Another Artist Using Doll Likenesses Without Crediting?

I wrote on his DA wall in the heat of the moment and I'd love to take it down. I have no idea how thought. Is it possible?

 

Maybe I expressed myself wrongly (English is after all not my first language) but I didn't say "fuck this dude up".
I also said several times that getting angry and rude is the wrong way.
I just said that I don't think that only reporting his stuff helps. It's good we made public posts on Tumblr and co., because when we only silently report his stuff and get his pictures taken down it won't help in the long run, because he can claim the pictures got deleted because "Oh, I didn't like them anymore" or "They will be in the book anyway, no need to have them online".
Also there are dozens of artists we don't know (especially the non-BJD ones) and thus can't inform, but with publically shared posts we might even reach the people we weren't able to reach privately.

So, again: Don't fuck this dude up, but also don't make everything privately in silence.
Because in the long run this won't help, I've already seen it plenty of times with other websites or private persons. They just wait a while and then start their thing again.

 

I can understand that art should be enjoyed by everyone, but to make money off of other people's pictures is inexcusable. To add insult to injury, his use of junkie filters don't help any.

 

I agree with you Ara.

Normally I'd very much feel inclined to feel sorry for him and handle this privately but let's face it - it's going on 24 hours since he was uncovered. When I went to sleep last night I figured that I'd wake up to find that he'd removed all the stolen material, but he's done no such thing. He continues to play the victim, he's decided to hide his DA gallery rather than own up to his mistakes and delete the stolen pieces. His FB seems to be missing a lot of the BJD photos, but some are still left behind. All in all, he's being a coward and refusing to acknowledge the fact that he's wronged a very large group of people - his fans included.

Handling this privately isn't the way because clearly, it doesn't work. I wouldn't say the way to handle it is to bombard his page with hate messages but to be completely silent isn't the way, either.

 

I agree. This is something you can't just lie down and take, but at the same time hate messages aren't the way either. The only thing I can suggest is to raise awareness about this and keep the heat on him. I'll do wherever I can to help

 

I agree with this and I don't feel sorry for the guy. But at the same time, having 15 pages of comments saying he's stealing art and he should stop NOW, in several degrees of politeness... to an outsider, this might very well look like harrassment and we don't want this. I understand the reason behind this and I get the feelings involved, but we have to be careful HOW we make this public. It's not just between this guy and us. There are a lot of witnesses who will also make up their minds based on our actions and Mr. Nelson's.

At the same time, there is absolutely no reason to contact his boss, his family etc. There is no objective reason to do so. Same goes for the Gofundme project. Since there is no factual proof that he will use this project to continue with his practices, if we start acting to get that project down as well, it'll just look like we're on a witch hunt.

Don't risk losing credibility is all I'm saying. Stay level-headed and professional.

 

I fully agree with this actually. How this is handled can reflect bad on the artist involved in the dispute, I mean I totally get the people who politely asked him to removed their stolen work before they reported them. That looks like you are just asking before taking it further and sometimes that works.

 

Posting from my phone so I'll be brief. I agree with Ara* and Andariel. This guy is clearly only interested in doing damage control, not repenting of his ways. If we aren't public about what he did he can more easily cover it up and go back to ripping us off. This dude has been on dA for 10 years and a lot of the images he used were older. He probably has a massive folder on his computer full of collected favorite images that he gathered over time. And as someone who is about to graduate with a degree in photography, I'm not interested in having my livelihood ripped off by someone who won't put in the work to improve his own skills the way I did. Fuck him. He brought this on himself by his own actions.

 

I just saw that he was actually already asked to stop doing this stuff as earliest as the 20th of January, 2014.
Even 1 1/2 months later he hasn't stopped doing this, instead he now started hiding everything and as far as I'm informed he still hasn't wrote an apology, either publically or in private.
He knows what he's doing is wrong, he just decided to ignore it.

Also, as someone who publishes creative works, he should know what he's doing is wrong.

 

Well to be honest if he disappeared with that account and appeared with a new name, that wouldn't make a difference if people said something to him. Plus we have raised awareness about this artist on here and on Tumblr. Making his name know for stealing is not a bad thing, however harassing him and sending lots of messages on his page is. Plus he can hide those comments on DA any way. Plus those who say something to him that could be taken as harassment can face their own punishments.

I am an artist myself, I would love to make a living from it and I know guys like this make that harder. I know guys like this basically steal profit from you. So it is something that is close to my own heart too. I have also had my work stolen in the past before, so I know what it feels like. I agree it hurts and his actions are wrong. However two wrongs don't make a right. Just because he has done bad things, doesn't mean we should as well.

From my experience these people don't seem to learn any way, they just play victim. Don't give him stuff he can play victim with.

 

Actually there is a reason to at least let his job know whats going on, considering they may well have been using and profiting off his stolen works since he's billed as as illustrator. If they have been using artwork he's stolen, that's a huge legal liability for them and could get them in trouble, even if they didn't know he was doing it. But only the people who own the artwork need to be contacting them, and it needs to be done respectfully. But it really does need to be done.

 

Um, I only have two things to say. One, I am kind of scared for his child. He says he is flat broke and... I dunno. This stuff might lose him his job. It doesn't justify anything he did, I just hope the child will be okay. Two, a couple pages back people were looking for ways to prove that the images would indeed be used in his book... He has two tentative book covers on his Facebook, one with a BJD,a nod they have the title on them and say "illustrated by Matthew Whateverhisnameis." Since they were posted by him and he says they may be the book cover, that's maybe sorta proof? Idk, just typing my thoughts.

 

He just posted a you tube video of lots of bjd edited photos linked to from his deviant art page:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agxl__2_HFw

And I have to say, this is NOT illustration. It is photo manipulation.

 

And this is where I say - are you f'ing kidding me?!

 

Just saw a recent comment on his Facebook, him saying that he's completely flat broke. Hmm, maybe a motive behind the actions of a possibly desperate man? Still wrong, but if he's trying to make money to survive/make ends meet/feed his family, there may be more to him than just an art thief.

 

Hang on a sec, it says in the video info that it was posted on Feb13th.

 

It appears that he has finally blocked me on FB. Can anyone confirm that the photos are still in his gallery?

 

Uenna don't go getting all sympathetic for him now - He's proven himself to be a glib and confident liar and conman - Having kids to feed does not make it OK to rob a general store or steal someone's iphone - Why is it a reasonable defence for copyright theft?

As for his youtube video - well one thing this guy is REALLY good at is self-promotion! Shame he has nothing to promote but a sham though....

 

I can still see his facebook, A lot of the images that were in his photos section seem to have gone, but there are still a lot of dolls there, Including Kaye's doll

 

That's what I thought. Earlier this morning I spotted that most of the doll photos were now missing, but a couple of mine were still up, so I messaged him again to take them down. I guess that's why he finally up and blocked me. But to see them missing is a good start.

I agree with elve. Really, being flat broke is hardly a good reason for what he's done. He would have been better off attempting to perfect his own art than to ruin all of our work with photoshop filters that have positively no artistic merit and pass them off as his own. I have no pity. I'm fact, considering his latest actions, I'm rather disgusted.