A hoarde of dragon images worthy of a dragon... >.<

TyGryph · Post by **TyGryph** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:29 pm

This collection was brought to my attention last night... there are a number of very nice dragons in there... I'd love to get my paws on them to breed, but it's a set of photobucket accounts. >.<

There are three that I recognize as "ours" from the Nexus;

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c368/ ... gonNo9.gif
I can't tell you -who- did these... Cy, perhaps? I know I have one of this template, but I'm not at my computer, and I know I haven't uploaded it.

These two aren't cyberpets, but I do recognize the artist as one of ours.
Astra/Astrogirl.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c263/ ... Dragon.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c263/ ... he_Sky.jpg

There are a handful of Dreslough images in there too... but these... I don't think belong to the owner of the 'gallery'.

The direct links to the galleries are here.
http://photobucket.com/albums/v103/Nikera/Dragons/
http://photobucket.com/albums/c368/Nikera2/Dragons/
http://photobucket.com/albums/c263/nikera3/Dragons/

There is a "contact member" button on there, so the artists can do as they please regarding this.

I felt it was important to bring this to your attention.

TyGryph · Post by **TyGryph** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:45 pm

... this sort of thing makes it one notch harder to work on Flurry dragons, considering they're getting more spiff as the years go by... I don't really want to have to watermark/brand/something them.

JKatkina · Post by **JKatkina** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:48 pm

Has anyone emailed this guy and explained that this is Not Okay? He could just be some clueless noob.

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:51 pm

I don't think watermarking or branding would make much difference... loads of those images seem to have artist's marks on them, but the person doesn't seem to care...

Makes me glad none of mine are worth stealing...

Silver Midnight · Post by **Silver Midnight** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:05 pm

I also see at least one by Khyot... or is that Jaxxblackfox? >_< Probably Jaxxblackfox, now that I look a little closer. From thumbnails their artwork looks the same and I couldn't remember their real names.

Also Ursula Vernon... Ruth Thompson...annnndd...

Myrror · Post by **Myrror** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:06 pm

Went back and read the post I found those at. One of the artists went to photobucket directly and asked for his images to be removed, and they were. They got no response from the person who owns those accounts.

Also heard he was banned from dA for uploading works that were not his.

Post by **Dray** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:09 pm

Blah. How do we get in contact with the admins to shut down his gallies?

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:10 pm

Well, you can contact Photobucket via http://www.photobucket.com/feedback.php

But whether that'll get you through to the right people I dunno. Only link I could find, though.

Cacopheny · Post by **Cacopheny** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:34 pm

With Photobucket, it's not the same as DA, is it? It's not like claiming the works are his o.o More like an online storage space, isn't it? Or am I missing something about Photobucket? o.o

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:45 pm

I read their terms and conditions, and it does say that you're not allowed to use the intellectual property of others without permission. But from what I read, they seem to expect you to prove you drew the original. But if you contacted them, they might still listen. Better than doing nothing, right?

Astra · Post by **Astra** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:53 pm

You know, I don't think anyone's ever stolen my art before ... I feel so honored (lol j/k). I find it almost amusing that they took some of my old/bad images from junior year or so and found them worth yoinking. There are some really stunning dragon images in those galleries, though, too bad we don't know whose they are

I recognize quite a few of them from neondragonart and sommerland, and from some people I knew briefly on deviantart. The first gallery seems to be a lot of professional art, and quite a few book covers. Lots and lots of Michael Whelan. ro be honest I don't think that they knew they were doing anything wrong, because the collection is so random and so varied. As far as I can tell they probably nicked every image of a dragon they could find and stuck them together without knowing that, you know, that's bad.

Post by **Dray** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 3:02 pm

It's not that it's just storage, it's that he could be using them on one of his own websites and claiming them as his. You know that french site (that I believe /still/ hasn't been taken down) where people's images were being posted with credits to the guy who put up the site... :\ Noooobody knows!

Shiolar · Post by **Shiolar** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 3:05 pm

I saw a fair few that have been taken from D&D Monster Manuals... I'm sure the guys that own those won't care. Or more appropriately, have given up trying to stop people stealing their work...

*hides D&D .pdf's...*

Lerial · Post by **Lerial** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:37 pm

yeah, this one's definately the cover of Moreta.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v103/ ... ragonl.jpg

Perhaps we ought to just send the link to McCaffrey's son. *wry grin*

I don't know if there's anything we can do, though. For all we know he could be using the images to link to artists' sites, though I doubt it. It does kinda look more like a personal collection of cool images than an attempt to pass of work that isn't yours as yours. *sigh* I never know what to do about people like this. If he's actually trying to steal it, that is o.o;

Edit: ... this one's a screenshot of ... it's either Animal Planet's dragon thing or a movie. I can't remember which at the moment. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v103/ ... gon178.jpg

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:39 pm

Doesn't make any difference, none of them are approved for anyone but their owners and their websites (say, Sue Dawe's provider) to hold on to. Since they don't own any of them, I already sent a nastygram to photobucket indicating the 3 accounts are in violation of every copyright law existing... They've got to pull them down. I don't think Sue, Michael Whelan, Larry Elmore, Boris or any of the other artists want their work 'stored' on someone's site. They've got their own.

edit: that's dragonheart. They had a lot of those too.

Asha Wermyst · Post by **Asha Wermyst** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:41 pm

I recognize a few of them, through...various...sources, including a few drawn by one of my friends...

He won't mind, though, as "art stealing" is the last thing that comes to his mind (probably.)

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:43 pm

That's not really the point though - even if he doesn't mind, if he did not give explicit approval, it's *not* legal to put it on the site.

They seem to really like fully-backgrounded images, though there are a couple without. Feh, it'd really help if links could be followed OUT of the site - ie to see where the images might be linked FROM instead of hosted at. (click here to see where this image is paged, that kinda thing)

Myrror · Post by **Myrror** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:54 pm

There's a few cyberpets in the group, too--one of Dixie's Dragons (remember those, do I have that right?)..nothing of mine that I drew, but I recognize a couple of my characters....

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:03 pm

Yeah there's a dozen or more of Dee Dreslaugh's and a number of Dixies as well. It's just all bad news, so the more people complaining the merrier...

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 10:30 am

Here's an update! I sent them some links to the major players websites, and they sent a nastygram to the owner of the acct.

***
Thank you for the links. I have removed those images, and images with
similar
copyright marks on them. I have also sent a warning to the owner of
these
albums.
Our policy on removing images is that we must have proof of ownership
for each
specific image we remove. We have received links from other artists
who have
stolen images displayed in this and other albums, and are removing them
accordingly.

Thank you!

Your Photobucket Support Team
***

Silver Midnight · Post by **Silver Midnight** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 3:03 pm

Lerial! You fake dragon lover! That's a shot from Dragonheart! *beats with a trout*

Neishai · Post by **Neishai** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:28 pm

That guy should know better than to leave his dragon image library online where just *anyone* can link to it... >> He should keep it on his HD! *bricked*

Sorry... but... say the acct owner's just using it to look at all the pretties when they can't keep it on their hard drive for whatever reason... I used to do that when I was roleplaying in the various messageboards. I had all kinds of photos and other images stored on Y! that I used in reference to those games and my characters. I never thought twice about it, or the photographers/actors/artists in question. ;>>

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 8:03 pm

However, since it *is* online, and *somehow* someone linked to it, I suspect otherwise. Any image can be easily burned to a cd, nowadays, or even a flash drive. This was not an accident that they were there. They've been warned, I suspect they'll try again in another form, but I don't think it was a mistake that they were uploading and putting these things online. They did have an avatar gallery for something, which means they were likely on a forum of some kind - showing off most likely. Probably an MSN group...

I hate finding those, soooo many of them are kids who *know* better.

Lerial · Post by **Lerial** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 8:45 pm

Silver Midnight wrote:Lerial! You fake dragon lover! That's a shot from Dragonheart! *beats with a trout*

*flails* It's been too long since I've seen that movie!!
I recognized it tho o.o;
*shame*

Graeth · Post by **Graeth** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 9:25 pm

I think he should atleast have the artist named with the picture.
Not a solution, but that's my two GPs for what he should at least do, if nothing else.

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 9:32 pm

Certainly. I would assume that on a site which these photobucket pix would lead to might, but that still doesn't give anyone the right to have them up at all.

And welcome, please introduce yourself in the welcome thread!

Graeth · Post by **Graeth** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 12:46 pm

*comes back with head down in shame*
Would some be so kind as to point me in the right direction...
I...uh...can't seem to find it...

Post by **Dray** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 1:23 pm

Heya, Graeth! The welcome thread is here:

http://www.deviant-uprising.com/nexus/v ... .php?t=257

(It's one of the stickies in the General forum!)

Nice to meet you!

Graeth · Post by **Graeth** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 2:17 pm

Thank you kind sir.

Mystic Dragon · Post by **Mystic Dragon** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 2:18 pm

Psst! Most of us (including Dray) are girls!