Last night I received a google alert regarding my name on the internet and was surprised to be directed to a website that had two of my original artworks listed for sale, without my permission.
Upon further investigation, it seems a legitimate company called Cloudflare was used as a front to the server of the website owner, making it difficult to track down who is actually responsible for the copywrite infringement.
I have notified Cloudflare by both email and their online reporting center and contacted Philly Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts as well as received support from many friends with legal backgrounds, which helps to soften the frustration. I also want to give a mention to Mark of Philly Wisper (my internet provider) who responded to me within the day with answers to my questions about looking up domain names and tracking down owners of websites. He really goes above and beyond, and that kind of action and kindness renews my hope for this world!
At this point, I don’t have a resolution to this issue. My work is still floating out there for sale on some strange site. Whether they send a terrible low quality print out, or whether they’re just trying to get people’s credit card information, I am not sure? But it made me think about consumer activity and how when we buy stuff online, it’s important to buy from reputable companies. Counterfeit goods have been an issue for a long time. Maybe that saying, “if it’s too good to be true, it’s probably not” is appropriate here.