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The title of this journal is slightly misleading, as I am not in fact a guy. Although, I am little in the sense that I am not a large corporation, and am instead just one single person. I'm also relatively little seeing as how I'm only about 5'4" and the deep depression I've fallen into this year has caused me to lose about 60 lbs.. But that's beside the point. What's really important here is the victory part:
Back in September a dA friend of mine spotted my work being made available for download somewhere without my consent, and kindly let me know. I looked into it and found that 30 of my spaced-themed wallpapers had been ripped and uploaded to another site, where I was given not credit as creator. Admittedly, it feels a bit petty, being so incensed at the fact that I was given no credit: in the grand scheme of things it doesn't make that much of a ripple in the pond. But my overactive sense of justice was bruised and I was going to do something about it. After all, I hadn't spent hours creating artwork for someone else to swipe it and try to pass it off as a product of their own creativity (and with resounding success at that; my stolen work was downloaded 200% more often in some cases from the thieving site than from my dA gallery - and without credit, none of that traffic came anywhere near me). Unfortunately all my attempts at getting my work taken down were to no avail. But, being an unusually stubborn girl pretty much since birth, I refused to give in to good sense and let it go. So, thanks to the help of another deviant, I was able to get in touch with the company that hosts this massive ripping third party site. I emailed their info department with all the details earlier last week. I felt hopeful that, since the third party site had clearly violated my rights and therefore the terms of their contract with the hosting company, the company would be willing to remove my work as I requested. The communication barrior had me a little worried; cross continental emailing between people with very different language bases isn't the most accurate. The emails I received from them were a bit vague. And I am still waiting to hear back officially from them regarding the resolution, so this journal might be a bit premature...
But, to make a long story a little bit less long, it now looks like all but 2 or 3 of my works have been successfully removed from both the English and the Russian versions of the site. Victory! A small one, at least. I know there are many more sites out there featuring, selling, and ripping artists' works, including mine. And actually, there are still several hundered ripped wallpapers on this site. Basically, if you ever made a celestial themed wallpaper and uploaded it to dA, it's probably on there. A lot of the work I recognize, but there are some pieces, really stunning ones, and I wish I knew who created them. (If you'd like to check to see if your work has been pilfered, look at my previous journal for the name of the web site.) Also, after doing a bit more digging, it looks like there's another, albeit less well-known, version of this site. A dozen or so of my works are on this site too. But I'll deal with that later.
Back in September a dA friend of mine spotted my work being made available for download somewhere without my consent, and kindly let me know. I looked into it and found that 30 of my spaced-themed wallpapers had been ripped and uploaded to another site, where I was given not credit as creator. Admittedly, it feels a bit petty, being so incensed at the fact that I was given no credit: in the grand scheme of things it doesn't make that much of a ripple in the pond. But my overactive sense of justice was bruised and I was going to do something about it. After all, I hadn't spent hours creating artwork for someone else to swipe it and try to pass it off as a product of their own creativity (and with resounding success at that; my stolen work was downloaded 200% more often in some cases from the thieving site than from my dA gallery - and without credit, none of that traffic came anywhere near me). Unfortunately all my attempts at getting my work taken down were to no avail. But, being an unusually stubborn girl pretty much since birth, I refused to give in to good sense and let it go. So, thanks to the help of another deviant, I was able to get in touch with the company that hosts this massive ripping third party site. I emailed their info department with all the details earlier last week. I felt hopeful that, since the third party site had clearly violated my rights and therefore the terms of their contract with the hosting company, the company would be willing to remove my work as I requested. The communication barrior had me a little worried; cross continental emailing between people with very different language bases isn't the most accurate. The emails I received from them were a bit vague. And I am still waiting to hear back officially from them regarding the resolution, so this journal might be a bit premature...
But, to make a long story a little bit less long, it now looks like all but 2 or 3 of my works have been successfully removed from both the English and the Russian versions of the site. Victory! A small one, at least. I know there are many more sites out there featuring, selling, and ripping artists' works, including mine. And actually, there are still several hundered ripped wallpapers on this site. Basically, if you ever made a celestial themed wallpaper and uploaded it to dA, it's probably on there. A lot of the work I recognize, but there are some pieces, really stunning ones, and I wish I knew who created them. (If you'd like to check to see if your work has been pilfered, look at my previous journal for the name of the web site.) Also, after doing a bit more digging, it looks like there's another, albeit less well-known, version of this site. A dozen or so of my works are on this site too. But I'll deal with that later.
I owe a big thanks to those who've been supportive of me here on deviantART, either by leaving comments, sending notes, helping me out, or even faving some of my deviations. That, and the amazing artists who never cease to impress me with their skill and creativity, are the things that keep me coming back. And I'd like to think that's a good thing 
So even though this is just one battle in an endless war, there is now one less thing that I've got to worry about. Positive steps, no matter how small, deserve to be celebrated. And as there have not been many positive things in my life lately, I am celebrating this one hard. Of course, my idea of celebrating these days involves Firefly marathons and - if I'm feeling really pumped - a minor spending spree at an art supply or book store. Given that, is it any wonder I have no social life? That, though, is a whole other can of crud I should not be opening. Victory - I'm focusing on my victory... w00t.
So even though this is just one battle in an endless war, there is now one less thing that I've got to worry about. Positive steps, no matter how small, deserve to be celebrated. And as there have not been many positive things in my life lately, I am celebrating this one hard. Of course, my idea of celebrating these days involves Firefly marathons and - if I'm feeling really pumped - a minor spending spree at an art supply or book store. Given that, is it any wonder I have no social life? That, though, is a whole other can of crud I should not be opening. Victory - I'm focusing on my victory... w00t.
Okay, so, anyone who was only interested in the "Victory for the little guy!" part of this journal can totally stop reading now. I'm probably going to start rambling now and there's really no need for you to put yourself through that particular brand of hell.
I've been writing this entry over the past few days, and each time I come back to add or change something it's like a completely different person was here. (That may or may not be evident to the poor reader. I have lost the ability to tell.) My mental health these days leaves much to be desired. Everything would all make sense to me as I wrote it, but looking back at it the next day I could make little sense of what I had said. So at one point in writing this journal I had a lot more to go on about, all about being depressed and suicidal. But today, even though my disposition is still not particularly sunny, I was just too tired to make sense of my own thoughts and so erased them. I will say this though, simply because I need to say it somewhere and I'm already typing: There's been a crack in my life, and everything I used to believe in turned out to be nothing more than dust. I've lost all hope, all grounding, and I just don't want to live anymore. This, they tell me, is moderate to severe clinical depression. Whatever its label, it's a goddamned nightmare. Unlike a lot of depressed people, though, I don't feel worthless (in fact, despite my faults, I'm know I'm pretty damn great). I'm just tired of living lies and being miserable. I'm tired of blind faith. So all words of encouragement that people try to offer, words that are backed with absolutely no proof (life will get better, there is hope!) don't mean anything, and it all pretty much just angers me. I'm at the breaking point. Don't get me wrong; I don't sit around planning my death all day...I have to go to work, too. Every now and then I get this little glimmer of something that's not despair - not happiness, but, just, not despair. It's just, I don't know how much longer I'm supposed to go on living from glimmer to glimmer. I'm pretty tired of it all. I will undoubtedly regret writing this part of the journal but... whatever.
I've been writing this entry over the past few days, and each time I come back to add or change something it's like a completely different person was here. (That may or may not be evident to the poor reader. I have lost the ability to tell.) My mental health these days leaves much to be desired. Everything would all make sense to me as I wrote it, but looking back at it the next day I could make little sense of what I had said. So at one point in writing this journal I had a lot more to go on about, all about being depressed and suicidal. But today, even though my disposition is still not particularly sunny, I was just too tired to make sense of my own thoughts and so erased them. I will say this though, simply because I need to say it somewhere and I'm already typing: There's been a crack in my life, and everything I used to believe in turned out to be nothing more than dust. I've lost all hope, all grounding, and I just don't want to live anymore. This, they tell me, is moderate to severe clinical depression. Whatever its label, it's a goddamned nightmare. Unlike a lot of depressed people, though, I don't feel worthless (in fact, despite my faults, I'm know I'm pretty damn great). I'm just tired of living lies and being miserable. I'm tired of blind faith. So all words of encouragement that people try to offer, words that are backed with absolutely no proof (life will get better, there is hope!) don't mean anything, and it all pretty much just angers me. I'm at the breaking point. Don't get me wrong; I don't sit around planning my death all day...I have to go to work, too. Every now and then I get this little glimmer of something that's not despair - not happiness, but, just, not despair. It's just, I don't know how much longer I'm supposed to go on living from glimmer to glimmer. I'm pretty tired of it all. I will undoubtedly regret writing this part of the journal but... whatever.
Also, in other news:
• It snowed today.
• I loathe fruit flies.
• It snowed today.
• I loathe fruit flies.
• I just uploaded a new deviation, so there must be at least some part of my soul that's not dead yet:
• That's all I got.
Ciao, my friends.
Relevant Journal Title Here
Hey, peeps.
So.
I've been away. For. A while.
Some of you may have noticed this, since it's been, what, 2 years?
Anyway I just wanted to apologize for my abysmal delays in correspondence. For anyone who's left me notes, posted comments or questions, either here or at my blog, I swear I'm neither dead nor a complete jerk. Put simply, medical issues have been keeping me down. I'm really sorry for being so inattentive.
I had the chance tonight to look at my messages and I've tried to look at all of the art that has been linked to me. So many of you are doing such wonderful work, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a smidge jealous of your
Qa1985ws: Space Theif
Just a shoutout to my celestial artist friends out there: Qa1985ws and other users on the website "goodfon.com" have ripped off a lot of space wallpapers from artists here on dA, myself included. I don't think there's any profit involved, but none of the artists are being credited. I've seen it happen before, where someone finds a wallpaper on a site like this and thinks it's free for use, and goes making products with it, without the original artists ever knowing or receiving any kind of compensation (myself included, again). It's really lame, and I just wanted to put the word out, if you haven't already heard. There are thousands of wallpap
Making Sad Squids Smile
Announcing the grand opening of my own Etsy shop; the Sad Cephalopod pattern has been published!
GREETINGS EARTHENS, ALIENS, AND ALL FLAMINGOS WITH INTERNET ACCESS:
I'm taking a break from all my ranting and raving (finally) to share with anyone interested in cute amigurumi patterns that my Sad Cephalopod pattern is now available :)
If you missed the Sad Cephalopod, you can check out the posting here: the Sad Cephalopod on ea1701.wordpress.com
The amigurumi design comes along with a short story about loneliness, kindness, and making it through tough times; sometimes even a squid needs a hug! I unveiled the design back in June, and now, du
...amigurumi design theif? :(
Most of the time when it comes to art theft, I see people rip of digital art, typically, in my case anyway, celestial art. But I just recently stumbled upon an amigurumi design thief. She's here on deviantART...and Facebook and etsy. She's got designs in her gallery that have been copyrighted by several other pattern makers. These pattern makers are pretty well known in the crafty community, and I recognized their designs right away - designs from A Morning Cup of Jo, All About Ami, Adorably Kawaii, and others - I don't know if any of them are okay with this, but I know on some of their work the copyright info is clear so I have to wonder. (A
© 2013 - 2024 ex-astris1701
Comments22
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Other people have probably already told you this, but I guess it won't hurt to repeat the fact that you are an awesome artist, and no matter what happens, you will have people that care about your wellbeing. The posting of art on the internet just means that you have complete strangers that care about your existence also.
Perhaps instead of blind faith, you should search for something that touches you personally, that you really do believe in. Whether it's the love of people around you, the support of people from the internet, or just the satisfaction of producing beautiful art, I'm sure you will be able to find something to make life make sense, and mean something again.
Or you could go all existential and nihilistic. I'm kind of like that. There's no point to anything, so why worry about it? Though I guess that makes me more of an optimistic nihilist...
There are a lot of big words that describe many different ways of thinking. Existentialism. Spiritualism. Atheism. Theism. Agnosticism. All the -isms.
Maybe a little certainty in what you want out of life, and what it means to you, will help you get back on your metaphorical feet (I shall send you metaphorical fluffy bunny shoes metaphorically 
)
)Well, I hope I've been constructive, and at least slightly relevant. If nothing I've said was relevant to you, then just ignore me, or go and google some philosophical concepts to think about. Nihilism is a fascinating, multifaceted subject.
Good luck with your future projects and pursuits!