Board Thread:Support Requests - Community Management/@comment-6935511-20140822094508/@comment-1267828-20140908154933

CATGUN wrote: This is getting serious...more of my stuff is been taken from the thief....ok I guess I am left with no choice but to request for staff help then.Thank you for the help everyone. Speaking as an individual who does have some knowledge of the realms of copyright, I can effectively say this to you and any others wondering the question:

If, in a court of United States Law (since that's the copyright law I mostly understand) you can prove your work is being stolen by providing evidence that you indeed own the original work, then it is grounds for a copyright suit. You MUST be able to provide information proving you not only own the work, but that said work was either created or published by you BEFORE the date of theft. Additionally, the original file on the image works best.

In cases of fanart images, these images CAN still be considered copyrighted by you IF (and only if) you can prove you did indeed create the image. Although the character itself is owned by another company, you still own the image yourself, and, as long as it is not being commercially distrubuted, can file a claim against said individual for theft.

In cases of original works, or works you own a copyright over, you may file a claim regarding theft of intellectual property being stolen.

I assume you may already, but contacting staff with a copy of the original file, and proof of your ownership of it would help you greatly, especially if you own a Deviantart account or similar image account which can date the image for you.

I suggest reading up heavily into Copyright laws of the country you're in, as it is very important to know, and I have only given you a bare bones explanation missing much of the meat.

Good luck.