Another Artist Using Doll Likenesses Without Crediting?

Bold to emphasise the bit I'm replying to. Actually, no, they won't, even if you have sharing turned off. Believe me, I tried and was informed in no uncertain terms that unless I wanted to report the images in question using the DMCA report function (which required me to hand over my full name, address, phone number and a whole bunch of other information to a website I'm not even a member of), I was out of luck and their users could continue to do whatever the hell they liked. I doubt I'm alone in this either. That, and situations like this whole hot mess are precisely why a lot of people don't post photo's online anymore and that's just sad as all hell.

There's too many people out there that think, like this guy apparently did, that they can get away with it because hey, you posted it online, it's fair game, right! It's ridiculous, but social media doesn't really care beyond making sure they themselves don't get sued.

 

^^^


I learn so much from this site.

 

They won't take stuff down?
Unless this is a change in the past few months, I've never experienced an issue. They take it down in less than 24 hours - always.
I just send them a link to the offending content and my original post of the image and they take it down. (in situations where I've also had sharing enabled without realizing it *shakes fist at dA*)

Now it doesn't help reblogs. You would have to report every single reblog/like to have it completely stopped - which is miserable.
Anyone who reblogged it / liked it - it will still show up on their blogs, it just won't link back to the original blogger.

 

I have just learned alot about copyright infringement. It is amazing that this guy thinks that he can get away with using other peoples art and photos without asking and trying to make money off of it. I have several artist friends and they put their watemarksin the middle of their work.

 

I'm sure most of you know andreja on DeviantArt (Nicholle's Dreams on YouTube)... and she's having a struggle with Art Theft:



Source: http://andreja.deviantart.com/art/ART-THEFT-updated-291989497

At this point, people are selling her copyrighted photos as an art print in multiple markets, and someone even got a tattoo of her photo not knowing the origin:



Source: http://asussman.deviantart.com/art/doll-girl-412171876

This is probably old news for many of you on Den of Angels, but I just found out about it, and I'm wondering what she's doing legally?

Does anyone know? How do you stop multiple vendors and art prints from being sold all over the state? It's almost like her photo went viral!

It's kind of similar to this situation, in my mind, because Mr. Nelson stole SO MANY photos for his art... they are just out there floating around online for other people to steal and sell as prints or on merchandise.

How would a lawyer even begin to put an end to something that blows up and gets sold everywhere, and even in flea markets?

 

They told me they were no longer doing that about six months ago, and that my only option was the full form because they didn't want to have to deal with multiple reblogs and the like of the same image generating multiple reports. I stripped my DA account as a direct result, so yeah, it's knackered my sharing online because they basically said they don't want to deal with it anymore and it was my problem to defend my own copyright.

 

????
But they actually DO still take down stuff if you just fill out the form?
If you are unwilling to fill it out they can't help you, but it's not like they stopped the service at all and say "Nope, stuff won't be removed, suck it up".
They just moved to a different system (a system that is used by many, many websites, because it's easier and faster than just writing a message to them, and also I guess because of legal reasons it's now preferred), but they still remove things.

As far as I know they can also delete all reblogs, not only the original post, or at least there will appear a placeholder image saying that the content got removed due to copyright reasons. A while ago I went through my Tumblr to clean it up and saw several of these posts, and I only reblogged them and didn't post them myself.


Also I'm a bit worried that, because most of the BJD stuff got removed, people will forget about this guy and sooner or later he will start his shit again. I highly doubt this will be the last we've seen of him

 

That is why the maintenance of blogs like this:

http://sumikosaulson.com/2012/12/13/interview-with-matthew-christopher-nelson-creator-of-the-grove/

are important... I read earlier in this thread that someone was threatening this blogger with a law suit because she chose to update her blog with new information rather than delete it all together. WRONG THING TO DO!! If his art theft is documented, it will be difficult for him to start over. If all evidence of this crime is removed from the internet, he can easily resume his actions after a brief hiatus. We WANT this kind of blog to stay posted.

Pages that show original work vs. his altered version is how people will see what he has done. Of course, I think this is best done with the original artist's permission, like linking to an artist's site (since they have the rights to the original photo):

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

(there are several artists like sdink who have posted on their sites and blogs in this thread, Lachlana's is just the one I bookmarked).

If enough of this documentation is floating around the web, it will signal people to steer clear of this guy. Of course, it has been shown that some people just don't care, but for people who have businesses in the USA, they will not want their company to become associated with stolen art because it is easier to be sued within the country.

 

I know that Andreja knew about this a long time ago, and has tried very very hard to get it to stop. She was posting about in flickr before she left flickr. SOME shops were extremely reactive, taking things down immediately, they didn't KNOW it was stolen art. Last I heard, she was having some trouble getting a MALL to take down photos of hers that they had up in some context.

One thing I DO think is sad is that a lot of these shop owners are getting BLASTED by the likes of us for selling this stuff - and they had NO CLUE it was stolen. Just saying, go after the artists themselves, notify the shop, but don't assume the shop owner knew about it. This one poor fellow got all sorts of nasty messages from DOA people, and he posted on facebook how upset he was, that he doesn't condone selling stolen art, that he didn't KNOW, and that he is getting royally trashed on the internet for it. I just felt bad for the guy, you know??

I wonder if Andreja ever DID get final resolution on the pieces that were still out there. I wonder if there truly is any way to stop this. I would be heartbroken if I were her to see that TATTOO!!!

 

I don't know about Tumblr but in the fine print of Facebook's
terms and conditions, If you post any content to Facebook
and they get sued for infringement, you are on the hook for
the costs to defend them.

 

It pays to read the fine print before signing your life away. Although the chances of an individual being able to afford a lawyer to sue for the kind of infringement that usually happens on FB, Tumblr, etc., are probably very small. Most people just don't have the money to chase after every person who reposts a photo or other content without permission.

This is from the US Copyright Office FAQ page:

 

Does anyone know who this belongs to?


Same guy that stole Andreja's picture, looks like he is at it again.

 

Most artists, as has been said, cannot afford the time and the lawyers to pursue all the creeps out there who feel they can steal art instead of making their own.

Some artists report stolen images to larger companies that can afford to go after the art thieves. I told Nene Thomas about the image that was on this guy's FB page--it was a photo (taken from the internet, not by this guy) of one of the statues made from her work--so she informed the company that makes those, so they could handle it.

I do card game art that is sometimes stolen, and I will inform the card game companies, since they hold the copyright to that work. But even those companies aren't all that big and don't have time and money to hire lawyers and track down all the thieves, either. (And the companies have to walk a careful line. They don't mind players using the images to promote the game... but if someone takes the images to make money in some other way, usually separated from the game--that is a big no-no!)

This is the problem for doll companies. They aren't huge corporations with their own legal department. They maybe have one person doing their website and one person to handle all English-speakers questions... They do try to do something, but it's not easy for them, either.

All this stealing takes time and effort and money from people who are barely making it as it is. It means more expense for Doll Companies to fight this. And who does that hurt? The Doll Companies AND those who buy from the doll companies, since that time and extra expense has to come from somewhere--and that is the buyers! And that isn't even counting the sales that are lost due to re-casts. And the loss of reputation when people buy re-casts and blame the company for problems they have with those dolls (because they think they have a real doll and don't understand why they can't get replacement parts or complain about the bad quality).

It just sucks all around!!!

Most artists I know have given up trying to deal with art thieves on the internet because they just can't afford lawyers and can't afford the time to deal with reporting everything... they need the time to actually make a living doing art! They just have to hope that the people who CARE about art and artists will actually pay for the art they make. But it's tough. Lots of artists can't even sell a cheap print because many people will think, "Why should I pay anything when I can download it and have the image for free?"

Watermarking doesn't help when a person is intent on using an image--there are people who will take time to remove it. Or just blur it enough. Or just use the parts of the image that aren't water-marked.!!!

I know Sue Dawe, the artist who did all those school-book lined paper pads with the unicorns and pegasus covers many years ago. She has had to deal with tons of thieves for ages. It used to take up all her time. She finally sold the rights to most of the art to a big poster company and just had to rely on them hunting down these thieves...

The tattoo thing is tough, too. I've had someone tattoo a piece of mine on themselves. They told me about it and sent me a photo. They didn't think it was wrong. I actually don't mind that, since they weren't making money on it--although the person who did the tattoo made money! There are a lot of tattoo script collections of stolen art that unscrupulous tattoo artists just use without worrying if they are copyrighted or not. THAT is a big problem, since those images are just passed around like crazy and used freely... Some artists put their own script books together so legit tattoo artists can pay a small feel and use such art legally, but so many totally do not care about copyright...

It's just very sad and frustrating.

So it's good to know that people DO care and try to help out. Even though this is just one guy who can just pop up again later and there are many, many more just like him...

At least it gets the word out that this kind of thing is very hurtful for everyone... !

----------------------

Re-casters and sellers of re-casts really tick me off because they are messing around with my precious dolls! I've been trying to report them like crazy since they are just all over Ebay whenever I look for bjds there. I've been contacting Soom and Iplehouse and Fairyland, because the auctions actually use the official company photos and NO owner-photos at all (big sign of a bad auction!). The companies have said they are trying hard to do something about it.

This seller from China had a lot of other BJD things for sale, but also re-casts! I've told them that I'd love to buy stuff from them, but I can't if they are selling re-casts, but they don't care... It's ridiculous... I keep reporting them, but they still have auctions up.

 

The reason you have to file a DMCA report is to make sure you actually own the copyright. Etsy does the same thing. I think it might actually be a law that they have to make sure that you're telling the truth before removing stuff, but I don't know for sure.

 

A friend of mine had her art stolen, edited, and reposted by someone else on tumblr, and tumblr staff removed it within a day. I wonder if different case workers are lazier than others and you just happened to get someone who didn't care? I've never heard of them taking much longer than a day to remove a post in question of copyright infringement.

 

Disclaimer: I AM NOT A LAWYER (but I do work for an internet company that allows user generated content, and as such, our existence relies upon the DMCA safe harbor provisions)

So the important thing about the DMCA, for sites like Tumblr (and ANY site that allows user generated content), is the safe harbor provision. Basically, it means that so long as Tumblr has a registered DMCA agent, and they follow the procedure for DMCA takedown notices, then Tumblr itself cannot be held liable for copyright infringement caused by their users uploading copyrighted material to their servers.

The DMCA has a whole chain for handling counter notices too, so I'm pretty sure that's why Tumblr requires you to use their DMCA form now. Because under the DMCA, the person filing the complaint MUST be the copyright holder themselves. In fact, part of the DMCA notice you send requires you to state that you are the original owner of the copyright, under penalty of perjury if you are not. Upon receiving a notice, Tumblr must take down the content in a reasonable amount of time, and notify the uploader that their content was removed. Then the uploader can, if they believe that their upload was fair use or otherwise not an infringement of the copyright owner's copyright, file a counter notice. If Tumblr receives a counter notice, it is forwarded to the copyright holder. Then the copyright holder has 14 days to file suit against the uploader. If suit is not filed within 14 days, then Tumblr is REQUIRED to restore the content that was removed.

 

Wow, I never thought this would ever happen to me... I saw my boys in one screen-shot from this persons FB, thank you mousethatroars for taking these screen-shots, I thought it was only on his FB, but today I also saw web-cashed version of his Kickstarter project and saw picture of my two Soom boys there too... I'm little angry and sad, I'm glad the project is stopped.
Anyway here is my picture witch was altered by this "artist"

Adriel and Ingler by Egura, on Flickr

 

Sorry to hear he used your picture!
Please make sure that you write to Kickstarter, too! You are one of the VERY few people who can say that he was going to use their pictures for sure, as it's been actually up on Kickstarter.

 

Glad I was able to help, egura!

And yes, your photo was one of the ones he put on the Kickstarter as 'sample pages'.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...-road-to-war-into-r+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Please do send an email to Kickstarter with the above cached link and a link to your original photo on Flickr.

 

I am so sorry he used your art, but I'm really glad that you caught it. It's further proof, solid proof, that if he tries it again (and I'm sure he will) examples like this can be given.