One to report and block.

@alan @astronomerritt @Emmacox I’ve had people steal my work — photos, mainly — republishing them on their own websites to drive physical traffic/sales. When confronted, they typically plead ignorance. Unconvincingly. I’ve had it happen in this area: they really don’t like getting phone calls about it.

@alan @tantramar @astronomerritt yes, and ask first.

@alan @tantramar @astronomerritt yes, and ask first.

@Emmacox @alan @astronomerritt Sure but you might not say yes! ‍️ #ArseholesGonnaArsehole

@alan @astronomerritt @Emmacox I’ve had people steal my work — photos, mainly — republishing them on their own websites to drive physical traffic/sales. When confronted, they typically plead ignorance. Unconvincingly. I’ve had it happen in this area: they really don’t like getting phone calls about it.

@tantramar @alan @astronomerritt I can imagine they don’t. I do have a watermark in that photo, which I doubt he even noticed. I know it’s easy enough to digitally remove them, but it’s one of the few measures I have.

@Emmacox @alan @astronomerritt The guy I called out — once he was done stammering and oh, but, uh, I… — he pointed out my logo in the QTVR file as justification, almost as if I should be paying him for the exposure. I said it was there so I could prove people like him had stolen it.

@Emmacox @alan @astronomerritt When I called the guy who stole one of my QuickTime VR panoramas and put it on his website — and this was a guy I’d met in person! — I opened with “where do I send the invoice for $10,000?” That got his attention.

@tantramar @astronomerritt @Emmacox Oh the number of people who genuinely believe that anything on the internet is effectively public domain is truly absurd.

I put stuff that's 1024px or less up with an obvious watermark and explicitly make it CC-SA-NC licensed. Anything bigger than that does not get uploaded to a public site (and very few "private" sites as well, just suppliers).

@alan @tantramar @astronomerritt I’m doing a big website revamp with new artwork and photographs. I think I might have to up the watermark before I make these new pages live.

@tantramar @alan @astronomerritt ha! I’ll remember that.

@Emmacox @tantramar @astronomerritt I had someone say "your watermark makes the image ugly." I responded "not so ugly that you can't figure it out. Don't like the watermark? Buy the fucking image."

Seriously, the "hey, make it easier for me to steal your work" approach does not get a kind response.

@Emmacox @tantramar @astronomerritt I had someone say "your watermark makes the image ugly." I responded "not so ugly that you can't figure it out. Don't like the watermark? Buy the fucking image."

Seriously, the "hey, make it easier for me to steal your work" approach does not get a kind response.

@alan @Emmacox @astronomerritt I’d once done a watercolour painting of a large, stately home near where my parents lived. One day, at an art show where I had a vendor display, a guy who’d been admiring it from a distance approached. It was his house in the painting, but the stately elms on either side of it had been cut down since I’d painted it. But he didn’t want to pay $200 (a steal). Would I come down? No. Did I paint it from a photo? Yes, one I took. Would I sell him the photo? Again, no. Would I loan him the negative? Fuck, no. At that point, having insulted me, not for $500. He went away big mad.

@tantramar @Emmacox @astronomerritt This is where salesmanship comes in. If he had a stately house, it wasn't about the money, it was about perceived value, not of the art so much, but of you as an artist. I'd be "I know it might seem like a lot now, but just think of how many times you'll appreciate this work over the years. $200 probably comes out to less than a cent every time it gives you a good feeling." This puts the value back on the work itself.

Another one I tell painters to use when someone says "how long did it take you to paint this?" is to respond with their current age in years. One's art is the sum of their experiences, not the time it takes to put them to canvas.

@alan @Emmacox @astronomerritt The trouble is that he’d never have valued it. People don’t value things if they underpay for them or have to be talked into buying them.

“Dammit, Jim; I’m an artist not a salesman”. Lame? Maybe. Every time he tried to reduce my price I should’ve doubled it. He was, after all, showing me how much he’d regretted not having photographed his home with those trees before cutting them.

I’ve learned a thing or two about sales having been a self-employed designer for 30 years: I never try to talk anyone into anything they don’t want.

@tantramar @Emmacox @astronomerritt Ah but he did want it.

And yeah I've done that:
A: How much?
Me: $200
A: Will you take $150?
Me: No, but I will take $250.
A: Huh? How about $175?
Me: $300 sounds good.
A: How come your price keeps going up, that's not how this works!
Me: it reflects the cost of dealing with people like you, wasting my valuable time. Now $400.
A: Fuck you!
Me: have the day you so richly deserve.

@alan @Emmacox @astronomerritt I don’t believe he wanted the painting. He wanted a record of how his property looked with those trees. A photo would’ve satisfied him. He was not an art lover on any level. He felt he had a right to the image; that somehow I owed it to him because of his loss of the trees. People can be amazingly selfish.

@tantramar @Emmacox @astronomerritt True dat. But then again, the photo is evidence of your process, which will be of great interest when you're a world-famous artist featured at the Louvre, so a copy of that photo is available for the low-low discount price of $2000.

@alan @Emmacox @astronomerritt Hahaha. Amazingly, I’ve known a few artists who think they’ll be in The Louvre one day.