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10 Years Ago
About 8 years ago I was searching a way to publish my artwork on Internet and I found art.com.
I uploaded there my first mermaid paintings and found an unexpected success,
people ask me to make the artwork available for print and some prints were sold every month.
Art.com group grew and my works was copied allposter and artistrising which became the artists portal, checks with royalties arrived regularly, and occasionally even some inquiry about the original artwork. Great ! wonderful !!
About 4 years ago things changed.. the new works uploaded to the portal (artistrising) were not copied to the big sites (art.com and allposters)… payment started to delay
I received a last payment in May 2013 after a long mail battle and since September my messages to the the artist support were left unanswered.
I remove all my artwork from the artistrising account but posters of it are still for sale in
art.com and allposters and my mail asking to end print ignored.
I still have access to the account and I see the amount of royalties grew slightly month after month.. but no payout .. no answers .
I post my sad story here to warn other artists that might be in business with the art.com group but also hoping in some suggestion how to came out of this crazy situation.
The amount of pending royalties of $500 would probably not pay a lawyer’s bill so
I don’t know what to do.. any suggestion ?
Reply Order
10 Years Ago
sue em. there have been other cases like that. if it sells, art.com holds it. you can't do anything with it. artistrising became a useless portal that if you some how sold things, they would put it on art.com at a lower percentage and lock it there. you can try erasing it, email them over and over again. but you may have to serve them. the lawyer might take it on contingency. or if you can find a bunch of people, a class action.
---Mike Savad
10 Years Ago
i would also complain to the BBB.org, while they are more less mobsters, any warning to other people is still a warning.
---Mike Savad
10 Years Ago
I see they have a "live chat" feature, try that and see if they can direct you or help in some way.
10 Years Ago
yes, I know but I was rooting around this week in the construction and sunk into fresh cement sludge...so I happen to have a pair available.
10 Years Ago
It won't get you any money, but you could get your images off art.com by filing a Digital Millennium Act complaint with art.com's web host Ultradns.net.
10 Years Ago
Doesn't work that way, Mike. Attorneys will not take a case that does not provide them with the opportunity to make some money. $500 would not even get a blink of an eye. As to small claims court, not that either. In most venues, small claims need to be filed in the city the defendant is located and does business in.
Marco, about the only angle that may work is pursuing them using copyright laws. The first thing I would do is send them a registered letter (whatever that is in Italy) demanding that they cease and desist selling or in any way distributing images you own the copyright to.
10 Years Ago
Maybe not worth a whole court case - but sometimes an attorney will simply write a cease and desist letter for you fairly cheaply. I had on done for $200 a couple of years ago in a non art situation and it got results.
10 Years Ago
If they continue to sell your work beyond the date they receive your cease & desist letter it may then become a copyright infringement case with juicy enough potential punitive damages to tempt a lawyer. Particularly if you've already asked them some time before to stop selling before and have a record of that revocation of their license to reproduce your copyrighted works.
Best to ask a lawyer, of course, but that money they already owe you may not be all.
10 Years Ago
Thank you to all of you that give me fine advices !!
a special thank to Dan.. I think I will send the registered letter that you suggest it will prove stronger that a e-mail if it comes to a copyright infringement case and might work
an a special thank to Jane ..I will try to do the same
10 Years Ago
I've considered tying the site. Sorry for your troubles, but I appreciate the heads up.
10 Years Ago
I've heard similar stories from so many disillusioned members of that site . . . :-(
Marco, I hope it turns out well for you.
10 Years Ago
@nola - you can't just get into art.com, you have to get in through artrising now, there are no open accounts unless you opened a long time ago. they turned that function off. how that works in their favor i don't know.
---Mike Savad
10 Years Ago
If its happening to one art.com member, it's happening to others. Find the others, find a lawyer who can file a class action lawsuit. While I normally hate class action lawsuits, this is one case where I think that's the only recourse. They get away with it because they know that individual artists are not in a position to bring a personal lawsuit.
10 Years Ago
I am not on art.com but am on artistrising. For the past week or so, I can go to the main page and pull up my art but can not access any of my reports, manage works or profile. It will not open at all! Something is going on there.
10 Years Ago
I follow the typ of Mike Savad ..a week ago I filed a compliant with BBB, and after some days I received an e-mail from art.com promising the solution in short times
end of poster print and removal of my works happen indeed within 24 hour, payment .. we will see !
It's anyway an succes due to your good suggestion Mike, THANK YOU
10 Years Ago
the bbb is a shady organization, so i never trust their reviews. however when you complain to them, they do put pressure on the companies that are signed up with them, so they can be used effectively that way. and certainly a lot cheaper then going to court. i used them to get rebate that was 5 months over due.
---Mike Savad
10 Years Ago
You may need to send them some kind of tax form. Here in the US, it is a W9, but I understand for artists outside the US, there is another type of form that is needed. They are bad about communicating, but I have never had a problem with payments. They do not ask for this form every year, but ever so often, they will withhold payments until it is updated.
10 Years Ago
I just want to tell everyone that the compliant with BBB worked fine
some week ago they end printing my artwork and today I received the payment of pending royalties,
I'm glad to end my collaboration with art.com with a handshake
10 Years Ago
That's wonderful Marco!
This is a bit off topic but in the spirit of getting retailers to honor their end of the deal, go to www.resellerratings.com and state your case. The business (if they are listed on Reseller Ratings) gets a copy of the complaint and it's posted online for everyone to see. I've have businesses fall all over themselves trying to get my problem resolved after I post a review. That site is also great for checking retailer reviews before you buy.
10 Years Ago
Wow .. great thread ... how cool to read about a problem that has a happy ending!!! Congratulations to you, Marco ... and way to go Mike Savad for the suggestion!!!!! This is the whole point of these threads ... helping each other out!!!
10 Years Ago
Glad I came across your post. I was looking for other artists that had problems with Allposters and Art.com. Three years ago a publishing company I was working with went out of business and without informing me, it sold the remaining stock of my prints to Art.com/Allposter/com. According to my contract they only had the right to do so after offering me the stock which they did not do. Legally I lost the right to any royalties from any subsequent sales on this stock. Nevertheless, Art.com/Allposters.com are not only offering the small prints for sale but also larger prints and prints on canvas that they are now printing on demand without my approval and without paying any royalties. They do not have copyrights on the image other than the right to feel the liquidated stock of prints. I tried to contact them two years ago and recently again. I will certainly contact the CEO again and this time through a lawyer to make them stop this or pay royalties for the prints sold. All this is very frustrating and time consuming. After this experience, I have been very reluctant to work with any publisher and I hope that I will have more luck with FineArtAmerica. I seem to have more control over things with them. My previous publisher was a regular one with an artistic director who chose what would be published.