Monday, May 16, 2016

Copyright theft / Vol de copyright

Someone pointed me a copyright theft from an Etsy shop. I wrote this lady to remove the paintings copied from my works immediately... Waiting for her answer...

3 comments:

JEANNE ILLENYE said...

Oh, I know firsthand how disheartening this is. My work has been copied on ebay and offered as needlepoint kits, reprinted on canvas as original oil paintings at art galleries in various countries, and by fellow artists in art competitions, etc. It's always an awful feeling. Not only is it upsetting but when one has to "prove" that one's own work has been copied it becomes very disheartening. I had one very well known art group deny that the artist copied my painting for an art competition although it was so obvious that I contacted the artist directly who admitted it and removed her copy of my work. Imagine if she'd won with a copy of MY painting? Also, I had seen a gallery in Africa sell illegal copies of my paintings with someone else's signature on them when I hadn't even sold MY original paintings yet! I had one artist/client on my mailing list once tell me that she loved being on my email list because she always copied my paintings. I have far too many instances of this occurring. It's tough to stop. Good luck and don't let it get you too upset!

jimserrettstudio said...

Sorry, I understand your frustration. You are doing the right thing by contacting the person, I would also contact the site that hosted it, the website, blog or e-store. They have user agreements that this person may be in violation of.

But the unfortunately reality is that this a rampant problem, without some major paradigm shift it will never stop. It is cultural and institutional and all you can do is combat it yourself. There is resources to help protect online rights and creative plagiarism such as Creative Commons.

juliefordoliver.blogspot.com said...

The more artists publicly show the copier's work with a name and image, the better it is. I admire you for bringing it to our attention and also thank Jeanne and Jim for their contribution.
When I contacted an artist who did a dead ringer of one of mine, she was offended and not apologetic at all. She did take it down after i got a third party involved.
They are brazen and play the odds of getting caught.
It takes a lot of b-s to copy one of yours. They are so distinctly yours and who else has the skill to do a good job? This idiot didn't for sure.