I'd go with the send a lawyer-ish letter - even if you have no intention of taking legal action, a clear-headed, well thought out and legally grounded letter should scare the shit out of them.
-- well do I lie like a loungeroom lizard, or do I sing like a bird released?
Now that is just unacceptable. It's not even just all that you said, it's the fact that he thinks he'd done nothing wrong! And the greedy comment is just below the belt. You should ask him why he doesn't do things for free either since it's obviously something he expects professionals to do.
Actually suing may be a bit expensive, but if you have a friend who's a lawyer (or someone who can fake it) I would still send him some sort of scary lawyer letter. Something that should at least for five minutes make him sweat and regret his actions. He probably won't turn around and apologize, but it should at least make him think for a moment.
Unless you've got a lawyer friend actually willing to sue . . . .
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Don't protrude the tartness and keenness out the staircase.
I'd go with the send a lawyer-ish letter - even if you have no intention of taking legal action, a clear-headed, well thought out and legally grounded letter should scare the shit out of them.
-- well do I lie like a loungeroom lizard, or do I sing like a bird released?
This is really terrible to hear. It sounds like you're dealing with a terrible scoundrel.
I would encourage you to take legal action, but that is kind of expensive. The least you can do, however, is what other people here have said: contact this guy with a legal jargon-filled letter. At least it'll make him sweat a little.
Art theft is such a terrible and rampant thing. It's one thing to steal someone's possessions, but it's something completely different to steal their hard-work and creativity.
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Some people are like slinkies: worthless, but they can be fun to push down the stairs.
Wow... he's an adult, you'd think he'd be smarter than to play dumb and to actually take the consequences of his actions... but then again, I suppose no one ever really does that, do they?
Hnn...I have no solution. I am sorry. Except... release the rabid nekofoot fans? >D
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The Cost of Manga: 390 Yen + YOUR LIFE
Looked like fun: 猿渡 Saruwatari (monkey on a crossing bridge) 希美 Nozomi (beautiful hope)
... A monkey on a crossing bridge is beautiful hope?! BWAHAHAHAHA
Yeah, sargeras totally has a point there. Asses like these needto be given a good, hard kick to make them see they're wrong. I mean, kids might not understand, but here we are dealing with someone who has a business and should be responsible for it. He is old enough not to claim "I didn't know", it's his responsibility to check and make sure. Saying he doesn't know that just because things are on the internet would mean no copyrights is just as irresponsible.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Actually, pretty much universally, that is totally going to get someone in trouble, even if they didn't seem to have done anything legally against the law, anyway. It's actually a surefire way to get charged, by saying "I didn't know". (I knew because I studied some amateurish high school level law, and our teacherbrought us on a field trip to court).
Some dude said he didn't have a lawyer to represent him and thus couldn't be judged because he "didn't know" he had to have a lawyer. The judge got all red in the face and yelled at that smartass dude, told him he'd been given 2 months of warning in advance, and that he'd give him one more day. If he couldn't get a lawyer, too bad, he'd judge him anyway. Guess that dude will have no defence. Well, that's a bit of a booster story? Dunno, but still, try a legal-jargon filled letter, and maybe start a group on Facebook? We need to give these corporate asses who think they can just rip us off a good kick.
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GO to hel---oops, sorry. We're already living in it. My bad.
This may help, but it's ony one source, so it might not be so good...><
"A user who copies text or pictures from one web site and then posts the material among the user's own web pages is generally infringing a copyright. Even if the user makes some changes before posting the material, the act of posting can be copyright infringement, as explained above in the section on plagiarism."
"The law requires that the author of a web site, book, etc. ask permission of the copyright owner before displaying any copyrighted work. The burden is on the copier to ask permission. It is not the duty of the copyright owner to cruise the Internet and ask authors to stop infringing a copyright. In fact, the copyright owner can file copyright infringement litigation immediately on discovering the unauthorized use of copyrighted material."
A general guideline and explanation to copyright laws in the U.S. I'm from Canada, so I can't really say for the U.S., different systems. However, since this is a civil case, the burden of proof is on the plaintiff (one raising the case).
We'd have to show how this dude's infringing laws, which you have just done with your links, but there needs to be more specification on the image used. That's probably it, the quote from above, some professionally sounding letter, a bit of the evidence, and we're all set to scare the crap out of him. We can also add his "I didn't know" using "As a legal citizen of the United States of America, it is your duty to know the law. As such, we also find you to be in the offence of being a negligent citizen, as ignorance of the law is no excuse. The government supplies sufficient resources for each of its citizens to be constantly updated on the law, thus it is irresponsible and highly ignorant of you."
Bet that will scare him good. He can't go against the government, he wouldn't dare.
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GO to hel---oops, sorry. We're already living in it. My bad.
A lot of others who read what went on have left very good advice as well as... I guess just commenting about the situation. No one but you and others who have had artwork stolen can really understand what it's like.
Who knows how much of it out there is shit we haven't even found yet, too.
It's obnoxious and an issue, but bit by bit we'll fight back as we can :/
I can't sound overtly dramatic or give you advice that will make you feel better, but I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Lord knows I've had a spot in my heart for your works, so of course if something goes wrong I get angry -_-;
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Daily Literature Deviations is a group that is dedicated to bringing literature to the forefront of the deviantArt community. We attempt to accomplish this by daily featuring Literature artists from around the community that deserve the recognition, but are not getting it. Each day we will feature 10 deviations from the Literature categories in a News Article. In order to support the artists that we feature, we ask that you the news article as well as check out the individual pieces. We understand that each day you may not be able to check out each and every one of the pieces, everyone has their own things going on. We just ask that you make an attempt to help support the growing Literature community.
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well do I lie like a loungeroom lizard, or do I sing like a bird released?