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| Where REAL talent gets the last laugh |
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| What is Art Theft? |
| A plea to all artists: |
| A warning to all Art Thieves: |
| Spread the word: |
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| I cannot tell you how positively SICK most legitimate online artists are becoming of this problem. It seems there are a small number of ignorant fools out there who find it perfectly "all right" to take the artwork of others and use it as their own. These patheticly misguided imps are lacking in not only artistic talent, but are thriving in the degenerate concept that making claims that the artwork of others is that of their own is somehow ligitimate. They lie, they steal, and they'll try and convince you that they've not done a single thing wrong. Just who are these people? They're Art Thieves... and one fact about them all stands blatantly clear: What they lay claim to be 'ligitimate' action is, in fact, dead wrong, morally inept and hands-down, no-holds-barred illegal. So, you ask, What is Art Theft? Its pretty simple. Copyright Law world-wide states that any concept created as an image onto a piece of paper (whether it is in the form of a story, poetry, illustration, character design, profile, etc) is the sole property of its creator. THE MOMENT an ORIGINAL work is put on paper, it belongs to the creator and the creator ONLY. If any one at any time copies, redraws, alters, claims someone else's original art as their own, sells it or posts it on another website, or in the case of writing, if a concept or idea is blatantly ripped off and claimed as an original by the thief, they are breaking copyright law. THEY ARE AN ART THIEF, and they have unwittingly joind the proverbial sledge of the asscrack of the online art community. As an artist hell bent on originality and the sole ownership of my original creations to which I hold dear, I absolutely refuse to put up with theft of my or anyone else's original artwork. Absolutely anyone caught or reported to me as stealling my work or the work of any other artist in any of the ways listed above will be listed here in the Hall of Shame. I WILL rat you out. I WILL make your degenerate actions known to the artistic community. Art theft WILL NOT be tollerated. |
| A note to artists everywhere: We're in this together. It is up to us to dig art thieves out of their seedy holes and to warn all fellow artists who they are, when they strike and who they rip off. This is a fight for originality - for our rights as true artists to withhold our creations as our own. If you see any art theft accuring anywhere, LET IT BE KNOWN. Contact me, and I'll post it on this page. Check out other Halls of Shame linked on the list at the bottom of this page. Be edjucated - know who to watch out for. Above all, let your voice be heard. As artists, our creations are part of who we are as individuals and absolutely NO ONE has the right to take those creations away from us. |
| We're tired of playing your games. Art Theft in the online artist community is no longer to be tolerated. Halls of Shame like this one are sprouting up all over the Net. Original online artists are becoming more and more vigilant, and far less tolerent of the loss of their prized works, and having them stolen by the likes of talentless shmucks. To the art thieves out there, This is your heads up: We're watching you. Steal our work and you will be uncovered, you will be brought to the communities attention. All of your hopes of gaining credit on OUR original work is a moot point, my friend. Rip us off and you will gain nothing but utter disrespect and a one way ticket to the Hall of Shame. |
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| Busted. |
| An Art theft Spotlight. |
| Case #1: |
| John Christopher |
| Ah, John Christopher, the lowest of the low in the world of art thieves. Not only did he steal, alter and sell an original piece of art by a highly talented and respected online artist and good friend of mine, Renee 'Ren' Atkinson, he picked, of all things, a piece of fan art as his target of theft. So, in effect, he ripped off two artists in one extremely low blow. The fan art in question happens to be an illustration of my original character, Nexus's Inferno, drawn as suprise (and loved!!) gift pic from Ren to me. The character can be found posted all over www.nextxcomics.com. Inferno - my creation, my copyrighted property (and has been my sole property since his conception over eight years ago) was ripped off and altered by John Christopher. John not only took artwork of Ren's - unpaid for - and had it published (poorly) and sold without her permission - he also stole a completely unrelated piece of her artwork, again without her consent - nor mine, as it was of my character- altered it, and put it right on the front cover of the published stolen work. Talk about lower then dirt low. Did this guy honestly think no one would notice that his 'artwork' was a blatant rip-off, and a poorly done rip off at that? In short: Whatch out for this guy. He cannot be trusted, he has proven himself to be a thief, and wholey untrustworthy. |
| The Original: |
| The RipOff: |
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| Join the stand against art theft! Listed below are other Halls of Shame. Check them out, get educated, keep an eye on the thieves listed therein, and please report any cases of art theft to one or all of these sites. Fallen victim to an art thief yourself? Create your OWN hall of shame, and I would be more then happy to link my page to yours! |
| Other Halls Of Shame: |
| The text banners on this site were created at and care of www.flamingtext.com. The background and bars are care of Echo's WebMagic at http://members.tripod.com/~Echo0/graphics.html. The "Art Theft" banners were created by and are copyright to Kyoht. |
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| Case #2: |
| MSN & YAHOO GROUPS |
| There are THREE and ONLY THREE MSN groups on the internet that I allow my artwork to be posted on. Those groups are: The Next X Submissions Site Clan Creed Valkyries Inc. THAT'S IT, PEOPLE. LET ME MAKE THIS PERFECTLY, PAINFULLY CLEAR: I DO NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES allow ANYONE to post my artwork, OR FAN ARTWORK OF MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS on ANY MSN Group OUTSIDE OF THE THREE LISTED ABOVE. ABSOLUTELY NO ONE is allowed to take my artwork or characters and upload them to ANY MSN group WHAT SO EVER without my DIRECT permission. (And NO - CONTACTING MY ONLINE FRIENDS AND ASKING THEM DOES NOT COUNT AS "ASKING FOR MY PERMISSION". That's like asking your stomach whether or not your ass can take a shit. IT MAKES NO SENSE.) DO NOT USE MY ARTWORK OR MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS, FROM NEXT X OR OTHERWISE FOR YOUR RPG CHARACTERS WITHOUT ASKING ME DIRECTLY. I have been ripped off by FAR too many people FAR too many times, and I'm drawing the line. "NO YOU MAY NOT!" PERIOD. CURRENT MAJOR OFFENDER: TO BE LISTED SHORTLY CURRENT OFFENDING GROUPS: To be listed shortly. |
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| Case #3: |
| YAHOO MEMBER PROFILES |
| HOLY HELL I cannot tell you how tired I am of finding Yahoo Member Profiles written up using MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS, their NAMES, PROFILE INFORMATION, and either MY ARTWORK or fanart done by friends of them posted in the Yahoo Member Directory. YES I realize people are doing this for their own "RPG Purposes" ... well, to be blunt, TOUGH. It is not only completely unacceptable, it is ILLEGAL for anyone to be using MY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL as their own! SO, let me repeat this again: LET ME MAKE THIS PERFECTLY, PAINFULLY CLEAR: I DO NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES allow ANYONE to post my artwork, OR FAN ARTWORK OF MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS on ANY Yahoo Member Profiles for RPG purposes or otherwise WITHOUT MY DIRECT PERMISSION. (And NO - CONTACTING MY ONLINE FRIENDS AND ASKING THEM DOES NOT COUNT AS "ASKING FOR MY PERMISSION". That's like asking your stomach whether or not your ass can take a shit. IT MAKES NO SENSE.) DO NOT USE MY ARTWORK OR MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS, FROM NEXT X OR OTHERWISE FOR YOUR RPG CHARACTERS or Profile "Personal Pics" WITHOUT ASKING ME DIRECTLY. I have been ripped off by FAR too many people FAR too many times, and I'm drawing the line. "NO YOU MAY NOT!" PERIOD. CURRENT MAJOR OFFENDER: Yahoo Profile for "a_blazing_inferno" |
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