Art thieves on dA. As usual.

[firecat88]

I was checking my messages on dA not too long ago, and one was a journal entry from someone I watch. In it, she brought to light another member of dA who had stolen some of her work. Curious, I went to this other person's gallery and was rather disgusted by what I saw. There was more stolen art on there than I've ever seen on a person's gallery, from both the girl I watch and other artists. Not only that, but it was stolen rather badly. Anything that was watermarked or signed still had the signatures and watermarks on 'em. Many of them in very bold lettering that said "Made by *not the thief's username*".

When called out on it by several of the people she stole from, the thief had this to say:

"omg leave me alone i deleted them all
and the reason they were on here is because my mom gave my sister the computer and she thought she was downloading them to facebook! and i do not know how to delete them so please leave me alone "

Thus far, the stolen art is still there and I wish there was a way of reporting users instead of just individual pieces.

[Kogarashi]

"omg leave me alone i deleted them all
and the reason they were on here is because my mom gave my sister the computer and she thought she was downloading them to facebook! and i do not know how to delete them so please leave me alone "

Yeah, because DeviantArt and Facebook look so much alike. /sarcasm

Unfortunately, reporting individual pieces seems to be the only way to do it, but leave a note with each report stating that the thief has several stolen pieces in their gallery and hopefully they'll get the banning they need.

I've been stolen from on DA twice. Both times it was only one or two pieces and quickly removed when I reported them, both times it was by individuals who claimed they didn't know (after claiming to other people that they were the original artist and I the thief), and both times the part that really got me was that they stole ridiculously old things from my gallery instead of new stuff. Old pictures that aren't as good anymore and make me cringe when I see them, but I keep them up for nostalgia and to show how far I've come artistically.

[Severen13]

As far as I know, my art has never been stolen. I feel so left out....

[Princess-Snake]

It's alright, Severen. My stuff's never been stolen either. Well, only because it's mostly fanfic crap...

[ExArtShopSlave]

I've never had a DA account, but as I was in the 3D modeling industry, a lot of stolen images (not any of mine though) ended up on there. It was one thief in particular and we were able to get this person banned from the site. As far as I remember, (this was a few years ago) the real artists had to send an email to DA and provide backup images of the art in order to have the user banned. They were able to get this person permanently banned, so the system does work. This thief did attempt to steal my work, tho it never ended up on DA. Thats another story for another time! LOL!

Best of luck!

-ExArtShopSlave

[ExArtShopSlave]

Not only that, but it was stolen rather badly. Anything that was watermarked or signed still had the signatures and watermarks on 'em. Many of them in very bold lettering that said "Made by *not the thief's username*".

LMAO! This makes me laugh every time I see it! Also the thief I was referring to in my previous reply was 'famous' for actually posting stills from such famous games like Grand Theft Auto and passing them off as 'his work' and whenever someone would call him out on his lies, he'd always claim that he 'never heard of that game' or similar.

-ExArtShopSlave

[MoonCat]

Oh please. What a little liar. As dumb as I am on computers, even I wouldn't download something to one site while claiming I thought it was another! If she really wanted to delete them she could contact dA directly and ask them what to do.

[spark]

Mine's been stolen now! Some person whose facebook account is basically a pony-stuff aggregator that gives no credit whatsoever to anybody. I don't care if you want to include pictures of my plushes, in fact I love it if you do, if you give me credit for them. It's so easy to do! There is ZERO excuse for not including a link back to the source when you do that, seriously.

[Andrew B.]

I've never had my artwork stolen, but it's just garbage made with MS paint that I thought looked nice.

[Jay 2K Winger]

The only artwork I ever had posted was some of my meager fan-art. Far as I know, nobody ever stole it.

The closest thing I ever had to a thief stealing my work was in my wrestling fanfic days. A fan of mine whom I talked with on IM was writing his own fanfic, and asked if he could use a couple of my OCs in his work. As I had done this with two other writers (who I respected a lot more), and because it was stroking my ego, I agreed. To the fan's credit, he didn't make my OCs look like idiots, but when he started using ideas I'd mentioned on IM (ideas I was planning to use later) in his work, I made it clear I wanted him to stop using my OCs and broke off contact with him.

[Severen13]

As far as I know, my art has never been stolen. I feel so left out....

I spoke too soon. Some douchebags on Facebook posted a boatload of artwork stolen from DA with the watermarks and signatures removed, and one of them was mine (which had my signature photoshopped out). Gggrrr....

[Krysalis]

dA Art theft Vigilante here. Sometimes, provided enough boredom or reason to, I just go through and find ones that are stolen and report them. I actually received a pair of posters from a cool artist, for reporting and notifying the original artist. Very, very cool.

It doesn't help half the art thieves don't realize that:

A) dA isn't some picture sharing site, like, say, Facebook or Photobucket. There is one person who was honestly mistaken, and she removed everything on request. She honestly seemed confused, so I'd let her pass.

B) The ones who are honest thiefs, oxymoronic as that is, are usually dumb enough to not realize that having art of wildly different styles and methods is suspicious. Unless you are a master, and I doubt anyone whose image I find several identical copies of using TinEye ARE.

[Zoom]

One of the great things about having your art on dA is that the pages state when it was uploaded. Any stolen art will always appear on their page at a later time, thus vindicating you automatically. It's just a matter of reporting it.

[Kogarashi]

One of the great things about having your art on dA is that the pages state when it was uploaded. Any stolen art will always appear on their page at a later time, thus vindicating you automatically. It's just a matter of reporting it.

Indeed, and that's what makes it really stupid when the thieves claim "I drew this first, [Original Artist] stole it from me!"

[Argabarga]

I've (to my knowledge anyway) never had any of my art stolen from DA either. Though, for all I know, it's all over the place out there and I just haven't found it yet.

Interestingly, people have pointed out to me that some of posted tow stories have been "stolen" from here and posted elsewhere, which I just find bizarre. 1 - Is it so hard just to link back to where you got it from? and 2 - If you want to repost it, I don't care, but claiming it as your own and adding embellishments while you're at it... man, you must have a pretty pathetic life if you're striving to be ME and living vicariously though my internet presence

I've also had people link to pictures of things I've taken of my car or other stuff and claim it as their own, which is silly, because they never seem to realize that I can always put up a different picture at said link that isn't nearly as flattering as the one they originally linked to (and do) it's fun!