WHAT IS ART THEFT?

While art theft comes in many forms, there are a few that are the most common here in the community:

-using a person's artwork without giving them credit or asking permission
-using a person's linework without giving them credit or asking permission
-tracing over a person's artwork without giving them credit or asking permission
-using a person's story without giving them credit or asking permission
-taking a person's character, changing a few things, and calling it yours

As you can see, in general using anything that belongs to another person without first asking them or at the very least giving them credit is considered art theft.

To sum up:




Now...

This is good to know, but now we need to figure out what we can do to prevent art theft from happening in the first place from the position of the artist.

HOW TO PREVENT ART THEFT

There are many ways that art theft can be prevented by the artist. Here are a few simple tips of the trade:

-watermark your art--many upload sites offer watermarks with their logo on it, or you can create your own in your art program by creating a new layer (with at least 50% transparency) with whatever design you want over top of the picture

-monitor your art--if you notice someone using art that you recognize as your own, double check, and then inform that person of what they've done, as they may not be aware that what they are doing is considered art theft

-speak up! if you see someone using art that belongs to a friend of yours, or even just someone you know, tell that person and then they can deal with it however they please

-if all else fails, remove your art from the site and upload it either with another site, or with a new watermark so that there can be no confusion as to who the art belongs to--if the thief continues to steal, then make the decision as to whether or not you should remove your art completely

From Iaurdagnire, regarding legal fears:
Here is a tip for people who are paranoid about their stuff being used commercially or for profit. I know this blog is for the smaller art-use issues on the internet, but a lot of people can get very touchy so this is a way to stop that. With this, even if you see someone using something of yours, their effort is made redundant:

Place everything you have ever done for a particular character/idea/project (drawings, writings, print outs of where they are on the internet etc) into an envelope/package, and mail it to yourself. When it gets back to you, it will have a dated stamp on it. If anything occurs after that with legal implications, you can produce that envelope unopened containing all the original work prior to what anyone else claims.






ART SHARING

Most artists love to have their art shown to other people. This is ok to do, but if you're going to do this, here are a few tips:

-Credit the original artist in all instances

-Provide a link to the artist's gallery or webpage

-If you cannot find who the original artist is (ie, you found the picture by searching in Google) then at least link to the webpage you found it on

-If the picture comes from a stock photo site, check whether the image is free for use or if you must pay








-Trigger