#ip theft

[mrcatfishing]

A meme I've added to my art class presentation on Eva and Franco Mattes.

[sag-dab-sar]

If you use ChatGPT to write posts on here, know you are stealing from writers of all types. The writers did not give the AI technology permission to use their work. It is literally no different than theft in AI art, but people don't seem to care.

"In the first stage of training, the transformer is in full throttle. Basically, it is trained on a bunch of text data from all over the internet — websites, books, articles, you name it. It is a variety of genres and topics so it can really get the hang of generating text in different styles and contexts." Source 1 "Where does ChatGPT get its data? ChatGPT’s data comes from a massive dataset that includes a diverse range of sources such as websites, books, news articles, and journals" Source 2

[endcant]

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/02/15/2024-03063/group-registration-of-two-dimensional-artwork

^ the US copyright office is considering a rule change to allow 2D artists to register collections of artworks as a “group”. this is in acknowledgement of the fact that 2D artists these days frequently have to produce a large quantity of images and put themselves at high risk of copyright infringement in order to utilize opportunities found on social media. while registering a work is not technically a prerequisite for copyright protections, i think more and more 2D artists online are interested in the art copyright registration system due to increased discussion about IP theft. public comments are open for 35 days (as of 2/26/24), so i encourage my fellow 2D artists to give their feedback on the proposal to encourage any rules we believe will make for a system that might benefit our livelihoods.

[eiael-thinks]

psa:

Jumping back on tumblr for a hot sec to mention: in addition to the tried and true fanfic theft nastiness, there now appears to be an associated scam where people are downloading masters' theses off library websites and then repackaging and selling them on Amazon and other digital publishing sites. *le sigh*

[berliner-baerchen]

PSA - This Etsy store is stealing artists’ free brushes for profit

There is a shop on Etsy called SammyArtsStudio who is taking people’s free brushes and resources, selling them for roughly AU$13.01 a pop. She has stolen the free work of amazing artists such as Devin Elle Kurtz and Attki, both of whom generously provide free brushes that are being misused for monetary gain.

According to her page, she has made 4,722 sales with 800+ reviews, most of which are five-star. Assuming all of those listings are AU$13.01, that's AU$61,386 or US$41,282 of profit. She is a five-star "star seller", meaning that her work is prioritised in the search engine.

This isn’t intended to be a call out post; it’s more of a heads up to people who create free brushsets. Only the creator of the brushes can submit an Intellectual property infringement form to stop this person from commercially benefiting from your work. Sadly, Etsy is very lax about art theft, so this is the only way to stop it. It’s apparent by the glowing reviews that thousands of well-meaning people are falling victim to this misappropriation. Please refer to Etsy’s IP Policy here. Below is proof of content being stolen, including screenshots.

Support the original artist and get their brushes here. Find the Youtube video shown above here.

The seller even posted a video of them “showing how to use the brushes”, which features even more proof of stolen brush usage. Get the original brushes here!

tl;dr if you make Procreate brushes, I recommend checking this Etsy to make sure that your IP isn’t being infringed upon and commercialised without your consent. She has 149 listings on Etsy. I am very appreciative of people who provide free brushes, and I’d hate to see your work being fraudulently misused.

[ophilosoraptoro]

Temu Is a Total Rip-off

[bilberrybun]

Even if you don’t know the name Alex Norris, you surely know their work. They are the creator of “oh no” comic strips and Webcomic Name series, starred by this lovely pink blob.

“Oh no” is a great summary of the situation of the IP in the latest years.

For the past 3 years Norris has been in legal battle with Golden Bell. The publisher was responsible for a board game adaptation of the webcomic, which quickly turned into an attempt at IP theft.

Here’s a thread Norris made on twitter about the situation.

It’s a long and expensive case, so if any of you would be interested, here’s the gofund me link, to help them get the means to fight for their art.

Also, this isn’t Golden Bell’s first rodeo. From exploiting artists, Unbroken fulfilment dumpster fire to just plainly being a bunch of assholes who make the rest of the BG industry look bad.

Stay clear of them.

[whatdoyouexpectthistime]

DCMA Takedown request proforma

A couple of years ago, some prat took my entire novel and published it on another website - unfortunately the operators were non-English speaking so I had to go straight to the ISP. They told me I’d need to submit a DCMA takedown request.

Give the recent revelation that some absolutely pathetic knobwaffle has stolen a bunch of stories from the Voltage fandom - many written by friends - here is a DCMA takedown proforma directed to Wattpad.

Remember, this becomes a legal document, so no fibbing.

By all means change it as you see fit - I declare it public domain - but some bits you do need. Some folk will also require an electronic signature - if they do, and you don’t know how or what that means, I’m happy to help.

<3 B

YOUR NAME YOUR ADDRESS YOUR PHONE YOUR EMAIL

To: INSERT TO WHOM THE REQUEST IS BEING MADE Wattpad Re: DCMA Takedown Request

Greetings, My name is YOUR NAME, owner of copyrighted work ‘INSERT TITLE(S)’. This digital content has been copied from its original and only authorised location -INSERT LOCATION - and posted in its entirety without my knowledge or permission on the website Wattpad.com, by Wattpad user INSERT THEIF USERNAME HERE.

This intellectual property theft is in clear violation of Wattpad's own copyright rules, that indicate, "Your work is automatically protected under Copyright Law as soon you put it into a fixed format, like writing it down." According to the Wattpad Copyright FAQ, "Users are not permitted to post stories they do not own unless they have legal permission from the owner and can provide evidence when requested. Any published works that are reported to us, or that we discover, are removed immediately. If the work is not published, we require the owner to submit a DMCA request and we will remove infringing works as quickly as possible!"

Evidence detailing my ownership of this material can be found at the following locations for each work respectively, wherein you shall find the date(s) of creation and thus commencement of copyright (predating that of the aforementioned infringing user's submissions to Wattpad).

LIST TITLE(S) AND ORIGINAL LOCATION(S)

Attempts have been made requesting the user remove the copyrighted content, however, no response was forthcoming. They shall not be able to provide any truthful legal permission to post my works, as none have been given.

I wish the copyrighted content to be removed, and assert the information provided within this statement is accurate, under penalty of perjury, and appreciate your swift co-operation.

Kind regards, YOUR NAME