A few weeks ago, someone stole my beloved Nikola Tesla illustration. I've noticed the theft because he (she?) was shamelessly selling my illustration under his 'brand' name on the same platform as I'm on. I reported him and his store was turned down but then after a quick search it turned out that not only did he sell it, but I found several (mainly chinese) sellers also, who sells their product with my stolen design printed on it. Since then, I have been arguing with these mofos and fighting with them all around the globe.
If you're a fellow beginner artist/designer, here are some useful tips on this topic.
1. Search for your art. Do a reverse image search on these sites (drag & drop method):
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Google Images
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Yandex Image search
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TinEye
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Reverse Image Search
2. Monitor your images
Register to
Pixsy. It is a VERY useful site, where you can monitor your images. You can start takedown procedures from here (with a paid plan).
3. Check your images (probably they're on random seller's products) on these sites too
(Google Translate is your friend if you don't speak or write in chinese.)
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Aliexpress
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Alibaba
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Taobao.com
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Tmall.com
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1688.com
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DHGate
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Wish
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Wanelo
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Amazon
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Ebay
4. Immediately register to these sites to start the takedown procedure
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Aliexpress-Alibaba-Taobao-Tmall-1688 IPP Platform
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DHGate IPP Platform
- Be a
Wish brand partner
Download their Copyright Infringement Forms and follow their instructions. This is a VERY long procedure (weeks), so calm down, have a coffee and be patient.
5. Write and send takedown notices on e-mail
You can send takedown notices/reports by e-mail to the other platforms, but use your electronic signature on it (youtube is full with tutorials). Electronic signature is ok, no need for digital signature (which is a completely different story). You can find a lot of detailed information on the takedown procedure on
Kim Haskins blog, or on the
Oh Plesiosaur blog also. Following
Artistic License facebook is useful too.
6. Never upload full sized images
Print-On-Demand (POD) sites needs high resolution images (min. 300 dpi) from you to print your designs in high quality, so they're are the exceptions, but stay with the trustworthy sites.
7. Advertise yourself
If you've uploaded one of your designs to a POD site in high resolution, make sure to advertise it ALL on your social media sites immediately (in low resolution of course). This will be useful later, these ads can serve you as evidences that you made that design first. Otherwise registering your design in your country's official copyright platform is a wiser advice, but if you're just a beginner, you're not that wealthy type.
8. Keep your initial sketches
Don't throw your early sketches away, not even the bad ones. Put them in a design evolution document. This can serve you as evidence too. If you work digitally, save as often as you can, but under a different filename.
9. Find a lawyer
And yes, if you can afford one and a simple takedown is not enough, get a lawyer and just simply sue those mofos.
+1 Bonus: a friendly reminder to art thieves
Just don't do it. Seriously. You can leech on artists for a little while, but with these new and rapidly evolving algorithms, we'll find you very, very soon. And the legal consequences of art thievery could and will be very painful to you.
That's all folks and remember: these are not legal advises, just tips from a fellow robbed artist.
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