someone is stealing my art and pretending to be me


Mini-Crushies's avatar
I've calmed down about this a bit and I apologize if this is in the wrong forum, but I'm still bothered by this and this is the last place I'm able to vent about this right now

last night, right before I was supposed to go to bed (my dad as me go to bed at 11:00 pm on days where there's no school the next day) I got a message on Instagram from someone with an image to a post with my art, and asked if it was me

I looked at the post and the profile. it was someone who was pretending to be me and they were stealing my art. At the time, being passed the time I was supposed to be in bed, didn't know what to do so I screenshot it and posted it on Instagram and on a status update here

after that I had to put up my tablet and get to bed, though I could hardly even fucking sleep because I felt so terrible. Mind you, yesterday was already a shitty enough day and that made me feel a million times worse

I wanted to cry, I felt so fucking terrible, and I wanted to die (not like I don't regularly want to, though) and I was unable to sleep

I told my dad I couldn't sleep and holy fucking shit, thank god he let me get on my tablet until I was able to. I couldn't think about anything but this, I posted about it in as many places as I could, telling people it wasn't me and that they were stealing

for clarification, I posted it on YouTube, Discord, and Wattpad, as well as a post on Facebook to inform my friends. I have a YouTube channel with 777 subscribers at the time of writing this, and two Wattpad accounts, one with 950 followers for stories and the other with a few away from 600

I've reported the majority of the posts for copyright infringement, as they were claiming it as there's, and those were taken down, but reporting the account for impersonation hasn't worked

I've also tried messaging the person, but they haven't seen my messages (they might not even be online) and so they haven't responded, either. Now I'm just stuck here worrying about an account that stole my art and is pretending to be me, wondering who it is, why they're doing this, and so much more

they also seem to follow me on Wattpad and watch my YouTube, as they uploaded a (very badly taken) screenshot of a frame in one of my animations, which I haven't posted by itself, and art I posted on my Wattpad account that I didn't post anywhere else

now this is stupid to say this here, but this really has upset me so much. Of course, I'm always getting upset over nothing, I'm always getting sad for no reason, which has been an off and on thing for at least two years but has gotten a lot more frequent and a lot worse since the summer in 2018

last night, I actually went to bed about a bit past 2 am, and I was so tired but I couldn't sleep because of how terrible I was still feeling despite doing everything I could at the time. I actually feel asleep past 3 am, and I woke up at 7:40 this morning and I couldn't go back to sleep so I've been up since then (it's currently 11:30 am at the time of writing this sentence) 

honestly, this entire thing makes me want to die so fucking much right now, more than usual. I just want to lie down, close my eyes, curl up into a ball and just die. I'm tired, (and can't fall back asleep), sad, and just so unmotivated and feeling so much worse than I normally would be all because of this stupid thing

I just.. don't know what else to do

also, if you're wondering the name of the account, the person who is stealing, this is who it is, right here,  Screenshot 20190215-232300 by Mini-Crushies

again, I'm sorry if this isn't in the right place, I just needed to talk and vent about this one last time..
Comments13
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Kurijo's avatar
Why no one want to steal mah works? :(
Well, for you, just report them.
Mini-Crushies's avatar
you don't want your art to get stolen, the feeling fucking sucks
Kurijo's avatar
Well, i would like to see how someone try to convince others that they draw it xD
LavleyArt's avatar
you are not alone, I remember how one "famous" art thief on Instagram published a very long screenshot of their DMs... it was full of people writing "can you steal my art please????" ^^;

I mean that's just weird to actively wish for it (imo) but at least you know how to make yourself feel better if your art ACTUALLY gets stolen.
Rainbow-Waterfalls's avatar
imma report this bitch
ShinigamiOokamiRyuu's avatar
watermark your stuff, put your "signature" somewhere large, big, over, in the image, or even some sort of icon that is yours that is your "trade mark".  also, report to the platform in question, if they are doing it here then report it to staff, only the victim of art theft can report, all other cases tend to be ignored.  that's the joys of the net, plagiarism isn't spared here, it's actually a lot easier to do it.
Pyreite's avatar
Well you could start watermarking your work and signing it too before posting it online anywhere.  It's real obvious if peeps steal the artwork, and upload it anywhere else that they end up trying to cut out or draw over the watermark.  Makes it more obvious the work was altered and stolen. 

You could also upload less high resolution works online as well.  Keeping the high-resolution stuff offline for yourself only.

People do a lot of recolours and overpaints of HQ work claiming it's their own.  Seen that on DA a lot over the years too.  And it's obvious it's not their own work, since on first glance the art of the work posted in their DA galleries are all in different styles.  Nothing is the same or similar.  So yes, it's stolen.

Don't feel bad about it.  Theft happens to everyone.  Report them to the site admins, with links and everything.  They might get taken down and their account banned.  Also, admins are more likely to respond if you're the original artist doing the reporting.  They take less notice of peeps other than you doing the same thing.  Since you own the artwork and they don't.
azart00's avatar
This happened to me.

The problem was it was my best work and it hurt much more than most people can imagine.

It is easy to say dont worry too much about it but the people who say that usually have not have their work stolen and had to deal with it.

When your work is stolen not only do you feel powerless, you also feel that your work cannot be sold or advertised as yours because someone else is claiming its theirs, and you feel violated on top of everything else.

I found out my work had been stolen because I was accused of stealing my own work from the thief who had it published as theirs.

The digital age makes it easy to put your work online but it also makes it easy to steal.

The way I dealt with it was to realise that the thief is stealing it because it is the best work that they have seen. People dont steal rubbish they steal things they value.

Art thieves steal Piccassos and Van Goghs, they dont steal the work of people with no talent.

Respect to you for being so talented that you had to suffer this.
AndyVRenditions's avatar
That's so terrible. I would definitely contact the administration team, and report your art theft, as well as the culprits you believe are responsible. That is so not right, but don't you worry.. as someone else stated, this actually happens all the time. And on practically every website. 

One day, I got a weird message from one of my followers at the time. They were asking me what I thought about their design on society6, and they sent a picture of it. Turns out, it was my design, and it gave me the not so subtle hint that maybe they had stolen my artwork and using it as their own? Here's what I did though. Yes, I was confused, and yes I was angry, but I figured well, if that's how miserable another person is, then let them be. I am not creating art for it to be stolen. But, neither am I creating art to start arguments with people, or to give myself stress. I have enough of that. I just ignored the messaged, and deleted it. 

My point is, this is not worth feeling bad over, and not worth wanting to die for, that's for sure. I think the best thing you can do is to contact the administration team on Instagram and report them. Most likely, nothing will happen, because administration teams usually suck at listening to you, but for your sake and protection, I would. 

Another thing you can do, is block the person, right? Prevent them from having access to your account? I don't know. I'm not tech savvy, but maybe there's a way you can do this? 

Just keep in mind, that if your accounts are public, the culprit most likely has another account that they can still download your stuff with. It's very annoying, social media. But this is part of it if you utilize it. Like I said, it's not worth your energy. Instagram, YouTube, etc., the whole concept of social media is laughable, and I wouldn't ever take it so seriously. I'm not a huge believer in documenting everything, nor in posting daily. I have a life, and that to me is more important, than some anonymous trolls and stalkers, probably half way around the world that I will never meet. Fuck them!
Agent-Sarah's avatar
You're not the first to have assholes do that. We have con artists and thieves online and offline for many years. Still, I'm sorry you have to deal with that jack ass.
PaladinPainter's avatar
bro-man, you worry too much

just to clarify: if you make such statements, showing how bad this affects you, the fokin guy/girl will only double the efforts just to bother you.

report the shit and be done with it

OR don't publicly show that it hurts you cuz it's gonna get worse