Another Member Has Stolen My Image And Is Selling It Here Also....

There should be a clear way of doing this on FAA and there should be at the least some way or route to issue DMCA takedown notices.?

When a member has been found guilty of doing this they should be banned from the site forever. Most of us work too hard at this to allow theives to be among us. I question a lot of images sold here due to the type of image offered for sale by some as it is very obvious they do not own the picture nor the rights to use the likeness or trademark, but they are allowed to do so. This is not an artist unless the image is public domain they should not be allowed to market those items as it damages FAA and all our credibility. Hope they take it down for you.

thanks Mark and Bonfire Photography.....I do agree!!! I"m so upset! I did hear back from Abbie Shores and hopefully she will take some action against this creep!

Jill,

I can report it for you. I'll need you to e-mail me the specifics, please, through our internal message system.

Oh, Abbie is on it? Okay, now worries, it will get sorted.

Thank you Jeffrey!

It happened to me, too, Jill. Just the price of putting our work online.

Curious, how did they get the image? Do you offer it as a download (licensing) or is it a screen grab?

There has been a discussion of watermarks on another thread. This is always the danger of not watermarking. But talk about bold theft to try to sell it on the same site.

I have images stolen all the time....but this guy takes the prize......he actually believes he is right.....and I bet his entire gallery is stolen and mutilated works of others.

He screen grabbed it. I only have it for sale on two sites and both are watermarked.....but the watermarks are not good enough...they are only at the bottom and easily cut off or cloned out.......sad to say.....

Have you registered through the U.S. Copyright Office for maximum protection?

no I haven't.....

getting it registered officially will only help you collect damages in court, but you still have to go there. right now the current method (according to abbie), is to send it to tech support (they should have a DMCA address though). prove its yours or someone elses, and apparently they now have a copyright lawyer on the payroll that looks at these things.

---Mike Savad

You shouldn't have to jump through hoops to get this resolved. FAA needs to provide swift action or no artist here will trust that their interests are being protected.

Jill,

Think of registration as an extra form of insurance protection - up to $150k. When infringers' learn their potential liability, they change their tune fairly quickly.

yeah i just found the guy. he's one of those that thinks that if you take it from the web and run a filter over it - it's fine. my guess is, he found it on tumblr or something. i had one guy do that. he ran a filter over it, called it his. i told him that i could take him to court and so could the other people he took things from. he erased it, and told me he got it on tumblr - they cropped the watermark off it, taken from another site.

the funny part was - after i told facebook to remove it, he turned around and said - its mine, your mistaken, tell facebook that you were wrong. and when i pounded it in, that its mine, he said - oh you were inspired to paint this as well.... and i'm like no, it's mine, it's a photo erase it! people are nuts. and many are so dumb not to see that a reverse search finds them right away.

---Mike Savad

This guy told me he has the right to do this! Which means he will continue to do this to others as well until he is stopped! He sent me this gem of a paragraph...below.........proving his point.....(the point that he is an idiot) He actually thinks my photographs....or anyone's is public domain and his for the taking!!!

"Hi,
I am sorry you feel that way. Lots of my works have been used but not as I had created them.

In the case of art, there is something called 'appropriation', wherein any images/elements from popular culture maybe be used to create a work that places it within a different and entirely new context (that is different than it's original/intended context). This is a key aspect to appropriation, and the items used/referenced are popular culture or public domain items; in the case of a Jackie O's photograph, as a private possession of previously unpublished reknown, this would fall outside the realm of appropriation into some sort form of copyright infringement."

send him a letter from your lawyer, and see how well his ideas hold up in court. he would have to modify the image so greatly, that it would no longer be able to be recognized again. i think his whole account should be removed. i did checks on other images and did find matches. its funny though how he already had that line set up. clearly this isn't the first time he had people complaining.

and he doesn't understand the - is this your copyright - part when you upload things.

---Mike Savad

Just curious as to which of your wonderful images he "appropriated"?

I think an IP lawyer might be needed.....

the one she showed above. oddly his comes up, not hers.

---Mike Savad

this one....
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/victorian-house-on-a-hill-jill-battaglia.html

he told me he was going to take it down.....play with it some more then put it back up.....which he did. It still clearly looks like my image but he just made it into a worse mess than the first time! sigh.......

FAA can make up its own mind regarding "appropriation" - from the terms of use:

"At its sole discretion, Fine Art America may modify or discontinue the Website, or may modify or terminate Your account or Your access to this Website, for any reason, with or without notice to You and without liability to You or any third party."

Jill, hoping this gets resolved in a timely manner. Looking through galleries, you have some nice work!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but...
Um, this guy may be correct when he states.... 'appropriation'

Appropriation in art is the use of pre-existing objects or images with little or no transformation applied to them.The use of appropriation has played a significant role in the history of the arts (literary, visual, musical and performing arts). In the visual arts, to appropriate means to properly adopt, borrow, recycle or sample aspects (or the entire form) of human-made visual culture. Notable in this respect are the Readymades of Marcel Duchamp.

However, in your favor....
Despite the long and important history of appropriation, this artistic practice has recently resulted in contentious copyright issues which reflects more restrictive copyright legislation. The U.S. has been particularly litigious in this respect. A number of case-law examples have emerged that investigate the division between transformative works and derivative works. Many countries are following the U.S lead toward more restrictive copyright, which risks making this art practice difficult if not illegal

I see his image is gone, but he is still on FAA.

I can still see it in his gallery.....he took it down briefly.....then mutilated it more...then put it back up.......shame on him!

thank you Greg! :-)

You're welcome. :)


Yep, image is still there.

Jill

Support is dealing with this, hopefully you are receiving their messages. If not, please check your spam mail. They will get this sorted for you.

Closing this now.