HOLY SHIT! *is scared*

He's not likely to take anything of mine- it isn't good enough, and my signature is usually prominent. But yeah, he's a fucking creep who's wallet needs to be raped- EVERY. FUCKING. DAY.

I hope none oof mine gets stolen. And yes, HE DOES NEED TO HAVE THAT DONE TO HIM.

He's unlikely to take anything of yours- your stuff is safe. You have too-few pieces, and none of them are of subject-matter that he would deem lucrative.

Whew.

Yeah. Its pretty unscrupulous behavior. I dont even see how his relation to a senator would make this any less of a crime. Its plagiarism, plain and simple.

So far, the only people I have recognized on there are already aware. One person (Alexxius on dA) has been dealing with this stuff for so long, including pursuing a case against this individual.

At the worst, his site will be pulled and he will be discredited.

At the best, the artists will actually get some sort of compensation from a class-act lawsuit against the f**ker.

That "relationship" is actually another one of his many, many self-aggrandizing lies. This kid obviously has some sort of Personality Disorder.

I realize that he will be persecuted- I'm hoping that anyone who's been affected by this will get back what this guy stole. The law is involved. My journal is only to hopefully assist anyone who might be willing to put eyes out for more of this creep's shenanigans. He has multiple sites, and I doubt we've even found them all, yet. If someone who's more well-versed in the kind of art he tends to steal spots something that no-one else has, maybe they'll screencap it and then tell the original creator. One more nail in this Chad Whatever-the-fuck-his-name-really-is's coffin, basically. He's taken stuff from so many artists, two of them actually deceased (how fucking crass is THAT?), it may be impossible to inform all of them, but we can certainly try.

That, and this kind of thing truly cheeses me off.

Thousands of people putting high-quality work on free-to-access sites, and then someone like this comes along, and suddenly everyone's surprised that it's possible to steal stuff.

Not saying "I told you so", but this is kinda the reality of the internet. And this is only a high-profile case: bet you there are loads more doing this sort of stuff in the shadows.

On the plus side, it does give you a good idea what that sort of art might retail for. And since buyers don't care who sells, maybe it'll motivate artists to actually value their work a little higher.

Incoming wall o' text...

Ok, the first statement is a bit of a dick-move. None of us have said that it was a fucking surprise- we're not even acting like it is. This is something that keeps coming up, something artists see a lot of and are fucking fed up with it. We KNOW that putting our work out in public like it is on the Net is going to attract thieves. So, we're gonna cut off what potential income we can generate by hiding all of our work 'cuz *gasp* art-thieves might abscond with it? *eyeroll* This is a heavily Net-based community. Virtually all of Furry (for example) art-output is Net-based and displayed. It has to be- otherwise, most of us would ever get our work seen, let alone sold! "Traditional" channels of display are too expensive, too slow and too limited by things like geography to work for this kind of community. What people are really doing is discussing possible solutions: what are we gonna do about it? How do we protect our work? How can we stop thieves from taking our stuff? What actions can be taken if, and when our work is stolen? We completely understand that is inevitable that, down the road, someone will attempt to take credit for work they didn't do.

Second statement: obvious. Again, we know this. Duh. We're not fucking stupid. At least one of the thieves is getting taken down. Fine. This is a good thing. Maybe more artists will be more vigilant in putting up only low-res-quality versions of their pieces, reserving the high-quality images for actual paying customers, PLUS a big, honking watermark that's difficult, if not impossible, to remove. Totally agreed that there are more of these kinds of jerks out there- most that I've seen so far are really obvious, most are kids with social-skill deficits, and most are not exactly organized. This creep IS organized, and he's apparently been doing this for years. It's the kind of twats like Chad Whatever-his-name-is who go unnoticed for so long and thus are harder to get rid of: organized, sneaky, renames EVERYTHING to make it that much harder to use web-searches to check on your work, uses proxies, multiple-mirrors, etc. The thing is, we were fucking lucky he shot himself in the foot with his silly self-aggrandizing, web of lies and posting photos of himself with the stolen art! If it hadn't been for someone spotting the images in question and notifying the original artists, they may never have known about it until going to someone's home and seeing the shoddy prints on the wall themselves.

Part of the reason why so many people have been able to find out if their work had been stolen is because of that cool little image-search feature Google recently implemented. That, and some really good eyes spotting so many thefts so wquickly- another advantage of the Net. I see this gizmo helping a lot of artists down the road identify, and catch, art thieves faster. I see it as an added layer of defense of artist's work.

Third statement: totally agreed. Too many of us do undercharge for our work. We do, however, value it higher than you might think, it's just that we KNOW it's not gonna sell at that rate- both because of the current economic situation and simply because most of the folks here on FA who love the art we members do, usually can't afford to buy it at the price it's actually worth. So, to make at least some income, we charge less than the work is worth. Sad, but true, and it can be hard to balance things like wanting a decent income and simply being able to pay rent and eat. It does potentially lead to other people devaluing an artist's work, and I don't like that, either.

So there's that balance thing: how do we, as artists, price our work in such a way that folks can afford it, and yet, we still make money so we can survive ourselves? One of my solutions to that is- if I find that a piece has a lot of hits and faves, for example- I make prints and sell them at Cons. They sell. Helps with my income situation, and the average Furry can easily afford a ten-dollar print of a piece they think is cool, as opposed to the two-hundred dollar original. An added benefit: unless I've been stupid and sold the rights, I can sell prints indefinitely. Open print-runs aren't worth as much, but having them around is a good idea, to my mind. The limited print-runs are worth more- those I sell matted and for a bit more $$.

Another solution: mini-pieces. Cute things. Badges, buttons, little items that can be bought on impulse at conventions- all of that sells. Bigger pieces can go to the Art-shows and we can hope they get enough attention for someone to buy them off the wall or get them at auction. Or, they buy the prints.

Another thing I see is customer-service. It's amazing to me to find stuff I consider not very accomplished selling well, and then I find out just how nice the artist is- they talk to their fans, interact with them, let them know that their input is valued. Those kinds of people are gold in the art-world, and I'll gladly learn from them. They make a living doing what they love.

Marketing- I honestly suck at this. 'Nuff said. LOL But it's definitely something many artists work as hard on as they do on their actual art. Why? Because marketing grabs eyeballs if done right. Something I need to learn how to do.

It's not easy making a living, I know this. My own income is ASS right now, but it's slowly getting better as more folks see my work (hopefully, none of them stealing it. LOL), and the word-of-mouth can be a huge way to get your work valued higher. Just a thought.

That utter bastard >=( although that is one of the few advantages to being a writer, theft is less common

Don't be so certain of that. This dickwad has possibly plagiarized three books to date... LOL But, yeah, it doesn't seem to be as big a problem- I suppose, depending on how large the work is, art would much easier o nick than a novel, say.

heh, yeah. plus people seem to prefer art anyway (which does get annoying at times XD)

Lazy-ass gits who think reading is hard. *eyeroll* Well, it's true that more people seem to be directly visual- they need to see something in a more concrete form to "get it"... and enjoy it. Other folks like the more abstract approach of text, where their own imaginations have to supply appearance, tone of voice and scenery in their own mental "movie".

I love both approaches, myself. When an author's descriptions of their characters and their doings is good enough, it becomes almost easy to "see" them.

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean, and I love that aspect of both writing and reading, where it's down to the reader's imagination =3 and I also love seeing the visual things as well, specially comics =3 I'm a big fan of comics =3

Comiiiiics... Yummy things, comics- it's so cool to see someone's imagination take shape in illustration.

yeah =3 I love 'em whether it's something someone's posted online (as evidenced by the number of webcomics I read =P), or if it's a graphic novel. I need more graphic novels, so far I've only got an anthology of short zombie comics and Volumes 1-6 of The Walking Dead. As you can probably tell, I like zombies =P

Hmmm, braaaaiiiinssss... Zombies both amuse me and scare the frak outta me. Weird thing is, it's not the movies that do it- it's the very concept. I find the movies fucking fun, but, when my imagination gets a hold of that, weee! My dreams get...weird.

I just plain love 'em, and take them semi-seriously. In theory, I'm fully prepared for a zombie apocalypse, I just haven't done any of the necessary prep work =P but I know what to do so, if I /was/ physically prepared, it'd take a nuclear blast to take me down =P my imagination gets me sometimes, but it's very rare now and only when I've been watching zombies movies and stuff, and it's only ever when I'm awake and it's dark

*giggles madly*

*crosses arms* Surviving a zombie apocalypse is no joke, Murra... *struggles to keep a straight face* =P

all flames aside, i still have to say, that art is truely amazing o_O

And, none of it is HIS. *grumps* He certainly did choose some gorgeous pieces to steal, the creepazoid.

Omg

Pretty much what I said...

You know.. we could just, like.. SHOOT the fucker and bury him in a shallow grave. Would really save us time and effort and court space.

While I'm sure a lot of the artists he stole from would love a more... punitive answer, it is more likely they'll get at least some of their lost income if the cretin remains alive. LOL

Or we can whack him, get his account info and just drain his accounts.. maybe steal a bunch of shit while we're at it and pawn it.

Yer fucked up, ye know that? LOL Silly bugger, you nearly made me spew tea onto me screen...

I know, I know.. it's sociopathic humor at it's finest. Now the REALLY messed up thing is that I'm not entirely joking. Law suits and paperwork and cops who are paid the same amount of money as a gas station worker are fine and dandy.. I still think if people were dead serious about punishing this guy they'd break his fucking hands and jaw.

I suspect someone will, down the road- he certainly has offended enough people, especially for his total lack of remorse. I mean, the guy thinks he's justified and can do whatever the fuck he wants without consequence! O___O But, violence? Naaah. Ruin his chances of ever making a living, humiliate the little turd for the thieving he's done. Show the world what a lying, greedy creep he is so he crawls back under that socially-awkward, mentally-fucked-up rock of his... I just don't really agree with a violent approach to this guy's crimes. If he'd brutally raped someone, a child, say, then yeah, I'd be all for ripping his nuts off with the claw-end of a hammer.

But, while he may be a thief and a massive, self-aggrandizing liar, he hasn't physically harmed anyone, to my knowledge. He's done self-centred, utterly greedy things, but I dunno if he's evil enough to need such a... final solution.

Didn't say we'd kill him, and the injuries I suggested could be healed in time. He's a thief and a liar and an arrogant punk. Broken hands can't type keys and broken jaws make for silent tongues.

You know, times like this make me so glad to be a writer. Like anybody would be interested in ripping off anything any of the writers here had spent time, effort, inspiration, blood, tears and swearing over. That might even mean someone was INTERESTED in it... holy fuck!

...

*sigh*

Don't claw me. It's godawful and a zillion shades of wrong, and I would never suggest it SHOULD happen. But let's be fair. If he'd ASKED if he could reproduce, given you a cut of the money (per eyeball, maybe)... you artists would actually make money. What the fuck chance do I, and most other writers in the world, ever have? When I published my first story, it made me $5. I paid Heather Bruton $50 for the original artwork that went with it. I don't know if the editor of the book paid her for her work, as well. I don't know, either, how long it took her to create the artwork, but it took me half a day to write the story that I sold for $5.

So... yeah. I'm REALLY sorry this has happened to you guys. Theft of your work is criminal, soul-destroying... as a creative, I feel your pain. But as a writer, you'll pardon me if I can't weep too many tears.

Okay, Murrah. Now y'all can claw me to shreds. *sigh*

Theft is theft- it doesn't fecking MATTER what was stolen. It's the intellectual property of creative minds. And writers DO have their works plagiarized- often. Where do you think so many cruddy Hollywood movies come from? LOL

Also, this pustulent little scab has stolen written works from at least three books, to my knowledge... None really all that interesting to read, though- stuff about copyright and marketing, mostly. Blegh.

*scratches*

*huggles* Bitterness so doesn't suit you, hon.

*huggles tightly and nuzzles you*

Of course, theft is theft. And bitterness... eh. It's frustrating, hon, for writers to put just as much effort in as the artists and get barely more than zip back. I know, 'twas ever so and you don't need to remind me. But it's frustrating. What can I say.

*nuzzles some more* I'm just an old crotchetydragon. And a mad man with a box. Numerous boxes, no less! Mwahahaha!

Derp? Boxes? *peers about, wondering what's up*

Yeah, I can relate to the frustration- my art get more attention than my writing does (there's a few short-shorts in my gallery, here), and like you, I put a lot of effort into those tales, possibly more than in my illustrations, since writing is less "natural" to me.

*grins* "Mad man with a box" -> Matt-Smith-Doctor-Who reference. :P

*nuzzle*

Arrr. Well, the Doctor does seem rather mad to us folks on the outside of his brain. LOL

It's times like this I feel glad that none of my stuff is worthy of being stolen, lol.

LOL I'm kinda glad he hasn't taken anything of mine, myself- but, at the same time, a little disappointed. *giggle*

Not seeing http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4369375/ anywhere on the plush list o..o

Derp. You're right. Oops. *fixes it*

Your reminder made me notice another one was missing. Thanks!

You're welcome ^..^

*snugs*