Professional web-columnists (ab)using my fanart
I think I need your advice guys, 'cause I'm too surprised and upset (and, frankly, ignorant as to how it all works in the Western corner of the Web) to decide what to do in the current sutuation.
The thing is, during this fall two professional columns have taken, edited and reposted a piece of my fanart as illustraion to their articles without even informing me, not to mention asking my permission or crediting me as the source.
This is the artwork I'm talking about.
Destructoid.com cropped the piece and added text to it, then posted it as the header to their article. It was two months ago, but I found out only recently. It upset me but I decided to let it be because the wallpaper in question is popular and being stolen quite often - even if not by professional journalists but still, I don't have enough time and nerve cells to worry about each cause.
Today, Stuff.co.nz took that same wallpaper, resized it, edited out all the text (including my signature, as far as I can tell - although, since they shrinked it down I can't be 100% sure) and posted it here as illustration to their article on results of some TV-Guide poll.
Now, this is starting lo look like a sick trend of sorts, which I don't like and don't feel I easily can let be. The wallpaper they abused was a product of several days of labour; it's not some promo picture I simply blended and called 'my art'; it's a very complex manipulation which was carefully assembled like a mosaic of 15 base images - by me, from scratch. Seeing it stolen by 'pro's', without as much as aknowledging me as the maker doesn't feel 'right', if not legally then at least emotionally.
And so I've reached the point where I need advice: is there something - anything - I can do in this situation to make the professional editions either stop or credit me as the graphic maker? Or, since the wall is a piece of fanart, I don't have the right to complain? Like I said, I don't know how this all works on the juridical level and whether journalists are supposed to follow any etiquette code as to fansites' content. (Although, when Toronto Star took one of my wallpapers to illustrate an article a year or two ago, they did ask, and credited me, too.)
So... Help me, please. What would you do if you were in my shoes?
The thing is, during this fall two professional columns have taken, edited and reposted a piece of my fanart as illustraion to their articles without even informing me, not to mention asking my permission or crediting me as the source.
This is the artwork I'm talking about.
Destructoid.com cropped the piece and added text to it, then posted it as the header to their article. It was two months ago, but I found out only recently. It upset me but I decided to let it be because the wallpaper in question is popular and being stolen quite often - even if not by professional journalists but still, I don't have enough time and nerve cells to worry about each cause.
Today, Stuff.co.nz took that same wallpaper, resized it, edited out all the text (including my signature, as far as I can tell - although, since they shrinked it down I can't be 100% sure) and posted it here as illustration to their article on results of some TV-Guide poll.
Now, this is starting lo look like a sick trend of sorts, which I don't like and don't feel I easily can let be. The wallpaper they abused was a product of several days of labour; it's not some promo picture I simply blended and called 'my art'; it's a very complex manipulation which was carefully assembled like a mosaic of 15 base images - by me, from scratch. Seeing it stolen by 'pro's', without as much as aknowledging me as the maker doesn't feel 'right', if not legally then at least emotionally.
And so I've reached the point where I need advice: is there something - anything - I can do in this situation to make the professional editions either stop or credit me as the graphic maker? Or, since the wall is a piece of fanart, I don't have the right to complain? Like I said, I don't know how this all works on the juridical level and whether journalists are supposed to follow any etiquette code as to fansites' content. (Although, when Toronto Star took one of my wallpapers to illustrate an article a year or two ago, they did ask, and credited me, too.)
So... Help me, please. What would you do if you were in my shoes?