Stolen Art (IMPORTANT)

[Cello]

No flaming or torching please, but I'd just like to say that when IT was online and I was popular, someone sat near me and copied Cello (without the preset obviously but same name and colors). I was really mad at that time and now I've realized that now I'm sad about it. The person felt so left out that they had to copy a character because they wanted recognition. I'm pretty sure that this person didn't have many friends too as I had never seen them in any maps.

Anyway, My view on this topic is that yeah, stealing art or anything in general is wrong. But, you all do have very good points. Also, I don't think that the purpose of the topic is to debate or argue, but to remind everyone that stealing art is not tolerated here. And what the staff says, those are the rules. What ever your views are on them, we all still have to follow these rules

[Makarov]

I've sadly had my art stolen once - and its NOT acceptable.
The feeling of someone else stealing from you and getting all the reconizion is out of order.
I'm not really going to join in this topic, but if anyone backs up the 'stealing' I hope you understand what your really doing. Though I doubt many people will, because there is alot of very nice people here.

[Arukardis]

Thank god for this. I've had my art stolen and used on foreign language foruns and whatever and it's not pleasent, specially when they use your personal chars and RP with them. That's just unacceptable.

And the Orion thing: yeah, I found it odd the way he reacted on Rakuen, my current clan, so I contacted the real Orion on DA. He said he was not the same person as this one and that he never heard about FH, and was pissed that someone was balantly using his personal char. He informed me that he would contact the mods here and the impersonator. And I guess it's all cleared out now.

This should server as an example for all you people out there. If it's not yours, don't take it. It's common sense.

[Motoko]

...Come on guys. Anyone who even disagrees that art theft is wrong is silly, how would you like it if you worked on something really hard, spending hours drawing it, for somebody to steal it. Especially if they claim it's their own.

Nobody here is saying it's okay, but BE A BIT CLEARER NEXT TIME. Most sites say;

"Do not use artwork from DeviantArt without the artist's written permission."

Or something like that.

That's a strong deterrent, given if they don't have written permission, then that can be punished. And you need to send a scanned .pdf file in most cases or ask the artist if <name> has permission to use his/her artwork.

[Kirsui]

As far as I know, there was just one case when a drawing of mine was used without my permission. I remember being surprised, slightly angry and extremely confused on what I should do. :'D

I ended up slapping watermarks on everything. *shrug* It seems to have worked so far.

As a side note, this site seems to be very helpful when looking for stolen artwork: http://www.tineye.com/ You can provide it with an image, and it will search similar from the Internet. Seems to work quite well too if there happens to be copies of it around.

[SilverSephiroth]

I personally have had problems with this the whole two years I have been on the internet. My art being stolen constantly, if anything, the only thing I let others use is line art, which would mention FREE USE obviously. But I am seriously touchy when people even think of using my art at all, specially because all my art is my characters or a request for a friend. I have my own website, people steal from it all the time and think it's even clever to steal my name, personal information and every thing. Content theft in general drives me up the wall and I see no excuses for it.

I haven't had trouble asking them to remove it right away, only twice have I actually had to report some one for throwing a fit and refusing, one even tried as hard to say I was the fake. e.e I have had people even steal the exact details to the character as well, which in my opinion makes it worse.

I love making art for others, when I get the chance, and that's the only time they can use my art, while still giving me credit.

And also I'm pretty sure it is correct, you do not need a warning or water mark on your art for it to be copyright, it is technically yours either way, the owners property.

[TheKingCheetah]

I would agree with everything, I've seen a lot of picture being stolen by many artist. Though people should go ask permission before using it in the first place. I starting to put my copyright on my art stuff since two or four picture that belong to me on chatango. I ask them to remove it immediately they did so after like 10 mins of arguing. I do accidentally in the past stolen without knowing it illegal. Though I stopped, and starting to ask permission. I've even seen on site there been stealing of contents, character, information, everywhere on site. And people pretending to be someone else. I just think people who steals and such, is failure in life, and just want to be aggrivating and annoying. I think all I could say. :]

[Shizuka]

Nobodies getting my point ): Wallpaper art is made for fans of the subject of that art to show to others(Such as Lion King. I see many people using pictures from Lion king and alpha and omega, but they didn't steal it. Of course they didn't draw it either). Art made by artist is NOT to be used a.k.a. stolen. That's why signatures and watermarks help prevent that from happaning. I'm not saying its ok to use someone else's art. Its not ok at all to steal someone else's art.

[Motoko]

Posted by: Li-Li the sparkling ninja
Insert Quote
quick recap here;

it doesnt matter if its being posted on the internets and it tempts you! its still stealing!

theres a big difference between using images that are public domain (screen shots from animes movies and comics) and using something that not many people know existed (private artist, professional art, commissioned art etc)

you DONT NEED YOUR SIGNATURE ON SOMETHING FOR IT TO BE COPYRIGHTED. as soon as you make it its officially yours.

stealing art IS A CRIME AND YOU CAN GET IN SERIOUS LEGAL TROUBLE FOR IT!

if you want to use art thats not your own DONT JUST GIVE CREDIT! some artists dont like it even with credit!

just ask before using someone elses art, its not that hard

btw if this site didnt have a rule like this then it itself can be closed down.

Excuse me? You just kind of said yourself "if this forum doesn't have this rule, it should be closed down completely."

Watch your wording, please. Either stay here and support the forum, or you can just leave. That was rude, either way, especially the way you formatted and worded that statement. to be honest, most of the comments coming from you seem rude, but I suppose that's just me.

[Venku]

Stolen art is a topic that upsets a lot of people. However, this is not an art sharing/posting website and forum.

We do not need the excess arguments out for everyone to see. Please take them to PM's or somewhere else.

I sympathize with artists whose art has been stolen. I wouldn't like it if someone tried to steal my fursona's design either.

If it is inappropriate or has to do directly with the game of FH regarding the stealing of a preset design, then of course we will look into the issue. But like I said before, this is not an art sharing/posting website and cannot be expected to launch investigations for every single piece of stolen art.

~Ven