Okay, I stepped in it a bit here. I support trying to create a solution to a problem that is bothersome to a good many and I have no fault with that at all. In fact, in the past I have mentioned to artists that I knew if I saw their picture (or models even) on some other site or gave them a heads up about something that they needed to be aware of in relation to copyrights. I'm not against the cause by any means. And as I said, I think jump had a great idea in creating a lookout for these things, but she also made sure as to pass that info to the original artist, not to take action themselves, as is the law.

In your case, the law is not clear on how to proceed and what authority, if any, you have. This puts you in a very bad situation should legal action arise. Yeah, it might scare little Billy who runs a website, but it's not going to scare a savvy legal eagle who would think nothing of owning your home because he knew the law better than you did. Also, since you are acting outside the law to bring this justice on, it may impede the actual justice that could have been rendered.

These are just things to think about before you go off. I won't say anymore. If people are interested, then it must be right I guess. I just think that a witch hunt by a group that may become overzealous as we've seen in the past is not the way to apply justice to accomplish what you want...

ShadowWind

PS: I apologize for the comment about the tribunal. I had misread one of the earlier posts about WIP's being asked for..

ShadowWind, I agree with your main point that there's no need to turn this into a witch-hunt. But there's another side to consider here. There's a big difference between 'art lovers who liked an image and want to share it' and people who d/l an image and put it up on their site under their name, claiming it as their own work. I'm sure you wouldn't offer to send your images to people who were doing that. I don't think the idea here is to hunt people down and drag them through the mud, but to have some sort of empowerment for the artists who are seeing their work stolen. Note the word 'stolen'. And again, you're only talking about images. When it comes to pirated products, it's a whole different ballgame. There are real financial losses for the merchants involved in that side of it. The way I see it, one thing that could be done that might be helpful would be to have some kind of central group or addy where people could report theft. At the moment, what do people do when they see stolen art? At best, they post in the forum. At worst, they don't know what to do, so they ignore it. That's bad. mac

I think you're missing ShadowWind's point. Dark Elegance was suggesting we send a notice of infringment to the person using the piece without permission as well as notifying the copyright holder. Only the copyright holder (or their legal agent) can take any legal action. If you want to turn your rights over to a group, go ahead.

Spit, Thanks, exactly... Maclean, I'm not for piracy and I'm not for taking art and claiming it as your own. I fully agree that there should be a mechanism in place to help artists find such infringement whether it be images or warez. I've never argued that point throughout this thread. I've said on several occasions here that Jump's group that does the proper thing and notifies the copyright holder is a great idea in keeping up with this problem. I'm not trying to be the bad guy here, just trying to inject some legal issues that you may encounter by acting as the legal agent for people, without the proper authority to do so. ShadowWind

Sorry SW, I wasn't trying to portray you as the 'baddie'. You do have a point, and to a certain extent I agree with you. I'm dead against the burning torch and pitchfork approach. I just think that a lot of people feel impotent in this matter because they don't know who to turn to if they do find stolen art. A central location to report it would at least be a start. It's what happens afterwards that needs to be thrashed out. And that's where I think the problem lies. Vigilante groups won't achieve anything. But a common policy and some cooperation between Renderosity members might. If it were done the right way mac

~sighs~ this is suppose to help unify artist. not seperate them.

LOL, DE, It's human nature. United we stand! Except when we're divided over what we're united about. mac

If it works, great and all the more power to artists...cheers for the discussion and no hard feelings I hope...

None whatsoever on my part, SW. I like discussing and hearing other people's POV. mac