Sharing or Stealing? - Steal or Share; The Reaction

Benjamin and Grandma

Article Index

The Reaction

It actually helps me out when you run across stolen images and you let me know with a call or a note. I can't possibly find them all by myself. Next, I contact the service provider or the party directly and start the process of restoring my artwork to its rightful home and identity. It's an adventure finding and politely requesting compliance with my copyright claim. From my experience, the guilty party will normally deny, deny, deny; they'll assure me they paid someone to draw them, and when I tell them I was the original artist, they become unbelievably rude and even nasty. Accusations fly, and I may get an earful. They can say the most ridiculous things. They'll even blame me! I'm just a money-grubbing, selfish, etc, or they may attempt to justify their actions. If I was sharing my work, why couldn't they do the same thing? After all, they're just doing me a favor, they'll say. Sigh. 

I am pleased to report the ranch I called recently was 100% cooperative, and they removed all of my images from their server. I first had to convince them I was the actual artist calling them, but once they knew I was the original artist, they were helpful. No yelling at the artist this time.

The Resolve

When copyright infringement letters go out, their websites can be taken down. The entire offending website can be deleted by their service provider for violation of their terms of use. Knowing they'll lose everything on their site, I don't like doing it. But let's allow the artist to benefit from their own work; not the thieves. I am the artist. It's my right. The future legacy of my artwork rightfully belongs to my family; our four daughters, and our grandson, Benjamin, too.

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