Animation Source Forums

Yes, theft topic is becoming more abundant. But here, I'm not ranting about it I'm trying to come up with ways to avoid art theft and inform new members as to what it is.

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First off: What is Theft?

–noun
1. the act of stealing; the wrongful taking and carrying away of the personal goods or property of another; larceny.
2. an instance of this.
3. Archaic. something stolen.

Source Here

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However, there are different "kinds" of theft. There is "Art Theft", "Literature Theft", "Video theft", and theft like from a store. But, in this topic being here, this pretains to theft related to this site.

When a person committs "Art Theft", they can/have done one (or most of) the following.

-Did not cite their work (ex: Original image © [[LivyLou]])
-Traced, and claimed the image(s) as their own
-Erased the original artist's signature(s) and put theirs and/or another character name.
-Went to another site claiming they made the image, and the original artist's name is their name on said site.
-Taken and visually altered the image (ex: taking a screen-grab from one of the "Balto" movies, coloring it differently in another program, and claiming it as 100% theirs).
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When a person committs "Literature Theft", they have most likely stolen ideas/characters in a story, or, stolen the entire story. There really isn't a lot to say about Literature Theft, because I haven't heard anything about it on Balto Source.
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Another kind of theft is "Character Theft". Several artists upon Balto Source have experienced Character Theft.
However, Character theft is hard to tell from a simple mistake. Sometimes, two characters may just "happen" to look alike (in these occasions, the artists don't even know the other existed until the incident). When someone steals a character, they basically take someone else's character and alter it slightly in some way or another (never altered very much) and it is very easy to see that the character is stolen.

-Character theft could be an altered character, the same character with a different name, or, entirely stolen.
-The character could be stolen via attitude, partial "looks", or even design.
-Character theft can even be a stolen name (ex: we all know about "dogwhohas14tails" -_- ). Most people have "unique" names, but commonly, more common names like "The White Wolf".
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A way "Art Theft" can be avoided is, as Steet has already done, disable "right clicking" (which would disallow people to save/copy your images), put your name OVER the image(s) using Microsoft Paint, as done HERE. This will not fool-proof it, but it will help prevent "direct image theft" (when they steal your image, in doing the MSP trick, they will have to erase part of the picture itself, then the theft would be obvious).

You could also put links to a right-click-disabled-gallery, rather than put the image itself or the link to a site where a person can steal it (ex: to your Balto Source Gallery, Freewebs Album where right-click has been disabled, etc.). -----------

A way "Literature" theft can be avoided is to ensure no one else has your idea(s) for the fiction. This can be accomplished by simple research. Don't always let music and other people inspire you, because the same thing(s) could inspire another person and cause problems.
Try to make it unalterable (where a user cannot simply copy/paste it and put their name on it). When you start a fiction, put the appropriate "©s" (copyrights), and possibly randomly within the fiction.
Do not use characters that are NOT yours without permission or citation. This, again, could cause problems (unless the characters' owner knows you're doing it, or has no problem with you doing so).-------------------

A member should never be so eager to jump another member for theft; you first have to take "steps" to ensure it is theft.

-Compare the two, the original and the accused stolen.

-Look for "(c)" symbols to the original artist, anywhere in the gallery/image.

-Be sure to report it to a moderator, you're not hear to clean up the site and punish people, they are.

-PM the originator with a link to the accused stolen possession(s), and ask them what they think. If they see it fit, they will complain/report it to a moderator, as well (if s/he sees fit).
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Remember, it's best to report to a moderator (there are buttons) if you see someone breaking the rules, rather than deal with it yourself and possibly get banned for flaming/spam.
It's always a little help to the moderators if someone says "this is against the rules" and gives them the proper link(s) (if needed).
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(EDIT)

Something that I, personally, have noticed is that people tend to steal works (i.e. art, literature, characters, etc.) from an artist who is not very "famous". Oddly, the thief tends to think that this will help them get away with this. But, they also steal from famous artist(s) in hopes to become "famous" and "well-known" as well, hopefully even better. But all artists are somewhat known, and a person (not the thief) may say "I've seen something like this before, but where?" Later, they will figure it out.

But sooner or later (maybe never) thieves will be caught. What we have to do is keep an eye out for them, and not let them get away with it so easily.

(/EDIT)

Again, never be eager to jump someone for theft, it could be a mistake. ;]

Following Punishments (that I know of) for Theft:
-Gallery Deletion
-Ban (time unknown)
-Account Deletion (?)

XD It's not exactly a rant (but, it might be considered as one. O_o). I put this here to inform new members on the possible (yet, could not happen) dangers of posting your work(s) on the internet.

I sure hope this topic helps!

Nice post, with the definition and all... nicely done. But it is in the wrong section. I understand you want the new people to see this, but there really cannot be any exceptions. Otherwise, everyone will post their "Important newbie topics" here. The newbies will be banned if they don't follow the rules, so they should learn this, either way. If the topic is moved to the right place, it'll be fine. It is a good topic/idea, just be sure to put it in the right place.

\:[

And what would the "Right place" be? ;]

Its in the right place. So don't worry.

if i were new this would be VERY helpful. thank you for writing this, for it will help the newer members on the site.

This is a good post, people need to learn the difference between theft and just simple similarities. Nice work Kirada......maybe change the text colour of the description of Character Theft, it's kinda hard to read.

Moved to Fan-Art.