Hi y'all, (no, not "yawl" - that's a sailboat :-) )

I just got a note at DVA about some of my work being sold or given away as cell phone desktops. (or whatever they're called) Link - http://bisforum.eclub.lv/eclub_mobiles/color_logos.php?Wall%20papers&1525

The person who alerted me said she also spotted Keith's work and that she thought they were getting the images from DVA. I recently got a message form a person named Ariel who went under the nick, "enriana" asking to use my stuff for "bases" or "icons" and said no. This person has a huge number of favorites but no personal art uploaded. After work, I'm going to compare her/his faves to what's on this site and also the DD pages. Just a hunch.

Anyhow, firstly you will notice much more intrusive watermarking on my work displayed here and there. I recommend you go to the link and see if any of yours are there. My printer went open loop when he found out I displayed my art ANYWHERE on the web and said I should get it all off asap. I'm probably not going to do that but my images will have to be more conspicuously watermarked and I hope y'all will try to look past that and not hammer me for it. With the anonymity of the 'net the thief could be anybody. It's something I have to do and here's why:

Say someone buys a limited print from you for a lot of money. (yes, fractal art DOES sell for pretty big bucks if you ask it and offer high quality materials) They paid a high price because the edition is only 50 and so they and their friends probably will never see another copy in someone else's house ever. Then they see some kids with it on their cell phones or as low rez prints being sold for $49.95 somewhere else. They will be pissed off majorly and there are cases where legal action has been taken against an artist. If you are wanting to be "serious" about selling your art then I recommend you watermark your stuff if you are going to display it here and/or at DVA or anywhere else for that matter.

The shocking - but maybe not ;-( - thing is that there is absolutely NO RIGHT CLICK prevention at either of these sites. Something I find VERY negligent on the part of the operators of these websites. Though maybe that's a big part of their draw for visitors. Not gonna go there.

Anyhow, go take a look and see if they've ripped any of you as well,

Rick

Thanks Rick for this info and I'm pretty shocked. I didn't realise at first but when uploading an image, DA make this available for mobile desktops unless you untick the box. It could have happened this way but then again there's nothing to stop someone just right clicking over your image and saving it then uploading to their mobile. If your work is being sold as mobile desktops then I think you should approach the company, they have no right to do this without your permission.

I'm off to look at the website.

Thanks

Heather

I've always made sure to untick that mobile thingie over there. I think the providers of these site should have an obligation or at least make SOME attempt to prevent this type of thing. No method is foolproof but preventing the "save pic" thing is the LEAST they could do....

Rick

Rick,

Realistically, there is absolutely nothing you can do to prevent an image from being copied. There is no right-click prevention script, no magic HTML markup, nothing that will prevent your image from being stolen. Please understand: you cannot prevent "Save As". Truth be told, if you're using the same watermark in all your images, a determined thief can use that to reverse the watermarking process. That's why digital watermarking algorithms include a randomizing element, but those too are not perfect.

I have in the past had people literally airbrush my marks right off an image and have them posted back to the same forum.

So if you want to blast dA for their policy--and there is plenty of basis for doing so--go right ahead. But please don't suggest they should waste their time with ineffective image-saving prevention schemes. Anyone who suggests they have a way around it is selling snake oil.

--Damien

Oh, ok - I just thought I'd seen a discussion on the Mailing List about prevention of copying. I stand - actually I'm sitting, butanyhow - corrected about the right click stuff. Spouting off about something I don't know... Thanks for the info.

Still, I think artists who would like to make a go of at least a side job of their art or offer prints at their websites ought to watermark. I know it crushes your groove when you look at a pic but I always am able to look past the watermark, especially since the thumbnail sorta sets the tone and prepares you for the bigger image anyhow.

Here's something - I think it was at Harmen's website(?). Or at Keith's idreamincolor.com? I saw a site once that had thumbs vertical along the side of the page. When you hovered over the thumb, a large version appeared in the center of the page. As soon as you moved your cursor off of the thumb, the big image went away. Seems like that would help a lot, ya think? No way to right click because the big one went away b4 you could get your cursor on it.

Rick

Rick,

Tell you what. Any site you think can prevent me from capturing the images, without requiring some funky computer-compromising plugin or viewer to be installed(*), you send me the link and I'll send you the pictures. That includes your only-shows-full-size-when-mouse-hovers site; I can just read the JavaScript source code and get the URL for the images myself, piece of cake.

--Damien

(*) I qualify this because a few people have suggested that you only make your images available in a custom, proprietary format that requires a special browser plugin to view, and that plugin when it runs tries to disable a bunch of stuff on the user's system that might be used to copy the image. This is a really stupid approach, because (a) 90% of your visitors won't download the plugin, so they won't see your art, and (b) the plugin probably only works on Windows, and only in Internet Explorer, so you just blew off another 25% of your visitors, (c) requiring users to install system-crippling software to see your art is really presumptuous, and (d) you still can't prevent someone with a debugger from getting your artwork, although you sure as hell made it harder for anyone to see it, not just hackers.

If the image can be seen it can be copied.
Just go in the internet system cache and copy the image in another directory. If it doesn't work (it can be done with an internet plugin), try to press ctrl+stamp, open microsoft paint and paste the clipboard in the paint window.

I don't see any of my images on that site (i'm not so skilled in art). But i understand your hungry about the theft.
For me the problem is not about personal copy. Anyone should understand that anything that is digitalazed can be copied. Let's see what happen with p2p: Terabyte of music and movies are in the p2p net. I thinkin the next years this will be accepted also by entertainment industry. It simply can't be stopped. Copyright is a non sense in internet era.
The problem is when someone is making money with your work. This is something i would not accept (and it is the case of that site.... if you want the wallpaper you have to pay). But the problem is not about the copy, is about the use of that copy.

I show my art on my website, on very high resolution (not the original one, but very high). I release my image under one of the Creative Commons license. I allow personal use (not commercial one), i don't want that you modify my work, i want that if you distribuite my work it has to be redistribuite under the same terms, and i want you say that it is my work.

This means that you can copy my image and print it, but you cannot sell the print. Of course you cannot sell my wallpaper, or even give it for free without saying it is my work.

If you want to learn more aboute creative commons license:
http://creativecommons.org/

It's all well and good to claim any type of copyright - but enforcing it is another matter...

How many of us can afford the legal costs to fight an international copyright case for any of our images... every time some jerk (or group of jerks) decides they can make money from it over the internet?

Who? Me?

Attached Link: http://www.fractal-recursions.com

I notice that the site selling the images displays them with a PREVIEW icon on them (after you click on one) to prevent you from just save-as'ing the files and copying them to your own phone. Oh the irony, they steal other's images then worry about users stealing from them.

I can't even understand why anyone would pay for cell phone wallpaper anyway but..... FWIW I don't watermark any of my images, I only display 800x600(ish) and I don't think those are much use to anyone aside from looking at on the screen.

Forum: Fractals

Subject: Large Scale Image theft