Art Theft Still A Chronic Problem

Online theft and unauthorized commercial use of images posted by indie artists continues to be a chronic problem. Here on the blog, I have been sharing links and updates about this issue since 2014. It's been going on longer than that, and while there are some victories for artists and better education for fans/consumers.... the fight is still ongoing, and exhausting, for the indie artist community.

This January 23, 2019 article by Nicole Nguyen from Buzzfeed News is the latest on this situation.
(image below by Susie Ghahremani... who is featured in the Buzzfeed article).

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolenguyen/amazon-counterfeit-art-sellers-fakes-copyright-infringement?

From the article:

"The issue of stolen artwork on Amazon is widespread and well-known, but the company hasn’t addressed the infringement in a meaningful way. Fighting unauthorized use of artists’ original work on the site remains a constant battle. Though Amazon has a Brand Registry that allows Apple and other businesses to upload their trademarks and combat counterfeiting, independent creators who spoke to BuzzFeed News say the program doesn’t work for them — but they believe it should. Works of art are considered copyrighted goods and are not trademarks, like a brand name or logo, so artists don’t qualify for the “proactive brand protection” Amazon’s Brand Registry provides....

Independent artists say they spend hours filing takedown requests each month and lose thousands of dollars in the process each year."

There are many more posts and links here on the blog about this ongoing crisis for indie art life:
http://stuartngbooks.blogspot.com/2016/09/combat-art-theft-case-studies-and.html

http://stuartngbooks.blogspot.com/2014/07/copyright-info-for-artists_15.html

http://stuartngbooks.blogspot.com/2016/06/copyright-101-infographic-by-lili-chin.html