Possible art theft

[Troedel]

I did a little experiment to see if i can dig up maps posted here without being a member (logged in). Made me wonder if an account is necessary to access content. I don't talk hacking, just...

cartographers guild site:www.cartographersguild.com - Google-Suche

Are you aware of this? Or are these maps just those accessible through the front page. I have not dug any deeper.

update: knowing a name one can dig up everything, google seems to index deep links bypassing user identification.

[foremost]

Simply doing a google image search for "Fantasy Maps" yeilds results from this website, along with others. Theft could certainly be an issue, maybe this site could be able to do something about requiring people to sign in.


edit - But yes, even some of the most secure websites have their systems bypassed by google. Not much we can do really except hope theft doesn't happen.

[vorropohaiah]

only came across this now - such a shame

most of the deviantart links are broken, though the sarthony acount still seems to be active, though i havent found anything map-related (yet).

such a shame this stuff goes on. I hate looking at my fave artist's work with watermarks spashled all over it but sometimes that's the only options artists have to stop people ripping them off. one of my favourite artists Aly Fell (also known as poshspice) had one of his seminal images (Port Out, Starboard Home: The Absinthe Fairy) was stolen and being sold by someone else. really sad, as i'd hate to have to post pictures with watermarks.

[terjebol]

Would it be an idea to have some sort of option to imprint a discrete watermark when uploading an image here? For stuff you want to share but not give away?

[Midgardsormr]

I don't think it would be worthwhile to create a server-side watermarking system. If an artist is concerned about possible theft, it's easy enough to add a watermark prior to export.