Taken.

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I can’t believe something like this has happened to me again.  Last time, some publication in the UK was using my artwork without my permission, and the response they gave to me then was “Well, we don’t see how this could affect you, especially considering that you’re in the US”.  They then proceeded to remove my images, but add me to their mailing list.  Like, wtf??

But today…I was hit up on twitter notifying me that my artwork has been used again without my permission, this time for some natural hair care expo that’s being hosted in Baltimore.  On Facebook, there’s a flyer going around clearly using my image as a main image…almost as if its to supplant their own logo.  

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Granted this image is like more than 2 years old, and I’d like to think that I’ve grown leaps and bounds since but still:

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Notice that both my signature and watermark are conspicuously left out. No links, not artists contributions…nothing.  So, yeah…thats whats up.  

Then I was like, you know, let me hit up their site. 

And when I get there, my image is on that site too!  Three times to be exact!

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Like seriously though??

People need to understand that just because you find something online in a search engine, does NOT mean that its public domain.  Altering an image and then removing the original artist’s signature is an even more egregious action.  Like what…the…fuck man.  

You better believe that I sent them a beyond stern message asking them to remove my images.  I probably would’ve been nicer about it, or even let them to continue using them if they provided link backs LIKE YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO AND CREDIT THE ORIGINAL ARTIST, but I was so pissed that they removed my signature (even though it is nigh impossible to read…) that was like damn all of that.  

Images that you find online are not free domain unless it says so.  Images that you find on Deviantart where artists post their stuff in an artistic community is not free domain for people to drudge through and take images for their own promotional purposes.  I’ll be the first to tell you that its hard being an artist.  Like, really hard.  And for someone to just pluck your work out, and remove all source, all recognition, damn.  Thats them pretty much taking money (potential anyway) from you.  All of those people who seen the image have no idea who the original artist is, how to contact them or anything.  

And knowing my luck, there’s probably little to no legal action or recourse that I can take for this, or if it happens again in the future.  Shit like this just makes you want to put ugly full image watermarks all over your images man.