Grrrr. I just found one of my paintings posted on the internet by someone. Without my permission. And not even a credit to my name! What’s worse is, it was posted amongst a slew of stolen images of cute kittens and whatnot. Just randomly pasted onto a page, as you often see this phenomenon. You know the ones… pictures of cats making weird expressions or those god-awful sparkly, animated fairies in goth outfits that barely cover them. And now my work of art, art being the operative word here, is now being associated with these lame images. And they didn’t even mention the artist behind the work. Yes, that’s right- me!
You know, I’m never super happy to see my work stolen- yes, it is stealing, folks. Remember Napster? But if the theives at least have the common sense to put my name there with the image or better yet, put a link to my website, then I feel a little better. At least then people are aware that I own the image. I created it. You get the picture. But to find my image(s) blindly posted without my name attached, just allows more fools to take it and do the same. It will spread like a virus then. Think about it- no one knows who created those kitten photos or goth fairies (although I’d want to remain anonymous for that last one…) and no one cares. They think those images are just there for them to use. No worries. Wrong.
So let this be a lesson to you. If you think you can post my work without my permission, you are sorely mistaken. And if you think I won’t find out about it, again, you are sorely mistaken. I’ve found people halfway across the globe that I’ve never met. And this applies to my work and that of other artists as well. We work hard to create these pieces. So give us our due. And stop stealing!