What Do You Do if Someone Steals Your Art?
A fellow artist asked me: You’ve sent a company your images to see if they’d like to carry your line on their products. How do you know they won’t steal your artwork and put it on their products and sell them without your knowledge?
My first thought was, in that case, either the company will go out of business after getting a rotten reputation for being design thieves, or they are so big it will take Godzilla to get them to stop.
There have been many cases that I’m aware of where artists did, in fact, get art/design stealers to stop. If you feel confident that you can get them to stop, go for it, confront them. I know of one person who has gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars in recompense. (You do have to be set up and prepared — more on that below.)
When it’s a big company, do you have the means to stay the chase and out-lawyer them? If not, let it go.
Personally? I do The Woowoo on my art: I imagine a huge clear pink glass bubble surrounding me and any art I put out into the world, protecting it from any nefarious thievery or usage.
I know, I know — like I said — woowoo. But if I do find someone ripping me off, you can be sure that I will send my copyright lawyers after them like wolves with exceedingly sharp, arm-length, blood-seeking, teeth.
