I used to have a pretty lax view about things I considered to be "victimless" theft. I was even overjoyed when I found a site, many years ago, that uploaded the full text and images from numerous books (including every dnd book and module imaginable). Then I ran across a plea from Virginia Heinlein, asking that people please stop posting her late husband's books as those revenues were now her sole means of support and that the free copies were drastically affecting her dwindling income. That changed my views considerably.

Granted, that's a bit different but imagine the following:

You walk into an office about to start an interview for your dream job. Fully confident in your abilities, you proudly display your portfolio. After flipping through the artwork, the interviewer says "What are you trying to pull? These aren't yours. I've seen them on the internet under another name."

If the images were first seen by the interviewer on another site and credited to another name, the real artist will have to prove they are really his. But if the interviewer thinks they aren't he may simply show the artist the door, never voicing his suspicions and never giving him the opportunity to prove they are his. And never calling him back.

I urge anyone who has had their work stolen and posted under another name to contact the perpetrator and ask that the work be removed from their site, or at the very listed properly credited. Not only do you protect your own work, you let them know that they can't continue unnoticed and unchallenged. You may very well protect another artist from the situation described above.

< Places soapbox back in the laundry room >