With the rise of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) there has been an increase in art theft as of late where unscrupulous companies are taking fanart from not only our fandom but others and minting them into these tokens for sale. Art websites like DeviantArt have implemented a system to check for theft of art for NFTs but that only covers a small part of our fandom and not every theft is seen so we're putting out a general PSA on one website, in particular, that has been driving a fair number of these thefts.
OpenSea is that website in particular and I have been seeing its name make the rounds around Twitter. If you're an artist it would be worth checking the site to see if they have taken any of your work without permission and reporting it.
NFT scam alert #bronies - this guy https://t.co/YowOEmrxtb is posting NFTs made of MLP art stolen from DA - go check if yours is there and report him to the site owners.
— Pony-Berserker (@PonyBerserker) December 28, 2021
In this thread by Pony-Berserker, who initially notified us about the problem, there are several artists affected, even cosplayers, through theft on this website.
You can contact Google who hosts their images for a takedown request and Google generally processes the request relatively quickly so that is an option if you receive no reply from OpenSea.
Sadly I don't see this as a problem that is going away anytime soon considering the unregulated nature of NFTs so keep vigilant! Artists help out other artists and their fans should be on the lookout for theft as well. We don't want all of this hard work by our fandom to be used for ill-gotten gain.
Check below for the Hasbro Gallery to see if your work is in there!
Twitter: Calpain
