Art Theft Definition

The act of stealing art, often in the form of an image (.JPG, .BPM, .PNG, .GIF etc.) without the artists' permission.
This is not to be confused with the theft of high-profile art, like that of an offline gallery, this site is purely to do with online art theft.

Fan Art Theft Definition

The act of stealing art based on an other's character design. Fan Art can be based on characters from animated television series, or someones own character design they have published somewhere on the Internet.

Official Art or Fan Art?

In a lot of cases, people take images not knowing they are Fan Arts. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between a Fan Art and say, a screenshot from an anime.
This diagram helps to explain common ways you can tell the difference:

Credits for the art used in the above image go to:

Figure 1 - *-achiru-: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/13929900/
Figure 2 - Phantom Enigma: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/32848422/
Figure 3 - Beyblade D-Rights: http://www.d-rights.com/beyblade/
Figure 4 - Beyblade Battle Information Center: http://www.freewebtown.com/bbic/
Figure 2 - Phantom Enigma: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40170721/

Some anime or any animated show do not mind you making use of material on website galleries, message boards, blogs etc. Others, however, have strict copyright laws that you must abide. Learn the show's rules.

Stealing Locations

Common places where thieves host and steal fan arts are:

• Search engine image searches: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Altavista etc.
• deviantART: http://www.deviantart.com/
• Sheezy Art: http://www.sheezyart.com/
• Photobucket: http://photobucket.com/
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/ (In anime/non anime music videos)
• 4chan.org: www.4chan.org/
• Fan Art Central: http://www.fanart-central.net/
• Art portfolios Personal art gallery websites
• Message boards
• Their own websites and hosts

Remember: Just because an image is on Photobucket or deviantART etc. does not mean you can just take it without asking permission from the artist.

Theft Prevention

Digital Watermarking

This is a line of text (often semi-transparent) added over art images you do not want stolen, for example, a name and copyright sign or a message not to steal can be added. It can be placed right over the center of the art if you really do not want that particular art stolen. The Arial or Verdana fonts are good to use because they make the copyright sign more clear and are generally easier to read and available for use.

Example:

Disable Right-Clicking

If you host an art gallery on a website, you can add the following code to the page to stop people from right-clicking the mouse and saving images.

Follow this free tutorial and don't forget to keep the credits intact:

Lissa Explains it All - How do I disable the right click?

Anti-Theft Messages

Make it known you do not want your art stolen by writing messages somewhere near your art or even on it, like a Watermark.

If possible, try adding different language warnings using a translator or asking someone you know to translate a message.

Tutorials On Reporting Fan Art Theft

Before reporting the stolen work, first try to contact the person who stole it. In a lot of cases, this is more likey to get a response. If you are ignored or the person refuses to take down your art it is best to try submitting a report.

You will most likely need proof that the stolen art is yours. You can do this by:

1. Providing links to other works that have your signature on them, for comparison.

2. If you created the art in Photoshop, or a similar image/photo editing software package and you still have the original file, take screenshots of it. For example, this image shows an art's original Photoshop file before it was saved as a .JPG. :

This is convincing proof because you can see the work in production and the layers. The more images you give them, the better because you will have more proof.

The following tutorials will tell you how to contact the thief and then how to submit a report.

deviantART: Report Deviation Violation Tutorial

Take the following action if you see a member of deviantART has stolen and submitted your work to their own gallery:

Contact the thief:

Click on the thief's username (this is always followed by a symbol, the most common being "~".) This will take you to their main page. Under the profile tab, click on "Send a note".

If the user has not been active lately it is better to submit a report.
If the user's last activity is "Invisible" check around the page to get an idea when they were last active. For example, when did they last submit art or write a journal?

Submit a report:

1. Go to the page where the stolen deviation is being hosted.
2. Click on the Report Policy Violation link in the "Details" section undeaneath the deviation.
3. On this report form, choose "Ripped Or Stolen Artwork".
4. In the "Comments" text box, explain the situation and say you request it to be removed and submit it.

You can use and edit the following template if you are not sure what to write:

Template
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This deviation is my work and has been submitted here without my permission.

It belongs here (link of where it appears on your deviantART account/wherever it was stolen from.)

Please can it be removed from this member's gallery. Thank you for your time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sheezy Art Tutorial

To report a stolen Fan Art, follow these instructions:

1. Go to the page where the stolen graphic is being hosted.
2. Look to the right where it says 'Tools' and click on 'Report'.
3. Type a description of why you are reporting it and click send.

Example template for reporting:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am reporting this Fan Art because it belongs to me. This member took it without my permission and submitted it to their account.

It belongs here (link of where it was stolen from.)

Please can it be removed from this member's gallery. Thank you for your time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photobucket Tutorial

If you find that some of your Fan Art is being hosted in a Photobucket album without your permission and you wish for it to be removed, you are required to send Photobucket an email with specific information, as stated here:

http://photobucket.com/copyright

For your convenience, here is a template of an email you can use:

=========================================

One/some of my Fan Art images was/were stolen from me and hosted on Photobucket without my permission.

Link to the original image's location: (Link here)
Link to the stolen image's location in the album: (Link here)

Name:
Home address:
Phone number:
Email address:

I hereby state that I have a good faith belief that the disputed use of the copyrighted material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law (e.g., as a fair use).

I hereby state that the information in this Notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that I am the owner, or authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of the copyright or of an exclusive right under the copyright that is allegedly infringed.

5. Signed,

(Sign your name/username here.)

=========================================

Once you have finished, send it to this address:

abuse@photobucket.com

Please note: You will not be able to submit a report on behalf of someone else. If you find stolen images on Photobucket, you must find the original location and artist and contact them first. Only they can get the images removed.

YouTube Tutorial

Contact the thief:

1. On the page where the stolen art is included as an image in the video, click on the member's username to go to their profile page.
Their username will be to the right of the video after the word "From ..."
2. Once you are on the user's profile page, look under "Connect with (user's name)" and click on the "Send Message" link.
3. Compose a message explaining the situation.

Submit a report:

This page explains how you are to report a copyright infringement:

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=58127

This is a more complicated procedure so contacting the user is more likely to get a response.

Google Images Tutorial

Take the following action if you see your work in a Search engine image search and the location is not where it should be:

1. Click on the image.
2. Follow the link back to where it came from. For instance on Google, this is: "Below is the image in its original context on the page: [Link appears here]".

(If the image leads to a dead link then it means the image in its full size no longer exists in the stolen location thus, cannot be stolen from that location again anyway.)

3. If the link works, try to find a way to contact the author of the page. This is most likely by an email provided.
4. Politely email/contact the webmaster to ask of them to remove your work.

How You Can Help

Link To Us

You can use one of the free banners provided at the end of this page and use them in places to link back to this website.

Example code to use the micro bar in a message board:

[url=http://www.freewebs.com/act-now/fanart.htm][img]http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b304/Phantom_phoenix2/act/fanartad.gif[/img][/url]

Example code to use the Ad Banner on a website/blog:

<a href="http://www.freewebs.com/act-now/fanart.htm"><img src="http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b304/Phantom_phoenix2/act/fanartad2.gif"></a>

However, please upload these images to your own host first, the Uniform Resource Locators above are simply for example purposes.

Spread The Word

Tell people about this website. Friends, family, whoever. We appreciate anyone who helps advertise and in turn every visitor we get.

Direct Stealers Here

If you see any cases of stolen art and it is easy to contact the thief, you can inform them what they are doing is wrong and link them to this site. If they have any sense, a trip to this site will be a worthwhile experience for them.
Example: You see an art someone drew in another person's deviantArt gallery. In this case, you can tell them it belongs to the original artist by using the comments system. You can also link them here if they do not understand what they are doing.

Submit Your Own Content

If you see anything you believe could be improved or added to this page please let us know, or feel free to write/re-write some of the content.

To submit content or give us your general opinion, please fill out the following form and we will consider adding it to the site:

http://www.freewebs.com/act-now/form.htm

We appreciate all useful additions received.

Warehousing

Warehousing means someone has stolen, often many, images from artists and is hosting them somewhere publicly without permission. This is usually in such places stated in the Stealing Locations section.

Art Ripping

Ripping can be another meaning of stealing but it can also mean any form of defacing or modifying stolen art.

Examples:

1. Erasing the artist's signature and/or copyrights on the image, sometimes replacing it with another name.
2. Cutting parts of the image out and adding other images to them, sometimes people cut out the head of a figure and replace it with another.
3. Using a Photo editing program such as Photoshop to add other elements like backgrounds to the stolen image.

Full Ad Banner (486 x 60 px):

Micro Bar (88 x 31 px):

Please upload these to your own hosts before using them. Suggested hosts:

Photobucket: http://photobucket.com/
Image Shack: http://imageshack.us/