Another Artist Using Doll Likenesses Without Crediting?

https://www.dmca.com/FAQ/Creating-a-Takedown-case-using-DMCAcom

Step by step tutorial by the dmca for requesting the take-down of copyrighted material (in general... if you find it posted somewhere other than facebook, kickstarter, or another site that does not have it's own form.

 

Thanks guys... I've gotta work through the reporting (I'm putting together composites of originals as well.)

In the meantime, here's a tumblr post to signal boost: http://xlightmywayx.tumblr.com/post/78668910501/art-thief-alert

 

I'm considering on making the $1 donation in order to comment all of this.

 

Yeah, I just wrote the DMCA report on Facebook and also wrote him a nice message that I found out he has stolen and altered a few of my pieces and that I requested them to be taken down. I also told him that in case he decides to reupload them or tries to make money with them I'd contact my lawyer.

On his DevArt and on his Kickstarter page are gladly (or sadly because I can't report it?) none of my pieces, but this is so disgusting. Especially because judging from the photo on the Kickstarter he seems to be a pretty old guy? If that's true it's even a bigger shame, and it's crazy how many fans he has. Are they blind? It's so obvious that a lot of his stuff is just photoshopped shit, he even uses original screenshots from movies and games!

 

What a slime ball this dude is! I just read some of the feedback just posted on DA and I say go get him! It's amazing and so sad that there are people like this out there....

 

Unfortunately, in that case, he's the one who canceled it (before KS could take any action against him, assuming any reports were filed); it's hard to say what the reasons behind that cancellation may have been, but it's also important to note that it's been just over one week since he canceled that project. It didn't stop him and it honestly barely even slowed him down, whatever the cause was. Making sure the project comes to KS's attention, and watching for him to try again, are likely the best ways to stop more of his projects popping up. (And I'd keep a watch on other crowdfunding sites after this one comes down, to make sure he doesn't jump to something like Indiegogo and try again there.)

 

You can still see the original Cached version of the kickstarter page here-
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...-road-to-war-into-r+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

This worked on some of the photos on his facebook page.

If you drag the photo into the google search image box it will give you similar results to the picture you are searching for. It can help to find the original owner of the doll photo.

Here are some screen shots on how to do it (just in case my explanation is hard to understand, heh)

Please excuse the crappy screen shots. I am at work and they only have the classic paint program to work with.

The picture the artist "painted"


dragging the image into google search


the results that pop up



and the owner's deviantart page of the original photo

 

@Vicemage: Ahh I see, I was already wondering why, if the project got shut down for similar reasons, this guy's account didn't get banned/frozen/deleted by Kickstarter...

@MysteryAya: That's a great idea! Might also be able to use as 'proof' that he's copying when reporting him to Kickstarter?

 

He's 44 according to this: http://sumikosaulson.com/2012/12/13/interview-with-matthew-christopher-nelson-creator-of-the-grove/ He is the artist of a comic called The Grove, and has been published in another art book, so he's already reasonably successful. I wonder why he feels the need to do this.

 

I looked at his comic and it looks actually pretty simple with lots of filters again.
It's amazing how many really bad artists manage to get "famous" and good ones will never be seen.

I bet that if someone would steal his work he'd be pretty quick to jump up and call a lawyer.

 

Don't, I was going to as well and was informed any donations makes it a legal contract bla bla bla stuff.

 

You can always cancel your kickstarter, I have many times(due to money issues). The backers NEED to be informed of the issue

 

It's horrible!! I wrote to one of the friends who wrote facebook status too... It's incredible, people admire his work as an original.. and is "una imagen con filtros pencos" (bad art with PS filters... sorry, I haven't any traduction for "penco" word) hahahahaha

 

Glancing over a lot of his "older" stuff (older facebook profile, interviews, etc)... he's really very heavy-handed with PS filters there, too, and where he's not, the art runs along the lines of the beginner stuff I remember from my days on Gaia. I think somewhere along the way this fellow who fancies himself an artist discovered the "artistic" filter set in Photoshop, started running his own stuff through it to hide the flaws, and when that got more attention than his real work, decided to one-up the process by using better starting materials.

Being a "mature" age and being previously published in a charity work aren't signs that someone has any morality or skill, unfortunately.

 

I think that original artists should claim compensation from their images published in the book, and of course, damages for copyright falsify. Are there any artist has already given or taking legal action?

 

Legal action is in such a case always very difficult, especially because a good bunch of the stuff he has stolen has been stolen from people outside the US. International law can be a mess, and even though we would win (since after all he definitely DID steal our work) it would most likely in the end be not worth it...money-wise, I mean.
In case of the US peeps I'm not sure how much you can legally do in case he tries to make this book, but it definitely wouldn't be wise of him to do so after he has to realize that people found out about the shit he's doing.
Now it's "just" a few stolen pictures on the web, if he makes money with them it pushes the whole issue on a whole new level.

 

This is infuriating. I just went to see if I recognize any.

 

Here's his FB ->
https://www.facebook.com/matthew.c.nelson1
https://www.facebook.com/matthew.c.nelson1/photos
And his photos too, I can still access them.
Maybe we should all take a bunch of screenshots in case he tries to hide the album?

 

I'm unable to get onto that FB page anymore. Either he blocked me or it was taken down.
His other FB page is still up.

 

The FB page didn't allow me in until I logged in myself. That might be the source of your problem.