I am not going to release any names, links, or pics solely out of respect and I want to protect my friends<3

Please guys don't turn away from the situation! This is serious!

I have sent copyright.gov a Email asking for a clarification if the basic IP will allow users to start a DMCA process, and if so , is it free, or will it cost


I also asked what exactly does it cover, Hopefully I'll get a email back from them ASAP.

why does she have to pay? just file a DMCA

My good friend  spiritwolfie explains it here http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/...../#cid:44953212

Moral of the story: you either have to fork up the cash to get your art registered or kiss it goodbye. IMVU is using FAs artists to make money for themselves..

But that's not what the email that I got from them stated. In the email they stated if you can prove it your they will take it down with out a fight

How are you supposed to prove its you without your art being registered? Your regular IP copyright wont do anything for this situation. Your art is at risk!

well if it was uploaded to FA there is a © at the bottom.... that's how I do it

Thats part of the IP copyright. Your not protected unless your art is registered which is what spirit explains in his comment

I stream most of my work and have the stream itself downloaded on my comp in a folder because reasons it is one way it probably isnt the easiest of ways but it is one

I don't think it works like that :\

I have all of my work backed up onto a flash drive and if I still had my art posted here and if it ended up on IMVU I wouldn't be able to have them investigate and take it down because my art is not registered.

Simple IP copyright doesn't work in this situation...

ugh its so stupid

It is! Dragoneer fucked us all! Protect yourself!!!!

Hey ya Wolf Aurora, email from 'who exactly' if it was from DMCA could you pass toxic a copy of it, so I could see it?

With the way IMVU Is currently set up, you would A) Need a account with them, and B) need to pay for a AP just to report your art (If your art is noted under their AP section)

now last time I checked with DMCA, they required some form of actual proof (not just random ©markings etc cause lets be realistic here, anyone can throw that stuff on your art/even take copys of signture, its not hard to do with Photoshop and stuff

Now if DMCA is saying this, that's another story!, I could be wrong about the current way DMCA handles things as I have not looked into this for years mind you!, I would be very 'happy' if I was wrong about having to register your stuff, but this was back about 5years ago or so I had checked into this heavily for a good client of mine.

I've filed DMCA complaints before. Sites like IMVU and other art pages. Just having proof of ownership like having it uploaded to FA before it was uploaded to another website is usually enough. These sites don't want to get into legal battles, they will take it down with any proof of ownership.

bruh

Tried to tell ya :P

I don't know how to watermark, if there any kind of sai tutorial?

Watermarks wont help you here IMVU can still take your art and sell it and there is nothing you can do about it. You have to register your art!

My suggestion: Remove everything from FA like I did

I can show you how to make watermarks in SAI if you want! ^^

I believe "removing" wont delete files from their servers. It only makes it invisible for users.

Wow o.o Well thats another thing I do not know anything about >.< So if neer or IMVU wanted they could just steal it all? God this could be worse than I thought x.x

I think they are keeping them all. Just how many hard drives they have bought recently? I checked the latest submission number, it was 16082785.
Doing some simple math, if average file size was 10 mb, that'd take only 160 tb.
And I'd estimate avg file size to be maybe 3 mb, making it 48 tb.

Holy shit o.o Isnt that to help FA run better? Maybe process more data so it doesn't load as slow? Not sure when it comes to this stuff I am pretty computer stupid lol

RAM and hard drive memories are different. You could have 100000 tb of hard drive memory and still have shitty computer if you run out of RAM all the time. RAM is used on computing processes, hard drives are storages.

Woooooooow .o.

that would be fab

Basically what I d is have your watermark on a separate layer and set the layer to multiply (you don't have to do this if your watermark is white, if it is then it wont show up. only black shows up when you set a layer to multiply) then you adjust the opacity of the layer then WAHLA! Your art is now watermarked! BUT! Keep in mind it won't protect your work here (yes it may deter anyone from stealing your work) but in order to file the DMCA with IMVU to have art taken down your art has to be legitimately copyrighted. In other words the artwork has to be registered and even then you have to have an AP account (which you have to pay for in IMVU) to even file a DMCA :\

(all my knowledge my not be correct but this is what I have come to find out about whats going on)

So much bullshit. Thank you for tht watermarking info, my art isn't top line so I shouldn't have to deal with this.

Either way if you care about it take the steps to keep it safe and watermarks defiantly help but will not stop anyone unfortunately xP

Your welcome! If you have any more questions feel free to ask! I am here to help! :)

I knew this was a total bullshit....FA will go to hell....

Yep. No matter how hard Neer will try and sugarcoat it. He sold out and in turn fucked us all over! It the biggest art theft heist I have ever witnessed..

Now selling FA to IMVU doesnt seem such a good idea......does it?

Its too late because its already done lol.

Yeah....In the worst case we will get a new furry comunity site...In the best case FA will be free....but with its butt very very kicked.....

Yeah I hope something actually good comes out of this because I feel bad for everyone who is going to get involved :\

We need artspots to come back!!! >:D

We need the internet police!!
Or copyright police!!
Or the any type of police that would protect artists and any characters!!

I'm sure something like that exists but I do not know that type of info >.<

Sadly *sad but cute puppy face*

When you publish a piece of art it is instantly copyrighted so by law you can actually sue them for doing that.

There is no legal documentation to say "this is copyrighted to me" When you upload it anywhere yes automatically it is copyrighted to you but thats called IP copyright. That WILL NOT WORK for when you report art theft to IMVU. Past that I am not entirely sure what legal actions you can take. I have never had to deal with this before and I thank my paranoia for that! My art is everything to me<3

Well if that is so time for plan B, if I see my content anywhere asside from here without my permission I am deleting all my art and my account and moving to weasyl.

I would do so immediately!

Indeed, I will put a warning on my page saying it will be taken down in a few days. I will also delete my content now.

Please spread the word and feel free to link this journal even use the announcement pic I made! I am totally ok with all of this! More people need to be made aware!

Will do!

One more question... How do I delete my scraps? Hahaha

You know how to delete submissions right? Your scraps should be sprinkled in there too.

It's all in chronological order

Nevermind I just remembered how, thanks for the help anyway ^.^

No prob! :) I am here to help everyone that I can<3

Cool, have a nice day.

You too! ^^

Howdy there Zintarloc

You are right about the "instantly copyrighted part" but that is what they call "Basic IP Right"

now DMCA may be willing to something about it, I'm not saying they wont, but you can not sue for it, it wouldn't hold up in court without that piece of paper, Now court -may- accept WIP's, Signatures and stuff

Lets also keep in mind for anyone to sue anyone, it takes allot of money, which most artist don't have.

And for free information flow, Legally speaking, you could hold BOTH IMVU and the person who uploaded the work accountable.

- The exclusive rights are, however, not absolute and do not give the creator total control of their works because they are limited by limitations and exceptions to copyright law. -

Haha this is bullshit. FA should stay the same instead of it making it so you have to pay for stuff. I might as well quit FA and find somewhere else to go.

its not going to stay the same with IMVU in charge :\ they can do whatever they want now. Dragoneer fucked us all...

I'm gonna finish saving all my art, delete it, and post it elsewhere once I get home. I'm thinking the fursuit work would be ok...That's harder to claim in my opinion.

Indeed but people can still take it and call it their own. In my opinion I would rather be safe than sorry! I just want to make everyone aware ;n; It's sad enough I have already seen one friend become affected by it...

I'm not believing any stolen work is up until I see actual proof. Sorry, just hearing from one person, who may or may not be telling the truth, does not convince me.

Ok have fun living in your ignorance I am just trying to help you..

I am not releasing any info out of respect and protection of my friends. Sorry.

You call me ignorant, yet can provide no proof out of respect and protection? That makes no sense, you would think you would want to say "look here is proof." Rather than just hoping that everyone will just accept it.

Some people want FA to crash and burn and are looking to start drama, Not guilty until proven to be guilty and right now there is no proof.

Do you honestly believe I want to see FA burn? FA is my home and it was the ONLY place where I could actually make money off of my art and where people accepted me . It helped me actually BE a part of the furry fandom. Why would I want to wish this on my favorite art website? What reason do I have to lie? Please tell me because I'm not seeing it. My friend is rather popular and I don't want to go flaunting around her issues. It's her business and she will choose to make it aware or not. Like I said that it is her business.

I had a lot of art on here and it tore me apart deleting it all.. I had data and comments on certain things that I wanted to hold onto but now its all gone never to be seen again.

I'm not here to say "yeah guys jump ship IMVU sucks ass fuck them all" I'm here for the other fellow artists that use FA as a business and making them aware of the situation. I want everyone to be able to protect themselves and their art because AS AN ARTIST my artwork is absolutely everything to me. I wouldn't want to see anyone's work get stolen and made money off of and they can do just about nothing about it. I am helping you before its too late.

http://www.imvu.com/shop/web_search....._rating=-1&;offset=&narrow=&manufacturers_id=0&derived_from=0&derivable=0&sort=score

these is all the "proof" you need. go through there and see how many pieces you know.

Here is the problem I am having currently. You guys are blaming IMVU for the theft, when it is the user on IMVU. Theft happens on FA, theft happens on deviant art, theft happens on Weasyl. Everyone is acting like abandoning FA is going to stop the art theft.

Stop blaming the buyout of FA for the stolen pieces and blame the users stealing them. If anything IMVU owning FA should make it easier for you to get stolen art removed.

I'm just sick and tired of the "abandon FA journals." The truth to the matter is that your art is not safe anywhere on the internet. It's a risk artists take when they post publicly. Is it right? NO, should it be stopped? YES But is leaving FA going to solve anything? FUCK NO!

Just my two cents, take it or leave it with a grain of salt.

Except that it's now harder then ever to get it taken down. and FA is a huge target since the buy out.
thanks to IMVU's policies you have to physically have a © on it. just having it uploaded to FA or DA or any other art site isn't enough. neither is having your name/screenname on it. IMVU will not accept that as proof you own it.
So YES it is IMVU's fault for making it hard on the artist not the theif.

It's always been IMVU's policy, nothing has changed since the acquisition. FA is the largest source of furry artwork, it's always been a target. BUT you completely ignored the rest of my post. So I am not going to continue the debate. Leave FA if you want, but it's going to change nothing.

The rest of your comment was null to me since I'm not leaving, I'm water marking all of my stuff. THATS why I didn't answer it. because it held no value to debate something that wasn't being talked about.

Yes it was always IMVU's Policy something that when they wanted to aquire FA they should of thought about. Yes FA has always been a target because of its amount of furry art, However with the announcment it not only brought IMVU to the attention of furries who may or may not have known about it, but it also brought in a market for the people making/stealing art to make [points] off of. Suddenly an influx of furries to a site, you're going to want to up your furry related shop items.
simple supply and demand.
but not only that it also brought Furaffinity to the forefront of the news for IMVU users, so if they didn't know about it they do now, which increases the risk of theft for furry realted images all around.
Which is why I took down all of my gallery for heavy watermarking. something I strongly urge ANYONE who uploads art work to do.

If anyone wants to add me on facebook ( Rain Dance ) I'll make a group where everyone can post their art. Might even make a new websight for all of us.

Facebook is the #1 place where peoples art gets stolen >.> Just FYI

As long as you put your name on your art then you should be fine.

I still wouldn't risk it but thats my opinion >.<

IMVU will steal your art if your not careful too so its no different

The group on facebook would mainly be for giving you guys the new websight link for all furs

But if anyone wants to be on the list for the new websight my facebook is Rain Dance

Why don't we all fucking leave.

It just might be your best choice. But I will still be here to conduct business with people FA is my only connection to other people in the fandom.

Yeah ill stay but I'm gonna take your advice and remove my art for now and see what happens

Ok! :) Also feel free to spread the word use my journal and my submission to bring in more awareness! The more people know the more people we can help<3

If IMVU ruins FA like this then I don't know what to do. Hopefully someone does some scripting on the site to make it copy-proof, otherwise all the art on this site will be stolen soon. IMVU is like IGN in terms of their ignorance. They don't care about common sense or their users' respect towards them. In a nutshell, IMVU YOU ARE A BUNCH OF JERKFACES GET OUT OF OUR LIVES

Yeah that's not going to happen lol Dragoneer fucked us all...

this is all he has to say about the situation http://40.media.tumblr.com/21508ba1.....s4jlo1_500.jpg

honestly i think dragoneer kinda doesnt care and just wanted to ruin or give up on fa, he acts so blissfully ignorant to the situation

He sold out thats all there is to it. Should have just passed the torch to someone else more capable!

Yep true fact but it's said how a lot of websites and such get sold out when they got real big. was kinda afraid it would happen to FA after i believe google bought twitch

Yeah so it was bound to happen sooner or later >.< It sucks that it ended up this way..

Well this is just plain lovely. Typical though. And seems whenever I click that link it comes up with error: This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it

Are you sure It's IMVU that posted it in the catalog
or is it a users that posted it as his/her

Looking further into its like on the forums I think (not entirely familiar with IMVU) it says IMVU Home > Catalog > Rooms & Furniture > Furniture > Wall hangings

Thats where it is so yes its in the catalog specifically a wall hanging. they are trying to sell it for credits. Specifically 1,200 credits.

its something like this (not from my friend just randomly found it just looking around)

http://es.imvu.com/shop/product.php.....ts_id=24756148

Thats what I thought

It's a user that stole it, created it as a wall hanging item that other users can buy
It is NOT IMVU that stole it, It's the user!

I have an IMVU account, if you want, I can talk to this user and ask him to take it down!

Still it's on their website and other people are making money off of it and in turn its IMVU is making more money because of it. I am not too worried about it but if my friend wishes to have her art removed I will let you know! (haven't gotten in contact with her about it so I don't think she is aware, this is mainly why I didn't want to flaunt the pics around)

Okay, just let me know if you want me to make a move

Will do! Thanks!<3

Where /exactly/ is the art uploaded on the site? What category? Or is it in the client itself?

IMVU Home > Catalog > Rooms & Furniture > Furniture > Wall hangings

A user is selling it for credits.

People from IMVU have been stealing art from people all over the internet for YEARS even from FA. Honestly you are probably just seeing it now because they announced IMVU owns FA. Removing your art won't help the situation. Nothing is out of the ordinary. Our art has been being stolen for YEARS! mind you :)

Also I have been using IMVU for 6 years and used to be an artist in the GASR art forums.
Also what's the point of drawing or having art if you can't show it off? I don't get why furs are "Deleting" everything from their galleries.

My art can be found here http://wolicoproductions.com/ :) Simple as that

Oh I am well aware of this! Though they have nothing to steal if I have nothing posted in my gallery/scraps :P Indeed it may not stop people from stealing my art because my art is still floating around here because of my commissioners reposing my work on their pages. That I cannot control and I am completely aware of that fact! ^^ But its one less thing I have to worry about not having my full work posted here and using FA as my main art gallery/ business website.

This all just sounds so backwards to me lol
I would understand if IMVU it's self was stealing the art but I don't know. I won't remove any of my art cause if it get's stolen I will just report it. I have also been on secondlife and I have seen so much art theft on there. But no one says jack shit? Also they steals sonas on there too all user content mind you. Deleting your art from FA will not change the fact your art will still most likely get stolen. So why waste your time doing that when you could be trying to get it taken down? I don't know maybe I am just weird.

well if you want Report your stolen art you must get an VIP account on IMVU so you can Report your stolen art, so for each user more they get around 30 usd ^^just that the artists can take down there stolen art.

So how is IMVU not making Money ???

No not registered with IMVU http://www.wikihow.com/Copyright-Photographs

See the thing is people are making money off of your work through IMVU. You can't have it removed unless your art is registered. Simple IP copyright does not work! At least this is how IMVU is running things now and they have access to all of the popular furry artist's artwork. Yeah they were already stealing to begin with but its about to get much much worse since Fa is now run by IMVU. Do wha you will I'm not forcing you to do anything I am just trying to educate everyone the best way I can. I am just here to help you!

But to see the adult art on imvu Shops you must make an Vip account to see if someone stolen your adult art, so you must pay

Not all of the art that is being taken is adult tho :P and that would suck so we don't even know how much porn they could already have!

Anyone could just go to your website and take pictures from there. Your "solution" is not really a solution at all. You're just panicking over nothing at this point.

There are watermarks all over my work so it will deter those with sticky fingers. They could do the same on any other website but I am able to protect myself this way because its MY website its MY domain. I have never dealt with art theft before and I will always do my best to prevent it from happening!

Watermarks are a deterrent, but they don't actually prevent anything at all. And they won't offer more protection simply because it's on your own website. You're fooling yourself if you believe that. Plus, just because you're not aware of people infringing on your copyrights doesn't mean it hasn't happened already.

Like I said, panicking over nothing.

Well I'm sorry its better to be safe than sorry IMO. I was only here to bring awareness and help out my other fellow artists.

But you won't "be safe", that's the point. There's absolutely no sure-fire way of preventing copyright infringement. So what you're doing now is running around like a chicken with its head cut off and acting like that somehow accomplishes anything. I mean really, you're free to do whatever you want with your art, but making panic journals about it is just silly. It doesn't actually help anyone at all, it's just making you feel better. What would help you most is if you calmed down.

This isn't a panic journal its meant to inform people about what is going on and they are free to do whatever they wish. Like I said just trying to help out fellow artists here! Also what I am doing still wont protect me from art theft I know that. With displaying and selling art there really is no way to truly protect yourself unless you register you art in which not everyone has the time or money to do so.

I also never claimed to be upset or ever screaming at anyone.. >.> Just informing people dude. I would appreciate it if you would stop picking at me and my choices and just carry on with yourself.

Registering stuff doesn't protect against it happening either, it just gives more options for pursuing legal action should the copyright be infringed upon. But you don't have to register anything to claim copyright and file DMCA takedowns. Registration only makes it easier, but not registering doesn't make it impossible.

I'm not picking at you, nor did I ever say you were screaming at people or anything of that sort. I'm informing you of something. You say you're trying to help people, but I'm telling you that you're not actually helping anyone at all. It's a "panic journal" because you're basically giving information based on what you think has happened, without proof, the substance of which could potentially cause other people to panic. You keep saying "Protect yourselves!" but the things you suggest don't protect anyone at all.

Could you link a source on this part , any Sources on this from the .gov /or copyright section I could see please, as I have stated in my personal posts on the matter DMCA could have changed its requirements last time I checked, and I haven't been able to find any current info on it.

"But you don't have to register anything to claim copyright and file DMCA takedowns. Registration only makes it easier"

I'm not sure what you believe a "DMCA takedown" to be, but most websites have a report system set up so that if your creative content is reposted/used/etc. without your permission, you merely report it and it gets taken down.

what your referring to is a support ticket placed in by a website that offers to take content down if you provide enough proof, that's not the same as a DMCA Takedown...

That is the website creating its own policys on the matter which they are allowed to..

let's take my website for a example, My website Fluffywaddles.net state what is yours is yours, if someone steals it, contact us providing proof/links etc and we're take it down

We don't go though DMCA to do this, this is just us willing to work with the owners of the content, which is a BIG difference from DMCA

a DMCA Takedown is a "LEGAL NOTICE"
Source - http://www.dmca.com/FAQ/What-is-a-DMCA-Takedown

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digita....._Copyright_Act

The DMCA is just a law that governs copyright. A "DMCA takedown" is, in a general sense, any removal of subject matter that is infringing on copyright. From your own source:

"A DMCA Takedown is:
When content is removed from a website at the request of the owner of the content or the owner of the copyright of the content."

As I already said, different websites have different ways of going about it, but they still count as "DMCA takedowns" since they are takedowns being done in accordance with the DMCA.

Neer gives an shit about us or our payed art or the Artists, His new house must be fine i really wonder were the Money of the donation run did run xd.

You know FA never can die.................. since stupid furrys still follow it and digging there nose in his A+++++

FA should be taken down for good and give it the final blow.

Neer killed nearly it already when he sold us IMVU..........

If FA was taking down the whole furry community would have a meltdown. there are still a lot of artists here using FA as a business. So if you get rid of fa you get rid of all common communication in the fandom as well as the promotion of the artists.

In the end it was a horrible idea and Dragoneer and his wife can burn for all that I care.. I never liked them and his wife STILL OWES ME ART from over two years ago!!! HMMM.. Cant say that I like them at all...

But FA is still good for reeling in business! Like I have said before FA is my home and it is where I will be<3

Those damn punks! Sorry for the vulgar language, but it seems all sorts of things are going to hell in this world :I

Indeed

And I never even got the chance you see what your art was like :c

NEED NOT WORRY MY FURRY FRIEND!
GO HERE: http://wolicoproductions.com/ :D

Oh dang! Thank you very much~ I have bookmarked that site so i can return to it many times in the future :3 I have fallowed your example too though and going to be removing all my art on here until this BS is settled. Much appreciated though ^w^

You are welcome! I'm glad I could help! ^^ Feel free to link this journal and use the submission to bring in more attention to this. The more people know the better!

I already have~ :3

Good! ^^

No i just play the waiting game and see where this all goes. Whether it be IMVU backing off or maybe even going into a lawsuit. (maybe even never get resolved) Until then, i'll hold onto all my artsu and repost as soon as its confirmed safe.

On another retrospect, how does one start their own website such as you did? Maybe i can try such a thing~

I can already smell a lawsuit coming.. Apparently there is someone else who owns part of FA and neer didn't honor their agreement. I don't have ANY info on that but I hers things.

My friend  spiritwolfie hooked me up C: I know nothing about hosting or building a website be me being friends with him and the cool awesome friendship that we have he set me up with a simple and easy website for me to control everything and do just about whatever I want xD There are a couple of free web hosting domains out there and those you have to pay for are pretty cool! :) Sorry I couldn't help you out here >.< Hopefully a new website will pop up soon! :)

Well thank you for being there and giving me some information an least X3 I'll try to use my awesome charismatic skillz to see if i can get your friend to give me some pointers too .w. Hey, it was great talking to yah and i must thank you very much for your guidance

You are so totally welcome! ^^ Feel free to add me on Skype if you ever just wanna chat! :P

Oh totally! Ill do that shortly :D is your skype name posted somewhere?

Oh I found it X3

Actually scratch that he says feel free to contact him if you are interested in getting a page of your own! :)

I feel like leaving fa now

I didn't want to thats why I am not completely gone. I would suggest removing your art though just to keep it safe<3

All my feels right here http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/...../#cid:44975187

I took down all my unwatermarked art and Watermarked it all heavily. this will of course decline my already minimal sales but if its watermarked all the heck and back people will be less likely to use it... at least that's my hope.

I am doing the same thing on my webpage. However FA is now more of a target than ever because of joining up with IMVU. Stay safe my friend!<3

yep, 95% of my personal art is off the site. this is sad because FA was really the only place I could even get sales...

Same here! But just do what you can! Keeping communication with people also helps! ^^ I will have something set up to where I will post "snapshots" or pieces of my art on here but hold the full image exclusively on my website.

Gonna REEL EM IN!

No matter where you post anything on the internet, it's gonna get stolen.
Even if it's on all the other sites that you all run to, still gonna get stolen.
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GD6qtc2_AQA/m.....resdefault.jpg

I was already aware of this! FA is just a huge target right now so thats why I removed my art from everything. Including DA and weasyl.

I only rarely post my own artwork. I almost never post completed pieces. I am however constantly filling sketchbooks with pen and pencil pieces, water color paintings, colored pencil pieces. I got framing, portraits, draft work... But I almost never sell any of my pieces for paranoia of art theft and redistribution with out consent.

I have dealt with IMVU in the past, went through filing a DMCA against them in 2009, I have no idea if the piece was actually taken down as my profile was banned from their service. My advice? Don't post your work in complete stages, register your signature as an art-house and register your works. The problem of art theft has plagued this community since the birth of the internet and the ready availability of digital editing soft ware. The best defense against that is to make every bit of artwork you do legitimate.

^^^ THIS ^^^

I am honestly not all that worried. Call me ignorant or whatever, but I have been all over IMVU and my work has always had the potential for theft simply because I used to always link back here. For me, nothing has changed unless theft actually happens, in which case I will cross that bridge. But for right now, nothing is sending up and warning bells that haven't already been present.

But thanks for the info all the same!

Your totally right! Like I have said you are free to do what you want :P I am just here to help and inform everyone! ^^

Thank you for the concern,I blacked out what was useful to me,if they steal anything else it's pretty much taking old and out of date art and there's not much I care to do about that as I'll get better *shrug* if they find my dank little corner of the website I'll be surprised anyway.
I'm a little impressed to see your whole gallery gone though,does this mean you are going? does this warning mean a lot of people are to flee this site?

You're welcome and idk time will tell on this one. :\

Do you think it's just here and just furries?

Things are bound to change. Unfortunately I think things are going to end up pretty bad. >.<

Or that could just be me being paranoid about the situation.

I dunno about paranoid, but I'm really starting to get uncomfortable.

Indeed.

Was browsing the FA forums and came across a comment with this link:

https://twitter.com/panderp/status/.....47385976500224

Looks like a certain someone, sold FA without involving the OTHER owner (Neer and Panderp apparently owned FA 50/50)

IMVU users, one "MissHarleyQuinn", for example, has posted art by Miles DF as well as possibly one by Kacey Miagami. There are several other pieces that look awful familiar too.

A "user" dunno whether it's someone on FA, or someone who has an account with IMVU (handle is: Fleshy) got hese screenshots:

http://imgur.com/a/FTLDL

Its just disgusting... I already know about that too and oh boy I smell a big fat juicy lawsuit coming in!

That is incorrect acutally, as panderp i believe never really owned any part of FA.

"Never really owned" Clarification is needed.

Its in one of the journals that was posted by fender.

But if I remove all my art ill lose it all :, ( I don't have a way to get a website or anything like that :(

Get a flash drive! :) Thats how I keep all of my arts safe<3

Or a USB memory stick thingie. Those are pretty cheap.

Or dropbox! :D

Higher resolution variants of the image, saved as PSD with all of the layers in tack, along with the date of creation showing that it was made before it was taken may do some to help prove who created it.

Indeed it will. Only if they honor that. Thats your basic IP copyright there. Like I have said before to file the DMCA you have to legitimate copyright as in you have to have your artwork registered. At least thats what I know right now. Either way you would have to get an AP account on IMVU to even file the DMCA with them. :\

Either way IMVU is still going to make money off of FAs useres...

Okay and what if I'm not the artist? How do I copyright characters?
Can I copyright art I didn't make as long as it is paid for by me and features my characters?

Yes you can register your character design!

You paid for it so that makes it yours. The art you receive however you do not own only the character design.

So I register the characters but am not able to copyright? To is it trademark?

The design will be copyrighted to you if you register it. Yes.

I have favourited some art from you here, now that's all defunct. Dunno what's worse but of course it's your art, do what you want. You definitely have one watcher less now

I am still active here o.O You can find (also favorite) my art here http://wolicoproductions.com/

I'm really curious about all this and I admit I don't know much about everything that's going on. I wanted to ask though, what exactly is being sold? Is it artwork as decorative images in the game?

Yeah something of that nature. They are "wall hangings" and users are selling them for points on IMVU.

I noticed the screenshot you linked to above actually. A hell of a lot of popular artists I recognise in there. It's just ridiculous that they would form this partnership assuring everybody it would be a good thing and then this goes and happens forcing people to pay to try and fix it. So much for any good will :/

God dammit....

For the record, that screenshot took my quote out of context as if it implied I was endorsing art theft. I was not. I was telling artists how to protect themselves and to DMCA the content, and that I've always fought art thieves. Furry does have a large demand on IMVU, but art thieves are not the ones who should be profiting from it, but furries themselves.

Art thieves have no place on the Internet, and it's a reason we wipe entire galleries on FA when we catch people doing it AND throw in a complimentary ban. People should respect artists and creators.

Then why would you sell the #1 fury art website to another website that is KNOWN to have art thieves as well as been stealing art from us already for years??? I understand that they probably offered you a lot of money and already working for them turned it into the "perfect" business decision. But why? If you cared so much you would have thought this through as well as have someone of legal business knowledge look over and help you understand what you and THE WHOLE FURRY COMMUNITY are getting into. Also waiting like 3 months later to tell us was a bad idea all in its own... You pissed A LOT of people off that way so good going lol.

I am not here to belittle you or call you a loser (I was totally on your side in the beginning... I was rooting for ya dude but you proved me wrong) I just want to know why. I'm sure alot of us are still asking this question.

But even if you really did care then why? Art theft from FA to IMVU is WORSE now than it has been and don't say that isn't true! Don't lie to yourself.. IMVU doesn't even care that their users are stealing from FA because not only is it making them money but they don't even have people properly patrolling their website properly to even PREVENT art theft. And you can't even tell me you didn't expect this to happen. So please don't lie to me or anyone here. At this point we all deserve the truth or at least a full honest explanation and how it effects us all because some people still aren't getting it Neer.

Dragoneer, as a person who runs a community like you do..

You are the one who said it, plain and simple, if you didn't want it said like that before you had hit -enter- you should have tried reading it out-loud or something, but the fact is you -choose- to say it that way, and then you tried to take it back, the context is what you created and how you choose to respond to someone when you made that post...

it also doesn't help you have a tendency to say one thing then say another..

Then theirs the fact that IMVU keeps lying , "oh we don't have adware/malware in our stuff" I Just installed IMVU on my virtual box, installed its contents in full, and once the IMVU toolbar was installed, I had Trovi search/ as well as 'search protect' on the virtual box, the virtual box was a clean install for this test, Both Trovi search as well as search protect are infections, and people can try to twist that all they like but I remove virus's for a living....

We all love FA, we want whats best for FA, but you can't sit here and and claim that the fear/concerns are not justified

Lets look at some facts..

At first we saw "oh IMVU is doing this to help FA" , Then why not provide the budget in a partner ship agreement, or donate serverbox' or some coders? or write a charity check?

then we saw "IMVU Bought FA For the ad space so they could put there ads here", Why didn't they just buy ad blocks then...?

Then we got IMVU Bought FA to SELL FA's ADSPACE to Third parties!

Then we also got IMVU states "Fa's policy and rules are FA's, we wont touch them and they wont change" that was also posted in a journal by fender as well the same precise wording pretty much, Then FA Rules got changed from what I saw

So how can we not have fear... how can we not be upset? and why should we not go somewhere else at this point with stuff like what I just pointed out...