Sorry I didn't get back to you earlier, and sorry I didn't respond in Vampirella's journal. She blocked me from commenting for some reason, most likely because she's an art thief herself.

It's why I was saddened by your comment...you didn't realize that she just traces over anime cels for popularity? It's not good to look up to a tracer and idolize her for being the "only one reporting art theft", she's extremely hypocritical for this reason. She doesn't care about art, just popularity. She has stated this several times.

The problem with art theft is this: in order to protect their art, the original artist needs to approach Deviantart staff with a DMCA form. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

This Act prevents DA from having any liability with its user generated content (DA cannot get sued by Bandai for Vampirella's traces, but they MUST take them down). But the problem is, alot of content on DA is ripped from Japanese artists and companies, who either cannot read/write english or do not visit/know about DA.

Therefore, nothing can technically be done about blatant art theft UNLESS people like you and I can find proof of said art theft.

*takes deep breath* Now, here's a long, long list of things that help in the stance against art theft.

[link] This group was started when several Devartists noticed their art being stolen and sold on Ebay, as prints without their permission, and..even on a porn DVD.

[link] Extremely useful image search. You have to sign up, but if you ever suspect someone of stealing any image, you put said image into TinEye and it will find it if it's posted anywhere else on the internet.

[link] I'm part of this LJ community, and what you do is..if you see something that looks "fishy", but have no idea who the real artist is, you post it here and most likely someone else will know.

[link] An article on protecting your own art. Since this is DA though, the only option you have is watermarking, but I do suggest that as it's just about the best option there is. NEVER assume that your art won't be stolen. I did, and it was stolen and sold on Ebay, and put in a stupid Youtube video.

I'm sorry this note got so long. But it's just sick how many people are uninformed of the truth. So many people idolize Vampirella, and the hundreds of other tracers on this site, and for what? What they do is not art. You and I could trace an image in less than an hour and upload it, it's not hard. It's not creative. I know though, that alot of people just don't know that the person is tracing sometimes. It's why people need to know, and be informed. Vampirella tried to prevent me from informing you with her blocking, but not only will I note this to you, but I'll leave it up as my journal for a while. People need to know.

Sad part is, no one really knows how bad art theft is, until they see their own art that they put hours into, stolen by a tracer or thief.


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Yes, that note got really long, but one of the things I'm adamantly against is art theft. You all probably heard of the dramawhore known as Vampirella. I was reading her goodbye journal and an artist there stated that she liked her because "she was the only one standing against art theft".

This...threw me for a fucking loop it did, mostly because Vamp's "art" was just traces of anime cels. Therefore, she's a thief herself. Ironic eh?

So I had to post and inform her of this, but naturally since I referred her to anti-art theft pages (I made no attack towards Vamp, hence the incredible lulz, she just doesn't want her fans knowing she's a thief), I was blocked from posting on Vamp's page.

Well twatwaffle, you can't ban me from making my own journal.