26 October, 2007

Polyvore members have started to upload Artwanted works

This is reply to my complaint to polyvore From Pasha Sadri the founder

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First: I see this in artwanted's policy statement:

http://artwanted.com/policies.cfm?Policy=Image

"Digital Artwork Understanding By posting your artwork on the Internet, you acknowledge that by doing so, allows anyone to download, print, screen-capture and digitally edit your image. This also allows websites such as 'Google Image Search' to take the artwork from this site and add it to their image search functions without credit to the artist. If this concerns you, then you should not post your artwork anywhere on the Internet or you can place a large visible watermark/copyright sign on all your artwork. This will discourage cyber thieves from stealing your artwork."

As I have said before, we would be happy to take down artwork if the request meets the following:

- it establishes that YOU are the owner of the work (we can't assume everyone from site X wants their images removed). - exactly specifies which content you wish removed (so that we can remove it)

I believe that we have gone beyond what is required by law and good-will when responding to these requests. However, we have very limited resources and you will have to excuse us if we can not respond to requests that don't specifically meet the criteria for DMCA take down notices.

We appreciate your efforts in informing other artists about Polyvore. We hope that they will find it a valuable venue for their art to be appreciated by an enthusiastic audience. If they decide that they don't want this, they are free to contact us to remove their images from Polyvore's index as long as they follow the DMCA guidelines.

Finally, if you upload images to Polyvore, it is with the understanding that it may be used by other people to create collages. I think as fellow artists they have to right to self expression as they see fit. Our terms of service specify which kind of images/sets are not suitable for Polyvore (eg: pornographic, racist, ...) and will be removed from the site.

Sincerely,

Pasha (polyvore founder)

========================= My comment =======================================

He wants to twist the AW caution into a permission to copy our work.

Maybe the wording shold not say "allows" but "exposes you to" --------------------------------------

These people are uploading artwanted images, this person Pasha is the founder, as you can see he is very unconcerned about his members ignoring our right click warnings, his company has published a tool to right click any image on internet onto their site, once your piece is on their site it may be used by hundreds of users to create dirivatives. Redbubble got him to block redbubble from their tool, I would suggest we do the same.

I had volutarily uploaded some pieces, when I saw them taking our work without permission I shut down my account, once there is work out there they point everyone back to those sites so it becomes like a malignant deseaase. ===================================== There is no way to clean it out because everyone takes ownership of your pieces.

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The only way to protect us is to do what RedBubble did and speak for everyone on this site.

You will never get it done one-at-a-time.

I have already emailed a couple dozen of our members who have had their work posted there without permission, this will not end, I assure you, ISTOCKPHOTO has 1000's of pieces copied there. Once there pieces are presented to members as if they are freely available, they are low res but there is no sense of copyright and they could be freely used in dirivative works.

Reply

31 Comments

joan warburton 26 Oct 2007

AW, PLEASE contact them and take a stand for the artists on AW. This is NOT right!

Dominic Melfi 26 Oct 2007

http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/search?idx=thing&query=artwanted&sort=-updatedon

URL to AW pieces on polyvore, remember mine were posted voluntarily, I dont believ any others were.

if you read this please add your comment if you feel your work should be blocked from being uploaded to this site.

Susan Epps 26 Oct 2007

Have no idea whether mine is there or not but this needs to be stopped for everyone's sake.

I don't believe that IStock will be letting it pass without taking any action. They are rightfully so protective of their images.

Pasha is treading a narrow cyber road AND getting away with it !

bianca 26 Oct 2007

Artwanted read from the day i posted about stealing images...and if they are reading this ARTWANTED STAFF needs to take protective measures and contact this punk...and issue warning to take down all these images without question asked...

My two cents

26 Oct 2007

Flicker Light Studio 26 Oct 2007

Even though this has been a great place to archive some of our art, we are thinking about removing everything from this site. We have enjoyed most of the interactions here, but recently joined another site which offers a refreshing feel. The only drawback is that our "Arch Enemy" is a member :-)

)))))))doing a dance and beginning a trance(((((((

LOL, anyway, the site is RedBubble, as Dominic has already noted. There is a wonderful potential to network, market, and just really enjoy!


ArtWanted.com Staff 26 Oct 2007

We have already contacted Polyvore and demanded that they remove all artwork that has been lifted from ArtWanted.com - We will continue to press them to meet our demands.

Brian Sherwin 26 Oct 2007

What they are doing is wrong. However, where are they located? It could be their HQ is located when international copyright laws don't really apply. That could be a problem. On that note, if they are in a country that follows those rules... well... dude is asking for a lawsuit.

Dominic Melfi 27 Oct 2007

Thank you AW, that is only thing would work.

I want to emphasize that up to now I had voluntarily loaded pieces as dmelfi, and created some just for poolyvore, when I saw they were hijacking other people's work here, I deleted all of mine, however it WILL NEVER COME OFF because there are 1000's of copies already embeded all over the site.

they have this community ownership where you can use and reuse any piece that is posted there.

I had pieces I loaded and the trnsparencies were not correct and I deleted them within 1 minute and they are still there and being used. It is like a swamp of molasses, once you touch it its never cleans up.

You can see by this url I supplied that they havnt responded favorably.

Natalie Mason 27 Oct 2007

This is appalling!

I certainly hope this can be stopped AW, before we have to perform a mass exodus, to protect our work!

27 Oct 2007

bianca 27 Oct 2007

HOOOOOOOORAY Artwanted Thank u thank u.... Even though my work is not involved.....i do appreciated u doing this for sake of everyone...GOOD JOB!!!

Terri Lloyd 27 Oct 2007

Two thoughts:

Copyright attorney(s). Class action lawsuit.

Dominic Melfi 27 Oct 2007

they have not removed ISTOCKPHOTO just hidden it from your searches they are still used and usable

WITH THE WATERMARK ON IT

http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=91517

this one has 3 istock and 1 deviant art

Dosnt matter what you do with sites like this, if they are encoraging piracy and provise exotic tools to accomplish it you will be ripped. They give lip service to honoring copyrights and pass the onous onto their memberss who they claim are 13 year old kids.

The site is fine for it's fundamental premiss but to stonewall us when 10,000's of pieces are scammed that everyone needs to notify him individually on every piece is arrogant.

Also some people think it is positive because he maintains a link back to piece, and that leads all his members back to your site.

The real issue here are twofold.

1) Polyvores extrordinay participation by providing indeiscriminate tools, he should get permission from sites and provide a block for any site not opting in. EVERYTHING is copyrighted in some way or the other if it is on the net.

2) Polyvores activities once something is on the site assumes public domain and their policies say anything on site is licensed to them, and sublicensable and free to be used in any and all ways.

Pasha Sadri worked for Yahoo before he started Polyvore, it is almost sickening to read his attitudes about intellectual ownership, and his members have the right to be creative too, how is that creative to scam other peoples work?

I abhor these philosophies that erode ownership of any kind, it is an isidious philosophy, that attacks the basic premiss of our capitalism and our republic, and obviously in this case very self-serving.

REMEMBER the issue isnt the quality of the file, the issue is if you have done a creative piece and it is anywhere near innovative, like a comic character, it will by default pass into public domain on this site. It is the intelectual property rights at issue here not the specific low res image.

That is why I never published my Niki and Jen characters there or anything else I put particular value on. I published a lot of floral and butterflies and bubbles.

I have a son in law that represents artists leagaly and intend to talk to him, however I believe pressure from us is more effective now, because polyvore probably has or is looking for Venture Capital and bad publivcity is more immediate than legal action.

I would urge you all to start discussions wherver you have a web presence so it starts to cme up on google ALL THE TIME.

Dominic Melfi 27 Oct 2007

CORRECTION

Obviously everything on the net isnt copyrighted, but unless it specifies public domain or the site exisits for sharing the law requires you to assume copyright.

joan warburton 27 Oct 2007

Thanks so much for your attention to this matter, AW!!!

Cassie Norwood 27 Oct 2007

I'm glad that AW is putting pressure on Polyvore to help protect its members.

It's also nice to see the efforts of members working wholly together on something for a change, and for good cause because this whole thing really is wrong. Polyvore has no business distributing other peoples works without their knowledge or consent.


ArtWanted.com Staff 27 Oct 2007

The more people that complain to polyvore about their actions, the better chance we all have to get them to remove your copyrighted artwork from their site.

bianca 27 Oct 2007

One attorney letter will do the trick.i might just do that....this is radiculous...but that is just one of them that is in the open....there is thousands tht do it hidden...Think about it...but polyvore will get my letter

Pat 'Gracie' Merewether 27 Oct 2007

The name itself gave me the creeps.

carnivore (meat eaters) herbavore (plant eaters)

poly - vore (MANY - eaters)

YIKES!!!

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