RIPPED ART TASK FORCE
written by:  1arcticfox

We are excited to announce the forming of a new team and site on DA called the RippedArtTaskForce (RATF)! After the recent discovery and exposure of 8,000 works of art ripped from DA artist’s – due largely to the efforts of Deb and several others , , and , – Deb thought, “That’s it, if you talk the talk, you need to walk the walk”, and decided to form a team of fellow artists committed to helping artists who have had art ripped.  Anita, Deb, and Lauren has had more than one work of art ripped and used in various manners without having been contacted for permission, so we are acutely aware of the issues involved and can relate to the frustration of all of the artist’s who have had art stolen, and not only just at DA!

Thus was born the RIPPED ART TASK FORCE, or (RATF) whose main purposes are to educate artists about copyright issues to make their work safer, provide information about methods of protecting art, and to assist the artists in their efforts to get their art removed from a site in whatever way we can.  It was through the hard work of Deb and these other artists that the thief- who admitted to the 8,000 rips from DA - was pressured to take down the site containing 8,000 pieces of ripped DA art!

We all knew that when we came to DA there was risk in uploading art, as there is with all sites. Those of us who have already had art ripped are certainly not naïve about this! There is no absolute foolproof method yet, of preventing art theft, other than not to upload it…we know that!  But we also believe that artists have the right (as supported by different copyright laws in different countries) to do whatever they can to help protect their art. There would be no copyright laws if everyone were happy to have their art stolen! We are also aware that dedicated thieves can work around most all current ways of protecting art, however we believe that there are measures that can make it more difficult for the would be thief to steal, since many of them will just move on to an easier target – like some burglars that move on to an unlocked house, rather than risk breaking into one and getting caught.  (Yes, we know people will still break into houses and people will still steal art.)

In addition, we are also too well aware that the RATF cannot police the entire internet but we are not willing to sit back and have DA be a free for all, for every thief that comes here to steal art and post it somewhere else for profit - or download it and use for unauthorized purposes, without giving credit to the artist and without getting their permission.

The Ripped Art Task Force feels strongly about educating people about what they can do to help protect their art and having a type of central clearing house here on DA, where people can come for information as to how to try to resolve their art theft issue.  The RATF is an all volunteer group with Deb-DWALKER1047, Anita-1arcticfox, Lauren-laurengary and Dave-cmptrwhz, as administrators. We would like to extend an invitation to all artist's from every venue at DA to be part of our team.  It is imperative that we have enough people to find and identify as much of the the stolen art as possible. If you wish to help in any way please let us hear from you at the RippedArtTaskForce site!  [link] Below is a list of our current volunteers and Admin staff.  Look for the Task Force stamps below to identify one of our volunteers in your community (or others) and send your reports of rips to them!

   
ADMINISTRATORS
`1arcticfox
`DWALKER1047
*laurengary
`cmptrwhz
_____________________________________________________________
  
INFORMATION AND EDUCATION SERVICES
~droz928
~Ann-McLaren
:dDuckofDeath
____________________________________________________________
  
RESEARCH SERVICES AND CORRESPONDENCE
~SethraLavode
~KainApophysis
~pantherwitch4982
_____________________________________________________________
   
MONITORING AND INVESTIGATIONS
~Almoace
~milleniumsentry
~davidlee1965
`LorrieWhittington
_____________________________________________________________
   
PROCEDURES-THEFT PREVENTION
~moofied1
_____________________________________________________________
  
TRANSLATORS
*DanteDeRycke(Dutch & French)
~no-reaction (Chinese simple and traditional)
_____________________________________________________________
  
GRAPHICS
=KenSaunders
~LyinRyan
_____________________________________________________________
  
VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR
*anjaleck
______________________________________________________________
  
COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS
*im1happy
~Fraxa
*anjaleck
~live2b
*baba49
~beigebuddha
~setkeh
~ocelot99992003
!WrathOfNessis
~opinionatedelf

We are also delighted that Jonathan Bailey, author of Plagiarism Today [link], has offered his assistance to our team.  His expertise on these issues is a valuable resource and his help is appreciated infinitely!  Here are links to the two most recent articles – used with his permission.  [link]

We are in the process of assembling our team and will be announcing its’ updated list of members soon, in an upcoming article.  We can’t stop internet art theft, but we would like to do whatever we can, to help make uploading art at DA…a little safer for artists…because we care! Thanks to all who have been so supportive during this process.