Another Artist Using Doll Likenesses Without Crediting?

First of all this is a terrible thing to find. I'm sorry to everyone who's had their images stolen. Throwing 2 or so photoshop filters onto a photo does not make it your own photo in the least.

My question is though, that before it was pulled, his kickstarter had already reached it's goal. What will happen with that? Does he already get that money, will the backers be refunded now that it's under inspection? I can't imagine that Kickstarter would let this go through with what seems like so many people informing them of the stolen art.

 

This ^^^

Though so far, for what it's worth, I'm really proud of everyone here on DoA for acting in a mature, civil manner towards this issue. Though people outside of the community that have caught wind of this mess may be doing otherwise, I think everyone is doing a great job and I'm glad to see everyone working together. Kudos!

 

Unfortunately, it can take up to 10 days before this guy can collect the money from Kickstarter, depending on the payment plans/versions of ways to pay people had chosen. Because it is in review, the money is more than likely frozen. The people who donated may have a chance to get it back because of this, or they could have lost it forever if he had managed to collect all the payments already. The only other option for the backers would be to take him to small claims court or report him for fraud, as none of the work he displayed was his own, and it gave a false idea to what his project is/was.

All we can hope is that Kickstarter sides with the evidence that was given for plagiarism/art theft and issue a refund or give the backers information to take him to court/report him to police for fraud.

 

He's toast. I tagged all of the MANY Disney images I saw and reported him. Also Marvel images.

 

Indeed. Guys be careful about that. I'm seeing comments on his Deviantart main page along the lines of "his real art is crap, no wonder he steals" and that is not okay. Do not do anything that can then get you reported. Keep away from a mocking or aggressive tone, and avoid posting anything on his personal facebook. If you do, it'll accomplish nothing and he's just going to block you.

I know it's rough, especially the people who see their friend's work stolen and you want to retaliate but it will be better in the long run if the authorities of these sites come down on him rather than individuals. He's already proven himself hostile and dismissive do not give him a list of names to lash out at. You're putting yourself at risk.

 

Wow. I really have to wonder how he justifies this to himself. Does he really feel that he is 'creating art' by taking someone else's image and running a crappy filter on it? I am guessing no, because of the comment posted just above wherein he claims his beautiful digital artworks are created layer by layer blah blah blah. So... he knows he's stealing, and appears to have done well at it. His FB posts indicate he's just sad at being caught. He's probably going to keep doing this... but man, he's older than me, and I'm a responsible middle aged lady! He has a wife and kid! What does he tell his wife? How does he twist this in his head to make it justified, because it seems to me he must...

 

The kickstarter was 59 days out from funding, so he has not collected any payments. I doubt he ever will thanks to the work of the community! ::thumbsup::

 

Here is an interview article on him: http://sumikosaulson.com/2012/12/13/interview-with-matthew-christopher-nelson-creator-of-the-grove/

Perhaps the person who wrote it would like to do an 'updated' piece?

Here is another interview. He says he feels that his work is 'unique' :

http://shahsight.blogspot.com/2013/02/matthew-christopher-nelson.html

And another interview:
http://lindaraeblairauthor.wordpres...strator-interview-matthew-christopher-nelson/

He says:
"Character inspiration comes from people from all walks of life. People that come and go in my life and at work give me more ideas for characters then I could even dream up."

~~~~~~~~~~~

edited to add:

and here is a book where he is 'illustrator' : "Angels Cried" :
http://www.amazon.com/Angels-Cried-...?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1394084842&sr=1-1

 

He also has a project up on gofundme, raising $10,000 of which he had raised $400. I reported it, they are looking into it but if anyone happens to have their stolen artwork on there it will help with the claim.

 

AlmySidaKay: I see that he would like $50K for that : http://www.gofundme.com/Create-the-Oasis

Allison: *high five!* You are my idol.

 

Do you have a link to the page?

 

The gofund me thing looks to be for him to open a cafe not for a book like the kickstarter

 

Looks like he's taken his DA gallery down for now... Facebook gallery still up tho.

Scratch that, it's still there if you hit the gallery link, it's just not on his front page. I don't get this guy, he's busted and he's clinging to his wrongdoing like he's the victim.

 

it's still there, just moved or something
http://artistmattnelson.deviantart.com/gallery/

 

His DA gallery just isn't displayed on the front page of his profile, but you can still click on the "Gallery" tab and everything is there.

 

It looks like he removed several of the pictures off of his Facebook page. I did save bunch of the BJD pictures if anyone is looking for ones that were removed.

 

This is just awful. Something similar happened to some chainmaille artists with a small time artist stealing photos, putting her own watermark on them and claiming them as her own.

Sadly, only the rightful owners can report the images, and as has been covered, sending the person messages and posting on their pages tends to get removed quickly.

As for the kickstarter funds, he won't receive the money until the kickstarter closes. Kickstarter does not have the ablity to refund the money, as the money doesn't go to them but directly to the director of the project. If it comes to the point that it closes, it will most likely have to be taken to a lawsuit since based on his reactions, he won't just meekly hand back his misbegotten money.

Signal boosted this on tumblr as well. Thanks for getting us a heads up, and I hope all the original artists are able to get their images taken down.

[UPDATE]
I just went to check out his kickstarter and it's been taken down from public viewing. Hopefully this is good news!

I wonder how many times he's going to keep trying this before kickstarter won't let him post projects.

 

I can still see them here >> https://www.facebook.com/matthew.c.nelson1/photos
He has not blocked me yet.
I sent a private message with a link to a friend of his who showed concern and I was very polite and apologetic.
This is what I wrote

"Sadly this is not a joke. All of his art work of late from his Deviant Art page is copied photos from other's people's art and photos.
I'm sorry.
Here is a link to one of many threads about his work.
They are mostly photos of Art dolls that have been digitally manipulated without permission.
Here is a link to comparison photos of "his" work next to the originals"

"http://xlightmywayx.tumblr.com/post/78677072534/artist-fantasy-author-matthew-christopher"

 

He still has quite a few up but he has removed some of them, like sdink's. His image count went down too on his facebook page.