Well...This is alarming...Advice for stealing people's images from Zazzle

[SJoy]

I know this happens...But when is Z going to step up and protect the image property of our designs?  With websites deliberately explaining how easy it is to quickly steal something that has taken us sometimes even hours to design and use it for their own intentions, whether personal or resale, is down right horrific.  I just came across a site doing just that easily accessible via front page of Google.  This is one major area I feel that Z needs to invest in for a few reasons.

1. If the images were better protected then the customer would be forced to follow through with the purchase instead of using Z's own design tool to customize it and then screen shot it. 

2.  Z loses money...We as designers lose money (and our own time for designing it).

3. Considering that customers come here for the amazing selection of designs that designers have created (after all customers are not going to be coming here looking for a blank mug or blank shirt, etsc), you would think Z would have enough respect for it's designers to protect their work on site.  

Ok....My rant is over.  Just sayin'.

[idraw]

@SJoy 
You could message or chat any mod and send them the link, possibly they can/will act on it.

[SJoy]

I am not sure much will get done if they were contacted.  I am reading other posts that talk about their designs being stolen and sold on other platforms.  I guess this is just an ongoing problem.  Thanks for your reply.

[Fiorenzo]

You can turn off customization and design transfer and add a watermark to your content and your designs are pretty safe from regular visitors and shoppers. Thieves, nerds, and hackers will always find ways to get access to your originals, no matter how you protect them.

I don't see many options for Zazzle to protect our designs in better ways than they're already doing, without harming ourselves, e.g. with no more zoom tool, blurry low-resolution previews and designer content, etc. Plus, such sites you mentioned are all over the net, no way you can get rid of all of them and I also heavily doubt, there is a legal basis to stop them to share tips and tricks and workarounds to exploit software weaknesses.

You can't have both, high customization and maximum safety, so you need to choose what works better for you - either or. There are other PODs that let you design and sell finished products in a "safe" environment with customers having no customizing abilities and resp. no access to higher resolution content but the provided previews.

I personally prefer Zazzle for the almost unlimited freedom I have in designing, including all these juicy extras like templates, and the possibilities it also offers to the customers to get their own final touch on my designs. I'm fine the way it is now. And I spend hours up to days creating one single artwork of mine at sizes up to 10k pixels per side, not counting the time I spend on the product designs themselves to make all look as perfect as possible. Not trying to brag, I just want to show you that I would have all reasons to worry. I don't because I know there isn't 100% safety on the net, and I know that if I choose to work on it, I have to live with all the side effects that come with it.

[SJoy]

I appreciate your feedback.  It just seems strange that not much gets done about it.  I agree that Z is one of the better POD's because of their customization options.  I just don't understand why we really don't have much protection with our designs and that Z is being a wonderful place to offer all these "free" designs for the taking.  I guess it is more or less a disheartening realization for me.

[Cat]

I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but other than watermarks or something else that covers up part of the image, I honestly don't think that there is anything that Zazzle can do - at least in terms of preventing screen shots - it's simply not technically possible. A screen shot is something done at the operating system level, NOT something the web page or app can control.

So, anything that the user/customer can see on their screen/phone, they can screenshot - there's just no way around it because you cannot create a web page/app that disables part of the operating system - it just can't be done.

The only way to protect online images is to create a system for displaying the image where the entire image is never visible all at once - such as a watermark, or something else that covers up part of the image - but that would have to apply to the design tool as well, because you can screenshot from anywhere. That's my understanding anyhow. 

[SJoy]

Thanks for your reply.  I can see where you are coming from on this.  Though when I read some information that Z offers about using the watermark option, it says something about it limiting your visibility like surfacing in Google search.  So, even though like you said people can still go into design mode and screen shot from there, that using the watermark feature really isn't all that helpful.    It's just a little hard for me to stomach the hard work put into designing for it to be used like this.  I really do appreciate everyone's thoughts and comments. Thank you all.

[Cat]

You're 100% right about the disadvantages of watermarks. I think that's why Z leaves it up to the individual designer. Bottom line, if your image is on the web, it can be stolen. It's disheartening, but I think it's just reality.

[Fiorenzo]

I hope, my reply wasn't too harsh and you didn't feel attacked. I know well how you feel, I'm in this business since the mid-90s when I sold self-made clipart, image collections, and greeting cards on CD/DVD, including a so-called "print studio" to create your own cards and other prints, pretty similar to Zazzle's designer but complete with templates and imagery. A lot of this stuff is all over the net by now. I've learned to live with it. On the positive side, this also brought new customers to me. That's also why I'm pretty relaxed with my works on Zazzle and how Zazzle manages it. Well knowing that there is no 100% safety on the net.

It's also a game of compromises, especially when it comes to your own website and social media postings. My social postings are always around 600x800 or 960x600 pixels but with low compression so they look beautiful. And for the website I'm working on, I plan to use images up to 1200 pixels, again with low compression for best look. These images are large enough to be copied and used on many smaller to mid-size products on Zazzle or other PODs with perfect print results. So basically everyone can steal and reuse them. I could add large watermarks or make them blurrier, but this will also negatively affect the experience of my visitors and followers.

You can't do much. What you can do is try to not overthink and ruin your sleep and mood. In the end, it isn't as bad as it appears. The ones buying Chinese junk from these dropshipping stores (our worst enemies) won't buy on Zazzle anyway, and customers who go for cheap are not the customers you want to deal with. These are the ones who complain most about all possible and impossible stuff you can imagine and who try to get refunds for perfectly fine products to not have to pay at all. This I can tell you from my own experience.

Love your Winter mountains plates, btw, they look amazingly beautiful, like handcrafted instead of printed, and the colors are so lovely, especially the mint and pink variants. Truly special works you won't find behind every corner. There are some other truly lovely designs, but these mountains caught my eye.

Happy designing and best of luck!

[ievajen]

just came up on copyright issues Etsy sellers being sued :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B13nwASugAQ

[PacifierCity]

You can always contact them via there website if possible.  You can also try a whois search and see if there is an email address listed there to contact the through.  It is also possible to contact folks through their posted socials.  It would also be fair to post on your socials about them and ask your followers share your post so that as many people as possible are aware that this site is selling your stolen design.  Eventually, when folks search for the seller/site, the social posts about them stealing, if liked and shared enough, will come up above or just below search results for them.  idraws idea of reporting them to Disney, etc, is another great idea.  Those folks should go after the site and can cause much more trouble than we can.  One thing to be careful about though, especially with socials, would be retaliation by the site owners...  Be wary especially if you use your real name or if your address, or partial address or business address (phone number), can be seen in the public parts of the internet.  Stopping them from selling a few tshirts or mugs may not be worth the menace these folks could unleash on you... just because they can.

PC

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[Barbara]

I've witnessed the retaliation of thieves, and they can be vicious.

The best we can do is count on honest people, of which I believe there's a majority. I've noticed, for instance, that I've a few repeat customers for business cards. They could have simply bought one pack of cards and then used those cards to make cheaply printed copies, but they didn't.

Colorwash's Home

[ColsCreations]

 Eventually, when folks search for the seller/site, the social posts about them stealing, if liked and shared enough, will come up above or just below search results for them.

Yes! Great point. I Googled that heather printing the other night after it was posted about and the second result, right below the one for their website, was Yelp's 1-star rating on them. They had three reviews, one from back in 2021 saying the site is nothing but copyright thieves, and two from this week saying the same thing (so a couple designers here must have had the presence of mind to do that). It's not social media but anywhere you can drop a negative review (as long as it's true and you can prove it, don't want to run yourself into legal trouble for libel) helps throw shade on these outfits.

[Fiorenzo]

Agree. As you wrote, the best way that doesn't get you exposed and has the highest chance of such a site being shut down is to report to Disney & Co if you see their trademarks and copyrights violated. I wouldn't start havoc myself, it can backfire. You may post a comment, though, and ask for removal. Without talking about theft and all that stuff. Many times these are organized, large Chinese and other Asian "businesses" specialized in this sort of scam, not just single individuals trying to exploit to make a few dollars. Let the big ones deal with them - and even they more often than not just let it be, cuz they know, even if you shut one down, the next day it's replaced with two new ones. IMO it's not worth the time and effort and sleepless nights.

[chefcateringbiz]

Zazzle can no more halt the rampant image thefts than one of us can, it's just that bad. You can shut someone down temporarily, then they just start up another theft site just like it with a different name. The only people you can stop are the ones who really don't understand that just because it's on the internet, it's not free for the taking, and those are the ones not selling a darn thing anyway because they're just not that bright. However, the ones who do it on purpose - who is to say they're making a boatload off your designs, or even any sales at all? You end up worrying about something that's not even happening. I feel like I have just 20 designs that sell over and over and over, and nothing else can bust through the gates. I have the same 20 or so over on Redbubble, and they never sell, but others do sell. I refuse to go hunting for thieves, why bother? 

[Landon]

No way you can prevent someone from just screenshotting the image. But making it diffcult with simple watermarks will make them questions them self is it worth it