Internet Copyright Law?

[Willow Rosenberg]

I have a problem, and at this moment, I am shaking with anger because of it.

As some of you may know, I have a website http://simplistic-desires.co.uk, on which myself and my husband showcase our artwork. Well, someone has accused us of stealing wallpapers that were made by husband.

First they just tagged our Tagboard:-

There are some images on this site that were STOLEN FROM MY BROTHER. I demand an explination. You can contact me at .........

I emailed them stating all the artwork was made by us, and all images used within the art were linked to on our resources page, and we always check and make sure that the images have no usage restrictions on them.

I got a reply this morning, and I cannot believe the pure gall of this person,

These are the pictures that were stolen from him. We are upset that you would steal these pictures from us then lie and say they were made by you. If you have been victoms to image theft then you should know better then to steal my brothers. These are the wallpapers that were taken from him. He posted them on his yahoo buddy site and they were stolen at that time.

The second picture for Holly Marie Combs
The second picture for Julian McMahon
The First image for the Cast
The Second image in the Second row for the cast
THe First image in the Third row for the cast

All of those wallpapers listed above, were made by my hubby, not her brother! I have emailed her back, as we know what brushes were used, what effects, textures and have the original PSD files from when they were made, but I still cannot believe that either her, or her brother, or both of them are lying about this!!

I also told her to get her brother to remove the images as he was stealing copyrighted artwork of ours, and that I will be taking it further.

I just still cannot believe that they are lying like this - anyone that knows us, knows that we would never ever steal anyone elses work, I mean, we don't have to; we actually like our own artwork, and don't need to steal anyone elses.

Has anyone else had this happen to them before, be it a stolen piece of artwork, or stolen coding etc And if so, what did you do about it? Right now, I'm fuming about this especially since we've been accused of something we didn't do!!

 

[Buffy Summers]

Well as you know I've had sites steal graphics from here - using our banners on their boards and such. I contacted their site host and they took it off.

Another time avatars had been stolen and put up on a website for people to use on a message board. It was an aol homepage they were put on, so I contacted AOL, but nothing ever came of it.

I would contact the company that hosts their site, and offer to show them the psd files as evidence. Be sure to say something to the effect that they are harassing you, because that might trouble them more than taking images.

 

[Willow Rosenberg]

I'm waiting to see if they actually provide a link to her brothers Yahoo site or not.

Due to this I've just spent the morning searching through my web stats, and I'm horrified to discover just how many people are direct linking using our work, and not crediting!! Definitely going to have to so something about that.

I mean, yes, the artwork is their for people to use, but you would think the least they can do, is not direct link and give credit! Let alone claim it as their own work - people really think they won't get caught out on this, don't they?!

 

[Buffy Summers]

And I don't even understand why they would do it? I mean, what kind of gratification can they really get by using other people's stuff?

You should probably contact Yahoo. Most places have like a "report abuse" link somewhere.

🙂

 

[Another Apocalypse?]

OK, I'm gonna throw in my two cents here, for what it's worth;

You know why these people are saying that you stole their artwork? Jealousy, that's what it is. Downright jealousy. They're jealous, because they can't create decent artwork (hell, they probably don't even know how to create half assed artwork) so they come swanning over to your site, where you do have some decent artwork, and start saying that you stole it. They're trying to get sympathy, and they're also trying to get you to take down the artwork so they can have it on their site only, and say "Ha ha, look at us, we made this stuff, we aren't total prats" which of course, they are!

End two cents.

 

[Willow Rosenberg]

This experience has been a sharp learning curve for me, that's for sure. I have now disabled right clicking on my site, and I have just downloaded a php script that actually stores all files that can be downloaded in a passworded directory, so only people accessing the files from my site can download the images, plus it keeps a track of their IP addresses too.

It's going to be alot of work, as I need to go through the entire site and move an rename all the images/files that can be downloaded, but I want to be able to keep track of who downloads our files, so that we have proof in future if this should ever happen again.

 

[Buffy Summers]

It's a shame you have to go through this. I've tried disabling hotlinking in the past here, but it always ends up some people can't view the images on here. 🙁

 

[Willow Rosenberg]

I know, I don't really fancy doing all that work either 'lol' I've tried activating my hotlink protection, and added urls like Buffy Boards etc, that I still wish to allow direct linking to my site from, but it doesn't seem to working properly. :S As it won't show the images I've got in my sig, or in my art thread if I activate it, despite adding the url for the boards.......

If anyone knows of any other easier and quicker way to prevent direct linking, I'd love to know? 🙂

 

[doppelgänger2]

edb hunny, just wanted to say I'm sorry for this thing you're going through. It sucks when stupid people try to steal your artwork.
I've seen stuff that I've made a little here and there on the net, usually with no credits. Once this site selling pins were selling pins with a graphic I had made (cheerleader girls spelling out "RIOT" with their arms 😛) on it and with no credit. Fortunately enough, when I contacted them they apologized and said they could stop selling the pins if I wanted.
I thought it was kewl that people were buying stuff with my graphics on them, and I ain't greedy so I just told them that credit is fine 🙂

Anyway, enough about mois. I hope you can solve this, your site is really awesome and you shouldn't let people like that get in the way of providing people with awesome artwork and art resources.

 

[Buffy Summers]

Yeah that's what happened to me when I tried it as well 🙁

 

[Willow Rosenberg]

I guess to save all the work, I could just post my images as links in future, rather than use the thumbnail previews - as people should still be able to view them using the url I think, and then just use somewhere like photobucket for hosting my sig banners - it's not like I have loads. It would save me all that work in the long run......

 

[Black Eye Guy]

Has this persons brother said anything to you, cuz it might sound like the brother took the images and said he made them and the other person saw them and thinks they are the ones their brother made??

 

[Willow Rosenberg]

No, it's apparently his sister - I have had no contact from him whatsoever - I told her she should speak to her brother, because I wondered if he had made out that he had made them, and she is none the wiser and believes him.

 

[Buffy Summers]

I guess to save all the work, I could just post my images as links in future, rather than use the thumbnail previews - as people should still be able to view them using the url I think, and then just use somewhere like photobucket for hosting my sig banners - it's not like I have loads. It would save me all that work in the long run......

How does that help protect your images? (Sorry, being thick as usual 🙂)

 

[Willow Rosenberg]

Well, I think I've made it so that you can no longer direct link to the images, and/or show them, unless they are actually viewing them from within our site.

It should redirect to a page if you are trying to view them from elsewhere http://www.simplistic-desires.co.uk/stealing.html

I just thought, if I want people to see new art on here or other forums, I can just use photobucket to host those, or maybe just create a basic page hosted on our site, with the new stuff on, and give them the link to the page, which they will be able to view because it won't be a jpg file. It's not much hassle to do that, and would save me an enormous amount of work.

See if you click on the link below, you shouldn't be able to view the banner I made:-
http://www.simplistic-desires.co.uk/sig/xander1.jpg

 

[Xander]

Just to let you know, can still right click on your site using Opera. Dunno how you could get round that though sorry.

Maybe you've addressed it (im not exactly at my most headsmart at the moment) but what about if people wish to use your wallpapers on their computers? They need to right click.

Finally, just seen the Kristen Bell wallpaper Andy did, wow!

 

[Mr. Pointy]

Such a shame that these imbeciles are trying to ruin something good that you're trying to do with your site...best of luck to you and Andy in dealing with these parasites, hon. We all know that you guys wouldn't steal other people's work (at least, not without crediting them😉)

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

I have never seen the reasoning of stealing someones artwork unless its worth alot of money and resides in Rio.....they walked right out of the museum, you have to give them credit....anyway, this act is beyond me, HOWEVER one thing good has come from it...i am sorry, but i had never seen your work before but now i have because of this....can i just say..WOW

its really good, kudos to you and hubby🙂

 

[BillieHunter]

I had something happen to me with someone stealing my artwork...I came across a site one day because I like searching other artwork sites and seeing what other people make...I like seeing all the different styles and reading tutorials and things like that...sometimes i even try...with their permission of course...creating a wall with the same or similar layout to get ideas and try new ways of making walls....anyway...one day when i was going through i found a site with all my own artwork on it...I don't even have my own site...but someone who knew my name for photobucket was just taking the links right off the photobucket site and made a web site saying it was their artwork...of course being all i put my work on is photobucket i just made it private and emailed them about it...they immediately shut it down as they couldnt get the links to my artwork anymore anyway...unfortunately for you its a lot harder to stop people from stealing artwork on a website...i hope this all works out though. It does sound to me like the brother is stealing it, passing it off, and the sister believes him. I don't so much think it's her fault. It is however, the brother's in that case, unless she made this all up herself. Not so sure why they ever stole mine to begin with...especially at the time it was not so good. BUt oyu make some really amazing stuff, it is a sin that someone would try to cheat you out of your own work.

 

[Willow Rosenberg]

Thanks everyone for all the comments! 🙂

So far, they haven't responded back to my last email...there's still time I guess as from the original time the tagged our tagboard, I'm guessing that they are in a different time zone. But by this time yesterday morning I had received a reply.

Maybe they have confronted their brother and he has admitted that the work isn't his...