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My art was stolen, now what?!You're casually browsing the internet when all of a sudden you see your art ripped on someone's myspace page, or elsewhere on the net, so what do you do?
Well if you're an American citizen, you're protected under that infamous law known as the DMCA, or the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If you right click your ripped image and select properties, you’ll be able to see the address where the image is hosted. If it’s photobucket or some other easily accessible site then you have it easy and you know where to go to find a support email address. If your image is hosted on a dot com, you’ll need to do a WhoIs search and the name server that is listed will usually give away the company that is physically hosting the site. You can then get in contact with most sites through a webmaster or support email if you take a quick look around their site.
So now you know where your image is, what company is hosting it, and how to get a hold of them, then you scratch your head and ask

So you want to join the dA lit community? Part IGreetings, all! WELCOME TO DEVIANTART! I'm so excited to welcome you to a community I have been a member of for going-on 8 years. I started this
tutorial specifically because I know the literature community is difficult to find, so I wanted to create a kind of quick reference guide for writers who have just joined dA (or returned to it after a long haitus) to let people know how things work, where to go for critique, contests, help, DD suggestions, or just friendly conversation!
In this guide, I would like to talk about how to submit literature, critiques, Daily Deviations, people you should know, the literature forum, and groups.
This tutorial began life as a single article. About halfway through the first section, I realized there was no way I could fit all the information that I think is important for new members to know into a single guide without creating an impossibly-long article. So, I'll be including links to the other parts of this tutorial in the comments section at the bott

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Submitted: February 16
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What it means... REALLY.by *KobayashiHisa

Resources & Stock Images / Tutorials / Other

What does it mean, really?
I notice a lot of people think that simply saving a piece of art means it is their property. I say no. Saving a piece of art from a website onto your hard drive makes that art no more yours than walking into your neighbors yard and taking a bike, wheelbarrow, pot and plant, bag of groceries, etc. Just because you TOOK it doesn't mean it belongs to you.

And this goes for art you pay for or request too...
Because if you don't pay to USE the art, you are simply paying to privately own the art. And by private, I mean NOT posting it online without permission from the original artist and credit given to the original artist. If you are commissioning an artist, requesting work from an artist, or doing a trade with an artist, you need to speak with them. Not all artists will allow you to repost the work they do for you on your public accounts (even with credit). But some do - you just have to ask.

Some information...
Has your work been taken? If it has been used, edited or in any way reposted without permission on dA, read this to get an idea of the new and improved reporting system that will save you a lot of time and effort. If it is on another website that is hosted in the USA, please use this format to submit your complaint to the website or hosting providers. If it is outside the USA, you will need to find the option to report on the actual website and follow their instructions. Reporting copyright infringement, even in countries outside the USA, typically means you have to tell the providers WHO YOU ARE (name, email address, country of origin, and sometimes even a phone number). You are making a LEGAL CLAIM to a tangible object and basically accusing another person of committing a crime that can land them in prison and paying very large fines. They need to know who you are and how to get in contact with you. That is how the world works. Sorry. There is NO way around it beyond not posting your work online at all.

But what is theft?
That is not an easy question to answer. In reality, there is no amount of any work that you can safely use without fear of prosecution unless you get permission from the copyright holder. Even referencing too closely or recreating an idea so close to the original that people confuse them are often considered theft. However, to be sure, the following are almost always viewed as theft if you don't have permission from the copyright holder (and will be removed from websites even when credit is given):

reposting a work as-is

recoloring a work

manipulating any part of a work

tracing from a work

creating a base from a work

using the work as-is but in a smaller work

making money off of any work that is not yours (includes adoptables)

♥ Kobayashi Hisa
© All Rights Reserved | Attribution is NECESSARY
This is NOT public domain.

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=mishihime Feb 23, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

"The patience of the artist for dealing with YOU"

"

^ This is a shitty attitude for an artist to have towards any client.

Most commissioners are great people that care about art / the artist, or are at least passionate about their projects. Sure, some people are a pain in the ass, but I think that's a rare case. To be successful you have to enjoy working with people. If it feels like a chore or like you're babysitting someone, guess what, you have the right to refuse giving your services to that person. But seriously, as a human being, I don't think anyone should look at other people with so much disdain.

Also, I think it's part of the artists job to ask what the art will be used for and what the person plans on doing with it and making their terms of use clear before a contract is made. Personally, I think you should be able to repost a work you commissioned (for non commercial purposes) so long as credit and a link is given and maybe a promotional blurb of text. If an artist is overly attached to their work, as if each drawing is a baby they can not let go of, they should not be doing commissions. You have rights, but if someone commissioned a drawing they share some ownership to it also and it's not right for one party to claim complete ownership and control.

*KobayashiHisa Feb 28, 2013

Yeah, that is actually my shitty attitude because a couple girls who commissioned me took not just the art I was paid to create for them (and allowed non-commercial use of only via an agreed upon license) but also then took tons of personal art and started selling it all. I had to take them to court to get them to stop. Since then, I have had a very shitty attitude towards doing art for other people and don't trust anyone with my work now which is why I use the style I use on dA because most people don't like it anyway. I don't put my good stuff up online anymore.

As for your second paragraph, I agree and disagree. I agree to an extent because, so long as no one is making money off of it and links back to me, I don't care where they put my art. This is personal preference for each artist tho - I know other artists who couldn't care less if people ran off and started selling their work and others who will literally explode over someone posting their work on a blog with credit and link back to them.

However, I disagree on the legal aspect of what you say. By law, unless the buyer states the work is a "work for hire," it is understood that the artist doing the work retains all rights to the work and in order for the buyer to use the work outside personal display, they must obtain written permission from the artist. This is the law. This is not just my opinion or shitty attitude here. ^^

~Evarindol Feb 19, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

May I feature this in a journal? ^^

*KobayashiHisa Feb 20, 2013

Sure.

~Pfaccioxx Feb 19, 2013 General Artist

I agree, however I think it is ok if you re-upload the artwork to your acont UNDER the following conditions.
1)-you payed to have it made
-state in the discripson that you didn't make the artwork and link to the organol piece
-You disable comments on the Re-Upload encouraging people to see the organol work
-You don't put a download link
-You don't display the full sized artwork, re-upload it in lower quality, or place a watermark over it (assuming it dos'nt say it's made or (C) by you)
-You let the organol know what you've done and are willing to take it down upon request

2) if you use it for a Prv. image for a lidracure division and let people know who made the prv. pic artwork and get the organol artist's permission 1st

3) you get the organol artist's permission 1st payed to have it made

4) Alter the image in someway and get the organol artist's permission

=mishihime Feb 23, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

In my opinion, altering the work is disrespectful to the artist. Say someone filtered it or didn't know what they were doing and ruined the quality of the original work, this would reflect very badly upon the artist and almost slander them. Aside from re-sizing, try to stay away from changing someone's work.

~Pfaccioxx Feb 23, 2013 General Artist

I understand and I wod'nt do so without the oruganol artist's pramison 1st

my comment was more about re-uploading ouder people's artwork

*KobayashiHisa Feb 19, 2013

I agree and disagree with you. In reality, it is always the artists decision unless it was a work-for-hire. Generally, commissions do NOT fall under works for hire because the commissioner is technically not the employer nor the artist the employee, so unless it is specified, legally (per copyright law), the person who paid for the work cannot post it on their personal account in public view. However, many artists do allow this and create a license or post in the description who can post the work and where.

In the end, it is all up to the copyright holder which is the artist and not the buyer unless the work is contracted as a work-for-hire.

I know this, fyi, because two girls took some of my work they asked me to do for them a long while back. They claimed that because they paid me to do draw and color some of their fanart OCs that the work was legally their intellectual property. Well, the judge saw differently, and I won my court case hands down. If there isn't a contract stating it is a work-for-hire, the person purchasing the work is purchasing it for private use only (meaning you can't display it publicly online without permission).

And any altering of the work is considered a derivative work which is expressly the right of the copyright holder under copyright law. Without permission or a contract stating the work is allowed to be altered, altering any work in any amount is breaking the law. Most people are blissfully unaware of that. :/

=mishihime Feb 23, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

What did the girls use your art for?

*KobayashiHisa Feb 28, 2013

They were selling t-shirts with it. They would cut out the characters from the backgrounds and put them together with various text to make jokes and whatnot. It was essentially harmless in that it didn't give me or my art a bad name. But it did cost me sales as I was, at the time, selling the very same art for more money on a different website. I was, as you can imagine, pissed off. When I found out about it, I simply emailed them with the email still had and told them to remove the for-sale art. I didn't state they had to remove all the art, just to remove the stuff that was for sale. They reported MY STORE to the website as fraudulent and my store was removed. So I took them to court.

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