The finicky business of fan art theft.

[sephirona]

I figure I should introduce myself before I start. My name's Rona, and I was once an active member of Arlong Park's One Piece Collectibles section. My deviantART username is also Sephirona, and I had an old art thread here on APforums with a few old artworks before I left as well: http://www.apforums.net/showthread.php?t=21653 Those of you who are artists here understand that the fanart we draw involves characters that do not belong to us, but know that our art is the product of our own imagination in its own right. We envision the idea and express it by drawing our versions with unique poses, shading styles, and quirks.
My question is this - for those of you who regularly draw fanart (be it One Piece fanart or not) - what steps have you taken to protect yourself from those who claim your art as theirs and tell you that you have no rights to it because you do not own the idea of the character? Do you prefer to sit back because you think it can't be helped? Have you had people attempt to sell your work for their personal profit?

http://sephirona.deviantart.com/art/Rob-Lucci-Monochrome-110461841 I'll concede that the watermarks I placed on it in 2009 are really ugly - and yes, I was that paranoid back then. And clearly, watermarks really don't protect you if a thief really wants to steal your work. These days, for the benefit of those who view my art and for the sake of aesthetics, I use only small pixel watermarks. I don't want to punish honest people who can appreciate what I draw in my spare time - I draw to share my love for my favorite series with such individuals.

And to the mods - I apologize if this has been posted in the wrong section, but I figured I'd post it here since the sticky for Fanart Permission is in this subsection. Please feel free to move it if you feel like it belongs in a different part of the site. Thanks!

[DartG]

I've never personally experienced art theft, but from a few people who've experienced it have successfully had the said thief take it down. Though there are cases where Deviantart doesn't uphold any punishment and lets it slide, but this is mainly in rare cases.

From what I've seen, people usually put in a signature or initials somewhere to blend in with the drawing, so if a signature at the bottom is cropped off, they can still show the initials as proof. For example, in the piece you've shown, the hand lines could somehow spell out Rona in the knuckles and fingers.

In the off chances some asshole does do a counterclaim, there's really not much to be done. You pretty much got to hope that the claim gets denied, otherwise accepting that people do stoop that low just happens. I wouldn't bother with anything afterwords and just move on. You could get a bunch of people to back you up and call out said artist, but to me it doesn't seem worth it.

The fanart scene just seems to have that blurred sense of copyright that allows both parties to get their way. For example, technically someone can open up a booth at a con with stolen fanart and get away with it. Just the same as say HotTopic or Spencer's Gifts can get away with Tshirts with fanart on them.

It's sad I know, but there's not much to be done except hope the thief has a guilty conscious.

Another example being the TMNT movie film practically took a fanart design and pushed out a concept from it for the film.

[reeta]

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