When an idiot steals your art/comic

[marygold]

Hasn't happened to me here but I've seen it happen to so many others on other sites. Deviantart, wattpad, other creative sit s, and the thing is it's so hard to find out about these people because there are so many accounts. Has anyone ever had their ideas or art stolen (CLEARLY stolen, not there are similarities in plot but literally some idiot just inserted a new character name, or directly copied your paneling or art and just colored the hair a different color. Trust me, I've seen them) on any site? And the thing that really sucks is that ithese people can easily use a software to color over your tiny signature at the bottom.

The time they spend trying to copy others could be used to ask advice if they are feeling unconfident. People worked their butts off for their work, don't just steal it. Work your butt off too and people will appreciate your stuff, even if it's not Picasso.

This was more of a rant than a discussion. Thanks for reading! I suppose telling the admin is the best way post-being-copied. Do you guys ever do something to prep BEFORE for if the situation ever occurs? I always go full paranoia mode and screenshot my rough drafts and everything. I even write my signatures in discreet places sometimes so that just in case, it would be hard to find and cover up. It's like a where's Waldo kind of situation. Alright I'm done talking, let me hear your thoughts.

[Vikiro_Hop]

I cleverly avoid this by not making good stuff, have had no trouble at all.

I feel like I literally read a webcomic where someone did this on like one of the first comics they posted, got caught apologized and then went on making stuff (i assume original from then on.) I wish I could remember what it was specifically but it has been a long time. All I remember is they had a decent amount of subs and was some sorta gag comic. You would figure they would at least take the offending comic in question down eh.

When you start out it's easy to fall into a bunch of traps and sometimes it's just lack of understanding. Seems like it should be pretty straight forward but in art the line between borrowing or being influenced and straight up stealing can be blurry. I remember being a dopey starry eyed beginner and could totally see how that kinda stuff can happen.

That being said people who straight up hijack stuff and draw over it or edit something knowing full well what they are doing are scum. The fact is not everyone is willing to put in the effort to make something new, and the idea of just latching on like a parasite to anything popular can be very appealing to certain people.

[69Michi]

OMG you don't know how mad I can get toward these people like jfc LMFAOO
I often think my stuff is not good enough to get stolen, but then it happened. Like only 1 time, but I honestly could only laugh at their pathetic attempt in stealing. LIKE DID U EVEN TRY BRAH

(HP RP-group OC)
I got my RP OC stolen, traced down to the hill LMFAOO I think my friend found out and showed it to me because let's face it how do u even come across these thief anyway it's so hard. But yea we were laughing so hard though... >_> But in my case, I don't freak out that much if my stuffs honestly get stolen. I have my friends and my watchers on my side, they know my stuffs, they know my artstyle, I have stuff to prove what is mine and what is not. If people wanna steal my art or my idea, they better do a fantastic job at that.

[marygold]

@Vikiro_Hop inspiration is a bit different, I agree. Just so long as the person genuinely tried with his/her comic
@69Erocento pfffttt I agree. It gets even more laughable when they start denying it and saying "Don't hate" This one bish on deviantart even went so far as disabling comments, I was ready to punch her in the face. By the way I was literally about to say "Tom Riddle" but then I was like "...wait." Did you make that copy or did you happen to have a screenshot of it lol.

[zelkats]

I haven't been using nor frequenting Deviantart for years so my stuff there has probably been stolen/copied plenty-three times, lol.

[69Michi]

Hey no one can deny THE TEMPTATION OF BISHIES FROM SLYTHERIN OKAY
But lMFAO Yah I saved the traced image into my folder so I can tell my children when I get old --

To be serious I did save it for shet and giggle

[shazzbaa]

I guess I don't really worry about that kind of theft. If someone steals my comic's artwork in that way I don't.... really need to prove it's mine? It's obviously mine? I've been updating my comic for years? I guess I'd look whether I need to do stuff to legally protect myself, but some ridiculous child reposting my work on Deviantart doesn't feel like it'd be worth much stress.
If someone traced over all my panels to make some kind of ORIGINAL OC DO NOT STEAL comic.......... I dunno, I might be frustrated, but that honestly sounds kind of endearing. xD

If you do a lot of fanart or make your living off of fanart, it can be a huge problem, but I'm not very attached to the stuff of mine that's easier to profit from -- apparently someone reposted some of my Welcome to Night Vale fanart on tumblr once and claimed it was theirs, and I didn't even care enough to look into it. Otherwise, the things I'm invested in are pretty decidedly my own weird creations and there's a limit to what you can even DO with them. I'm not big enough for unlicensed merch of my characters to be a thing that anyone could sell.

If someone made a comic that was literally the plot of my comic with names changed... I mean... that's like stealing an invention from a mad scientist -- it might be a brilliant invention, but you don't know how it works or how to use it or how to fix it when it breaks,. What makes my characters good isn't some unique idea that you can steal, it's that they're real and genuine and come from my heart. You can't steal that.

I really like this thought from Dan O' Brien I ran into recently:

[60Six]

I've never had my art flat out stolen, but I did have a few things that were VERY suspiciously similar to my existing characters/stories.
My favorite one being my old comic. For context, It was about dogs in a sort of post-apocalyptic world. Everyone was living in a dome because the air outside was toxic. All the dogs were used for various tasks and labor and had a naming system that consisted of three letters like V.T.S. I played with this and made one of the main character's official "dome" name L.O.L.
One day I got a comment from some person saying my comic reminded them SOOO much of their own. When I went and looked at it, I discovered it was about a bunch of dogs in a post apocalyptic world, in a dome, because the outside air was toxic, and all had 3 letter naming systems, with one of them also named a popular internet slang (I think her's was O.M.G).
She swore she had never seen my comic before but yeah. :'D The weird thing was, it was HER that brought her rip off comic to my attention? I dunno, maybe she wanted to start something but she stopped after like 3 pages.

[marygold]

@zelkats Zelkats?! ZELKATS?! What's a great one like you doing on my humble thread? I'm not surprised that people want to steal your art though lol (they are still scum nevertheless), you're awesome. I hope those three times worked out in the end for you!

[marygold]

@shazzbaa I like that quote, although it's one that's hard to cool a head and adhere to
@Riko lol I had a friend in the FLESH who tired to pull off the "what a coincidence" on me, the day RIGHT AFTER I told her about my story idea. For various other reasons, we are no longer friends anymore. Douche.

[zelkats]

XD; I'm not sure if everything worked out for the better. I have received private messages about people selling posters and phone covers with my art on it. I tried looking but couldn't find them. Ah well, it would be impossible to go on a successful artistic witch hunt so.. The least I can do is just leave my art where it is as proof that they did come from me.

[marygold]

Good attitude 👌 I'll be in the look out

[69Michi]

If someone made a comic that was literally the plot of my comic with names changed... I mean... that's like stealing an invention from a mad scientist -- it might be a brilliant invention, but you don't know how it works or how to use it or how to fix it when it breaks,. What makes my characters good isn't some unique idea that you can steal, it's that they're real and genuine and come from my heart. You can't steal that.

Your words suddenly remind me of a very serious problem in my country where people steal novels, change names and claimed it was their... A lot of K-pop fans did this to my favorite novels, and then you have all these BL-haters who took BL novels and change genders around....... It's a sad world out there.

[AnnaLandin]

I have no idea how this has happened, but I have not had my art stolen. ... or I have, but no one's ever told me about it.

Maybe it's because I don't draw a ton of fanart. I've drawn more of it this year than any year before, and it STILL isn't all that much - and people always seem more prone to stealing fanart than original art, for obvious reasons; fanart is more popuilar.

If someone stole my art and reposted it on, say, Tumblr and claimed it was theirs, I'd be disappointed and try to get them to take it down, but it's more annoying than anything else. I slap my signature on most things that aren't comic-pages, and if they go through the trouble of removing that, well, whatever. I'd definitely be more upset if someone was selling my artwork without permission, because that's very literally a loss of income for me.

But otherwise...? Meh. I suppose it's the fact that I know I can draw more things just as good, and these people are stealing because they either can't hack it as an artist, or are too impatient to just learn how to draw on their own - I can make more things, and they can, at best, do empty imitations.

[marygold]

@AnnaLandin oh gee I didn't even think about people selling without permission. That sucks even more. Smh

[Shanny8]

I onno...I guess in one stage I'd probably be flattered that you think my work was good enough to steal...in another stage I'd have to shake my head coz if you're out there stealing another artist's work and trying to pass it off as your own, then you're one pathetic individual. All that time wasted- in the time that this person was running around swiping art, they couldve learned to create some decent art.

[agentfink]

Ah, art theft. I drew a picture of Bubble Bobble, many, many years ago. Once it got on the internet, it was as good as gone.
I drew it for an iron on shirt and have the original sketch somewhere... Made the mistake of removing the original post, but the damage is already done.

It was also one of my first attempts in photoshop (coloring) all that black line was pencil and -- ug-- it's embarrassing to look at sometimes. It's funny to see it being redrawn, reused, thought of as"official art"-- at this point I am tired of trying to prove it... But also I don't really care because it's not my character anyway.

I drew Bub, then flipped it to make Bob (the Blue one).
If you see this, I assure you, I drew it-- it looks similar to official art, but it's not.

[SpavVy]

Yeah, I've had my art stolen at least 5 times to my knowledge and I've had people eye trace my drawings which are considered stealing to a lot of people too.

Back in early 2015 when Five Nights At Freddies was really taking the internet by storm, I decided to draw some FNAF fan art and make speed paints of them. It's a good thing I did that because it was solid proof that the pictures drawn were actually mine because some of my watermarks were messy and hard to read.

I've had one little shit on Pinterest claim she drew it and from what I was told she literally threw a fit when people called her a thief and the people who had my back would put links to either my DeviantArt, My official Pinterest, my youtube channel etc. She later ended up deleting her account.

Another major incident happened on DeviantArt when someone posted another one of my fan arts. He admitted it wasn't his and another user told him to remove it but he would not listen and did put up a fight, so then the user who told him to remove it ended up finding out who I was and contacted me on DeviantArt about it. When I found this kid I ripped him a new one and I let him know that I was royally pissed. I actually ended up scaring him too. After a few replies here and there I made him remove my art and I also made him remove other art that didn't belong to him. After that he learned that what he did was not okay and only uploaded his own work after that.

[eat]

I remember doing this on a fan art forum way back.

One of my FB friends let me know it was doing the rounds on reddit and I was like "oh cool" I didn't really know what reddit was so when he said it got to the front page i was like "okie dokie". I thought it was pretty cool that no one knew the author.

Then I see this and I'm like woah hey what the heck!?

I could never figure out why someone would change it like that!

[Thesleepypencil]

I've only had art theft once to my knowledge. And really what it did was two things, 1. I got better at putting my signature on art pieces. And 2. I have good trust in the artist community, because I'm not a largely known artist but the people IN the community still had the ability to tell me someone from outside the community took my art.

So a few years ago when 12 years a slave came out and Lupita N'yongo was destroying the red carpet like she does. I drew this

It was a small doodle but apparently Lupita herself found it and posted it on instagram asking people who made it so she could thank them. Several people claimed it their's and several claimed it was this other girls. But there was a lot of people defending me. Telling people it wasn't theirs and giving Lupita links to my tumblr. Boy let me tell you it was one crazy week but in the end i did get the credit for my art and thats great.