[Edit] A little help needed regarding theft

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[Edit]
No I don't need any help now lol 
It's... kinda sad to see that my last entry was back in Aug, and it was about theft... but I just found out something new today. 
I kinda got over (more like gave up) about this, but I found this rather amusing so I want to share with you guys. 

As some of you may know, I have a FB account (which I don't log in that often /shot) and I happened to log in today... and I found a message in my inbox sent back in November. 

It was a note from "one of the owners" of this online shop. I took a glance at it and she wrote it in proper English that I could actually read, and it started off in a friendly way - I thought it was a good start, but then I read the rest of the note and I just had to laugh at it. 

Basically it said the following: 
* "we did not publish your design as ours", but they print them on shirts when customers ask them to. 
* "where they (customers) get the design and how they got it is beyond our control."
* "Though we maybe profiting to it, the happiness that the business is bringing to customers are what is always see as most important. "
* If I have issues with the pictures they're posting to advertise, let us know which so we'll take them down. 
* They are aware of the legalities they're doing, BUT there are other bigger companies doing same thing - why leave them and attack us? 
* She read this journal - was very concerned with the negative feedback i'm giving. 

If I got this right, to sum it up in more simple way:
They're listing up reasons justify what they're doing, but they're more concerned with the legit negative reaction as a creator of the art they've used has expressed on this journal post.

:iconcannotevenplz::iconcannotevenplz::iconcannotevenplz:

Is it only me or they've clearly missed my point. 
So it's okay to make customers happy but artists unhappy? What's the difference of making the shirts using other artists' designs is okay unless the design is not published as their's? I'm confused.
And no, she didn't send any apology - I read it 3 times to see if she ever did mention about being sorry, but no :| 

I'm not gonna even waste time replying. lol (it was sent back in Nov anyway)
But I was rather amused with this response, so I'm spending time just to share with y'all. 





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Hey guys. Sorry for making rather unnecessary post while i'm inactive lately... but I'm troubled by this theft I'm facing right now and I really don't know what to do. 

I wasn't going to make this public because I thought it was over and they learned the lesson - but apparently not, and apparently the facebook won't do much so... :shrug:



So the bottom line is this: There is this One Piece online shop on facebook selling merchandise like shirts using fanarts. 
Without permission of course. 




I've received a note on my other account back in December, with a link to this facebook shop page selling One Piece items using official works as well as people's fanarts... including mine. I sent a message to that shop telling them to stop it, and I received a reply with an agreement and an apology. 



I left a message on their page (they deleted it of course), and this is what they sent me:

>Shop
"im the owner of the page Mugiwara Shop Philippines im sorry about what happen on your artwork please accept my deep apology,

it was been requested by a customer we are not aware of the artwork was been made by someone else"

>Me

"Thank you for replying, I appreciate it. I don't know how many your shop have in stock, but I want to ask you not to sell the left overs too. Also, please remove the all the photos on your product list that has my work in it (just to avoid any more confusion).

Well... I may sound harsh, but the style of the illustration is different from the official (animation studio, and Oda himself) , so I think it's pretty obvious the work is done by others. I've also recognized several works made by other artists used in some of your products, so I advice your shop to stop selling them too. Just to let you know."

>Shop

"thank you we appreciate your acceptance on our apology we dont have any leftovers of that product if we do have an order for that thats the time that we are creating those item, but from now on we will not going to create those items anymore actually we are able to produce 2 of them since someone requested it, i think they just editing it then requesting it for me to be done.

and as well others are too interested to buy those stuffs because they are aware that the profit of the products will be donated to the homeless this Lenten season especially those victim of typhoon haiyan/yolanda here in the Philippines.

if they are aware that it is the art work of the others please forgive them and if they will be punished, let me be the one to shoulder it all because im the one who created those items.."




This was back in December 8~11. 
I find it hard to understand what they're saying but they say their profit will be donated as disaster funds, but I'm doubtful about this since there were no mentions about this on their page...

So I kept an eye out on them for a month and I saw they didn't sell any fanart related products so I forgot about them... until few days ago when I received a note on my other account telling me the same shop is selling shirts again with my work. 
fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/201…
This one is just a month ago. 

I came to conclusion that they really don't understand what they're doing is illegal, and by ignoring a straightforward warning to stop means they will continue making money out of other people's work until they are closed down. And I'm not going to waste any more time trying to talk to them. 

I would like to ask for a favor my dear watchers and anyone who's reading this. 
I've realized from seeing some of their "product" photos that some of the works printed on shirts are done by other artists. I'm sure I've seen them somewhere but I was unable to trace back to who it was done by... so if you realize any of the works on there, please help me by warning those artists. 
Also, if anyone have any idea how to stop this shop from doing any more crimes, please let me know... I know reporting didn't help because the shop is still up.... 


Thanks in advance. 


--
Buns are friends, not food.
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Kjworld313's avatar
I know this is from like 2 years ago but i just couldn't bring myself to stop from writing this comment. ;n; i need help XD

Anyways, they could offer you half of what they got from all of your work on t-shirts their selling as an apology and stop selling that product.
Jeez, I would call the cops on them but then again, they wouldn't do anything cause its not a really valid crime that they can do anything about.
But yeah, they could get labeled copyright and have their site taken down o.o