Just after some advice

[the-outcasts.livejournal.com]

Hi guys, long time watcher, first time poster. I'm not 100% sure if this belongs here but I've seen some advice posts similar in the past.

Recently a friend pointed out to me that some of my old art has been reposted onto a website without my permission. The thing is though, I remember the same site doing this to me years ago (I'm talking 12+ years ago), and I had requested the art to be removed, and they had oblidged.

So when I went back now years later I find that the exact same art is still there, along with some new additions (again old art, but I know it wasn't there when I had asked for the first removal).

The site has an FAQ relating to art removal requests, but when I checked it it says:

FAQ #7: I am an artist and someone told me my art is here.. how to i get it removed? Or, I asked my art to be removed, It _WAS_, but now it is back?
You contact one of the staff and let us know, we will take it down! This site does not condone art theft, all an artist need do is ask.
Any artist folders removed, get recycled back into the site at the beginning of each year. You want it to stay gone? You have to care enough to keep coming back.
If your art is here, it's likely because someone was browsing, found it, liked it.. and wanted to share it with more people, or preserve it if your site goes away. You should feel honored that they love your art enough to spread it, and instead, ask us to put a link to your site in your artist folder!

The bold part is what concerns, and quite frankly annoys me: my question is is such a thing allowed? I know a simple request isn't a concrete agreement, but when an artist says remove my art, it means remove my art, not recycle it for reupload a year later. And is there a way to make them permanent remove the art without them being sneaky about it?

I don't mind reposting, but at the same time I do want control over where my art goes as much as I'm able to. And I find it a bit rude that they're ignoring requests like this. I'm not honored by this in the least, it's not up to them to decide what to do.

Thank you in advance, I'm hope I'm doing this right and this is the only time I have to post here.

EDIT: Firstly thank you so so much for the quick response everyone! I'm at work now so I'll try to respond back as much as possible.

And yes the site is http://tails.kicks-ass.net/index.php?area=help&view=7 - the site has been around for years from what I remember, but like I said, I figured if I had asked them to take art down 12+ years ago it should stay down, but apparently not.

Comments

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

Ah, a battle that is almost impossible to win =|, one I have fought for a long long time, and finally just had to give up because I couldn't dedicate my time to having art removed in various places.

I'd say go ahead and DMCA their host, of course, but my own personal course of action is to just watermark everything with a name/website and let them have at it. As long as they know whos art it is, where it's coming from, then I'm "okay" with it. Not fine with it, but it's better then talking to a wall.

Either way, I hope it works out for you! Informing their host of that silly policy should do some good.

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

I've started to feel the same way really.

I used to get extremely upset, but your stuff is going to get reposted all the time. If anything, I just ask for credit and leave it be, but now I'm starting to completely let it go. It does bother me when someone recolours my art or pretend they did it, but my art has become known enough that people do recognize it. Now, it would be a huge issue if they were pretending to be me or taking commissions and not delivering. Although I haven't personally taken the course of watermarking yet.

I don't mean to say you shouldn't fight to get it removed. I completely get why you would and I used to do so, it's your right. Just saying that I personally have given up at this point.

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Now I don't take kindly to recolors or posting of my paysite content, but the big kicker site E621 has been really good lately about removals of that stuff. And since all other chans seem to get content from there, at least I have a tiny bit of control. x_x

I just wish I didn't have to be so careful about what was posted online in general.

[the-outcasts.livejournal.com]

Oh I totally agree! With sites like Tumblr out there it's impossible to stop it completely, unless I go to extreme measures and have my own site that only allows a select few in - which defeats the purpose of sharing art in the first place considering I don't think mine's good enough to ask people to pay to see it.

I still get that knee jerk reaction though when people recolour my stuff or just outright claim it's theirs. That's when I get annoyed and need to step in. Otherwise a simple redistribute is okay - except in this case when I had already asked for it to be removed and they did a sneaky and brought it back up.

[ocelotish]

Pretty much this.

I haven't had anything stolen, so take with salt. My thoughts are that it's going to be reposted without permission at some point, I can choose to let it bother me or not. I can choose to take precautions (watermarking, etc.), or watermark the hell out of something I don't want reposted, but the ultimate solution is accepting that things will be reblogged, or people will want to reblog my work: do I care, and if I care, what can I do to not worry about it?

[the-outcasts.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean x.x For a good few years I would be chasing my tail trying to get people to stop reuploading my art until I just couldn't be bothered any more. It bothers me more though when they start claiming it's their work, or they colour over it - that I will keep fighting because I find that very unfair for someone to just take my work while I'm the one that put the effort in.

And I watermark everything with URLs of the host site (i.e. DA or FA) so one way or another it does come back to me. But I do hate the paranoia of uploading something I wanted to share, only to have one person screw it up for me and making it a chore rather than a hobby.

I'll keep my fingers crossed either way! I knew it was a silly policy, but I had to be sure first XD