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This IMVU stuff (Best B-Day gift EVAR)
10 years ago
So, the other day I found someone selling my art on IMVU. I asked him to take it down, and he said he did. Then I saw the thread in the forum that showed the Access Pass Only stuff, and my stuff was still there. So, I poked Dragoneer about it. I -JUST got this PM
RE: IMVU Account
From: [USER REDACTED]
To: Strype
15 minutes ago
You know...I was trying to remove any and all work of yours from my catalog on IMVU, but now that you reported the two pieces of yours that I accidentally missed, I'm down several hundred dollars that I put into that account myself. I have never received a single dollar back from IMVU for what I did and contributed to that community, and now it's all gone and permanently banned. That's a pretty harsh outcome that I was trying to prevent and be nice with you about. Hope you're happy.
Permanently banned from IMVU,
[USER REDACTED]
PS, don't bother to reply to this, I don't check this account.
WE SHIT, MAYBE YOU SHOULDA TAKEN IT ALL DOWN, THEN INSTEAD OF LEAVING UP ALL THE STUFF YOU THOUGHT I WOULDNT FIND OUT ABOUT.
So yeah, my stance on all this? I REALLY don't like IMVU, but this art theft thing has gone from LOOOONG before the buyout. But hey, a bit of help from another site to help whip this one into shape ain't a bad thing, and it'll be a lot easier than FA bobbing along on its own. With the extra support we can probably get the UI updates and all the fancy stuff we've been hoping to get around here.
And as for Dragoneer, yeah, things haven't been perfect, and sadly it seems that hating on the guy is the thing all the "cool kids' are doing nowadays. I know it's easier to imagine him as a money-grubbing incompetent nincompoop and not a human being that's trying to do whats best for the site, but I've met the dude, and he's always come off to me as a genuine guy that's trying to help the community and eats WAY too much shit for it.
And I know you guys are probably gonna give me shit for defending the guy, too. You can keep that to yourselves.
Look, point is, look up there. The thieves are getting their asses banned, and we have Dragoneer to thank for it. Maybe we should consider putting down the torches and pitchforks and help the guy out. If you spot thefts, tell the artists. And artists, take note of who's selling your stuff and note Dragoneer about it. That's what I did less than 12 hours ago, and we're starting to see results. This theft has been going on for YEARS before the buy-out, but now we have a chance to scrub it all out, which will be good for everyone.
Now, if you don't mind, I'mma go chill for the next 23 hours and have a kickass day to myself, and then get back to work on all that art you homies seem to really dig.
(PS, Today's my B-day, just turned 32! W00)
(PSS, it's also Dragoneer's b-day too, go wish him a good one)
COMMISSIONS (the fullsize huge scenes, not the ones I'm doing nowadays)
1/ Rogern (inked, restarting colour)
2/ 9Lion (pencilled, plus one other)
3/ Mechaman
4/ Chazore (pencilled)
5/ yutrah (inked)
6/ rageki (inked)
7/ Twitch The Dragon (inked)
8/ Kipeo
9/ Opeoaslam
RE: IMVU Account
From: [USER REDACTED]
To: Strype
15 minutes ago
You know...I was trying to remove any and all work of yours from my catalog on IMVU, but now that you reported the two pieces of yours that I accidentally missed, I'm down several hundred dollars that I put into that account myself. I have never received a single dollar back from IMVU for what I did and contributed to that community, and now it's all gone and permanently banned. That's a pretty harsh outcome that I was trying to prevent and be nice with you about. Hope you're happy.
Permanently banned from IMVU,
[USER REDACTED]
PS, don't bother to reply to this, I don't check this account.
WE SHIT, MAYBE YOU SHOULDA TAKEN IT ALL DOWN, THEN INSTEAD OF LEAVING UP ALL THE STUFF YOU THOUGHT I WOULDNT FIND OUT ABOUT.
So yeah, my stance on all this? I REALLY don't like IMVU, but this art theft thing has gone from LOOOONG before the buyout. But hey, a bit of help from another site to help whip this one into shape ain't a bad thing, and it'll be a lot easier than FA bobbing along on its own. With the extra support we can probably get the UI updates and all the fancy stuff we've been hoping to get around here.
And as for Dragoneer, yeah, things haven't been perfect, and sadly it seems that hating on the guy is the thing all the "cool kids' are doing nowadays. I know it's easier to imagine him as a money-grubbing incompetent nincompoop and not a human being that's trying to do whats best for the site, but I've met the dude, and he's always come off to me as a genuine guy that's trying to help the community and eats WAY too much shit for it.
And I know you guys are probably gonna give me shit for defending the guy, too. You can keep that to yourselves.
Look, point is, look up there. The thieves are getting their asses banned, and we have Dragoneer to thank for it. Maybe we should consider putting down the torches and pitchforks and help the guy out. If you spot thefts, tell the artists. And artists, take note of who's selling your stuff and note Dragoneer about it. That's what I did less than 12 hours ago, and we're starting to see results. This theft has been going on for YEARS before the buy-out, but now we have a chance to scrub it all out, which will be good for everyone.
Now, if you don't mind, I'mma go chill for the next 23 hours and have a kickass day to myself, and then get back to work on all that art you homies seem to really dig.
(PS, Today's my B-day, just turned 32! W00)
(PSS, it's also Dragoneer's b-day too, go wish him a good one)
COMMISSIONS (the fullsize huge scenes, not the ones I'm doing nowadays)
1/ Rogern (inked, restarting colour)
2/ 9Lion (pencilled, plus one other)
3/ Mechaman
4/ Chazore (pencilled)
5/ yutrah (inked)
6/ rageki (inked)
7/ Twitch The Dragon (inked)
8/ Kipeo
9/ Opeoaslam
And banned or not. Shouldn't have copied in the first place.
OMG HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! Hope its a good'in
Meanwhile, the artists on my watchlist with merely moderate followings have to file actual DMCA paperwork. Oh well, life ain't no picnic, amirite?
It's at least worth a shot to try
None of this 'OH BUT THE WATERMARK WILL MAKE THE IMAGE HARD TO SEE' no..
Watermark. All. Of. Your. Art.
Look. The only way to prevent your art from getting copied is to never post it. Sad but true. Watermarking just annoys everyone looking at the image, it serves no other useful purpose. I'm talking about full watermarks that cover or alter the subject of the picture, I'm not talking about just putting a signature somewhere on the image. I heartily recommend everyone add a signature, for no other reason than if someone does copy a picture around, it's easy to find out whose picture it is.
It's the buyers that are idiots...
That isn't possible but there's other ways to do hidden watermark, steganography is a friend.
In fact *no* DRM scheme works. You can't have a digital system that both makes it possible to obtain information and *not* obtain same information.
The only way that works is to provide an affordable, easy legitimate means of obtaining same information. This is what I hope IMVU will try to achieve with FA.
This should, hopefully, put some minds at ease.
Hope you have a nice birthday.
Second of all, this is really interesting. I hope more people read about this!
I mean peoples art is all over the place on Secondlife aswell the only reason people are complaining about it being on IMVU is so they can bitch about the merger
Hope you have a nice relaxing drama free day haha
also, happy birthday!
Happy birthday.
Into the pit of rabid Justin Biebers for you. >:I
Have a good Birthday!
Oh and happy birthday.
And thanks ^^
Heh glad to see art thieves are getting the swift kick in the arse they deserve.
and no, dragoneer's doing fine with what he did O= too many people just keep whining about bs
I'll check out this forum when i can cause I can never be too sure if my stuff has been taken (though i'm no popufur, i do have some art that, while commissioned, would disrespect the artist if it were stolen)
P.S. Happy birthday!
Happy birthday btw :3
Also happy B-day keep up the amazing art!
I need to go see if any of my stuff is there.
.. I imagine your picture was one of them.
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday!! C:
After all they stole your artwork.
Have a good one, dude :3
My stance has always been: he is a normal guy running one of the (if not the biggest) biggest community sites for furry's, I have no complaints about the site or anything related, so carry on as normal.
The IMVU thing is a wait and see, but I cant believe the people who automatically up and left the site, taking all their stuff with them. Oh furry community with your drama and overacting!
Don't have to agree with everything he does, but the hate will always confuse me.
Happy Birthday
Hopefully we can knock off all the chunks as we move forward with this whole thing.
Glad you're not one of them! :D happy birthday! i'm also having a great day watching a marathon of a show i never watched before called Archer
And Heby burfdeh XP
I think this is an angle we hadn't considered. The buyout caused community awareness and backlash, and it had an antiseptic effect on the place.
We're not stuck in here with them, they're stuck in here with US!
At least you could take down your stuff from IMVU... now, they really need to enforce a new politic about this, because people still sells stuff from other artists and get money fron things that are NOT theirs... and that's the part I fear the worst... This IMVU thing stinks all over...
Kudos for Neer, seems he's finally getting a bit more of time to sort out this kind of issues...
Something like you say would be the best solution to stop this activity, that really hurts artists and their way of living.
And Happy B-day BTW :3
(seems every other month they're up in arms about FA for something ... )
I like how that IMVU user tried to guilt trip you. Takes real class when trying to not only take your work, but bitches when it causes penalty.
Happy b-day!
Furries just seem to find drama over the petty things XD
IMVU theft has been long before FA was sold out, but IMVU is not the only website with the userbase full of thieves.
Google plus, Deviantart, (russian facebook), and tumblr have that aswel
I've pretty much ignored the whole IMVU thing till this point, if they are really cleaning it up, i'm happy about that!
HOWEVER, I am with you when I say this IMVU merge is for the best and so far has helped a lot of people such as yourself. Again, you seem like a very swell guy and as a scholar/enthusiast of cyberpunk and science fiction your art has always fascinated me!
If I was him I wouldn't trust a single one of us.
I'm glad everything sorted out in the end though! ;w;
There's one thing I don't see mentioned on here with all this talk about art theft.
My skepticism of IMVU as a company comes from the fact that their toolbar contains invasive web browser hijacking spyware, the kind that antivirus programs would detect as an infection and clean off.
http://ramzyuu.tumblr.com/post/1141.....-imvus-toolbar
By default the install boxes are checked, making them a quick buck every time an unsuspecting user hurries through the process and ends up installing the spyware. That, in my opinion, is deeply unethical and says a lot about their trustworthiness.
I told Neer about it (he wasn't aware that they were doing it).
I'm hoping he can shame his new coworkers into ending this deceitful practice. It's really indefensible.
Until then, I'll take IMVU's promises with a large block of salt.
At the end of the day I'm just scared like I am sure many others are. Hopefully more information will come forth to clear this up and settle things. I don't like being scared of corporate overlords. D:
Sounds legit.
And wow...that guy is a douchebag. He's just pissy he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Who are the jokesters actually buying pre-made art on places like this? That's just wacky. And to that effect, what in particular are they actually buying? PNGs?
And fuck do I love the "Waaaahh, I didn't make money off your art and dun got banned, waaaah!" crap. Delicious.
glad you got that sorted out, people can suck
Happy B'day
I don't hate Dragoneer, but I'm gonna withhold my judgment of him until I see what happens in the next six months.
As for IMVU, I don't use it, and I don't plan on using it.
And I'm not leaving FA. Yes, I have accounts with Weasyl and SoFurry, but I've had them for a few years now, so folks can't say I'm jumping ship just for the fuck of it.
Clearly a level headed person, right?
Happy birthday sweety, I hope.you have a great day.
*goes back to stalking his journals ....in a non creepy way, in a hope for a commish one day way*
Im now in work...12h of work..perfect time to find some stuff on IMVU xD
Riiiiiiight...Keep trying to play the victim, you got banned and you fucking deserved it, scrub!
Good on ya, Strype! Glad to see some shit's finally happening with all of the theft.
PS: When are ya open for busts again!?
stupid wrote:Hope you're happy.
Very happy.
I've chased down a few fakers myself, on here, DA, and even over there (like...oh gawd; almost 5 years ago or something X3) They seem to totally forget that anyone can do a little checking and find the real deal. Most of the time, they also seem to be rather dense about -signatures- >.> "Oh, I'm (this guy); but I sign as (so-and-so), (completely different high-profile artist) and (You OBVIOUSLY know I'm full of sh*t by now, right?)" (slightly adapted from a REAL statement I was fed by a faker XD)
Happy Birthday tho X3, I take it that message was a helluva present XD
Glad that jerk got banned. Glad Dragoneer once again did something good (this isn't the first time he did a good deed). Glad your birthday managed to be a good one rather than a crappy one in spite of all this.
Congratz on stopping the thief and get him banned. And happy birthday!^^
As for your birthday, happy 32nd. You're an 80's baby like me, and I got one year on ya (and a few months), but 30 is the new 20 anyway, so those millennials can deal. XD
Second: Most users on FA don't know Neer personally like you might, so we don't know how he is as a person. So don't blame people for being suspicious, angry or annoyed with him on this site, with the track record he have concerning it. People aren't hating on him as a person, they're hating on him for this site only.
PS: With that said, I don't hate Neer, I may just not like some of the things he have done in the past.
The art you give is not only the best gift for yourself, but for all of us as well. Thanks abunch! Enjoy the cake!
Secondly, let me get this straight: he's mad at you for him stealing your stuff and you calling him on it.......... How the hell does he...? I don't even.............. *walks off to go vent for a few hours*
Second, it still amazes me that people TRULY think art theft is "no big deal" and this person was building the community by selling your stuff you post. Worse off, that he thinks YOU'RE the bad guy is just a huge perception problem with the 'free' internet.
I once had a talk with someone that did similar to a commission I did. When I did the takedown, said user approached me and we had a 'nice' conversation about it, but he still didn't get it. Asked how he felt if he did his job but his coworker got paid, and said it would be unfair.
"But Xili, that's paying for time I put into the job. This is just digital bytes on the internet"
"Yes, and Strype spent a LOT of time drawing it, and I paid him for his time."
(Yes Strype, the story was about you. ^_^ Happy Birthday? Pic in Question was http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7759909/ )
but the fucking audacity though, and it's funny how it likes to act and pretend to be in this victim role now. Holy Shit.
Happy Birthday tho! :'D
Horrah for all of our parents getting buzay in JUNE
I find it rather hilarious that this guy says he was "trying to be nice" by removing the art he was selling as theft for years.
Also the few times I have met/spoken with Dragoneer he seemed like a nice average guy. He had significantly less ego than several artists I have met (didn't come off as having one really)
In all seriousness this is a good thing, like you stated the ARTISTS have to say something. Quite honestly rarely do the art thief's and the admins listen to the commissioners. XD Should tell you about the time someone stole that Wolven piece you made for a while back and tried to blame it on his diabetes !
Happy birfaday too drink lots and lots and maybe make some drunk drawings and sell em XD
Needless to say, this shitstorm was beginning to jade my opinions on the buyout, so I'm glad to here some good fallout fell your way Strypes; cause if art theft can be stopped for you...it can stopped for everyone. One just needs to put some effort into it.
Also, happy birthday Strypes! V-_^
You did indeed, get a good present =)
And now enough of my useless comment. :P
And happy birthday to you.
32 is a good age :3 Enjoy your day, hope everything turns good for you
Anyways happy birthday strype! Enjoy jt to the fullest
Happy birthday to one of the greatest artists out there, you! I'll go do the same for Dragoneer.
I don't know much about Dragoneer but what I understood is that he makes no profit out of this site at all. All of the doshelones go into keeping this site up. People can say that he isn't the best, but he does what he can, and that's what matters. I feel really bad for him to having to deal with all this crap, everyone pointing at him when something goes wrong.
2) Despite all the crap, Dragoneer's never really slighted me. I know the pain of managing something, so I can understand where he's coming from. And I liked IMVU when I used it, so I'm happy to see what'll happen.
... I'm going to get so much crap for this, arn't I?
As well, have a rad as hell birthday uwu
This is pretty much forcing us into aligning with IMVU, and I just don't like it. The more I read about this company, the less I like. Complaints up the wazoo, customer service that resembles that of India, (unless of course you have a billing question), a huge drop in revenues in the past few years, numerous allegations of stolen funds...
I just would have liked FurAffinity to be aligned with a better, upstanding company, I guess. I can understand the need to branch out but this is a bad business choice. I don't hate anyone other than the people at IMVU systematically shutting down accounts and pocketing the stored money. In many instances, reports show they're closing down accounts for hardly any reason at all, and getting thousands of credits back in the process - money these people paid to belong to what they thought was an honest enterprise.
I don't think you like IMVU either. And if you did the due diligence I've been doing, you'd like t a whole lot less.
By the way, a very happy birthday to you. *^^* *offers cake*
Gaia bless
Pakesh_De
Happey spawning day!! (There's no coffee in "this" coffee)
I will however fight you over Dragoneer. It is a fact that he
* left equipment lying around unused for a year and a half after begging the community to give him $1700 to acquire it
* continually promises things that never materialise:
** fine-grained content filters first announced November 2006
** folders first announced April 2008, claimed to be "in testing" April 2010, "being finalized" August 2010
** a printing service first announced January 2009
** web hosting first announced March 2010, "up and running within 20 days" January 2011
** a URL shortener (pss.ms) first announced August 2010, quietly deleted March 2011
** six different reimplementations of FA over the course of nine years involving at least ten different developers, plus however many Photoshop mockups masquerading as "UI revisions"
* wastes money on a full 42-unit cabinet at the datacentre which has never been more than one-third full
Then there's the slow-motion trainwreck that is administration on this site, and failure to respond to trouble tickets starting in December 2013.
Happy B-Day Strype, have a good one!
Also, maybe don't use stolen art in the first place? Just a thought. ^_^
I mean, I go to places like f-list where yeah, tons and tons of people are using "borrowed" artwork. Personally I don't care if people use mine, as long as it's credited. But the ones I hate the most are the ones that say "Art not mine, will take down if artist asks." That means a) they know they aren't supposed to be using it, and b) they think it's the artist's job to regularly search EVERY piece of art they've ever made on EVERY site out there, just to find people who are using their stuff without permission. Guh. @_@
That and E621 makes ad revenue, and my content was put up there without my consent, so in a sense, they were stealing from me too
Seriously, if we lock-up thieves of physical things, why don't we lock the E-net connection of a virtual-ones?
Anyway, have a nice boobsday and keep on rockin'
. -Thank you for that!
Also - Happy birthday !!!!
Anyway, happy birthday.
Also happy birthday to you, sir. ^^
Just like this dude who steals your work (and others I'm sure) to make money and then whines about losing his investments? Reality check; illigitamate gains made off someone else's work. Be happy you aren't being legally obligated to reinbourse all revenues made. And compensate for other damages, legal infringements etc etc.
I'm glad he got banned, I only hope the reality helps correct his bullshit going forward.
As to that guy, screw that guy. He hadn't "contributed to that community". He was posting stolen content, and if he stole from you, he probably stole from other people. Whether his claims of never making a profit were true or not, it wasn't for lack of trying, and it clearly wasn't through his own honest effort.
I'm glad the thief got banned and I'm so proud of you for sticking up for Dragoneer and what's right.
I kniw you don't know me, but this like this really make me happy and give me faith in people and our fandom.
Glad there are some rational folk out there.
Do you have any idea if the FA/IMVU acquisition made it easier for you to report your art being stolen by IMVU members?
And on the latter note i am now paranoid about art theft. At first i was giving IMVU the benefit of the doubt thinking they wouldn't do this, but now i guess i'll have to rethink about that just in case. Luckily for me though im not big enough to where people are using my art on f-list (besides me that is)
You have the same birthday as Dragoneer!
And happy birthday!
*Big Panda hugs*
And I think the same way as you do regarding Dragoneer and the whole IMVU thing. Hopefully people might reconsider a bit hearing it from you ^^ Kudos for the journal ^^
IMVU is not the only one where others are trying to make money of our works because they're nice etc... Also i wont name that artist who met with her art on a shirt shop near to her city.
IMVU is really low quality "second life" where 8-14 years old people are meeting with others. It got more attention due news/banners... and this is a natural acting when someone are interested to visit something that is advertised this way so much (in this case: IMVU and its store)
And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU TOO!
"I've been caught red handed and haven't gotten any money for my stolen goods! I'm ruined! How dare you do this to me!"
We know he wants the site to be what we want to to be, otherwise, it'd be something else and we wouldn't be here. So it's stable, things are simple, the design of the site hasn't changed... ever, unlike youtube, which you'll notice people have a shit fit about every single time they change something.
It's not that people actually really think that Dragoneer ripped everyone and is cashing in.
It's just that nobody, atleast nobody here, knows who the people behind IMVU are, and they're NOT "one of us". So the panicked crys of THEY'RE GONNA TURN US INTO A PAYSITE/DA/BALH BLAH BLAH/etc are flying out cause it's the worst thing people can think of and noone has any reason to believe, apart from shear faith in a third party (Dragoneer) to know what's really in this can of hopefully-not-worms.
So for the people who become convinced that the worst is going to happen, they end up concluding that Dragoneer sees it too and doesn't care.
Regretably, I have really no idea what kind of person Dragoneer is or how he thinks, so I"m also a little panicky.
It's just people being used to a stable site and now are seeing that stability possibly vanish. Odds are, in about a year, things will be exactly the same, and we'll be looking back and wondering why everyone threw such a shit fit.
I don't get hating on Dragoneer. I mean, it's a website that I get to use for free to either post or stalk artists I like. If I don't like something, I can say, "I disagree with this." but really the only value I can do is leave if it goes further south than I care for. I don't own the machines or pay the bills other than adverts on screen.
And good deal with the thief. Yeah, these guys really don't seem to see a problem until it actually impacts them personally, at which point it's someone else's fault for cracking down on them. Never their own fault for doing that crap in the first place.
As for Neer ya I joined the bandwagon calling him a sellout but meh I lost my objectivity for a bit there, forgot that it was his website to sell to whomever he pleased. It's not as if I'm a shareholder or co-owner or anything. People who donate do exactly that: donate. They don't buy into it. They give to keep it running. That's what a donation is.
While I am suspicious of corporate backing I'm just a user of the site. I can easily move everything to another if I so desired. Furnation and VCL were once top dogs for art and the fandom did just fine when those more or less fell from grace. IF FA collapses as a result.. we'll be fine. It's not as if we do not have alternatives that are already up and running.