[bark]

Please don't drop names as per CS rules. Please don't start fights in the comments, I made this to provide a valuable resource to help others who have their art stolen. I don't want to see this locked and have this information lost.

If you do trace, use images without permission, steal characters to sell to gain a profit, ripoff character designs, create knock off closed species; I respectfully ask you to block me. I do not take theft lightly. My art is not your coloring book, please respect my rights as an artist; thank you!

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Art theft: Nothing to gain from
(advice on stopping/dealing with art theft)

Why does art theft hurt artists?

This post explains perfectly why art theft hurts the artist quite a lot.
For those who can't read it, here's a rundown:

- It's disrespectful to the artists, they pour hours and love in their work. It's not fair for someone to take the art and claim they did all the work when they didn't!

- It's disrespectful for whoever owns the character that the art piece has. If someone commissioned their oc by an artist, and the art gets stolen, it not only disrespects and hurts the artist, it hurts the person who owns the character.

- It hurts their future career. Those who get popular by reposting art that isn't theirs without permission steals the original artist's audience! Not to mention if their character is being stolen to be sold.

- It's ILLEGAL. Especially if the thief takes commissions, and uses stolen art as 'examples'. Or take someone's character that's not theirs/didn't get ownership for and resell them. This is called scamming, and is indeed illegal, especially if it's sold for real-life currency. Lawsuits can be done to help for those who've been scammed out of real money, and it's not fun!

Tips if you have your art/character stolen:

- Report their art on that site. Sites have to provide a way of offering DMCA takedowns, so reporting on that site of posts containing your art and characters is your best bet. You can perhaps even report impersonation (some sites don't take that lightly) if said thief is using your character. If you have to make an account to report that art, it's best to do it. Some sites require you to make an account to report things.

- If you see other's art stolen, notify the proper owner! Sites don't do DMCA takedowns for stolen art if you didn't create them (which is odd) so let the artist know their art is being stolen so they can report it.

- Provide links and proof you've made the art or own said character. Like TH links, links to original posts, or even screenshots of WIPS of the art that's been stolen. (This helped me in the past)

- Watermark ALL of your art. Make sure the watermark is hard to forge/erase, like having your watermark overlay on the art piece. If you have a Toyhou.se, watermark ALL art you've got, even if it's art you've got by others. toyhou.se has a handy watermark function, so your art isn't permanently altered and still have the non-watermarked file (that you can only see).

- If you think your art was stolen on this site, send a help ticket! Chickensmoothie doesn't take lightly to art thieves, you can send a help ticket here: https://www.chickensmoothie.com/help/gethelp

- In all of your art posts, specify that your art should NOT be used without permission. It's serves as a reminder that the art you've made is only yours to use, and not free to use.

To recap/summerize:

Art theft is very frowned upon, and disrespectful to artists, and infringes their rights as an artist. This also applies to character and design theft!

It can be illegal, especially so if stolen art is being used to gain real-life currency; which is known as scamming. With how big and vast the internet is, it's very easy to catch art thieves now days, and no one gets away with it.

If someone else's art is being stolen, notify them immediately! Sites can't take down art unless it's the original artist reporting it, so do inform them if they've had art/characters being stolen.

If you've been hit by art theft, don't be afraid to report said post(s) and do a DMCA take-down if available. Art theft hurts everyone in the long run. Chickensmoothie doesn't take art theft lightly, if you feel your art was stolen on here or find out if someone is stealing art, send a help ticket: https://www.chickensmoothie.com/help/gethelp

If you have anymore tips, comment them!
Also, if I made any grammar mistakes,
pm me with the correct version ;w;

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Valuable Art advice from the community:

This is pretty poggers! As a small note for people who have characters on TH (also 100% totally my opinion b/c I've had to ask multiple different people this as an artist that people have commissioned/requested art from, and is def a recommendation but in no words law/the thing you have to do):

If you're commissioning an artist, and you have a very protruding watermark, please send a reference/one clear image (with a reduced watermark or no watermark) to the artist you're commissioning! I'm not saying send all of your images, just one for the sole purpose of making the design easy to see. (i/e my main sona has over 130 images and 128 of them are watermarked, I have 2 references set aside that are unwatermarked solely for the purpose of commissioning artwork of her one of the watermarked pieces where you can't see the design super clearly vs her main reference which I link people to.

It's also important to credit the people who's bases you use! On TH there is a really nice function that allows you to credit more than one user for art, and linking back to the base creator/base page is a really good thing to do. It's also really pog to credit the resources you use for reference, if you use them when drawing a piece! In example, a specific tutorial you used to help with the look of the clothing details, the pose reference you might have used, etc. Such as this piece crediting a tutorial, this piece crediting a base, this piece crediting a base, background, and outfit designer.

Another thing that I like to do, is include links to my other websites. If I do not link a website, I do not have an account there, and any character or art piece of mine seen on that website is not linked back to me/posted by me, therefore it is a stolen image/art piece.

As a side note: please also respect the artist's boundaries! For instance, I do not draw firearms, yet someone keeps requesting or attempting to comm me with their character that depicts a firearm. If an artist says no to something, that means they will not do it, no matter how many times you ask.

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Please do not edit/trace/use my art and characters.
Thank you!

[Glowingsaltshaker]

This is a great thing to look back on. Art theft is just downright horrible!

[Madel]

Ugh, I’m so mad at the person stealing art
It’s really scary as a smaller artist because it’s less likely someone will know if someone has stolen your art.
Stealing does nothing but hurt people, there’s no excuse for it.
Hope everyone who is dealing with this can sort it out!

[bark]

This is a great thing to look back on. Art theft is just downright horrible!

Thank you! I agree, it's horrible...

Ugh, I’m so mad at the person stealing art :(
It’s really scary as a smaller artist because it’s less likely someone will know if someone has stolen your art.
Stealing does nothing but hurt people, there’s no excuse for it.
Hope everyone who is dealing with this can sort it out!

There's nothing to gain when stealing art, and it's easy to catch. I agree with everything you said, there's no good reason to steal D:

Me too, I hope everyone is doing okay!

[Alkene]

God, yes. Thank you for this post.

[ghost_raven]

Thank you for putting this out
As a smaller artist on Wattpad who’s had their art stolen by someone who was once close to me, it’s hurtful when stuff like this happens
I had a commission on a friend’s fursona that took me several hours to do and about a week after I posted it, I found out from my friend that my art was traced
The same person who stole my art, who I later found out was an old friend that moved out of the state several years ago, threatened to dox me over having to take my art down and off their account
Everything was solved and their account was taken down after another threat, but it still hurt to learn that someone I was so close to when I was younger had traced my art and marketed it as their own

[grassman.]

Thanks for making this! It’s important that people know that art theft is indeed wrong and easy to catch, it prevents future cases C:

[bug]

As someone who has had the deal with two people who refused to stop after me telling them to stop, and one person who has stolen a design and im still waiting for a reply, I can confirm that art theft really hurts <3

generally it's both really stressed me out and upset me like,, that's my hard work and your copying it for what? a fex pixels on a screen?
it's kind of sad to see,,

[zealouzie]

this is a great resource!! ty so much for posting this <33

[laika.]

This is pretty poggers! As a small note for people who have characters on TH (also 100% totally my opinion b/c I've had to ask multiple different people this as an artist that people have commissioned/requested art from, and is def a recommendation but in no words law/the thing you have to do):

If you're commissioning an artist, and you have a very protruding watermark, please send a reference/one clear image (with a reduced watermark or no watermark) to the artist you're commissioning! I'm not saying send all of your images, just one for the sole purpose of making the design easy to see. (i/e my main sona has over 130 images and 128 of them are watermarked, I have 2 references set aside that are unwatermarked solely for the purpose of commissioning artwork of her one of the watermarked pieces where you can't see the design super clearly vs her main reference which I link people to.

It's also important to credit the people who's bases you use! On TH there is a really nice function that allows you to credit more than one user for art, and linking back to the base creator/base page is a really good thing to do. It's also really pog to credit the resources you use for reference, if you use them when drawing a piece! In example, a specific tutorial you used to help with the look of the clothing details, the pose reference you might have used, etc. Such as this piece crediting a tutorial, this piece crediting a base, this piece crediting a base, background, and outfit designer.

Another thing that I like to do, is include links to my other websites. If I do not link a website, I do not have an account there, and any character or art piece of mine seen on that website is not linked back to me/posted by me, therefore it is a stolen image/art piece.

As a side note: please also respect the artist's boundaries! For instance, I do not draw firearms, yet someone keeps requesting or attempting to comm me with their character that depicts a firearm. If an artist says no to something, that means they will not do it, no matter how many times you ask.