Some of you got robbed/linked

[Gabe]

hi everyone,

there is one person out there that is stealing the scans from Rubberslug galleries, YJ, Mandarake, ebay and so on and is adding them to his/her tumblr gallery.
There is on every image he/she stole also a link directly to the image at RS.

as example
GK 1
GK 2
NatR
JWR
Macrone
Joost
there is a lot more.


here the pages:
site 1
site 2

maybe someone can talk to tumblr if they can close the gallery or remove the RS scans.

[Rekka Alexiel]

I think that's the same tumblr that had scans of the Senritsu no Stratus sketches I bought from Mandy a couple weeks ago. Does anyone know what the TOS rules are that apply to image use? I'll have to read up about it... but it is pretty annoying to find someone massively archiving auction material that now belongs to someone.

EDIT 1: I've just sent a complaint to the DMCA, so we'll see if I hear any response. I would think that as the auction of these images was open, it would be somewhat okay to post the images, but since the auction has ended and now these images have become personal property, that should be all you need to get them removed. We'll see how good Tumblr is at removing copyrighted material.

Comparatively, I've been trying multiple times to get Lycos/Angelfire to remove a butchered chapter of one of my old stories. They have yet to remove the material even after I've contacted Lycos many times. So irksome!!

EDIT 2: Actually, I've found more of my stuff on this tumblr. They stole images from the Mandarake auction page and my own gallery (has my watermark) of the Senritsu sketches. They also stole images of the Takegami settei images from my gallery as well.

EDIT 3: I just heard back from a tumblr representative and they've removed the first link that I sent to them. They have yet to respond to my edited report in which I sent many more links to them... Hopefully they won't ignore those...

[cutiebunny]

Ok, I've gone through the first 63 pages. The majority of pictures are from Mandarake and YJ auctions, and the majority of these are pics of copy settei, or random Ghibli art. There are a few scans directly taken from RS but the majority of images are "whatever's popular and on auction sites".

In this poster's defense, he/she does post a direct link to the page. Chances are, someone along the way might have clicked on one of those and visited the linked person's gallery. If you like having high gallery hits, that's a good thing. So while I don't approve of this person posting scans of RS gallery artwork, at least they're giving credit where its due. Things could be a lot worse - they could be claiming that they own your items, watermarks and all. And, I wouldn't be surprised if there are other tumblr accounts, or websites, where RS images are posted and where that poster has claimed them as theirs that many of us are unaware exist.

It also doesn't look like the pictures are being hotlinked, because the older YJ auction images would have been taken down by now.

For me, the reposting of auction scans is a different story. Those scans are being used by the seller to sell the item for as much as they can possibly get. Those scans are probably seen by hundreds, possibly thousands depending on its price and popularity, of people during the course of that auction. People save scans of auctions for a wide variety of reasons, whether its to document that artwork of that series exists, to make fan art from it (ie. cosplay or pc wallpapers), or even something as innocent as an image to post in the wishlist section of their gallery. My opinion is that, while you own the artwork, you don't own the scanned picture used in that auction. Once that image is uploaded on an auction site, it's owned by the website who then allows anyone that clicks on that auction and right clicks on the image the ownership of that scan. If the auction company felt otherwise, they would try to prevent image theft, such as inserting code to disable the ability to right click on their images.

I don't know if the DMCA can do anything about this because, while you might own the actual artwork, you don't own the rights to the characters incorporated in that artwork. If anything, this could actually make your situation worse because someone, like the copyright holder, could argue that since you don't own the character, you have no right to display the artwork. Similarly, I've seen websites that featured anime screenshots taken down simply because the US distributor did not want those images shown because that was their property. While cels and sketches are different than a direct screenshot, I could see a company arguing otherwise if they really felt the need to do so.

[zerospace]

Wow.. ok, so what the heck is the point of that tumblr site anyways? You couldn't find a specific image on it if you tried! I know I have no interest in sifting through 400+ pages of random anime artwork image scans. Ugh!

If the auction company felt otherwise, they would try to prevent image theft, such as inserting code to disable the ability to right click on their images.

There is no way to stop image thieves short of simply not posting scans or images of any kind, online. Disabling right-click simply slows a thief down, but snagging the image is still quite easy. Hit "view source" in any browser, find the image URL in the code, copy it directly into the browser URL bar and voila. Done. Only other possible option is to disable the ability to display the image by itself in a browser (via direct link), but even then.. there are clever ways around that, too. If people are so serious about others "stealing" their images, the only real method of sure-fire prevention is not to post images at all. Sad, but pretty much true. With all the changes eBay has made to their item pages, I still know how to steal those images . Watermarking is the best general defense, but obviously even some folks don't care about that -- so, if you're adamant, either make your watermarks insanely intrusive or don't post scans of your artwork.

I don't know if the DMCA can do anything about this because, while you might own the actual artwork, you don't own the rights to the characters incorporated in that artwork. If anything, this could actually make your situation worse because someone, like the copyright holder, could argue that since you don't own the character, you have no right to display the artwork. Similarly, I've seen websites that featured anime screenshots taken down simply because the US distributor did not want those images shown because that was their property. While cels and sketches are different than a direct screenshot, I could see a company arguing otherwise if they really felt the need to do so.

I would imagine that the DMCA would not protect our scans of the artwork -- it would only protect the copyright holders for the images, which would be the studios. Whether some collectors like it or not, we do not "own" the images of the artwork we possess -- even the scans we make of them (which is honestly why I find it kinda funny that people get so bent out of shape when someone steals their scans). I could care less -- however, what I DO hate are bandwidth thieves who hotlink to images, because those people ARE stealing... bandwidth...data...server resources, which cost MONEY.

[Rekka Alexiel]

I received word from the DMCA that they've removed the images from that user.

As for this user going around RS sites and using whatever they feel like using, I don't really agree with that. So let's say you write a story and post it on your site, does that make it right for somebody to come around save all your chapter files and then upload it to their own page without your knowledge simply because they liked it? I may not have CREATED these images but the currently reside with me and are in my possession. I would think someone would have the decency to at least ASK to use them before stealing and using them as they like.

Personally, I don't care whether he referenced my site or not, or whether my view counts went up or not. To me what is important is that bit of courtesy of giving me the choice to say YES or NO to the usage of the images. I don't like the feeling of not having been given that choice, so then yes, I will attack and get the images removed.