Looking for Beta tester

[Juliep]

Hi,

I've just finished a total redo on my website and am looking for feedback. What instigated the redo has to do with people stealing images off line. I actually found one on a blog with their name photoshopped into my image! Another one on a lude website - had to contact the FBI on that one....

So here's the link to the redo. Please give any feedback you feel would be helpful. THANKS!!

http://www.artbyjuliep.com

[Erika Takacs]

It was nice to see your macro painting again, Julie. To address your valid concerns your watermarks need to be noticeable. Some are and some are not. I think I liked the Pink Orchid version the most. It's very visible yet not interfering too much with the enjoyment of your painting. The colours blend in nicely and it's at the bottom of the picture, still the watermark is very obvious.

[BYart]

Copyright theft is something I am well familiar with as well. In the past, I had images stolen off my site and reproduced in various items for sale on a cups/mugs type site! A friend made me aware, and I contacted the owner of the site's legal dept. and they were pulled immediately, and the thief's account closed. I also contacted Google and made them aware of this person's theft.
I've tried watermarks, but as I have found out, if someone is good with an image editing software, they can be removed.
Someone on another forum gave me a tip back then to send digital photos of my work to myself at it's completion. Set up a "free" account such as AOL or Gmail where the space is unlimited. Then you don't clog your reg. email. That instantly produces a record of your work, and no one can argue the date of creation.
With the internet, even though International Copyright laws are intense and in effect, many do not abide by them if they see a way to make a buck off of another's hard work! Grrr.....

[Juliep]

Thanks for your input ladies. I'll take that into consideration Erika.

That's a good idea about sending the pictures to an account. I always do wip pics and place them in my hard drive. As my dad says this kind of thievery is a back handed compliment.

[bergina]

Hello Juliep,
I definitely hear what you are saying but I don't understand how someone can steal something of a website and actually use it for any kind of paper, cloth , canvas etc reproduction as the file size is generally way to small?
With that said, I just received an e-mail from someone in another Province who was inquiring about one of my print reproductions. They mentioned that they were familiar with my work because their parents recently purchased one of my framed prints titled “Fields of Gold” and liked my style. Problem is, I did do a painting with this titled and it’s on my website. However I’ve never made any kind of reproduction and the original is in my home? I played dumb thanked them for the compliment and subtly asked for info as to where and when they made their purchase? To be honest I’m not overly concerned.
I have had much worse happen as far as stealing my work.
Hopefully I’ll hear back from them as it would be interesting to try and track this down though probably a total waste of my time.
I checked out your website. It’s very nice and easy to navigate.
How have had many sales at Fine Art America?
Al

[oilpainter2247]

very nice site Julie ,,, your work looks great also mike

[Danny Heim]

them's sum dandy flowerses, Julie, very nice