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Another Artist Using Doll Likenesses Without Crediting?

Mar 5, 2014

    1. There are *tons* of my dolls in his gallery...
       
    2. Information on how to file a DMCA notification on Kickstarter below, taking from their website:

       
    3. For both of you, ABSOLUTELY report the theft. Don't just ask him to take the image down--chances are slim he won't. Follow the guidelines on Facebook (and dA if your image appears there too) to get the work removed properly. And be sure to send both to Kickstarter, too (might help to save a screenshot of the FB page for it, if FB starts taking them down) since most of these are being used as "characters" for his book. The biggest thing right now is shutting the KS down, since he stands to make money off your work with that.
       
    4. Ok. As he clearly is not giving up on his "art" without any greater fight, I contacted to Ubisoft (game company behind ACII, which art this jerk has used), and told them to look if this is something Ubisoft wants to stop. Canadian game company should be interested to take some action, right?
       
    5. I've just submitted a DMCA take down request on kickstarter but I'm not sure how far it'll get us since he didn't use my work in his post and it's mostly just a 'suspicion' that he'll be using it in his book that it's funding x_x I hope that if enough of us report it they'll take it seriously. I'm going to give it 24 hours on facebook but if they're not down by then I'll be doing it on there too.
       
    6. We have to contact the artists because we can't do anything on their behalf. The artists themselves have to contact Kickstarter, Facebook, DA, etc, if I'm understanding things correctly.

      Unbelievable what he's trying to pull.
       
    7. I have heard of similar issues in the table top gaming hobby, and from what I have heard Kickstarter do take them very seriously. You are right though the more artist who report it the more they will be under pressure to do something.

      They are really obviously photoshop filters too, it is not like a case I saw a little while back where the women actually painted them out (however still got into trouble because it was still wrong).

      EDIT:



      Yes, the artists themselves need to contact the sites. The DMCA can only be filled in by the copyright holder, however if you spot someone elses work. It might be a good idea to let them know if you think they might not know.

      DA sort of let other artists report, but honestly it is useless and nothing gets done. However if the artist themselves do then they are much faster to respond.
       
    8. I meant him...lol sorry, me bad ^^
       
    9. That's where I worry about legalities - Kickstarter mentions consulting a lawyer in their copyright infringement terms and reporting could have a risk of backfiring on us if this guy is able to squirm his way through legal-ese and drum up liability issues. Anyone with knowledge who can shed some more light on this?
       
    10. Reported him to facebook and messaged him to take the pictures down. I hope the actual owners of the dolls/photography succeed in having them take everything down!
       
    11. This is not the first time people's original photos have been swiped and used by an unscrupulous artist.

      http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/2009/06/02/mijn-schatje-art-theif/

      There was a page put up by Radiotrash that documented the art thefts very well, but it seems to have been taken down. This case was very difficult for the artists because of the international aspect... mijn schatje was in Europe and many of the copyright holders were from different countries.

      In any case, I think collecting and posting the side-by-side photos is a very effective way to prove that an artist's original photography has been taken and used. It is not always easy, but the owners of the original work do have rights. It is more difficult when the fake 'artist' is making money, so I think now is the time to nip this in the bud.

      There is precedent for photography theft:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_"Hope"_poster

      Shepard Fairey tried this and was eventually found out... in the end he settled out of court, but was found guilty of trying to hide the fact that he did use the photo without permission of the copyright holder from court by attempting to destroy evidence (in other words, he got caught for being a big fat liar).

      Andy Warhol was also sued for his appropriation of various photos that he used in his artwork... some used his art to their advantage (Campbell Soup decided to 'collaborate' with him), but others chose to pursue and defend the copyright of their work:

      Andy Warhol faced a series of lawsuits from photographers whose work he appropriated and silk-screened. Patricia Caulfield, one such photographer, had taken a picture of flowers for a photography demonstration for a photography magazine. Warhol had covered the walls of Leo Castelli's New York gallery in 1964 with the silk-screened reproductions of Caulfield's photograph. After seeing a poster of their work in a bookstore, Caulfield claimed ownership of the image and while Warhol was the author of the successful silk screens, he settled out of court, giving Caulfield a royalty for future use of the image as well as two of the paintings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriation_(art)
       
    12. I found several of my photos too, this is so disgusting -__-
       
    13. Report it! D:
       
    14. I did a DMCA takedown request a few years ago for a piece of my art that was on someone else's Photobucket, and it was quite easy--I just filled out the form that Photobucket provides, and then the copyright agent contacted me with a request to see the larger original file, which I did. They reviewed it and took down the unauthorized copy. The onus was on them to decide the legitimacy of the complaint, so I wouldn't worry about counter suits, especially if you limit your request to removing the image that is yours. you have to be the original copyright holder, though.
       
    15. To be honest you will probably be fine. I have had my artwork stolen before and was being used on a different site and when I first contacted them with the take down request they did threaten to counter sue. Although the wording of the DMCA does say that there can be legal consequences if you have filled false information, like falsely claim that you own it.

      However if you picture predates his picture, and a lot of websites have time and date stamps you will be fine. You should have no legal backlash as far as I am aware. I have never heard anything like that happen before. The DMCA does count as a serious legal document though, but that is why they have to take one seriously and it is why only the copyright holder can file one.

      Also this is a bit late now (although mentioning for future reference), but some photo editing software means that you can add metadata to your image. I know a piece called Lightroom does that is the one I use. But along with all the time and date stamping that a camera adds and is part of the information you can add your name as creator and copyright status of the image to it. So in cases light this person just using PD filters it might actually help.
       
    16. I've found several pictures from different members of our Hungarian BJD community, so I alerted all of them (or those who weren't aware of it already), and I also messaged MadamMauMau, as her Jessica is also in that FB gallery. Hopefully with such a massive number of artists, they will be taken seriously.
       
    17. Wow, I recognize sooooo many of these pics! Elfdoll promo pics, Iplehouse, peoples photos of their beautiful dolls. Sheesh, this makes me so mad! I hope if we all work together we can get him shut down because what he is doing is beyond wrong and sickening really. Ergh!
       
    18. How disgusting to so obviously just take someone others work, use a simple photoshop filter on it which probably anyone without too much experience can do and pass it off as your own even if others call you on it >=( I feel truly bad for all of you whose work he's stolen, please don't let it go unreported!

      I can understand that reporting on Facebook or Kickstarter might be difficult to be effective. However there are already 39 people who have backed this project and are thereby being ripped off and paying this man money he does not deserve.

      I wonder if it would be a good idea to post a comment on this project telling the backers that this is not legally allright and explain them why? Fair chance people might back out of it.
      The only problem then is that you need to be a backer (but I believe you can cancel your pledge) to comment and I'm not sure whether this person can remove comments as the owner of the project...

      Ohh I see this person has created a similar artproject before with pictures I'm pretty sure also are photoshopped dolls. This project was canceled. I wonder if something like this happened then as well? If so, actions from original actions might have stopped him, seems like a good sign to me^^