon-dan
Hungarian : *ImaginaryRosse
Icelandic : =Undo-Past
Indonesian : ~glarionac ~outlawserenade ~wenart `emmil
Italian : *NadezhdaVasile ~Yuumeichan *Kanuka76 ~AlexanderDario
Japanese : ~Amilee =Cacodaemonia *Datenshi-Vanyel ~AngelofDeathz
Latvian : ~Amuuna
Malay : ~magmanorn =capitolblueart ~phil2908
Montenegrin : ~Sbus
Mandarin : *Dienle ~phil2908 *Datenshi-Vanyel
Norwegian : ~Mokinzi =Sometimes-normal =Eroticatyphon
Polish : ~UnfortunatelyFool =yuki-the-vampire
Portuguese : *RinoaPereira =Starke-Haz ~SulaMoon ~AlineMendes ~Clepsidras ~sermim ~FunkadelicPsychoFish
Romanian : ~ayamemiha ~Hanakiraboshi ~bernardfokke *ImaginaryRosse
Russian : *bonbon3272 *Ferrilonver *HeartOfCrystal ~ksenia94 ~Elitha
Serbian : ~Sbus ~bernardfokke
Slovak : ~Eiensama
Slovene : *parisky
Spanish : ~goldenrose92 ~orochi-rob ~ruby-proudfoot *Morgwaine ~EchoSilver ~edgejr ~miguelopazo ~Antgirl *Dragonfly3D ~monoguru ~ImSil ~lildevy ~ModNight *ishali ~HarleySchizophrenica ~Steffynelli ~Nijsh *OpheliaFairie
Swedish : ~ElfenCeres =zorm *Sato-ri ~AjnosFTW ~SnowCentaur ~Choiseul ~Kotori-89
Turkish : ~ertacaltinoz *intano =CainKinris
Ukrainian : *Ferrilonver ~Elitha
Urdu : ~hasansgrafix
Vietnamese : ~Cinderella2B











I grant permission for the artists who have colored it to sell their versions as a dA prints (dA prints only please).
If used, please credit me in your description ! (link back to the lineart and to my dA page or blog).

Should I make a news article about the colored versions ? Some are wonderful and really underappreciated, so I'm wondering about that…

If you feel like coloring it, please do so, I would be honoured! I'll update this journal with all colored versions !


PLEASE TELL ME IF I'VE STILL NOT ADDED YOURS !!!















Thank you so much sweetie ! You absolutely nailed her, these drawings are perfect !









Here are some wallpapers I made (I've done them all while having tea breaks ).
Feel free to use them for your desktop !













READ DESCRIPTIONS UNDER ARTWORKS PEOPLE !!! THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO BECOME RICH, SEXY, FUN AND AMAZING



MY TO DO LIST

Painting for : 40% done

Commission for : 10 % done

Commission for : material bought, except for the cabochon (out of stock. There will be new ones next week).

Some other commissions I cannot yet talk about : 30% done

Cinabre - Turamali - Kyanite tryptich : 40% done (Cinabre 100% done)

Painting for : concept ok, now I have to paint it.

Tattoo for Hadrien : 10% done.









Note to tubbers/people who would like to use my work for signatures, myspace layouts, avatars, etc....

NO YOU CAN'T USE MY WORK ! This includes everything I've posted here or on my other online porfolios, blogs, etc…

My work can only be used ONLY FOR PERSONAL AND NON COMMERCIAL PURPOSES.

It means you can use it as a desktop wallpaper, reference, etc… or post them on a blog/website with DUE CREDIT and NO MODIFICATIONS.
I've used a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License for some of my works.

The point is that I am VERY TIRED of ART THEFT. When people see an artwork used somewhere without given credit, they tend to think it can be used anywhere, for free. This is wrong.


If terms of use are violated, I won't hesitate to take legal actions.


And PLEASE READ DESCRIPTIONS UNDER ARTWORKS! It's kinda annoying to reply to 50 people everyday to copy and paste what I have put in the description -_- You may miss some cool stuff too! I often post details, WIPS and sometimes links to my brush files.


Thank you !












Parzifal (Standard fawn, very saturated and bright orange color, born 15th August 2007),
Gaheris (Standard fawn, slighlty lighter than Parzifal, born 10th june 2008),
Owain (Standard himalayan seal point hooded, born 1st june 2008)
Myrddrinn (Standard American blue. Passed away the 18th of august at the age of 2. I miss him dearly)