Art Theft by Old Navy

My art gets stolen all the time.

I have been through many copyright infringement cases - some have been resolved amicably, and there are ones that have taken more work. This case against Old Navy (Gap) is not getting resolved right now because Old Navy is denying copyright infringement. 

They are being totally unapologetic, and have said that it would be a “bad business decision” for me to expect to be reasonably compensated for the use of my art. Instead of compensating me, they have chosen to pay a large law firm to fight me, and have even asked the judge to order me to pay THEIR legal fees.

When a company as large and mainstream as Old Navy steals my art and profits from it, and is unapologetic about it, I cannot afford NOT to fight this. My lawyers and I will be fighting this for as long as it takes.

Thank you for all your support. Please feel free to repost this!  

Lili

#fightingformyart #stoparttheft #copyrightinfringement

I don’t typically make posts like this but as someone who has a lot of friends who are artists, I really cannot stand this person going on like this and being enabled by their viewer base.

Yuuki is a “graphic designer” on Twitch who makes and sells graphics ranging from banners, panels, and stream scenes. I’ve commissioned her in the past and was a viewer myself, so I’ve spent a lot of time watching how she creates these things. Now, I’m not saying the time she puts into these pieces isn’t a work in itself, it’s about how she goes about it. From my experience in watching her, she pulls a lot of images from Google and doesn’t take the time to credit anyone for any of the works she uses (whether it be artwork, brushes, render packs, etc). even when a lot of these artists explicitly state either to 1) not use their works or 2) provide credit when used. **read below the cut for proofs/examples

Keep reading

You remember that post about the homestuck t-shirt design contest collaborating with hot topic? And how Hot Topic are the biggest art thieves?  This is recent.  As you can see above, I stumbled upon Hot Topic’s website and they are selling a very popular fan art put on a t-shirt, and did not ask permission from the original artist (rismo).

This shows Hot Topic still continues their art thievery.  Hot Topic are still taking art from artists without their permission.  This is disrespectful and appalling.

EXCEPT YOU DID GIVE THEM YOUR PERMISSION.

BY AGREEING TO TERMS AND CONDITIONS ON DEVIANT ART.

THEY SOLD IT TO A THIRD PARTY ROYALTY-FREE.

http://www.deviantart.com/submit/agree

We appreciate the rallying of the community around the rights of this artist. Rights and ownership of artwork are an important cause which we do not take lightly. To clarify: DeviantART does not retain any ownership nor right to ownership of any artwork posted to deviantART. The point of question in our Submission Policy is one which gives us the right to present the artwork you submit to deviantART on deviantART. As stated in our Submission Policy, “Artist at all times retains all right, title and interest in and to the Artist Materials provided by Artist hereunder (including, without limitation, the copyrights in and to the Artist Materials), subject to the non-exclusive rights in the licenses granted to deviantART under this Agreement.” Thus, artwork posted to deviantART may be used in promotional material for deviantART (with all due credit for the work included), but never for non-deviantART commercial purposes, and never without express recognition of the original artist. The artist also always retains the right to remove the work from deviantART at any time, if they so choose. By the same token, because we do not retain any ownership of artwork submitted to deviantART, we cannot license it to others either (be it individual or company) without the express permission and written agreement of the artist. From section 5 of our Submission Policy: “deviantART will contact Artist in writing about any individual commercial uses of Artist Materials instigated by deviantART.” If deviantART had been involved with this situation in any way, the artist would have been contacted in writing long prior to any commercial use of the artwork.  We assure you that we had no involvement of any kind in this incident. Again, we appreciate the passion with which the art community has come together regarding these circumstances, but as with all things, we’re always on the side of the artist. 

More info on dA’s policy here.

Info on copyrighting your art and dealing with companies (i.e. Hot Topic) selling your designs here.

Update: More info on this specific shirt design here.

8) haha cool somebody pledged $100 on patreon, stayed that way for a week or so including a vip livestream, then edited their pledge down to $7. I even wrote them a big long thank you message and shit. In other words just kidding about that milestone!!

fucking robbery lmfao

Wait, did you get the money though? I don’t understand patreon

No I did not get that money, patreon only charges you at the beginning of each month, yet you get access to the patreon page the MOMENT you pledge. so lots of people use this loophole to pop in, enjoy some perks, then ollie out before they can get charged. It’s literally straight up scamming.

A common work around that I’ve been seeing (and it has been hella useful) has been the timed restriction of patrons. Many artists will not post the month’s content until after the 2nd, that way patrons are absolutely charged before they get the content. (So March content wouldn’t be available until April, for example). This allows you to work on a pay in advance system, and also gives you a month’s time to prepare all the content instead of doing it month of.

Another format I’ve seen is timed links. When the month has been charged, the artist posts up a timed link available only to patrons who have already been charged that expires in 15-30 days. Afterwards, the link is no longer functional. In order to get content older than when you started, you’re required to pay the pledge amount for those months. That way you’ll only receive the newest month (and only after you’ve paid).

Thirdly, it’s relatively easy to shoot Patreon a message with the email and information of the users who are actively abusing the system. They can and will ban the person from being able to pledge period in the future. I’ve even seen one case where someone’s ‘owed’ pledges were forcibly charged as they did in fact agree to the terms and conditions of pledging.

thanks for the advice. Im definitely going to have to change how I do things on patreon to prevent further theft. pretty disappointing that creators have to go to these lengths just to keep from getting scammed in the first place :(

Leaving this here for reference, it’s awful that people do this shit. It’s making me quite reluctant to get one in the future :(

Duely noted, if I start a Paetron I’ll make sure to only dole out the prizes the following month.

And to anyone pledging who thinks they can use the excuse of ‘I paid what I thought the content i saw was worth in the end’.

No. Fuck you. You’re a piece of shit. Don’t you dare do that EVER.

for any one using patreon

@trackalaka since you’re makin’ the move

Hey guys, need your help!

Hi everyone! I could use some help regarding an Art Theft matter, if you’ve got some time to spare from your busy Holiday time (I have so many presents left to wrap, blah!) Here’s the situation: Teespring is allowing my stolen artwork to go to print so they can make a cool profit off of my design! Not cool.

1. We contacted Teespring with 2 days left on the campaign. 

2. The infringing listing was taken down shortly after, with 2 days left on the campaign. However, the fans who purchased this item on my behalf have notified me that they have received e-mails it will be printed!

3. Called, E-mailed, and sent FB messages trying desperately to get anyone from Teespring to contact me and show me proof that the 90 hoodies and t-shirts that they sold (grossing over $3,000) will not go to print and the people who purchased them will get refunded. 

4. I am now blocked from their Facebook after many dissatisfied customers came out of the woodwork to chime in and say they had not received their orders from Teespring. I cannot leave new comments or messages now publicly on their FB page, which means my ONLY means of trying to get them to not print my artwork has now been disabled.

I have never before asked for Tumblr’s involvement or help to dogpile anyone, but honestly, these people are probably going to print these hoodies with my artwork and send them out in spite of me contacting them well before the cutoff date for their campaign. They did this to me before with another design, too! Last time I was too busy and tired to do anything about it, but these guys are real crooks. Not only are they stealing from me, but from many other people.

If you have the time, please go to their facebook page and ask them to take responsibility for the business they are running and provide us with some real proof that they will not be going to print with my stolen artwork. I don’t expect much, but I don’t want to let them win and silence me, either. 

Happy Holidays!

Reblogging for the afternoon crowd. Thanks for listening everyone, it helps =)

UPDATE 3: Teespring is still deleting comments concerning this issue, lying that they are giving refunds, and lying that they are communicating with me, the artist. I have not heard from them, and by all accounts of the two people who purchased this on my behalf, their order status still says it’s being made and will ship out soon. If anyone can still message them on Facebook and keep fighting the good fight, it would mean the world to me, as I am still blocked from commenting on their facebook page. [They blocked me claiming that it was because they were communicating with me via e-mail, another lie!]

i don’t care if the artist’s comments consist of keysmashing

i don’t care if the artist’s comments consist of a single emoticon

i don’t care if the artist’s comments consist of “im hungry”

i don’t care if the artist’s comments consist of the entire first chapter of “war and peace”

if you remove them i will fart on all your kitchen appliances and cutlery

Fyi, Tumblr calls it misattribution and non-attribution, and you can be reported for it. This includes adding your own promo link to an artist’s work and reposting an artist’s work.

Artists don’t have to be nice about it.

ATTENTION TUMBLR ARTISTS

SICK AND TIRED OF PEOPLE STEALING YOUR GODAMN ART?

Can’t find the godamn ask to tell the blogger to kindly take your art down?

NO MORE!

Email support@tumblr.com with links to your originals and the repost, and they’ll take it down.

NOW REBLOG THE SHIT OUTA THIS AND SPREAD THE WORD!

Japanese translation ・日本語訳

Tumblrの絵師さんにお知らせ

絵の無断転載されまくりでうんざりしている貴方！

絵を外してもらいたいのに犯人のAskが見つからない？

もう大丈夫です！

貴方の元々の投稿のURLと転載されたURLをメールに入れてsupport@tumblr.comに送れば、Tumblrのスタッフが削除してくれます。（※訳注：できれば英語を使った方は多分対応が早くなる）

さあ、これをリブログしてみんなに知らせよう！

Korean translation 

계속되는 Tumblr 그림불펌에 지치신 존잘님들! 내려달라고 하고 싶지만 불펌한 당사자에게 직접적인 연락이되지않아서 골치아프신가요?

»> support@tumblr.com «<  이쪽으로 원본 소스 링크와 허락없이 올려진 링크를 이멜로 보내시면 Tumblr가 알아서 내려줍니다. 

그리고 영어가 불편하신분들을 위해서 간단하게 작성을 했습니다: “My art was uploaded without permission on Tumblr, and I would like the post removed.   This is the original link to my art (소스링크) . This is the post I would like deleted (불펌링크) .” 

how to enjoy other tumblr users’ drawings on tumblr dot com without being a jerk

ok (・ω・)b

there are a lot of korrasami photosets going around that include an edited version of this gif:

  that was made by the incredibly talented drakyx.tumblr com (and you can find the original post here!)

and this gif:

which was made by ajscanvas

and neither of them are sourced in a lot of the posts, which is really mega uncool

please include a source when you post art that isn’t yours! people put a lot of time and energy into creating these wonderful things. respect them and their hard work by giving them credit

guys please reblog this those photosets that aren’t crediting the artists have like a zillion notes and that’s really screwy and. those artists deserve for people to know that they made them!!!!!

Art Theft: instagram user @steel_butterfly2 (pls reblog as text!)

This person has reposted mine and many other artist’s works, claiming them as their own on instagram.

A friend who directly asked this person to remove their artwork got blocked by them.

I’ve looked up how to report a violation of copyright, however, instagram requires us to provide them with our address, phone number and other contact details, which MAY be given to this person we are reporting apparently. Of course, I’m not comfortable with that, so I’m wondering if anyone knows how to report this without having to give out my personal details..??

Another option is to leave it be considering it’s already a private account and they aren’t really benefitting from this other than false asspats and sad validation, but the principle of it all never sits well with me.

Hi guys, an update on this art theft:

Seeing as Instagram doesn’t seem to have any kind of help support for its users other than countless sub links to “help” pages and various online forms, I ended up filing a report without providing my personal details. Instagram has promptly removed their post of my stolen artwork, however, they did in fact give out my email address to steel_butterfly2 as I had received an email from them with a “What?” in their subject line but otherwise empty in content. 

Clearly they have not learned anything from this experience as they have continued posting other artists’ works, today’s target being Mano-chan.

What’s concerning is they have responded positively to followers who have enquired about commissions and art trades- up until now I’ve assumed they only wanted attention, but if they’re hoping to get paid for stealing, we have a big problem here. 

(Those are sketches by Alphonse Mucha for crying out loud) 

I have uploaded a screencap of their gallery at the bottom of this post. I would like to ask for anyone’s assistance in identifying the original artists of the stolen works in this person’s gallery and to report them. 

It sounds straight forward, but things to note:

How to report your stolen artwork:

Ever hear of LookHuman? You probably know them as the website that has apparel and accessories with catchy slogans and phrases that fit right in with the tumblr community’s sense of humor.

Well, that’s because a large number of those catchy slogans and phrases, along with artwork, were made by tumblr users and used without credit or permission.

That’s right: LookHuman repeatedly and routinely steals/plagiarizes and profits off the work and words of others.

Don’t believe me? Take a look:

And this is just a short list of the examples I could find easily.

They have also stolen work from other websites as well:

Original Shirt:

(source)

Stolen by LookHuman:

LookHuman is a company that preys on artists. They profit off other people’s work. None of the money from their sales go back to the original artists or originators of the artwork, slogans, and phrases they use. None of these people were credited.

Bottom line: See a cute shirt with a catchy phrase on LookHuman’s website? Chances are it’s already being sold by the original poster.

Don’t like seeing companies like this thrive? Don’t allow them to.

Email: help@lookhuman.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lookhumandotcom

Tumblr: http://lookhuman.tumblr.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/look_human

Mail: 122 N Grant Ave Columbus, Ohio 43215 United States

Tell LookHuman that you do not support art theft and plagiarism, and demand that they stop engaging in these practices. Refuse to buy from their store until they change their policies and begin crediting the artists whose work they are profiting off of.

Protect artists.

Support artists.

Boycott art thieves.

OH MY GOD THEY’RE NOT EVEN JUST USING TEXT POSTS ITS LITERALLY STOLEN ART PLEASE FORGET I EVER SAID THAT T SHIRT WAS COOL

also: every piece of txf college au art (+ my URL)  vs. literally just type in punk scully on lookhuman it’s even called punk scully like omg

Dear everyone, I would like to ask you all to stop reblogging this post (a gif with Levi, Eren, Mikasa, Armin and falling snow):

It is originally my fanmade wallpaper, which I submitted to an art community called Minitokyo. You can see the submission here. The…