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January 12, 2012
Sta.sh
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art theft - UPDATE!

Journal Entry: Thu Jan 12, 2012, 9:12 AM



[update] first of all, THANKS EVERYONE for your help! i can't begin to express how touched i am by all of your input. i'm not exaggerating when i say that i got a tear or two in my eye thinking of all the support and help i got from everyone. you really managed to lift my spirits and make me feel stronger!! i am SO SO SO grateful for all of you, and your help!!!

second of all, an update on the theft. thanks to everyone's efforts, including e-mails and phone calls to the webshop selling the stolen sweaters, the clothing items have been removed!

the wonderful ~HydroENKI helped me out by phoning the company. what she discovered is that:
  • due to all of the questions and calls about the clothing items, the webshop removed them, claiming they did not know it featured stolen artwork.

  • they bought the products in bulk in Dong-dea-moon, a place with many clothing stores/market stands.

  • they could not disclose any information about the company which manufactured the clothing. this could be either a lie to protect the company, or the truth because, as ~HydroENKI said, the clothing features stolen work and is probably printed in a random nameless factory.

i feel a lot better now that the item has been removed, but the sweaters are still out there somewhere and i am going to try to find the source. if anyone knows someone who ever goes to Dong-dea-moon, please ask them to keep an eye out for the sweaters! (i realize the chances are slim for this, but it never hurts to ask, right?) also: it's pretty likely that the clothing items will pop up in other webshops. please let me know if you find the clothing anywhere else! ref photo: [link]

and finally, if anyone else has had their art stolen on these types of sweaters, please contact me. maybe eventually we can split the costs of a korean lawyer to get compensation and have the sweaters removed from stores!

thanks for reading!!! [/update]


old entry:

so, as some of you may know, my artwork has been illegally printed on a sweater and is being sold in numerous webshops in korea. one of them already removed the item; as of now, i only know of two, but there could be more.

a link is here:[link]
please don't tell me how cute or funny you think this sweater is because hearing that really just makes me feel worse.
apparently it's worse than i thought, they are also selling this clothing item with two more drawings of mine printed on them: [link]

i am truly exhausted and depressed by all of this. i've literally been in tears. i am at a loss for what to do. the fact that this is happening in korea complicates things enormously because a) it's really far away, b) they have different laws and c) there's a language barrier. this eliminates all cheap and easy solutions for me, because besides having to find a laywer in holland that can help me out, i'll also need to hire a korean lawyer. i'm not exactly swimming in money so i have no idea how i will be able to afford this.

i'm going to see what my options are but i'm feeling extremely discouraged and just sad. i don't know how to defend my rights to this artwork, all i can do is sit here and let these assholes abuse my work and make money off of my efforts.

anyway, i wrote this journal for two reasons: to let you guys know, maybe you guys can help spread the word. maybe there's someone out there who's been through the same thing, or has connections with a korean lawyer. chances are slim but you never know, right?

secondly, to ask if anyone out there speaks korean and can help me figure out what brand this sweater is? since the sweater is being sold in different shops, the webshops are not the ones who made it. i need to find out which company has fabricated these sweaters. it could save me a lot of money if i decide to take legal action, because then i won't have to hire a lawyer to figure this out for me. so if anyone who speaks korean, or knows someone who speaks korean, could pretend to be a potential buyer of the sweater and inquire as to which brand it is, and ask for the contact information of this brand? any contact information at all would help enormously.

anyway, i wish i could do more and stand up against this kind of stuff. sitting here and taking it sends out the wrong message to all art thieves, telling them they can just get away with stealing our hard work. i feel a responsibility to send out the right message, but i don't know how at this moment.

thanks all for reading.




:iconarjhun: :iconkitleen: :iconskaffa: :iconstephansol: :iconlijbers: :iconkitton: :iconjumei:





closed!



Add a Comment:
 
:iconkimmystar94:
~kimmystar94 Jan 7, 2013  Student Photographer
The really annoying thing about DongDaeMoon is the fact that it has a lot of people who sell things illegally in general. Not just art, but people buy stuff in the United States and then sell them in Korea. If I go to Korea, I'll be sure to stop by and take a picture for you. :)
Reply
:iconloish:
thanks! i also understand the appeal of a market like that, haha. despite being screwed over by it myself! D:
Reply
:iconabigaillarson:
This pisses me off so much! I had something like this happen with my artwork being sold on Asian t-shirts via eBay, and I contacted the company and they removed the items saying they didn't know I had done them because they "found the images on Google" and didn't bother to try to contact the original artist. Unfortunately with their laws you can't find a lawyer to fight for you without considerable cost, and in the end, the compensation money you get will have to cover your lawyer bill. It's just not worth it. The best we can do is get them to stop running the products. Good luck and remember your work is worth fighting for!
Reply
:iconloish:
yeah that whole "found it on google and didn't know an artist made it" thing is such a common excuse for art thieves. i never buy it. especially not with google reverse image search - SO easy to find the source of images that way! thanks for your comment, i totally agree, it's not worth it but i'm glad that the stuff got removed from that really popular online shop. and that my fans stuck up for me! :]
Reply
:iconabigaillarson:
I know! It's great to know people are looking out for you! With these companies, I think it's just laziness, and being cheap. They don't want to hunt us all down and hand us a check. Good luck to you, though!
Reply
:iconzjacklee:
*Zjacklee Dec 30, 2012   Digital Artist
Hey Loish! what happened in the end? did you get any kind of compensation? Did you find the real thieves?
Reply
:iconloish:
unfortunately i wasn't able to pursue it any further! after the items got removed from the web shops i decided to leave it at that, because otherwise the next step would have been to search for a korean lawyer and find the people who made the clothes, which would have probably cost me more than i could afford!
Reply
:iconzjacklee:
Mood: Cat Fight *Zjacklee Jan 6, 2013   Digital Artist
Aah, I see. So annoying huh? Also the language barrier and all.
oh well... at least you got us to keep an eye for these thiefs.
Reply
:icondaliciously:
~daliciously Apr 4, 2012  Professional Digital Artist
Hey Loish! I have seen a lot of cases like this in Asia. I have seen T-shirts of Audrey Kawasaki and KozynDan in the markets of Thailand for around 5-7 euros. Appearantly some companies steal artwork of the internet so they have free designs and make good profits out of them. Most of the time it's small companies or even individuals who have no idea what they are doing. And because they're only selling it in their country they think it's okay.

Ik denk eerlijk gezegd dat het teveel geld voor je gaat kosten, je moet maar even kijken of dat het waard is. Wat ik zag met de T-shirts in de markten van Thailand is dat het meestal een eenmalige print was en dat ze daarna een ander design gebruiken van een andere artiest. Meestal een oneday fly thing. Je moet dan even voor jezelf nagaan of het wel de moeite waard is om het geld en energie hierin te stoppen... Want het is niet 1 bedrijf die dit doet, het zijn vaker meerdere. Ik denk zelfs dat de beste oplossing is om die T-shirts allemaal over te kopen van de fabriek en zelf te verkopen (maak je zelf nog winst ook). En natuurlijk te eisen dat ze het niet meer doen omdat ze anders aangeklaagd worden.

Ik wens je ontzettend veel succes hiermee, het is ontzettend klote als je prachtige designs waar je zo hard aan hebt gewerkt zomaar wordt gestolen. Dat raakt diep in je ziel. Maar gelukkig heb je een lieve fanbase die je kunnen helpen. En een Koreaanse popster heeft het aangehad XD Dus dat je kan je in je portfolio zetten!
Reply
:iconloish:
tsja, daar ben ik het mee eens - dat het waarschijnlijk niet de geld en moeite waard is om achteraan te gaan - en als ik wist welke fabriek het gemaakt had zou ik al een stap verder zijn! dat weet ik niet eens :[
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