Art Theft Detection 101

Art Theft
There's been a bit in News articles and Journals about this of late. Frankly, as far as I am concerned, it is absolutely clear. Breachers of Copyright are law breakers. There should be no place for them on DA at all. I understand that some people might not realise it, so perhaps the admins can issue a warning first, but after that the only real solution is permanent bans. In the last couple of weeks I have seen rips of images that have been awarded DD's, very high profile models images, well known 3D works and more not only posted as people's own work, but offered for sale as prints. These people, when confronted by accusations of copyright violation loudly proclaim the work to be their own, hide critical comments, and become abusive. It's simply unacceptable.

For those wondering how I go about tracking down suspected art thefts (and I have yet to be proven wrong with thousands of images reported), here's how I do it.

1 - I have been photographing professionally for over a quarter of a century. I have taken hundreds of thousands of photographs, and critically looked at several times more than that. I can tell from a thumbnail if it is a pro image.

2 - I then go to the image. If there isn't any exif data I know I'm close. Unless the image was taken on film, exif data is invariably attached.

3 - I look at the image name. If the title of the image is something like "SEXXXY", or "Boobs" it's a good indication of art theft. What pro photographer would use a title like that?

4 - Then I look more closely at the image. Odd cropping is an indication that a watermark has been chopped out. Likewise, blurring, clumsy cloning or healing indicates that a watermark has been obliterated.

5 - I look at the rest of the person's gallery. Inconsistencies of style, subject, quality and a lack of knowledgeable comments about art, attempts at dAting and the like indicate that the image may well have been ripped.

6 - A 17 year old is unlikely to be taking pro quality images of top models.

7 - I'll often ask the submitter about the equipment/techniques used. No answer, or an answer along the lines of "An artist doesn't reveal their secrets" rings more alarm bells.

8 - Finally, for evidential purposes I use TinEye (www.tineye.com), a reverse image search engine, to find other examples of that image being posted on the internet (usually in blogs, forums, wallpaper sites, and sometimes on the artist's own site).

So, it's a mix of art and science, and it is well nigh foolproof. I know that there are a few others as ruthless as I am in tracking these lowlives down, too. Your chances of getting away with it when one of us is on to you are very, very, very small. My recommendation is that you grow-up, learn how to create your own art and then come back to DA when you have a body of your own work and a mature attitude. Until then, you're person non grata in extremis.