EDIT: Added some stuff.
Of course, it's been difficult for me to see since the "edit" feature's been taking me to Sta.sh Writer, which I'm kinda TOO new to.
Now, normally I will not say anything about certain things, since surprisingly I hate complaing about anything online despite being inherently a ranter, since ranting online over dumb things is naive and immature for the most part if not entirely.
However, from plain old witness and from having forty things pop up in my inbox about this in a mere two days, I'll say something, and maybe it might help (unless certain people get offended since I happen to be the world's grumpiest tard right now...
).
Okay....when you get an art/ design thief/troll/impersonator on your account....instead of making 20 journals about it and such, getting your friends and fans to flame them, and putting a big red flag on their hide with attention, why don't you
just deal with it quietly and NOT get other people to do the "fighting" for you? Now, I know what you may say. You don't want to handle such alone, and of course, your friends don't want you to be downed by it and all either. You feel awful for what's happened and perhaps it on your own is indeed, a difficult thing. No one in the art world is just FINE with an intentional impersonator, a design theft, or any infringement upon their intellectual work as artists.
That is understandable, yes. NO ONE on dA never encounters some form of negativity online, but when it comes to such people committing "art-world taboos", publicizing such problems may be one of
THE BIGGEST MISTAKES you make having a deviantART account.
Pointing at the offenders in public journals and deviations
IS NOT good for you at all in the long run. I've seen this happen over and over again with arrays of different people, and frankly, it
never turns out well. Never. Plus, it ends up getting into your watcher's inboxes and
TRUST ME, I sincerely
DOUBT people want "dArama." In fact, almost all of the people who did such ended up having one of these fates:
1. They got banned from dA for whatever reason.
2. They got hacked, and
then got closed or banned from dA.
3. They close because of the hate they receive later on.
Ultimately, you get a million haters and look bad for using your friends and the like to solve
YOUR problems. Not just those two things, letting loose your fans makes you look like you have an ego and false power...maybe even a false sense of importance or status, as this goes for all tiers of the art world whether you be an amateur or a professional. Setting your fanbase, no matter the size, on an offender is like shooting yourself in the foot in some ways. You'll create MANY more problems for yourself as well as your peers if they get involved.
Claim you're getting trolled now? Think a bit on what's happened first, and ask yourself some questions. There are TWO situations for which this applies. To make it clear....the intentional infringement (addressed first), and the unintentional. The third scenario is addressed below, although it may be equally as important or the most important in itself.
The big question:
Is this person doing such intentionally? If so:
Why is this person intentionally taking my art/designs and claiming them as their own?
Why is this person purposely impersonating me?
The answer is
how they think YOU will react. If they expect you to make some huge deal out of it and such,
OF COURSE they're going to try and get you to do so. If you do, you've done what they've wanted. There's always a dark side on any site, where malicious people lurk, and their intentions may go from minor like this, to serious.
In this case, which is more minor-scale,
They are using their presence and action to get at you.If they can craftily make it so you can't legitimately report them for their offenses, they turn the tables
ON YOU. It would've never happened if you didn't start a troll-torrent yourself and make the problem overblown. You don't solve problems by blowing them up. Frankly, when it comes to art/character thievery, it's better to NEVER get people who ARE NOT involved, involved. You'll just put THEM in hot water too.
You now are the offender, bringing about slander and hatred on that person via getting several others doing such as well. That's the proof THEY need AND HAVE to get you in bad water.
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO: If you should come across such, use the dA blocklist if you have to, and report them for any violations you can legitimately report them for. Do so privately. Confrontations with the offender mean that it's just you, not you and your friends and your fans. If it's truly bad and ends up being something to the degree of death-threats to professional copyright infringement, take measures to make it known to both the dA staff as well as any outside sites and such that may be associated with the offense. Do not give the offenders proof that YOU are the one at fault.
However, unless it is a legitimate problem that would impact your watchers and friends, do not bring it to their attention by default. There's a big difference between an offender impersonating you and plagiarizing your character designs when you are NOT a professional artist and when you are and some bootlegger is selling copyrighted works stolen from you and other artists for large monetary gain. On the minor you can address it on your own, especially if you have a copyright. Even if you don't, you can still deal with such on your own.
On the minor level,
if the offender for whatever reason chooses to attack those associated with you, you are justified to make notice of such to
THOSE people, and on a level, the dA staff. Larger scale offenses obviously require far more serious attention.
Also note what is an infringement upon you on community levels and what is not. Impersonation is, but so is "trolling" to the point of harassment on both sides.
If not:
Does this person know that misusing the artwork or others is an offense to dA community policy let alone copyright in general?
Is this person legitimately taking your work and misusing it, knowing that it is yours yet not realizing it is indeed infringement and NOT "inspiration"?
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO: Confront and tell them what they're doing wrong, and
try not to look like a total jerk. Don't be too nice or else they might think they can get away with it, but being nasty for the sake of being nasty is not the way to go. You have to tell them what they did wrong and have them recognize that. It's possible to be friendly with these people who usually don't mean to do what they do. However, if they choose to repeat offense anyways and not care for your warnings,
report them.
Although mentioned before, you have to take caution in what you report offenders for.
You can't report for certain things.
For information on such, read dA's rules and guidelines for both community standards and deviation submission.
Here's dA's Etiquette policy:
about.deviantart.com/policy/et…Here's dA's Copyright policy:
about.deviantart.com/policy/co…dA enforces these to a higher degree than someplace like YouTube although they are not perfect at such. Keep that in mind.
Style copying, character design theft, and such are harder to deal with. For instance, Kakashi Hatake is Misashi Kishimoto's character from his copyrighted work
Naruto, so it IS the creator's but on dA standpoints a character design infringement is tied to artwork. Characters are legitimately your intellectual work, but they themselves are not disputed as easily as artwork.
THE JUDGEMENT: You must also ask yourself if YOUR characters/artwork are legitimately being ripped-off of or not. You must be careful, as people can come up with ideas similar to yours yet have no idea who you are. Obvious instances are obviously going to be addressed, but if you can't actually see the similarities then don't flip out. Generic characters aren't going to be legitimate for you to file complaints over. If you have a stolen story or the like though, or your character is being ripped off of on more than design (as in, a story), then YES, I can see why. REMEMBER: Characters aren't "alive" just because of their designs. The personalities and stories you give them make them far more real. That is why generic characters can be so unique.
IN A NUTSHELL: Never post your supposed art thieves in the spotlight. Don't blow your problems out of proportion when they're NOT that big to begin with. Deal with things as privately as you can for YOUR own sake as well for eveyone else's as you could turn misunderstandings into unnecessary trouble. NEVER PUBLICIZE YOUR dA PROBLEMS WHETHER THE OFFENDER IS INTENTIONALLY DOING WHATEVER OR NOT. Deal with your dA vices professionally and maturely. It'll give you far more blessings than trouble if you do.
There you have it.
So remember, kiddies...it's not hard to try and deal with the taboos of any art site or media hub without putting yourself into a big mess. This may be late for some of you, but heed and consider that you have been warned, or educated. That's largely up to you.
This is for your sake too....no matter how good it feels to get at your little enemy, sometimes the flamboyancy will hurt you. Sometimes subtle methods are more effective in the end. You can save yourself from a lot of unneeded trouble if you think a bit or else if you're too mad, step away from the computer. It's common sense.
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Journal CSS by
MoonstalkerWerewolf
