Help!

[AngelofThunder]

There is a kid at my school, well actually I've known him for many years, so I'm not making assumptions. I KNOW he's stealing art and saying its his own.

But I need your help.

http://www.artwanted.com/artist.cfm?ArtID=...&SubGal=&Page=1

Those are 'his pictures'. We have one but I want to find more. Please Please help me. Stop this art theif!

Post the site, of the original artist, of any of these pictures.

[Raymei]

I'll look around
o.o but what makes you think they're stealing?

[AngelofThunder]

A.) Just look around at the pictures. The styles vary so much

B.) We already found one picture that isn't his

C.) He's been known to lie. Badly.

[Squidman]

Being that I don't know the guy or the cirucumstances of this, I can't really pass judgement, but I just want to point out that you can't use the fact that someone uses different styles in their art as proof that they're stealing. I don't know if you've ever seen Petra Rodig's Breath of Fire art, all very awesome high quality stuff of significantly different styles, some realistic pencil sketches, some anime-ish watercolour, some striking black linetart.... Even I pride myself in using different styles (so says the sig), like check out these two pics of mine, both of the same two characters, both different styles, both drawn within the same general timeframe, both very much my own.



Of course, for all I know, the guy *could* be stealing.... all I'm saying is that you can't say that just because he uses different styles, it's rochkhard proof that all of his pics were stolen.

Beh.... whatever......




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[Raymei]

[quote="AngelofThunder (Raureru Berianu)"] A.) Just look around at the pictures. The styles vary so much

B.) We already found one picture that isn't his

C.) He's been known to lie. Badly. [/quote]
Yeah my styles really vary too o.o look at the picture below

but what picture did you find that wasn't his? all you need is one to get rid of him, y'know

[n8comics]

Jealous much :)

Well he's 17 right? Or somewhere around that age? If he's in art class and he's 17, he must be really good hon You know, has been drawing for a while, learned new teqniques, styles etc. If you really think he's stealing art, why not just ask him to draw you something and watch him while he does it? I mean... derr, if he doesn't produce as high quality works as he's done before, then he MAY be stealing. If it's the same awesome quality as in his portfolio, then he's clean.

You know you may just be jealous

[neko_chan123]

You really can't be too suspiciouse these days. One time about a year ago one of my classmates told me to look at his site and it had these really wonderfully drawn pictures. A while later I saw a japanese site with some of the same pictures, later that week I saw another site with a couple of the same pics that my classmate had "spent alot of time on", at first I wasn't sure who stole who's art, then I asked my classmate why I had never seen him drawing in class, (which most artists do) he said that he didn't wan't to get in trouble, then I asked him to draw a picture for me. That's when he got really nervouse, he told me that it would take a really long time so he would do it at home and bring it to school the next day. The next day he showed up with a picture that was obviousley printed. The point is this, if you want to prove someone guilty, start asking questions. ^_^

[majohime]

oook...amanda, what that kid did was just plain sad....but i agree, you can't let your guard down nowdays....some sick freaks are populating now....but i dunno...i'm really gullible <_<

[HyperAngelKaeverak]

ODS BODKINS!

Thief's page: http://www.artwanted.com/imageview.cfm?id=93965
Original page: http://www.studiodink.com/Extras/DW%20Collab.htm

Thief's page: http://www.artwanted.com/imageview.cfm?id=93961
Original page: http://www.studiodink.com/Extras/Jam_26.htm

Thief's page: http://www.artwanted.com/imageview.cfm?id=125298
Original page" http://www.studiodink.com/Shu_FullBody.htm

Thief's page: http://www.artwanted.com/imageview.cfm?id=125299
http://www.artwanted.com/imageview.cfm?id=116715
http://www.artwanted.com/imageview.cfm?id=116709
http://www.artwanted.com/imageview.cfm?id=116708
Original page: http://www.studiodink.com/Wu_FullBody_1.htm

I'm pretty sure there are more, but you can find them all for yourself.

The thief in question here appears to have stolen many pictures from Cheryl Austin's website, an artist who works for none other than Electronic Arts. Some of the pics stolen were her own work, and others were collaborations between Ms. Austin and her friends.

I have taken it upon myself to notify Cheryl Austin.

[X2CY]

so say you somehow manage to prove to people that he's a theif, then wat? wat happens to him? who do u go 2? how is he exposed? :wacko:

[HyperAngelKaeverak]

Well in this particular case I e-mailed Ms. Austin and she (as well as some of the artists she did a few of the collaborations with and members of her own forum) stormed the website and demanded the thief's gallery be removed and the thief be banned.

It took a few days (that site is one hell of a cluster****), but their demands were met.

Ms. Austin also took to watermarking her artwork (at her own expense), so thanks to this thief all the artwork she nows posts on the internet jus doesn't look as good.

Bastard.

How you handle your situation though depends on the environment. Is the thief just claiming stuff as their own but not really doing anything with it? Just show a few people where they can see the originals and don't fuss over it. Is the thief turning the artwork in at school (I've seen this WAY too many time)? Notify the art teacher. This will no doubt effect the thief's grade, which was enough to please me. Is it at a workplace and the the thief actually has the gall to use other peoples' work (this happened to a friend of mine)? DO NOT tell the thief anything, tell the boss FIRST. Plan something with him to prove the thief is a scumbag and this will most likely result in the thief getting fired.

In any case, it shouldn't be too hard to prove that the thief is of the abuility they claim. Hand draw works are easiest to prove are stolen. If the original cannot be produced and the thief refuses to display their ability before an audience (teacher, boss, friends, etc.), then they are guilty. Digital work isn't difficult, as there is really only one way to prove who it really belongs to; if they have the original file. If the picture was done in photoshop, they should have the PSD file somewhere and this file will have TONS of layers and effects, some of which may not even show up in the "finished" work.

Exposing the thief is really all you can do, unless you are the teacher or boss (or original artist...).