Aren't you guys afraid of..

[Froli]

Aren't you guys afraid that someone stealing your works here? I've seen great stuff made here, but chances are.. some idiot will claim your masterpiece as his. Do you have similar experience? and how did you handle the situation?

[Skull]

I know a few people who have had their stuff stolen.. their isn't really much you can do about it.. though usually, they will get found out, and as a community, you can give them a verbal b*tch-slap.

[Frychiko]

Unless they are making money out of my art, I couldn't care less.

[baccaman21]

I don't speak for everyone but personally I don't really give a shit. If someone wants to pass off their work as mine then let them... at the end of the day they're only fooling themselves.
there was once an intersting story that my brother had when he was interviewing a pixel artist for a job in his company, and they showed him some of my work (GB micromachines) that he'd colored for the GBA version - my brother said that was interesting and asked him to see the ruler from the desktop level... sure enough there was the proof... his company logo emblazened across one end of it... that I'd placed on there back in the early 90's - needless to say the guy didn't get the job.
It's annoying I suppose, especially with that particular instance - I've subsequently seen the product in question and discovered that i didn't have a credit for originating the artwork... but then again... I converted it in the first place from some of the other guys work form codies and I susspect they were'n't credited neither so alls fair and all that...

I also remmeber another ex member of staff who secured a job as a pixeler using my work in his portfolio - (the pilot avatars I use here and some graphics I did for carmageddon on the GBC [which were pants anyway but I digress]) point being he was shit at pixelling and soon lost his job...

Karma I think they call it.

There has been some instances where n00bs have appeared on these boards (or other boards that other users frequent) passing off other users material as their own... but they don't last long - usually you find that someone in the community recognises the material and blows the whistle... so all in all it's fairly well policed.

bottom line is, if someone wnats to steal work then they're likely to get found at eventually.

[Wolverine]

It's happened to me several times.  It's not so much that the actual stealing that pisses me off as much as me getting accused of stealing the piece by people who saw the thief's 'version' first. 

[Helm]

Personally, I am the one who did it, I've got the experience. Whoemever steals from me, whatever, I could give a shit.

However, officially we hunt them down in pixelation and publicly flay their skin.

[Terley]

Ive thought of doing something cleva like ptoing did with that morse code thingie, hide some sort of signature somewhere so no matter what happens you can spot out to people who question if its yours or not.

I don't think im good enough to be steal-worthy haha, its happened before though I was just incredibly honoured that someone would see my work and think,' if I pull that off as my own I will be awesome!'

stealing is always wrong tho, and public humiliation is always nice. 

[goat]

In my experience, pixel rippers almost always get caught, even if word doesn't make it to the 'public' :p

[gliding]

one reason I DO post my work here is for the security of knowing that my work is out there and people can vouch for the dact that I made it. So if a ripper ripped something of mine that was memorable to someone, it makes it that much easier to expose them. I love this place 

[.TakaM]

at a smaller and lesser known community I might be a little worried, but here- I'm confident that everyone can spot a thief.

[The B.O.B.]

Ive thought of doing something cleva like ptoing did with that morse code thingie, hide some sort of signature somewhere so no matter what happens you can spot out to people who question if its yours or not.

Heh, I actually do that sometimes with my works. I kinda' input the name "B.o.b." in some of the designs. Though I'm not good at hiding my secret sigs apparently due to the fact that people have already spotted it most of them.
Also, I have certain ideas that I'm too afraid to release to the public, so no one can steal them.(mostly character sprites, like fighting games. I'm just afraid of Mugen players stealing the design) Funny thing is the designs and ideas aren't even that great. It's stupid, I know. But thats generally the main reason why more than half of my work seems like fan art.(which it kinda' is when you think about it) It's just a safer for me.
However, since my stay here, I've never had someone steal my work. I don't know if I should feel safe, or sad that nobody feels my work is great enough to be stolen
It just shows how secure these lil ole pixel sites are, and how serious we are about our craft.

[Ryumaru]

people usually only steal sprite work. i havent seen anybody ever steal like a pixel art piece, one thats not game art.

[ptoing]

There was some pathetic girl on pixeljoint and deviantart who posted lots of lazur pictures (old demoscene guy) and said it was hers and she did it in MSPAINT.
But yes, in general people rip spritework.

I never had anything stolen from me afaik, when chatting with Wolverine about it he once said my stuff is prolly a bit too off kilter for people to steal it, plus they could be proven wrong easily.

[9_6]

I didn't find anyone yet who thinks my art is worthy enough to be stolen
It surely would be fun to see that person being smacked around by the local moderators but actually I wouldn't really care as long as no money is involved.

[Lee N]

One of the benefits of working with an indexed palette is that you can have the same colour more than once in the palette, this essentially means you can write stuff in solid colour areas and then change the colour of the text to the same colour as the solid to hide the text.

There are some really good examples of this in the demoscene history, where it was pretty common practice. There's a gallery of hidden messages over at GFXZone.

http://www.gfxzone.org/theme/hidden/hidden-personal_01.html

[Ryumaru]

There was some pathetic girl on pixeljoint and deviantart who posted lots of lazur pictures (old demoscene guy) and said it was hers and she did it in MSPAINT.
But yes, in general people rip spritework.

I never had anything stolen from me afaik, when chatting with Wolverine about it he once said my stuff is prolly a bit too off kilter for people to steal it, plus they could be proven wrong easily.

what with the morse code sigs and all.

[Lick]

I never got caught..

[Aleiav]

I don't think my work is really worth stealing. XD

Pixel art isn't my artistic livelihood or forte. It's more of a hobby and something funt han it is a passion I have.

My real passion is my writing and I am afraid of someone taking it but... I'm willing to take a risk and let people see and respond to my work than hide it forever.

I think it's a hazard of the trade when you make anything creative but.. I firmly believe art should MAINLY be for you and your enjoyment, passion, and love. And that's something that no lame ass person can steal.

[Rox]

Not afraid, but something bizarre did happen to me once. I used to have an account on some other art site that I abandoned shortly. Then I was browsing a newer art community one day and saw someone with an avatar that I definitely recognized. I messaged them, and found out someone was "selling" those avatars on Second Life (of all places?!?). I'm talking, like, a five year old design, drawn in a squiggly fashion by mouse in Photoshop and uploaded someplace. Five years later, someone claims it on Second Life and sells it to others?

If they'd done it with ANY other picture I had there, I wouldn't mind, but the thing that bugs me is that I can still use that design now. When I made games in The Games Factory, I used it as a sort of company logo, or signature, for my games, and I have a pretty large decal lying around in my closet with that logo integrated in it that I managed to get for free a couple of years ago. If I ever started a company or something, that would definitely be my first logotype. So that was a little frustrating to see someone "selling" that very design.

I do feel frustration when someone thinks they can do whatever they want with something I've made. But it's nothing I worry about, and something that's very easy to deal with anyhow.

[Faceless]

I've never had anything stolen that I'm aware of, though I've seen stuff in graphics packs that I've given people permition to use that has nothing to indicate that I should be credited, when I had specified that I wanted to be. Now days, I couldn't care less about being credited for stuff I've made to be freely used by other people.

One bizarre thing that I stumbled across once was an old post I made on the original Pixelation that had somehow been transferred to an entirely different forum with an entirely different userbase... Strangely, the poster of the topic was apparently myself, even though I had never heard of, let alone visited the forum before. Identity theft I guess.

[Neoriceisgood]

I've never had anything stolen that I'm aware of, though I've seen stuff in graphics packs that I've given people permition to use that has nothing to indicate that I should be credited, when I had specified that I wanted to be. Now days, I couldn't care less about being credited for stuff I've made to be freely used by other people.

One bizarre thing that I stumbled across once was an old post I made on the original Pixelation that had somehow been transferred to an entirely different forum with an entirely different userbase... Strangely, the poster of the topic was apparently myself, even though I had never heard of, let alone visited the forum before. Identity theft I guess.

Actually, I think that's the database of an old pixel site, possibly old pixelation; that somehow got transfered onto a place nobody ever heard of, it's not identity theft, but actually your old post that just got warped towards another place, I've seen posts that I remember making on pixelation or something on some random forum aswell.

[AdamTierney]

Someone took my bunny pic from way back, slapped his signature on it and used it on a site. It's lame and annoying, but ultimately there's not much they can do with it, and it doesn't affect me personally. I'm not worried about theft in the industry (although there is plenty) since most companies would rather just hire someone than risk thieving art from them.

[Faceless]

Someone took my bunny pic from way back, slapped his signature on it and used it on a site. It's lame and annoying, but ultimately there's not much they can do with it, and it doesn't affect me personally. I'm not worried about theft in the industry (although there is plenty) since most companies would rather just hire someone than risk thieving art from them.

I'd be interested in you siteing some examples of these thefts in the industry, unless it will get you into trouble of course.

[Mirre]

As far as I know it has only happened two times to me. With really old pictures. The first time the guy never even bothered to remove the signatures from the picture (by me and my friend), and the second time the art thief emailed me himself and confessed and said he was sorry so I didn't really get upset.

Most of the time art thieves are teenagers who feel the need to show off to their "friends" in different communities (can I say DeviantART???). One of my friends has even had people claming to be her - stealing her photographies (of her) and identity on top of her art. Kind of creepy. When people start making money out of other people's art however is when it really pisses me off.

[Lawrence]

When I first got a PC, I made a crappy animation in Animation Shop of someone being stabbed in the face repeatedly. Then, a few years later, I saw a random person using it on a message board I'd never been too! I wasn't bothered at all though, because it was such an awfully crude animation.

[Skull]

Most of the time art thieves are teenagers who feel the need to show off to their "friends" in different communities (can I say DeviantART???).

Oh indeed.. I've seen that a number of times, even found one out for myself.
Personally, the people arn't even real friends.. so, I don't know who they are kidding.

[Souly]

My work isn't the greatest and I've already expieranced my work being stolen. 
It sucks.
Luckily I had a community behind me willing to testify that it was in fact my work.

These were stolen from me.


The guy made a game using an edited ensellitis as the hero as well as the enemies.
And eventually the game got removed from the site.
It takes patients really.
Because if you go in screaming and yelling about how it is yours, it's just going to go no where.

Easiest way to get your stuff removed from a site is to go directly to the operator of that site.

[AdamTierney]

Someone took my bunny pic from way back, slapped his signature on it and used it on a site. It's lame and annoying, but ultimately there's not much they can do with it, and it doesn't affect me personally. I'm not worried about theft in the industry (although there is plenty) since most companies would rather just hire someone than risk thieving art from them.

I'd be interested in you siteing some examples of these thefts in the industry, unless it will get you into trouble of course.

Well the most notorious one of late was Chronos Twins (an upcoming DS game, formerly designed for the GBA): http://ds.ign.com/objects/849/849294.html

Here's some of the theft someone caught:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/capcomguy/example1.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/capcomguy/example2.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/capcomguy/example3.png

[flaber]

i remember one incident specifically
well. mostly because it kinda related to me

at old pixelation there was a case where some guy stole abunch of peoples pictures and made a website claiming he was going to make an rpg. the pictures he stole he said were going to be some of the monsters

honestly, i dont know how it got dealt with. but i do know the website got shutdown somehow. i remember alot of hate mail and such being sent to the guy from lots of people
but personally, i was flattered
if someone is going to rip you just for junk like that, then i think its kinda neat to have someone pretend they are you

but thats the only account that i can think of and it wasnt too bad
but if it was trying to make money, then im not sure how i would be

but really, i almost take it as a compliment