My art was stolen, now what?!

You're casually browsing the internet when all of a sudden you see your art ripped on someone's myspace page, or elsewhere on the net, so what do you do?

Well if you're an American citizen, you're protected under that infamous law known as the DMCA, or the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If you right click your ripped image and select properties, you’ll be able to see the address where the image is hosted. If it’s photobucket or some other easily accessible site then you have it easy and you know where to go to find a support email address. If your image is hosted on a dot com, you’ll need to do a WhoIs search and the name server that is listed will usually give away the company that is physically hosting the site. You can then get in contact with most sites through a webmaster or support email if you take a quick look around their site.

So now you know where your image is, what company is hosting it, and how to get a hold of them, then you scratch your head and ask “But KissMyHuman, what do I say to them?” Well that’s easy if you follow these guidelines. Your email must contain the following:

1. An electronic or physical signature of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest (that’s you) or person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest (your parent or attorney if you’re under 18);

2. A description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed; (A link to your work on the net)

3. A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the site, with enough detail that we may find it on the web site; (a direct link to the page where you found the rip)

4. Your address, telephone number, and email address;

5. A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright or intellectual property owner, its agent, or the law;

6. A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright or intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the copyright or intellectual property owner's behalf.

Lets go ahead and look at a sample email:

Your real name
Your mailing address
Your phone number
Your email address
Current date

To whom it may concern,

It has come to my attention that you are hosting an image that is in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The image in image in question may be found (provide link of rip). This image directly violates the copyright I hold as owner of this image (provide link of your work). I did not authorize the use of the image in question. I request that the image in question be removed from your servers and any other appropriate action taken against the person in violation according to your company policy. If no immediate action is taken then I will be forced to pursue a stronger legal direction.

I hereby agree that I am the owner or person acting on behalf of the owner of the image in question and the above statements are accurate under penalty of perjury.

Sincerely,
Your real name


Information gathered off of www.aodcc.org/