Question on Cover Art plagiarism

[Daniel_Matthews]

How do artists know if a book's cover art is bought or plagiarised from the internet? Is there a way to confirm that?

 

[KayceeCharles]

It kinda depends. As a buyer, a real artists should be able to vouch for original content, and have a bond or such for proper performance, or at least file an affidavit that this is an original work. So if it's plagiarized, get sue for damages.

OTOH, google image search is VERY useful. Though the art also needs to be mirrored and searched again.

 

[sr71plt]

You buy use permissions from a photo service through a registered account and the image comes with source data embedded in it. So, if you own an image and have it with a photo service, presumably you can trace back whether it's a legitimate use through the embedded data.

My published works include the source of the cover image(s) on the copyright page.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Google image search will help find other similar images around; if you find a match, then you can start looking into whether the user had permission.

 

[Daniel_Matthews]

So the source code will verify if it has permission or not? Is that it or is there any other way? Can I contact the author or Amazon about it?

I know how to search for an image. I just don't know how to verify it's originality. Reason is I came across an Amazon book cover that definitely looked like an art piece I had long removed from deviantart. It wasn't for sale, just an advertisement for my other wares.

I have taken down my account and other stuff. And I haven't been in the business long enough to know everything about it.

So any help will be appreciated in that department.

 

[lovecraft68]

So if I understand correctly, you believe someone used a piece of your original artwork for a cover design?

What I would try first is contacting the author. Do they have a website or FB link on their book page? If they do reach out with your concerns. If they did indeed steal it and now know you're onto them they may remove it rather than risk their account with amazon.

If you can't get in touch with them, the next step is reporting it to amazon itself and here's some information how. This thread is about e-books, but I imagine its the same process.

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1055555

The fact its no longer on deviant art or anywhere else, may make it hard for you to prove it was originally yours. The net is a slippery slope and a big grocery store for thieves as many here have seen with our stories.

Good luck

 

[Daniel_Matthews]

He/she is very clever. Used some sort of photo filter to make it look different. You can still recognise the woman's face and pretty much everything else.

The account looks very sketchy with only an email for contact. I'll send an email and see what I can gather. Don't expect any response but still... it'd be worth an effort.

Anywho. Thanks for the help. Let's see what I can salvage.

 

[Bramblethorn]

So the source code will verify if it has permission or not?

I think SR's talking about art licensed through a stock image company there. If somebody has just ripped off your work from DA and then modified it to make their own cover, then there's not likely to be anything in the image that confirms it's yours, beyond what's visible.

Even if your image was still up on DA, without registered copyright you're not likely to have much luck getting Amazon to take it down. One thing you could try is checking the author's other covers to see if any of them have been stolen from other artists who have registered theirs, but you probably don't have much recourse here. Sorry :-/

 

[sr71plt]

So the source code will verify if it has permission or not?

No, it's just a reference to the source.

 

[Daniel_Matthews]

I got no reply from the guy (kinda expected that) and waited for a few days. Guess what, I think the douche got banned. I tried his homepage url and it was gone. I'm getting a message of 'this page no longer exists'.