My comic has been stolen

[druminor]

I have been making a comic, in one form or another since 2019 and this morning I found that most of it has been posted on a website full of sketchy manga scans and what are probably other stolen comics.

I have contacted the hosts of the site for help but I'm not sure that it's going to have any effect because I am pretty sure that the website is in China (the host is Alibaba) and China's copyright laws are kind of bad.

I don't really know what my options are, if any. Is there anything I can actually do to stop this that I'm not already doing?

[DarkSena]

I'm afraid if it's a sketchy website you don't know who's the hoster you are not able to get them to take your comic down. You can try tracking the origin of the domain but you'd have to report to those who are hosting the domain that they're violating the copyright law. It's a very bad stituation to be in. I also found my artwork being on some sale page who offered the art for crypto currency but it's hard to fight against that really...

[Flios]

May I know the name of your comic and the link to the site?
I've seen a few cases before among some of the people I know. It's usually unfixable and difficult to fight against as @DarkSena mentioned. I would suggest leaving the site alone for now(my opinion as a forever coward). If you have a solid fanbase and lots of active readers, those pesky websites won't post large problems to you

[adkahdj]

It's not been stolen but copied / shared. You should be proud of it !

[IndigoShirtProd]

No, they shouldn't be "proud" that their content has been stolen right under their nose and posted elsewhere for the profit of others. Why would any creator be proud of that?

[abigaillmartin]

I sure wouldn’t. The work is yours and you should earn the profits for your own work as well as credit. It’s natural that it’s your work and that’s just stealing. Isn’t this illegal?

[Crusoe]

As mentioned before, it's very hard to do anything about it. However, if your work was posted to tapas originally, definitely inform the tapas team about it via email. They might also not be able to do anything about it but if they want to in the future, it may help them build a case.

[adkahdj]

Why would any creator be proud of that?

I'd be happy if someone was to copy my work and help me share it so that more people can enjoy it. That's basically free promotion.

[IndigoShirtProd]

No it's not, at least not substantial promotion. Most people who would read your comic on a scanalation site are not going to seek you out on your own platform or look for ways to support you. But if that's what you prefer.

[powerplantanimations]

This is going to sound a little absurd, but maybe draw the president as Winnie the Pooh and sneak him in backgrounds... or say stuff like "Free Hong Kong" or "Taiwan is a real country". Hear me out... I've read that China doubles down on stuff that's potentially "propaganda". I'm talking FIERCE trouble what with them having people monitoring 24/7. If they should find out that a comic they've been hosting was made by someone with these ideals, theeeeeeen yeah. Worth a shot.

I know that's my first idea when should someone steal TSFI and post it on a China site. Probably confuse the hell out of my posters.

[LouisWinter]

Actually, that's quite the galaxy brain strategy. Definately going to consider this should this happen to me.

[powerplantanimations]

I'm just SUPER fascinated by how China operates. If this were another country I think the person is honestly screwed but since it's China, it's lucky that they double down on petty stuff like this. Just hope the person who stole this doesn't get swatted or punished becauuuuuuuuuuuuuuse that's a possibility.

[feuersichel]

Uhhh, you need to be carefull with that. There is a fine line between stolen and promoted. If I would promote an artist I would only post one image and urge my readers to visit the artists page. If your work just shows up somewhere on a shady place with no link or mention of the original artist, it is most likely done for personal gain. This sort of "promotion" doesn't help the artist at all but gives money to a person, that just copied stuff.

The proudness I would feel if my work would get used like that is more of a "sour-proud". Like: "jay, at least the scamers show interest :,) " or something like that. Nothing to really feel proud about.

Also artists usually don't have alot of money for lawyers... otherwise this wouldn't be that much of a problem.

[system]

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