Theft on dA

I have an account on deviantArt, known to most as dA. It's a place where you can upload your art for comments and help, etc.

This article explains everything. In short, a lot of users have been getting the same response back when they report stolen art pieces:

Your Art theft (General) Violation Report on (art piece here) was reviewed by a member of the staff and action was taken, marking the report as Invalid.

Additionally, the following comment was provided:

A member of staff has reviewed this report and has found that while there may be cause for some type of concern no actual administrative action will be taken because this report was made by an interested third party rather than someone directly involved in the issue.

Please click here for more information.

This message was generated automatically.

-- deviantART Staff

So because we're a third party, means we can't report anything? What's more, dA hasn't announced their policy change. Until today, I was not aware, and I'm sure a lot of others aren't either. That's like saying it's okay to shoplift if the shop owner doesn't know (quoted from someone's comment on the article, dunno who.)

Kaedechtu said on page 9 of comments on the article,
"I think DA is right not to accept art theft claims from a third party. The person whose art is stolen should be the one to make that decision, because there could be special cicumstances that caused the incident that the artist is aware of, but that a third party might not know.

What SHOULD happen though, is if a third party reports an art theft, the person who the art belongs to needs to be notified of the report, so that that person can make a decision as to whether they want to continue pursuing the case."

And mikegoulty, the writer of the article, replied,
"Let's think about that then...

- Major companies : have you ever tried to get in contact with them? Good luck with that one.

- Sometimes the image is known to be stolen, but the original creator cannot be contacted for whatever reason.

- Copyright exists after death.

Why should a third party not be able to report theft? If the person has permission, they will be able to attach the permission documents, and the admins will act accordingly."

(after which Kaedechtu understood :3)

mikegoultry also said on page 9,
"We cannot police the whole internet, but they CAN police their own site."

I strongly agree. Before now I knew nothing of all this. Now I do and I hope to spread the word.

This is mostly a complaint here, but if anyone reads this who uses dA, they should be aware.

Also, my username on dA is dictionary-0. :)