Art Thief Awareness // Artists Against Art Thieves

Its not a big deal.... Until its you. Until your own pictures and/or OCs get stolen, traced, drawn, written, or used without your permission. Then its a big deal... But you don't know what to do... You just know you are very mad, and what they did needs to stop. So come to me and your other friends and other people who you know have experience and ask for help.

Some people may think, well, they like someone else's OC and don't have their own so they want to use yours. Its even easier if you're famous because this person feels like you won't notice they took it. Their friends will praise them for their great art and/or OC, but you know its yours. They may try to justify themselves by turning the blame "you shouldn't have put it out there if you were so weird about other people using it". Or, "its just a fanart/fanfiction of your oc". If its not yours, how hard is it to freaking ASK for permission to draw someone else's character? Not hard at all. In fact most people will grant permission. But theft is a great way to start a fight between two people's groups of friends and overall unhealthy drama over something which is clearly wrong.

The hardest thing in this situation is to feel like you have to deal with this alone or that you're solely responsible for contacting the art thief and getting them to take down your work. But you don't need to be alone in this. Don't just go around reporting freely, because some users may have multiple accounts where they share their artwork. If you think something may be stolen, notify the original artist and if they confirm that its a thief, please help the artist out by reporting it. Things could get awkward if someone's side account gets reported as art theft.

You're not a television creator with a show or something, so your OC belongs to you and only you. With a television show, everybody knows you don't own the characters you draw fanart for. But with OCs it is different. You get to decide who uses it and who does not. You give permission. Its this borderline form of bullying that keeps people afraid to really be creative and show their talent to the world. So, please, everyone, stay aware of copying/using someone's direct materials.

Its important to understand there is a world of difference in pausing a show to draw out the character and pose by hand for practice, and posting a tracing over a public original work that another artist created. Lots of people think its the same thing. But it isn't.  

#artthiefawareness

How to avoid art theft:
1. Make sure your drawings are watermarked that they belong to you. Even if someone reuploads your image, their followers should be able to clearly see your signature on it. Small or unclear signatures don't really help you out in a crisis. If the signature is cropped out of the picture, they can post and no one might know its yours and not theirs. Make sure your watermark is in a place where its difficult to remove or paint over. Don't put your watermark across a white or plain color space - because anyone could white that out and repost it. I'd suggest putting the watermark somewhere complex and significant such as the head.
2. Do not associate with known art thieves or people known to copy off of other people. They might end up choosing you as their next target.
3. Make sure that your content is actually original. If you've copied off someone else a bit, then this gives the thief an excuse that makes them look justified.
4. Make sure its clearly stated on your post and/or profile somewhere that no one is allowed to use your work without permission.
5. Add the creative commons copyright license to all your drawings before submitting.
6. Never submit your artwork picture full size [especially if its huge]. Being the only one able to produce the full size image would prove immediately that you are the artist, especially if there is ever a dispute.

What to do if you encounter an art thief:
1. First, keep a cool head and don't do anything rash.
2. Second, ask politely that they take it down and in a calm manner.
3. State that it offends you and you did not give permission for your content to be used.
4. State that it is wrong to use someone else's content.
5. Offer to give them advice on how to create their own so that they have no need to use yours.
6. If they are unresponsive or block you, ask your friends for help.
7. Also, feel free to file a report and link back to your drawing so that they know its yours.
8. Wait patiently for DeviantArt to take care of it.

Keep in mind when reporting an art theft, you HAVE to be able to prove that whatever they stole rightfully belongs to you. That means if you deleted the deviation completely [your own, original copy that you made] its bad news for you, babe. STORE old deviations INSTEAD of deleting them so that you have them on hand if its ever a question of who owns what. When it comes to ownership, no petty argument of words is going to win anyone over. You must have proof, no matter what your reputation says about you.

#artthiefawareness

So this has happened to a lot of my friends and I want to make a difference. Please make your own post, trend the hashtag and add it to your regular posts! Art theft needs to stop! Thank you!