Stolen maps on Fiverr

[MistyBeee]

Hello dear map makers !

Not a kind of posts I often do, but... I think it's the Guild spirit here

I got a message from another fellow map maker who discovered some of my maps were stolen and used on Fivver as illustrations for various "I'll draw your fantasy map" gigs.
Not fun, but uh... there's more.

Exploring the other "fantasy map" offers, I found a lot of other stolen maps. Mike Schley, Jonathan Roberts... I identified some of them, messaged them, but also found a lot for which if I identify the map, I'm unable to remind exactly who drew it (because I'm very so bad at memorizing names... sorry... -_-''). As most of the maps are mirrored and recolored to prevent Google search efficiency, I was unable to find a lot of the creators, but I know there's some of them here on the Guild.

I think it would be a good idea for everyone of you to have a look on the "fantasy maps" gigs on Fiverr : check the pics (there's often 3, and a lost of the stolen ones are 2nd or 3rd), and maybe report the gigs if you feel it.

Time for a fun map hunt ! ^^

Beee.

[Greg]

Yeah, this is somewhat disturbing, but thanks for point it out, Beee.

I've only browsed a little bit, but found a good number of maps I recognise. I can't find any obvious way to report the posts though. There are loads of Maxime Plasse's maps on there along with a good few other members on here, who'll I'll message in a minute (Francesca Baerald, Daniel Hasenbos and Arsheesh), but there are probably many more I've missed.

I've linked those names mentioned above in case it's easy to report and then we can all do it!

[Tiana]

Yeah, before anyone brushes it off, three of my maps are in there, including one which I ironically, drew on Fiverr. I sent the two artists in question my tutorial and resources along with an imploring request to do themselves the justice of trying to make their own map if they want to sell them, and reported them. Hopefully Fiverr will do something about it if the artist's morality doesn't kick in on being challenged by the artist who drew the art.

Some of them are so obvious about it, just flipping the art horizontally... and really famous maps too in some cases.

I admit I'm KINDA flattered that I'm finally worth stealing from (and it's my older art in these cases too, so I really should've signed those suckers) but it'll result in some unhappy buyers if they can't do art like mine, so, if they want to do the gig they really ought to do their own map INSPIRED by my work or whoever else's.

Damn though. It's rife with it.

[RenflowerGrapx]

Oh please!
Finally i'm not alone anymore! lol.

I OFTEN report users and contact the original creator to let them follow the report.
But this is getting insane for me as they DUPLICATE day by day!!

My opinion is there it exists a bot of something as an office, overflooding the marketplace with "fake" gig.
It is not only about maps, but music, design in general, and loads of categories copycated!

[Wingshaw]

I didn't find many I recognised, but here's someone ripping off Arsheesh' work: https://www.fiverr.com/bongobondu197...kg_id=1&pos=30

Wingshaw

[Tiana]

It is not only about maps, but music, design in general, and loads of categories copycated!

Fiverr is trash. I make sure to trash talk it every time someone recommends it. 50% chance that you'll end up on a fake or theft gig and not get what you really wanted. You can tell with several of these gigs for fantasy maps, the map art they deliver for their own maps is Inkarnate stamp work. What do you expect from their business model? I don't think it's bots so much as people from third world countries though.

[RenflowerGrapx]

Well. I sometimes spend time to verify EACH seller, by googling their thumbnail back.
And it takes like 3hours.

I do it like every 3-4months and it was november the last time i made it.

80% of Gigs are from the same country and in the same time of activation.
This is really bad for many of us.

Of course I talk for myself first, which I take fiverr as a training gym.
I had the opportunity to work with interesting projects, learn tricks and optimize my work flow.
Of course this is not something you can do all your life for a living, but it is a good place to know and build client-seller relationships.

So, for this reason i will always be defending fiverr by THIS side.
However, they should start to check on their users and verify the contents as this is becoming a realtrouble.

We are not talking about a single or a couple of person who take an art hoping to grab some attention, we are talkng about GROUPS/STUDIOS flooding the market to fish on customers, which will decrease the quality/expectation and insult the whole category.
if it makes sense.

[Larb]

Spotted one of mine on there and a bunch of others by other people here. I noticed they like to flip the images and/or add filters, presumably to make them less recognisable to google image search or whatever. I also noticed that at least several of the accounts are all based in kazakhstan and were all made in March 2020 - so those are probably all the same person or group.

[Tiana]

Of course this is not something you can do all your life for a living, but it is a good place to know and build client-seller relationships.

Nope. Against their TOS to take business off-site. You can get banned for exchanging contact information. I did dozens of Fiverr commissions and I have no contact with any of those clients. The only benefit was that I built a portfolio of work that let me carry on off of Fiverr. The benefit to your skills is something they can't take away, at least. You can always do better on Upwork, which, while it's also trashy, has much higher admission standards, placing your work in a better light.

By using Fiverr you're putting yourselves along with the likes of those art thieves. While it says nothing about your integrity, it makes it possible for people to assume if they get burned there once, it'll happen again, and thus they pass you up for someone they can hire off site if they've been wounded by an art scammer. That has an effect on your image and how far you can go. There is the possibility for success there, in a few niches, but not the possibility of long term relationships with clients that will extend outside of the time it takes for you to age out of Fiverr. And all professionals will age out of having a 20% middleman cut eventually.

Your maps are outstanding and I have no doubt that you could make an off-site portfolio and charge $300 per map, without a 20% cut. You'd get LESS commissions, but they would be more valuable to you, and there would be no terms of service axe hanging over your head. It's okay to have made money there and be proud of that. But I look at your portfolio and see work on par with some of the best artists here.

Seems you're right about the group though.

I'm glad you're on the guild. Your art will be far better appreciated here. The commissions are much fewer but higher quality on this site.

If you want a similar site that's a bit better clients, try artistsnclients, it's an art only marketplace.

[MistyBeee]

Update : the gigs I reported, using my maps, were removed by Fiverr, so it sounds they do their job. The user also disappeared.
Nice.

Sadly, I also spotted more stolen maps today (including Francesca Baerald, Jonathan Roberts, etc.). I wonder if they remove the gigs only if you report your own pics ?

Aww, Internet, this dark and wild place...