hello everyone!!
apparently there's some sort of art thief drama happenign here on TheO, and this is nothing new to me or my beloved Giname6. He's had work stolen numerous times, and from that we've learned to protect ourselves and i felt i should share some of that with you guys.
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What art thieves look for
art thieves look for UNMARKED work, which means, it has no name on it or a URL on it. they can easily save this onto their computer and upload it somewhere and claim it.
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what should i do if my work/work of someone i know has been stolen
please guys, i KNOW your first instinct is to attack them, but PLEASE know...all besite ask for us to be kind to each other and NOT attack each other. so even if you're the victim and you deserve to be angry, the admins can ban you for the site for attacking the art thief!!
remain calm, don't even CONTACT the art thief. it'll only get you more angry if they respond, and they might start attacking YOU.
so please:
all you have to do to report someones stolen work this:below each piece there's a "REPORT/FLAG" button. simply click that tab, provide a link to the original piece, and VUALA!!! no more complaining and all will be well!! 
if you feel the need to, you can write a small note (no vulgar language, no writing in an upset way) to the admin, and again provide a link to the stolen piece and to the original piece.
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How to protect your work
not sure if anyone has noticed this, but i watermark my work very heavily. right dead in the center of my pictures you will see my full name AND the URL of the my DA account. it may be ugly to some but it does it's job :) never had work stolen before, and if God permits i never will. my fiance' Giname6 on TheO has had work stolen in the past, but after he started watermarking, that's it. no more of that drama.
WHAT NOT TO DO!!
1.)never water mark over an area of your pic that's a solid color (someone can digitally color over it)
2.)ALWAYS place it in the center of your pic or over a part that's crucial (there's no WAY to get rid of the watermark without destroying the pic ;D you see??) but if this is too much for you, you can compromise a bit with the placement ( EX:if your character is framed by roses, place the watermark 1/2 on the roses 1/2 on your character. (NOTE: not placing your watermark in the center of your piece WILL decrease the effectiveness of it because there's always a chance the thief can simply CROP the watermarked part off when re-posting.)
3.)VERY IMPORTANT!!! and make the watermark big enough so that even if they posted it at a low rez somewhere the watermark will be readable!
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i hope this helps you guys!! i would really hate to see any of you caught in this kind of situation. so please, try to protect your work as BEST you can!
love you all!!
~SiSero <3
