Stolen maps on Fiverr

[Jaxilon]

This one: https://www.fiverr.com/maikiolamp/dr...kg_id=1&pos=46
is actually by djekspek one of our all time greats who I haven't seen in a long time but here is the proof: https://www.deviantart.com/djekspek/...aign-447755119
And I'm pretty sure this is the client it was done for here: http://www.erevos.info/erevos/erevos-world/

I can't imagine you make any kind of money working on fiverr. If you can buy dj's stuff for 30 bucks I totally quit.

Zero integrity that's what this is. People who have not a shred of integrity post works that are not their own claiming they are. Their behavior disgusts me.

[Kellerica]

Unless it's a scam through and through...

I'd imagine it has to be. If it's a real person behind the account and they actually do make map art, why not just show their own?

[Larb]

Definitely a scam I imagine. As I mentioned, a bunch of those accounts look like they're all made by one person. They probably just take a shotgun approach, take what money they can from a buyer, burn the accounts and make some more. It's not just maps though apparently, it seems to be common on the site with other art too.

One of the funniest is the person who has ripped the official Skyrim map and added a watermark saying it was designed by them. Like, at least put in a little effort!

[Falconius]

I think you generally get what you pay for which is as true on fiver as anywhere else. There was a youtube trend a year or so ago where youtubers would buy the services of a few of them based on price (a cheap one a mid range one and an expensive one) and see the results they came up with. I watched a couple of those. One was with painting wargaming miniatures and there were some pretty good deals, but not bargain bin bargains, and the high priced ones were pretty damn legit. And I imagine the ones where you got a decently painted mini for a really good price probably burn out or raise their prices.

As for people stealing other peoples maps for advertising themselves, it's senseless. Obviously as everyone here knows making maps is not so simple, and just as obviously those thief's on Fiverr are lazy, a generally malady of thieves.

[Tiana]

I'd imagine it has to be. If it's a real person behind the account and they actually do make map art, why not just show their own?

It's a stupid scam, though, because all the buyer has to do is say the art wasn't delivered to their satisfaction and they will get refunded, no questions asked by Fiverr, and the seller will get a bad review and a couple of those will ruin their business. They MUST be able to deliver a product if they want that money. Fiverr doesn't let you cut and run with money ever. They take 20% because they're an escrow company that prevents that in the buyer's favor no matter what. No matter how much your client abused and took advantage of you.

I stopped using Fiverr when I did about 20 hours of work on a map and the client was like "nope, unusable" and I was driven to a suicidal breakdown by having to refund that entire chunk of work. NOW I work with a 50% non-refundable sketch deposit.

[Wingshaw]

It's a stupid scam, though, because all the buyer has to do is say the art wasn't delivered to their satisfaction and they will get refunded, no questions asked by Fiverr, and the seller will get a bad review and a couple of those will ruin their business. They MUST be able to deliver a product if they want that money.

If they're willing to steal maps to get gigs, they'd also be willing to steal maps to give as the final product. So the standard is high quality. Just not honest.

Wingshaw

[ThomasR]

In my experience commissioned maps are so taylor made, it’s hard to imagine how they could deliver a random map found in the interwebs, especially when one usually post downsized versions.

[Tiana]

In my experience commissioned maps are so taylor made, it’s hard to imagine how they could deliver a random map found in the interwebs, especially when one usually post downsized versions.

That's my thoughts. For example, one of my stolen maps was hand lettered, so what if the customer asked for that style of lettering? It would be possible to clone stamp out the old letters but it would not be possible to recreate with custom words.

It's more likely the bait and switch is that they show custom made pieces and deliver Inkarnate pieces. I saw a great many of those "delivered on Fiverr".

[MistyBeee]

With the advent of the DMCA, sites have protections from user postings ONLY if they remove items flagged by users who claim to be the copyright holder. You cant action things that are pointed out as stolen unless the person reporting it is the copyright holder. It is possible as an admin to remove items which you think are stolen BUT if you do that then you set the precedent that the site is then fully moderated for copyright accuracy so that then items that are not removed are deemed to have been chosen to have been left there by the moderators. Therefore, the general consensus is that you cant remove artworks which you think are stolen unless you have had it pointed out by the copyright holder that they are.

This is one of those weird aspects where the DMCA was supposed to have stopped people posting stolen copyright on forums but the reality is that it has prevented moderators from removing it.

So - if you are the copyright holder for the art then ask them to remove it, or find who the copyright holder is and tell them that they need to report it and usually sites will do so. If you claim to be the copyright holder and in actual fact you are not then the claimant is leaving themselves open to a claim of fraud instead of the hosting platform.

We have a FAQ on here about how to make DMCA claims on this site and we generally follow the usual process. Robbie is the final site owner and has access to the lawyers which is what part of the site subscriptions help fund - not that we have had to use their services very often as this is a pretty copyright abiding place given that we have a lot of content creators here as well as consumers of it.

Also, this site does not claim to own any of the art posted to it, nor does it take part of the commission for art sales, and its up to the requester and the comission artist to sort their own deal out and take their own reponsibility for it and as such the artist gets 100% of the comission and takes 100% of the risks for it too.

Oh, thanks so much for the insight ! Very helpful to understand better what's happening. And... yeah, how ironic... ^^'