who's a member of devianart.com?

Question

i currenly became a member of devianart.com, and i'm really excited about sharing my art and seeing what people think of it. but, i'm worried about someone copywriting my stuff and using it as their own. i tried to email someone who might know, but i haven't recieved an answer yet.

Answer 1

If you're afraid of cybertheft, why not watermark your images - you can download any number of free programs that will do this job. You can watermark your name right into the image and it alters it enough to ruin any copy, but not enough to destroy the overall image effect.

Also, your image sizes are probably so small that any reproduction would be impossible. If they're not, they should be!

When it comes to "borrowing" an idea, however, artists have been doing that since they drew on cave walls. It might happen, it might not... but deviantart is so darn big - chances are good that a serious "thief" wouldn't bother just stealing something he liked - he'd go for a piece of art with a proven track record - something guaranteed to make him money.

Believe me - you run a far greater risk leaving your art in a cafe where it could be photographed than you do posting it online.

Answer 2

Art theft happends all the time, especially on the net. It's not a big deal really... Unless the person starts making money, then you can send a nice little Cease and desist letter with threats of legal action if the person doesn't settle.
But hey, if it's getting stolen, then it must be good, right ? ;)

I'm not fond of watermarks being splattered all over the artwork. There are digital watermarks that can be embeded in the image without being detected by the eye. It can still be valid if the work is printer, rescanned and altered (to a certain point of course), but it's a paying feature.
A signature somewhere discreet mentionning the year, copyright and name should be enough, but that's just my 2 cents.

Any teen with Photoshop and/or a graphic tablet seems to be a member nowadays...

Answer 3

I'd say that there are basically two ways you could go.

a) Don't post your artwork anywhere and remain unknown.
b) Do post your artwork and run the risk of having it stolen.

It's not just the artist on deviantArt that get ripped off. Any artist that becomes popular is bound to have people trying to use them illegally to make money, whether they're on dA or not.

If you're referring to the ToS "issue" in dA, the phrase in question is there so they don't get in trouble if your art is somehow put in a screenshot promoting their website. Nothing to be worried about.

Answer 4

I'm a member. They have strict rules about downloading any electronic art work for computers. The other art on the site can be purchased, however, it is a big website. You might want to consider something else.

Answer 5

not me