Instagram Art theft, Dood ("beanie308" Artist and Buyer Beware)

[Notkastar]

Recently informed that this user on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beanie308/

has made a habit of stealing other people's art than selling stolen art on the site! with one of my pieces being hit

Beanie on Instagram: "Work done for @cjbrigandi"

Beanie shared a post on Instagram: "Work done for @cjbrigandi". Follow their account to see 20 posts.

www.instagram.com

Dave The Barbarian by Notkastar

Dave The Barbarian!. Huge But A "Unicorn" . =‿=) ~★. . Artist Notes:. Once upon a time, there was a Disney show called. " ...

www.furaffinity.net

Dave The Barbarian by Notkastar on DeviantArt

www.deviantart.com

Is there any way to combat this?

Tried talking to them and I just got blocked, Dood =T

 

[Inferndragon]

Just report the guy on Instagram.
I've already sent that cjbrigandi guy a message about it. (Since they were paying for your art from the thief)
And the avatar they used was actually a character called Maruu drawn by xNirox (Which i bet they used without permission too)

Can't do anything more than warn the people involved.
Plus it is probably a burner instagram account anyways.

 

[Deleted member 162282]

The only way to combat it is to start drawing hardcore pornography that they wont wanna touch, other than that, the best you can do is add watermarks in creative but hard to remove places, for example a tattoo of your brand or signature across their chest, etc.

 

[Connor J. Coyote]

Is there any way to combat this?
Tried talking to them and I just got blocked, Dood =T

If you're doing commissions for people (like the pieces above) and they decide to post it publicly afterwards...... then the only thing I can suggest (off the top of my head) - is for you to possibly create two pieces of the same thing in the future....... one with the watermark on it in a hard to remove place.... and then the other one can be a "clean version" with no watermark on it - that you can give to the customer.

And after that, you can *ask* the person that commissioned you to only post publicly the piece that has the watermark in their gallery, if they want to...... and then keep the other "clean one" private that he/she can just enjoy for themselves.

That way there - the commission may be a bit more special to the customer also that way; as they have a version that no one else has...... *and* you can still give the customer a good quality piece (that can still be shown off publicly) which still protects your content at the same time.

Maybe that makes sense? If I was in your situation that'd probably be what I'd think of doing.

(On a personal level): I do about sixty to seventy commissions on average (with several different people a year)..... and sometimes it's more than that, depending on how much money we have and how busy we all are........ and so another possible way is to go with a "scorched Earth policy" like we have with all of our pieces - (which applies to nearly everything we do) and not post any of your personal pieces publicly at all..... and then just ask your customer(s) to keep things private.

That could be hard to do though, as a lot of people I know (especially creators of elaborate pieces I find) often don't want to do that, and don't want to keep things totally private because they like to "show off" a lot of the work they do..... (to their friends and followers, or whatever).... and so, the policy above may be a good alternative.

 

[TyraWadman]

If people are stealing your art and posting it onto other websites, all you can do is report it to the site.
And if you're able to inform the other people who got scammed, they can hopefully do something on their payment platform.

 

[Judge Spear]

You will never stop or slow art theft.

Gauge whats immediately, genuinely affecting you and just shrug at the rest. Unless you have a team who can handle all illegitimate uses of your content for you, it's not worth the time worrying.

Put hard to remove watermarks on your work or paywall your content. Best options as an independant.

 

[Kellan Meig'h]

You will never stop or slow art theft.

Big bold-ass watermark diagonally across the whole image, convert to a PDF, lock said PDF with a password. It's a hassle, yes but it will stop theft. When I put my artwork up on FA and DA, I let the purchaser know they will get an uncompresssed .png of the work and a copy of that PDF to put on their page. That's also why PDF is my favored form for posting my writing. No theft possible.

 

[Inferndragon]

Well i avoid using Deviantart because most people use it for stock images and literally steal from each other.
(Had people trace one of my drawings a while back using my 2010 image. Then claim it as their base)

Then on Furaffinity I literally do the "Search engine Indexing" as "Blocked Search engine indexing" that way it is harder for people to find my content without actually going on the page itself.

Since thieves literally google it and don't actually browse through the website itself.

 

[Deleted member 162282]

If you want a truly honest answer there is a way but it's unlikely people will be able to do it.

First off, establish a brand, create and host your own site, including a non use / compete clause for access to your art, have a paywall set-up and block right-click save. Then go make friends with an IP lawyer, have a real Eula made, and copyright / trademark everything that you can under your brand, once done you are legally protected, also you now have to power to demand all US hosts to abide by DMCA, however you also must have the willpower and funds to sue someone once your art is taken and a DMCA is ignored, otherwise it as all for nothing, and this is before even talking about international IP theft.

This is the only real way to kind-of sort-of protect digital art, it's sad but it's the truth.

 

[Connor J. Coyote]

You will never stop or slow art theft.

Gauge whats immediately, genuinely affecting you and just shrug at the rest. Unless you have a team who can handle all illegitimate uses of your content for you, it's not worth the time worrying.

Put hard to remove watermarks on your work or paywall your content. Best options as an independant.

Big bold-ass watermark diagonally across the whole image, convert to a PDF, lock said PDF with a password. It's a hassle, yes but it will stop theft. When I put my artwork up on FA and DA, I let the purchaser know they will get an uncompresssed .png of the work and a copy of that PDF to put on their page. That's also why PDF is my favored form for posting my writing. No theft possible.

Well, the OP doesn't need to go through all those hoops and hassles frankly...... if he and others like him (in this type of situation) do as I suggested, perhaps:

If you're doing commissions for people (like the pieces above) and they decide to post it publicly afterwards...... then the only thing I can suggest (off the top of my head) - is for you to possibly create two pieces of the same thing in the future....... one with the watermark on it in a hard to remove place.... and then the other one can be a "clean version" with no watermark on it - that you can give to the customer.

And after that, you can *ask* the person that commissioned you to only post publicly the piece that has the watermark in their gallery, if they want to...... and then keep the other "clean one" private that he/she can just enjoy for themselves.

That way there - the commission may be a bit more special to the customer also that way; as they have a version that no one else has...... *and* you can still give the customer a good quality piece (that can still be shown off publicly) which still protects your content at the same time.

Maybe that makes sense? If I was in your situation that'd probably be what I'd think of doing.

To me..... that solves his problem.

As his customer(s) can post their pieces publicly if they want to, without him losing any creative rights to the things he's making for them by theft...... seeing that only the watermarked versions are the ones that are being posted (in the future).

This way here - creators like him in this situation can "have their cake and eat it too" (as they say)....... as the pieces can now be posted publicly safely this way...... *and* it can still be a special commission for the customer that protects his content.

That's a "win-win" in my book.
-----------------------------
(You know.... as a guy who does over seventy commissions a year on average myself...... I think I know what I'm talking about...... and *trust me* I'm speaking from experience here also). And people on here are right when they say: "you will never stop art theft". And no one probably ever will, I agree there..... *but* you can take steps (if you're smart about it) to minimize your losses and risks though.

 

[Judge Spear]

You literally suggested what Kell and I already said.

 

[Kellan Meig'h]

@Connor J. Coyote - It takes about two minutes to watermark, convert and lock an image with the right software. I use Soda PDF for my purposes. Not a hassle and well worth the effort. If you put the watermark anywhere else except diagonally across the image, thieves just crop off your watermark and post your stolen image as their own.

BTW, your suggestion is essentially a watered down version of mine.

 

[Connor J. Coyote]

You literally suggested what Kell and I already said.

BTW, your suggestion is essentially a watered down version of mine.

Hmm...... well..... I said he could place a watermark in a "hard to remove place".... and the both of you apparently suggested that he watermark it "splashed across the page" on the piece, or to "lock it", "paywall it" and so on.

I don't think that's necessary for him to go through all those extra hoops frankly, just to acheive what he needs to achieve.

* A simple, basic watermark (in a hard to remove place) and giving the client a clean version at the same time (that stays private) solves his problem without him needing to use large watermarks, "locking it", "using pdf's behind paywalls", and so on.

@Judge Spear @Kellan Meig'h And by the way - if it's true (as you state) that my points above are identical to yours (also above) then why did you bother posting them? Seeing that my entry was number *four* on this thread:

If you're doing commissions for people (like the pieces above) and they decide to post it publicly afterwards...... then the only thing I can suggest (off the top of my head) - is for you to possibly create two pieces of the same thing in the future....... one with the watermark on it in a hard to remove place.... and then the other one can be a "clean version" with no watermark on it - that you can give to the customer.

And after that, you can *ask* the person that commissioned you to only post publicly the piece that has the watermark in their gallery, if they want to...... and then keep the other "clean one" private that he/she can just enjoy for themselves.

► and both of yours was numbers *six* and *seven* respectively:

You will never stop or slow art theft.

Gauge whats immediately, genuinely affecting you and just shrug at the rest. Unless you have a team who can handle all illegitimate uses of your content for you, it's not worth the time worrying.

Put hard to remove watermarks on your work or paywall your content. Best options as an independant.

Big bold-ass watermark diagonally across the whole image, convert to a PDF, lock said PDF with a password. It's a hassle, yes but it will stop theft. When I put my artwork up on FA and DA, I let the purchaser know they will get an uncompresssed .png of the work and a copy of that PDF to put on their page. That's also why PDF is my favored form for posting my writing. No theft possible.

If my points and suggestions above are the same as yours and you chime in afterwards and say the same things basically - then who are the ones really being redundant here?

Isn't it repetitive and redundant for you to post your points (that you allege are the same thing) and not agree with me? I'm glad we agree that he needs to take some steps (in the future) to protect his content though..... how many steps, is apparently debateable I guess.

 

[Judge Spear]

who are the ones really being redundant here?

You.

 

[Inferndragon]

Can you both stop getting at each others throats. If you have enough energy wouldn't it be better for you to use that to go after the art thieves instead of wasting your energy on pointless vitriol.

Update: One of the artists that had their avatar's stolen just replied. They are reporting them on instagram as well. (Which means there is a higher chance that the person Beanie will get their account taken down)

Secondary Update: They took down the artwork of the Original Poster

 

[Judge Spear]

Can you both stop getting at each others throats. If you have enough energy wouldn't it be better for you to use that to go after the art thieves instead of wasting your energy on pointless vitriol.

Update: One of the artists that had their avatar's stolen just replied. They are reporting them on instagram as well. (Which means there is a higher chance that the person Beanie will get their account taken down)

I posted 10 exceedingly mild words in response to him. That's not going after his throat and certainly not using "energy".

 

[TyraWadman]

If that required energy keyboard warriors would be jacked and that's terrifying to think of.

 

[Deleted member 162282]

Art theft sucks, but like many thing in life sometimes you just have to, take it on the chin, so to speak. One way to look at it is, hey you're art's worth stealing, not the most comforting thing, but it's better then wallowing in self torment, worrying about the worth of you art every post.