ART THEFT - SOLUTIONS + MISCELLANEOUS

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 : www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/b…

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 : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan_w…

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 : www.templetons.com/brad/copymy…

R.I.G.H.T.S : rightsforartists.com/ "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 ? whatiscopyright.org/

Plagiarism Today : www.plagiarismtoday.com/

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 : tineye.com/login


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


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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 !


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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 : NiAlexanderArt  
Bosnian : Sbus
Bulgarian : AlexanderPeev
Chinese : magmanorn  capitolblueart  Adzusai
Croatian : Sbus  Lorelei-Coral
Czech : Eiensama
Danish : Thitida-No-Chey rincor  IdaLarsenArt
Dutch : Cataclysm-X  Almeruve  tsemalon  Cast1tat1s-L1l1um  Quinno
English : jowyn  joeiepaul DrazziElder  lildevy  ModNight  Clepsidras  HarleySchizophrenica  XullraeZauviir  Datenshi-Vanyel Adzusai  OpheliaFairie
Faroese : rincor
Finnish : zorm Coccis
French : Dianae NineInjections blob1  HollyBell  jowyn  Choeur Moppal-Yun  Narkya
German : little-stock  alisette  Lisl89  SnowCentaur  Moppal-Yun  Narkya  nathie  hoevelkamp
Greek : neurotic-elf
Hmong : lemon-dan
Hungarian : ImaginaryRosseArt
Icelandic : Undo-Past
Indonesian : glarionac  outlawserenade  Wenart  emmil
Italian : SerenaVerdeArt  Yuumeichan Kanuka76  AlexanderDario
Japanese : Amilee Cacodaemonia  Datenshi-Vanyel  Adzusai
Latvian : Amuuna
Malay : magmanorn  capitolblueart anotherphilip
Montenegrin : Sbus
Mandarin : baiwuzhi  anotherphilip  Datenshi-Vanyel
Norwegian : Mokinzi  UninvitedChaos  Wictorian-Art
Polish : crespella  yuki-the-vampire
Portuguese : RinoaPereira  Starke-Haz  SulaMoon  AlineMendes  Clepsidras  sermim  FunkadelicPsychoFish
Romanian : ayamemiha  Hanakiraboshi  bernardfokke  ImaginaryRosseArt
Russian : bonbon3272 Ferrilonver  NiAlexanderArt  ksenia94  Elitha
Serbian : Sbus  bernardfokke
Slovak : Eiensama
Slovene : parisky
Spanish : goldenrose92  orochi-rob jmb-visual-arts  Morgwaine  jowyn  edgejr miguelopazo  DrazziElder  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 : hasanaliakhtar
Vietnamese : Cinderella2B