@Riot, What am I supposed to do about ART THEFT?

hysterhex·May 1, 2015·3 votes·933 views

Excuse me if this post is a little emotional. I won't be naming names and I won't be posting the stolen art.

TL;DR a popular Youtuber stole my art and according to Youtube I can't do anything about it: wat do?

You've seen a cool drawing of a champion in a Youtube video, right? I know you've clicked on a random video just because it had Sona's breasts in the thumbnail. Maybe you didn't realize that someone had to have put a lot of effort into that thumbnail. And I wouldn't fault anyone for this, but a regular Joe/Jane wouldn't notice there was no link to the original art or artist in the video description.

Being an artist myself I have such a problem with that. It's art theft. But I couldn't do anything about it; it wasn't my art. Until it was! OH BOY.

I was mad, and then upset, and then I cried for a long time. And I tried to report it to Youtube (heads up: it's useless, don't bother with all the trouble)

Is there really nothing I can do about this sort of thing? I can't have a video taken down if I don't own the full copyright (art+character.) Can I do nothing? Am I just not supposed to make fanart for this BS community??

~~(NOTE: not in Community Creations because I'm pretty sure that's just for actual art?)~~ (BIGGER NOTE: before anyone tries to claim such, ART THEFT =/= PUBLICITY if the artist doesn't get publicity thru credit/etc)

14 Comments

Neo CyrusMay 1, 20155 votes

Is this a joke? No one is going to stop and credit every picture they use. It's not theft unless they claim it as their own work.

hysterhexMay 1, 20152 votes

You know what. You're right.

But I understand definitions of art theft can be different, I'll admit that.

However, reposting is incredibly disrespectful to content creators. If someone reposts without credit (or worse, edit out a signature), they essentially don't care if that artist gets any new fans. (Although I definitely understand difference between just showing your friends something and posting it publically.)

Matthias9119May 1, 20152 votes

Um, no. That's not how copyright works. You need the owner's permission to redistribute content.

Neo CyrusMay 1, 20154 votes

Why do people like you insist on talking about things you have absolutely no clue about? First of all his crap isn't copyrighted, that's a completely different topic, secondly you don't need permission for every dinky little thing. Troll companies would be suing every time someone does anything at all if that was the case. It's called fair use laws, they exist to prevent such stupidity, the OP has no idea how the world works and neither do you.

Matthias9119May 2, 20152 votes

Um, again, no.

Anything you create is covered by copyright.

Fair use doesn't cover reposting someone else's content.

And yes, you do technically need permission for "every dinky little thing". Just because people play fast and loose with it on the Internet doesn't change the law.

MattZeeXMay 1, 20153 votes

Well did you message the Youtuber and ask for him to credit you?

hysterhexMay 1, 20151 votes

I did! When they didn't respond I filed a claim (which I learned afterwards that I couldn't do, gdi.) I apologized, retracted the claim etc and they afterwards got hostile with me. :/

(Main reasons I wanted the video taken down instead of just me being credited:

there was a bunch of other art in the video and I'd bet they wouldn't want to find all the credit links to that.
it was art that isn't representative of art I'd want to sell
many people don't read descriptions/care about it anyway :/ )

but thank you for the response!

MattZeeXMay 1, 20152 votes

So why can't you file a claim?

hysterhexMay 1, 20151 votes

Because the video owner can file a counter-claim if I don't own the character in the image, even if I drew the image myself. Which sucks.

I've seen it done to other artists too. People steal fanart and can even claim it as their own if they want and just counter-claim, after which the artist would literally have to take legal action to work with, which is apparently impossible since they can't own the full copyright. Even if the fan-artwork is signed, watermarked and dated, nothing can be done.

At least this is what I've experienced and I'm wondering if this is just correct and I have to deal with it.

But w/e. Like how much does Riot even care about art theft at this point when it doesn't really hurt them, you know? Who cares if they lose 1 fanartist boo hoo. ):

Matthias9119May 1, 20152 votes

Because the video owner can file a counter-claim if I don't own the character in the image, even if I drew the image myself. Which sucks.

IANAL, but you should still have the copyright to "your" image, even if it is a derivative work. It might be the case that even you can't distribute it if Riot says so, but it should never be the case that someone else can distribute something you made without your permission.

Dangerous ManMay 1, 20152 votes

Can I see your art? :3

hysterhexMay 1, 20151 votes

Idk how this is relevant hahaha. Other than to maybe say, I'm not a popular artist, and I'm definitely not well known in this community. I don't have any white knights. xP So I'm certain the Youtuber got the art from a reposted site.

I'm not going to say which piece was stolen since I don't want anyone to try and find the video, but you can check out my posts on my profile. I've mainly only posted in Community Creations.

EDIT: Pretty sure II found where the YT got my art from, or at least I found someone else who reposted in these very forums. sigh