In today’s world of DeviantArt, Flickr, and Google, fame in online art comes with unexpected consequences. While many see the Internet as a tool to gain recognition, artists often see their works plagiarized for personal or financial gain.
Traditionally, art theft has been defined as the use of art in any manner that violates the artist’s copyright. This includes, but is not limited to, the use of an artist’s work for profit as well as the plagiarism of another’s work.
Vitaly S. Alexius is a 24-year old professional illustrator who runs a studio on Baldwin Street. “Art theft is when somebody steals a painting,” he explains. “When somebody takes your painting [and] posts [it] as their own.” Alexius believes art theft is akin to music piracy. “It’s all about copyright law and sharing. There isn’t a single solution to this.”
The effect of art theft depends on the artist’s pre-existing fan base. “The more people steal from a famous artist, the more famous he or she becomes, ” maintains Alexius. It’s easy for the famous artist to threaten the guilty party and have the image removed and damages paid. But for an unknown artist, theft comes at a much greater cost. Smaller artists face the possibility of being accused of thievery themselves.
As a result of wide-scale theft, many popular artists have removed their galleries from the Internet, or have ceased to post work.
DeviantArt, an online international artist community, has been increasingly affected by the advent of digital art theft. In 2007, photographer Lara Jade discovered a self-portrait she took as a 14-year old had been used for the cover of a pornographic DVD.
Thousands more discovered their works being sold online or employed as a form of corporate advertising. In addition to the 60,000 to 80,000 illegally-posted works within DeviantArt, a search of the site lists over 15,000 journal entries concerning theft.
Many artists simply refuse to upload high quality images, or they watermark their works, a process in which the piece is obscured by a translucent logo. They also use software imbedded in the images capable of discovering if it has been used anywhere on the Internet.
Alexius feels such extremes are overkill, saying, “Let’s watermark the Mona Lisa and nail down all the chairs in public libraries while we’re at it for fear of the chairs being stolen.” He believes such security measures violate the integrity and quality of the image.
The art community has reacted against the epidemic. Alexius frequently writes online journal entries read by over 28,000 subscribers on how to fight theft. Alexius provides insight on how to write a proper copyright infringement letter, as well as how to take the necessary legal steps to receive compensation, and reports the progress of his legal battles on a monthly basis.
Alexius refuses to watermark his images because it is impossible to stop art from being taken off the Internet. Instead the best method of defense is knowledge of copyright law. “Threatening the thieves with a copyright infringement letter works 90 per cent of the time. But if it doesn’t work—that’s when you go to a lawyer.”
When asked about the future of art’s security, Alexius seems to hope for a change. “We can all learn to share art in a way that doesn’t leave the artist destitute. As long as the art is really good, people will find [it] and hire the original artist to create new images, because only the artist can create that style.”
