Anime Galleries: Stolen Fanart

[roxybudgy]

I brought this topic up in the FanArt section, but the thread seems to have been deleted.

I have been notified that someone from the Anime Galleries has uploaded my fan art and has given no credit. In other words, they stole my fan art. And by looking through their galleries, I notice that they have stolen other people's fan art too.

So I'm wondering if anything can be done about it.

The fan art: http://www.geocities.com/roxybudgy/Art/I_Rin02.jpg
My website: http://www.geocities.com/roxybudgy/index.html

The accused theives: pretear10, pretear16 and XdarkXdesire13 (or XdarkXdisire13)

If you type in the keyword 'omg' or 'I_Rin02a' you will find my picture in the accused's galleries.

[Princess Minako]

she's not claiming it to be her own, so its not stealing. If she was claiming it to be her own it would be a different story. Its more of a flattery than "stealing". Try making a comment stating that you're the artist, something tells me that you'll find them very nice and appreciative of nice work.

The Goddess has Spoken

[Fabala]

Mmmm...I'd have to disagree. When it comes to fanart or fanfiction, I think you should always ask permission, no matter how you plan on using it. You shouldn't be waiting until after you've used it and until someone's called you on it.

[Princess Minako]

She's not really "using" it. She uploaded it to her personal gallery. Which is just a place to store pictures that you like.

The Goddess has Spoken

[Daenerys]

I remember seeing it posted on the forums though.

[Fabala]

She's not really "using" it. She uploaded it to her personal gallery. Which is just a place to store pictures that you like.

Even so, permission should be asked for removing it from the artist's gallery to another place. It's common courtesy and, heck, probably most flattering to the artist. More flattering than finding out about it after the fact.

[roxybudgy]

Okay, I get it now. But shouldn't the galleries have some sort of 'favourites' system, instead of multiple users uploading the same picture into their galleries.

[Kaitou Ace]

it really should actualy O_o; but I haven't had time to write that into the features, so it often happens that people will put pictures from the public albums into their folders. If you see fanart in the public galleries we'll gladly remove it ^_^;;

[Havana]

Yeah, it would be stealing if she posted it on her website(if she has one) without permission. I think for anime galleries your allow to store your fovorite images.

[Fabala]

Taking without asking permission is stealing the images, period. It would be forgery to try passing them off as their own.

[Kaitou Ace]

I don't think it's really stealing to put pics into a personal category. Most people use them as just a dumping ground for images, and don't advertise it for others. If thats how it is being used in this case, I wouldn't consider it stealing anymore then I would if the person just saves the images to their hard drive.

[Fabala]

Eh, I just think that it's not so much what's done with the pictures as it is not asking permission to be taking them and placing them in a gallery that is viewable to others.

Its happened to me as a fanfiction writer and, while I'd have no problem if asked, I get annoyed to see people take my work from a site and put it on their own, even if they don't go so far as to claim it as their own.

[Kaitou Ace]

Unless a direct link is given it's not really easily viewed by others... There are what 1379 personal albums on galleries right now. You'd have to be rather dedicated to browse all of them.

[Fabala]

Then how did this become an issue?

[Kaitou Ace]

They were probably spotted in the recently uploaded files when they were put up, before the image got bumped off the list. Thats what we usualy look at to check if people are uploading hentai.

[Daenerys]

Well, I don't think it should be allowed because what if someone ELSE sees it in that person's gallery, and they take it, and use it in a website, or they take it, and say they drew it?

For example, I posted this really awesome picture of myself on a livejournal community, and someone stole it, made icons and friend only banners out of it, and told people it was her.

It really sucked. I mean, put yourself in thier shoes. All your hard work wasted.

[Kaitou Ace]

Then those people would have done the same if they found the image through the google image search, or from the artists original site. You can play with "what if" 's to infinity, I'd see this case as the intentions of the person who put it into their personal gallery. In your example they took the image from your post, so I am not sure how it's relevant.
I have to say that a lot of things that I put tons of work in were taken by others in the half a decade or so that I've been running sites. It doesn't bother me much. My hard work wasn't wasted. Someone else is using it also, but so am I. I don't mind that they enjoy it.

[Daenerys]

But this person seems to mind that they're using it.

[Fabala]

Right. And would it be so bad for those same people to ask permission from the creator/artist? And most likely have it granted. I'm thinking the issue here is less there being fanart in the galleries as how that fanart was obtained.

[Zedekiah]

Well, if s/he went into your site, looked up through the galleries, stole it and later uploaded it into her/his gallery, I'd call it somewhat theft.

But sometimes, it might just be a random image search, got fond of the image and saved it for later use.

Did you even try to contact this "culprit"?

[Daenerys]

It doesn't matter how they got it.

When I find pictures on google, I've noticed that it allows you to see what site it came from. So that's still not a very good excuse.

[Zedekiah]

Never said it was an excuse. More of a reason to why this happened in the first place.
But it would be easier to solve if we knew both sides of this story :3