Hi Skinmallot.  Thank you for the information.  In general, when  you find something like this it is better to handle things by email.  You can contact the author with a link if you have his/her address (this is good because sometimes people post with different names at different places).  Most good sites have a report mechanism so that the public can report items that they recognize as a rip.  Be prepared to provide a link to the original, plus the author's name.  Also, you can always contact the moderators here by email.  To the left you will see a box entitled *options*.  If you click on *about* you will find a list of moderators and e-mail addresses.

It is usually best to handle these things by email because of a number of factors.  It is sometimes hard to know which is the rip and which is the original and you wouldn't want to accuse the wrong person.  The author may have given permission.  The author may have a different name.

All that being said, it is good that you are sharp-eyed enough to spot something like this, and decent enough to want to do something about it.  Thank you.

Letter (spellchecked) sent with a CC to Jafo. 

I think that the site in question is not a wallpaper site primarily.  It seems to be some kind of site that offers storage, an email account, a gallery for images, and blog space.  I am speculating that there are quite a few users that do not understand issues such as copyright.  Perhaps all that needs done is that the admin needs to explain those issues and delete images or accounts that are in violation and do some policing of the gallery.

Because there were so many ripped images there from so many members, I only provided links to a few along with links to our originals.  Then I asked them to talk with their members.  My thinking was that they would perhaps make some kind of announcement and people might delete their uploads.  In a little while, we can look again.

I think that it is more a situation of ignorance rather than malice.

People generally imagine that if it is on the net it is theirs to use....and when they upload it to a site it is THEIR upload, ergo THEIR 'work'.

It's a culture of ignorance possibly related to the concept of P2P file sharing being 'kosher' and legitimate.

Sure, there are instances where/when this is the case....where the work being redistributed does NOT violate any inherent copyright but more often than not someone, somewhere is having his/her rights abused through this culture of ignorance/indifference....

Well, speaking from my experience I was pretty clueless when I first started using the Internet.  I visited a lot of sites that I know now were ripoff sites.  The Internet was something full and free and anonymous.

It was only though reading conversations here on this message board, through talking to the artists and developers, through reading all the threads on rips and copyright theft and file sharing that I started to understand.  If this place had not been as friendly as it was, if the people were not as gentle and understanding and caring I might not have stayed and then I would not have learned.  Because one thing I know for sure... there are a lot more opportunities out there to take things from the easy way than there are places that take time to educate, support, and share.

It's something I remember sometimes when someone clueless comes along.  I have a better chance of getting them to understand things and change their thinking and habits if I take a little more time with someone.  I can be a real grouch sometimes and I try to remember that when I am responding to people.

Jafo's right.  The ignorance and indifference abundant in this virtual world does hurt real people, abuse their rights.  And its not easy to figure a way to reach people with some insight on their actions.  But the longer you can have contact with them, the friendlier you can be, the more approachable and therefore more reachable they will be.  Nothing makes a person's defenses to go up faster than to be met with immediate suspicion.  And getting through defenses is really a hard thing to do.