hetalia | Art Thieves, they are dangerous!

I understand you a lot. It's unbearable when people use your skills to make money and even doesn't ask your permission to do so (or give you some kind of warning)... It happened to me aswell, at a con in my own country I saw pins and notebooks with these pics I did http://dragonragnarok.deviantart.com/art/Lovino-Vargas-South-Italy-169456482?q=gallery%3Adragonragnarok%2F704898&qo=3 and http://dragonragnarok.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2ux1jg (I know they are not good at all -not even popular on the net- but HELL it pisses me off because there was people actually buying that stuff with my drawings!!)
I had a very heated discussion with the owners of the shop, so bad that security told me to get out (and my friends came out with me aswell)... and well, after that episode I decided to watermark every single piece of mine so that thievery is less likelly to happen again. But off course it'll happen again, and if not with mine, with other people fanarts...
And it pisses me off the idea of watermarking everything because it RUINS the artwork!!

Your case is far more difficult, someone making a cosplay out of your drawing, sadly they can do that with or without the watermark on the drawing... unless, maybe, that you put a huge legend saying "THIS IS A FANART MADE BY ME, NOT OFICIAL SO DON'T STEAL MY DESIGN, DON'T MAKE COSPLAYS, DON'T DO ANYTHING!!" which is kind of ridiculous xd

Why must we beg for people don't steal our work??!! It's infuryating...

PD: I loved your Switzerland and that pirate design it's just awesome >__

In case you find something blatant like that, it's much more productive to go to con ops and ask to talk to whoever runs artist alley than to directly confront the person stealing your art.

be as calm as possible, if you can provide proof that it's your art (which can be hard but is doable). The con doesn't want to support that kind of fraud, and it makes the artists look bad rather than you look like some crazy person making a scene, no matter how justified you are.

Well, if those existed here believe me that I really would have done what you said instead of starting a discussion.
At that moment I could prove that the art was mine because I had the pencil sketch of the Lovino pic with me at that time, but still it was of no use.

The problem here is that all the shops in the cons here have mostly fake stuff (you know, chinese copies of the original japanese merchandise) and many of those sell posters, pins, mugs, notebooks, pencilcases, bags and who knows what else, printed with mostly, stolen fanart. So it's kind of troublesome to get someone stand on your side when everyone is stealing somehow from anotherone.

I'm thinking of watermarking every piece of art I did too. But, as you said, it won't stop them if it's for a cosplay... even if I put my picture in a very small size. But if I see any of my art on goodies, I would be also frustrated... and it's already the case. I got some advices from people, and my Law teacher suggested me to call an american lawyer to help me writing a letter to the company. But I think Cosplayfu is a chinese company when you click on "Contact Us" it says Hong Kong...

At least, my work is appreciated... I just want people to ask my permission that's all ~~

Sadly, these damn chinese companies copy everything without even checking if it's original stuff, as long as they can make profit from it (I'm tired of seeing stickers of, for example, Naruto and then while browsing all the images it had, encounter a character from Bleach... and It was Toushiro >___>)

About the lawer, I think you should quit because it's not that they are going to pay you nor anything, you'll spend more in all the juridic stuff (even more being an international matter) than any possible indemnization that they could give.

Besides, I doubt any Hetalia cosplayer (who most of them are pretty into the series) will buy it, because the'll realize in a flash that it's not something original.

I know this... I bought Hetalia figurine at a con, fortunately I had France which wasn't so bad but the packaging was a perfect copy of the official ones (because I kept the one I bought which was an official figurine of England) so it was a fake. And I saw China's fake figurine... the colors were so weird x_X' A friend of mine also have a fake figurine of Romano with Germany's body... that's fun but weird...

I also have a Hetalia pillow and a poster in my room, I realized that it was stolen from fanarts I saw on Pixiv... I was like "Oh man... that's bad." Anyway... I think I'll just send them a message about my picture and that's all... I don't want to make a big deal about it. I'm just another victim of Art stealing. It's maybe frustrating but I have to accept it... 'orz

Art Thieves sucks!

I have an entire set of those figurines! I thought they were original (you could see only the packaging photos) and they were crazy cheap on e-bay so I ordered them. When I got them I found a blond China, Romano's head on Germany's body and his on Romano's body, the rest of the craracter's hair and/or eyes color messed up and the plastic quality is horrible. (didn't return them because I had to pay for the shipping costs so I only gave them a red calification as a seller and a "They never said these were copies" note)

It sucks buying stolen stuff, even tough I do buy copies of Hidekaz's work (but c'mon he's full of money now that his series is popular T__T), I never buy stuff made from a fanartist after what I went trough (yeah kind of egocentric but hey! I learnt my lesson T,T)

Yeah just send them the note saying that wat they did is a copy of an original design of yours, I doubt they'll take the costume down tough... I work in an International Bussiness Agency and I know quite well how chineese bussinessmen can be.

Art Thieves Sucks! (we could start a movement called like that xD)

I'm curious, because we're from the same country. I don't go to cons much, but wich one was it and what's the store's name?
I actually never liked seeing anyone there selling fanart on whatever piece of merchandise; sometimes i see stuff and is like "Hey, i saw that on Pixiv/deviantArt, wtf??"

If it ever happened to me i don't know what i'd do...

Mnh, paso en el animate del año pasado (o como se llame, el que hacen al lado de la facultad de derecho de la UBA a fin de año), no me acuerdo que día ni a que hora la verdad... el stand era uno de cuarta, ni siquiera tenia el cartel con nombre del stand y tenian solamente pins libros y posters. Y si, eso de decir "esto es de fulanodetal de deviant!" paso mil veces...
Para evitar este tipo de robos lo mejor es meterle una marca de agua los dibujos donde mas moleste sacarla (por ejemplo en la galería tengo un icono de Prussia que lo marqué sobre la cara, me duele en el alma pero es increíble que lo tenga que hacer para evitar que me hagan un pin de eso!)

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Thanks a lot!! >__< That's some prise you did, my tanks really ^__^ I'm glad you like it!

Ok, back on topic:

Well, it was kind of confusing... At first I didn't know whether be happy or angry, because I'm not a reknown artist and having my stuff being selected out of so many people it's flattering. But I ended up being angry because they just weren't making money out of my artwork, they also didn't include the source!! C'mon!! if you are gonna make money out of something that it's not yours at least leave propper credits to the creator!!! (in this case, de DA account where they gor the drawing from, for example) Now that I think back to that moment, I told the shopowner those exact words... but in spanish xD

I watermark my art somewhat strongly because it's a pain in the ass xD, I didn't even designed a propper watermark, I only handwrite the link of my websites or make my DR signature. I never thought of putting the date tough, I'll start doing that, thanks for the advice!

Now i'm sure you were lucky there.

Characters stolen??? that's way worse!! poor fellas they should have felt really bad about it...

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I share that interest with you! And gangster Lovino was just something I came up with after seeing "The Untouchables" movie (I fucking love that movie >__<).

Well, that's the reason why I asked about putting credits. I don't intend to make money out of something that I do for myself (It's like having people commissioning me just to draw stuff that I want to, and not what they want), but if someone else is going to have profit from it, at least some propaganda would be useful if you want to see it in a more economic way. Everyone has to make a living I understand that (I for example take commissions), but we all should search for ways of earning money favouring the others instead of crushing them or not giving a damn who you could be affecting. In this case for example, the DA adress somewhere on the notebook would have been enough...

now can I ask you a really stupid question? how do you make this --> © with the keyboard xD???? (note that it's copy-pasted from your text xDu)

Being that this is unfortunately completely legal, there isn't too much you could do legally. You could ask for them to taking it down, confronting them calmly. Since you can't technically copyright Switzerland, they have free reign. They would tell you that you should feel honored, but I think that the lack of permission is the problem. I don't know exactly what you want out of this (royalties, free cosplay, them to take it down), but there's a lot of risk to what you may choose to do. Use caution.

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I do understand that, and as courtesy they should have contacted you. It may be odd to see someone wearing your design the next event you go on though. Maybe the "fu" part has another meaning in the website name.

Personally, if that person wears my design of outfit, if he/she made it and asked me permission first, I would be honored...

I know that the character of Switzerland is not mine, but the outfit is my creation, at least, they could ask my permission before making it... Sincerely, I don't mind as long as they warn me. And what my Law teacher recommended me to do... I don't think I'll do it... it costs a lot of money and I don't want to make a big deal about it.

Fucking art theives. I'm so sorry this happened to you. There's an LJ community called Stop_plagiarism (http://stop-plagiarism.livejournal.com/profile/) who might be able to help you. I've never used them myself, but I always see it reccommended to people who have had their work stolen. Maybe they can help?

Thank you, I'll try there!

There should be an option for report them >__<;; I didn't find it D8

I don't think there is... actually.

I just left a review about it :| Maybe it helps... I don't know...

God, the arseholes. It pisses me off that someone would have the nerve to steal someone else work to make money. Because it is stealing. That's your design, you created it, and now they are claiming it as their own and using it to get money. It's disgusting.

Geez...
Well, it's been a while since I traveled around DA and/to spot(ted) pictures that was taken from Pixiv. Sometime they claim pictures/arts that are not theirs. My toleration: They put a decent disclaimer >> put nothing in it but softly said in his/her comment that it's not his/her own >> claims that they made it by themselves >> gains money from it
=/
I think we need to tell this website..maybe by commenting on this page that this design is yours although the character personally is not yours.

Wow. Just... yeah.
You may want to run this by the wonderful people over at the Art-theft community. (Link: http://art-theft.livejournal.com/profile/)

They may be able to help you if you provide substantial evidence that the costume design indeed belongs to you. (IE: Since they may not be Hetalia fans, explain that the costume isn't official, show the evidence of the contest you entered and also see if you can figure out WHEN they posted this cosplay if that's possible....)

Unfortunately though, due to the very nature of fan work there may be nothing legally you can do. However, getting the word out CAN help you in that case.

Thank you very much! I'll also try there... talking about my case. I'm waiting for them to accept my friend request. I know I'm not the only one and that comforts me... Thank you all for your regards! éè I'm watermarking all my stuff and it's annoying... 'orz

The Switzerland outfit is definitely a copy from your artwork. Also someone selling your artbwork on buttons! That is sad but it has happened even to big name artists. I recall the Simmons kid incident where he copyright pictures from Bleach and Tite Kubo found out through his fans that told him. I don't know what happened in that case but I hope he paid Kubo-san something. I hope you are able to resolve this case because it hurts when people have to take down their drawings because there are people waiting to steal them. I had a favorite artist whose drawings I loved but then she found out someone traced her drawing and used different characters. She got mad and took her pictures from deviantart. Now I can't see them anymore because I didn't save them.

I hope you get justice for this crime and rally with some people who are in the same situation. Strength in numbers. You're a good artist and no thief should ever dirty your creativity. If Switzerland the character was real I would ask him to charge after those thieves with his rifle!

pain in the ass art thieves =-=''

Argh. I'm usually pretty lenient when it comes to fan-stuff, but the fact that they won't give their profit to the one who originally designed is really fucked up. >_

Art Thieves, they are dangerous!

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