Hello everyone!

This is my very first time posting here so I'm really sorry if I do something wrong! And if something is confusing, I am sorry; English is not my first language but I am more than glad to go further into details if needed!

I have been doing commissions for a website called Subeta, in which artists can be hired to create clothing for the avatar. These clothing can be then submitted to the website, and, if approved, the users can dress their avatars up with it.
There are also recolors. If the, let's say, dress is red, after it's approved, the commissioner can request other colors of this dress if they wish.

Before you submit the item to the site, it's clearly stated that:

"Anything you submit, including items based on personal characters, becomes property of Agoge, Incorporated."

I recently wondered, however, what happens if I block a user. I filled a ticket to the Staff asking about it; and if they would be allowed to edit my artwork without my consent, considering I blocked them and they can no longer contact me nor ask for recolors.

They told me:

"Hi Sonatine,
This really depends on the exact terms of your commission with the user, and not whether or not they have blocked you or vice versa. If you drew the item for them and from that point on you consider the art completely theirs, they are welcome to submit recolors. If you have a TOS that states you retain the rights to the art, then they cannot distribute recolors done by other artists as they cannot edit the art. It depends on your terms from setting it up. That being said, the terms cannot be changed NOW just because they have been blocked."

It is true that I never really wrote in my TOS that the ownership of the art is mine, but looking through the copyright posts in this community, doesn't the art always belong to the artist if nothing is stated? Also, if they say anything you submit becomes property of Agoge, how will the art even belong to either the commissioner or the artist?

I am really confused by this right now, so any clarification, preferably with proof (like, a law or something, so I can posteriorly prove to Staff that even without the TOS I do own the art, unless I have sold my rights, which isn't the case) would help me a lot.

Thank you so much in advance everyone. :)

WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/chapiduh/

WHAT: Traced YCH pose from Trogan of my commission without credit or permissions.

WHEN: 3/30/16

PROOF: NSFW All links

The artist has now removed most traces of the offending art from her gallery knowing she's been caught. These are the downloaded pieces I was able to get before she deleted them. Her signature is on every piece.

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19534690/
http://i.imgur.com/8CkJxsD.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/2f1ckjb.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0sB2XN5.jpg

Torgans YCH and the finished commission

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12895406/ YCH Auction
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13888427/ My finished commission

A side by side comparison of the images. Trogan is left, her image is right.
http://i.imgur.com/Pob13HK.jpg

EXPLAIN: I was notified about a stolen piece of my art. I investigated the art and contacted the artist to let them know that the piece they did was a trace of my commission. They instantly were defensive and thought it was no big deal. I advised them that tracing and/or using another artists piece as a 'pose reference' is still Copyright infringement. The artist became hostile and attacked my character in FA Notes, calling it 'sad' that I spent so much on this commission. So far the artist refuses to give credit to the pose of Trogans (and my commission) for her piece she used for reference, which is illegal and against FA AUP.

Screens of our conversation. (Read from Bottom to Top)

http://i.imgur.com/1romNot.png
second half http://i.imgur.com/YIqPezk.png


I wanted this to be known the artist may use stolen art and references for their pieces, and seems to lack the moral compos to know what is right and what is wrong so other commissioners to not get cheated art.

No, this isn't a joke!

If you've had a great commission experience, either as an artist or a customer, please comment here and spread the word. It doesn't have to be a full-on story, though you're welcome to type one! All we need are a few lines on why this person was so great to work with. You can also recommend companies, such as printers or fursuit-making teams, as long as it's relevant!

There are plenty of reasons to post someone here: perhaps they went above and beyond the call of duty to fix a problem, or were so prompt with communication and payment it was like having them right next to you, or were very professional and courteous every time you contacted them.

To help keep things organized, please follow this simple form:

1. Name of the person you recommend:
2. Link to person's website or art page:
3. Approximate time period of when you did business with this person:
4. Details (Here's where you tell us why they are so awesome! What made the transaction go so well? Perhaps link to the art or suit you bought/sold if you feel like sharing. Please mark NSFW if the subject matter is adult!!):

If you have multiple people to recommend, please put them in separate comments to keep things organized.

Trades are just as welcome as paid transactions. But try not to post for friends (or yourself) who are looking to be commissioned. If customers are what they/you seek, teenycom, artsales or artcommissions is for them!

WHO: Joojoo

WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/joojoo/

WHAT: A full coloured ych won via auction.

WHEN: February 16th up until March 17th. (I'm Australia so some of these dates may be a day ahead to some.)

PROOF: Links below. (Most links are nsfw)

EXPLAIN: (Below the cut)
( Read moreCollapse )

I'm sorry if I made any mistakes as this is my first artist beware as I've never had such a bad experience with an artist out of over the hundreds of artist I have commissioned. (Literally hundreds as you can see by my gallery) and my mate had to help me write this.
I didn't want to have to write this but the attitude of this artist throughout the entire process was very rude and I wanted to warn future commissioners of the way she handles mistakes she has made and her work ethic.


Edit: I forgot to clarify in my original post that I had no intentions of wanting a full refund. Paypal has an option to only ask for a certain amount back and that is what I planned on doing.

I really didn't want to have to post something here about this, but this has happened several times with two different artists.  Let's refer to them as Artist A and Artist B since this situatiuon really doesn't warrant posting names.

I commissioned Artist A for two things back in September:  One was for my husband for his birthday which was done relitively on time.  My husband has commissioned this artist in the past, so said artist was fine with putting me at the top of the queue since he's fairly familiar with my husband.  Now, Artist A has a pretty hefty backlog, they have this posted on their FA profile for all to see.  I wanted to get something else from them as a little surprise for my husband and told them to just stick me in the queue and work on it whenever.  They said okay, took my money and my refs, and that was the last I ever heard from them.  Correspondance ended on September 23rd.  They're not THAT active on FA, but they post the occassional artwork and they do a stream every Wednesday so it's not like they're overly busy and are never on FA.  Months went by and I never saw my name in their queue yet they continued to post doodles and do their weekly stream.  I sent them a note on January 10th asking about my commission, if they had started it, how things were going, etc.  I was very polite, nothing rude or demanding.  The note was read, but never responded to.  I sent them another note on February 7th with almost the same content, still being polite about it.  Same thing happened: Note was read, but never responded to.  My husband was about as shocked as I was, given that he's done business with this artist in the past and has never had any issues with them not responding to notes.  I know that, given this artist has a large queue, that they may be overwhelmed with owed art or something could have come up in their personal life that's keeping them from getting things done, but that's no excuse for not responding to a commissioner when they're asking about the art they paid for.  I also noticed on their FA page someone has posted shouts on their page asking about their commission, so it looks like I'm not the only person having this issue.  Said person isn't listed in their queue either.

Artist B is someone who my husband and I have admired from afar but never had the chance to commission.  They were doing some pinup-style pieced back in January and I snagged a spot.  The first note was sent on January 1st and correspondence ended on January 2nd.  Payment and refs were sent.  Again, this is someone neither myself or my husband have done business with so I'm not aware of how they handle commissions.  I sent them a note on March 4th asking if there had been any updates to my commission.  As with the notes sent to Artist A, I was very polite and simply inquiring about my art as I hadn't gotten any messages or updates regarding it.  The note went unread for several weeks, then was marked as read several days ago.  I got no response to my message but noted that they posted a journal yesterday opening up for their March commission slots.  I checked their journal posts and saw that from March 23rd thru March 27th, they were advertising their March commission slots.  Prior to those journals, they posted something on March 17th saying that their tablet was dying and for all commissioners to be patient.  ...They could have sent me a note apologizing and reassuring me that my commission would be done as soon as they're able...but yet they're advertising more commission slots.  I've had a tablet fizzle out on me before, so I know what that's like but I think that, even with a dying tablet, you should get through what you already owe before taking on more.  I don't know.  As I said, this is my first time working with this artist.  Also, they don't have any kind of public queue as far as overall commissions are concerned, so I don't even know if mine is being worked on.

What should I do in these situations?
Artist A: Should I request a refund if they don't respond?  I've been waiting 6 months for this piece with no updates, but I don't want to do anything that may spoil any future business with this person.  They're someone my husband and I absolutely love and love working with.

Artist B: Should I continue to be patient?  I know three months isn't that long to wait for a commission (I've waitied longer, but the artist kept me informed of what was going on and when my commission should be started/finished), especially if the person has a tablet that's starting to go and a queue of other commissions to do.

I have been really excited about building cosplays, but I can't afford multiple costumes for myself and I don't want to fiddle with commissions right now. My way around this has been to build projects very cheaply for friends. I usually charge for materials and not much else, and this has worked out great. I get to practice patterns and have fun making stuff, and they get a nice costume peice for a good price. The largest project I did was a Pokemon mascot/fursuit type head with some feet for my best friend. It took me a long time, but we had great communication and the completed head was a huge hit. Now her little brother wants me to make him a similar costume, but I have a few reservations.

His request is a full body Lucario costume. I'm not worried about the complexity or scope of the project, but I admit it's fairly ambitious for my experience level. It's also a ton of work to do for free. Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to do such a project, but it's probably going to take at least two months. I initially agreed to this project last summer with the understanding that it woudln't be "due" until 2017, and that work was going to happen in bursts during breaks from school. The plan was to start with a head, then do arm sleeves and feet, and finish with the tail and body. This way he could have useable costume parts before the whole thing was complete. Unfortuantely my living situation didn't allow for work to begin that summer, and then college started in the fall. I made it clear that I could not work on Lucario during school, so I planned to get a ton of work done over Christmas break (and I started telling him this in September, so it wasn't a surprise). I spent a lot of time researching techniches and prepping digital files; my plan was to take advantage of the school's laser cutter and 3D printer to save some major time. Everything was ready to go, but I needed some critical information from my friend (measurements and etc) before the shop closed for break. I gave him two weeks to get me the stuff I needed... and he never did. I missed my window of opportunity with the shop. Of course I've had access to the shop since then, but for some reason this kind of killed my desire. I was about to devote my entire break to his project, and he couldn't even be bothered to give me some basic info. It makes me question how badly he actually wants this costume, and more importantly if I can depend on him for other important things like the DTD, fittings, additional materials, etc.

There are a lot of advantages to this costume: the build will be a ton of fun, the "commissioner" is willing to try on prototypes (which I imagine is considered unprofessional in fursuit/cosplay communities), and it will be great advertisement for my work since he attends multiple cons. I really, really want to build it. The downsides are that I don't feel like he understands or values how much work I'm about to do, and I don't know how reliable he is. If I hadn't already committed to this project (and they hadn't already purchased some of the materials) I'm not sure I would still say yes. I really want to move forward with this, but if I'm dropping out now is the time to do it. Any suggestions on what I shoud do? If I don't build Lucario, how should I break it to my friend? I'm afraid he'll take it as a personal slight :/

Who: Eroishi

Where: http://eroishi.deviantart.com/

What: 2 digital art pieces (1 nsfw and sfw)

When: December 6, 2015 - February 12, 2016

Proof: http://imgur.com/a/wRZi4

Expalin:

I requested 2 pictures, 1 nsfw and 1 sfw pic. Things went smooth until two weeks later, I messaged him about the payment I sent him. He told me that he never received the amount. I got worried and asked how he resolved the situation before since he told me that something similar happened for his patreon account. However, he simply said that the money was never received, leaving me to figured that he didn’t bother to resolve the solution. During the process, I called PayPal and they told me that the he received my payment. I told him to contact PayPal or find a way so that we can chat together, but he refused to comply, only to agree to talk to PayPal.

I messaged him again after 3 days and he didn’t reply.

So I waited. Since he never replied within a month, I could only assume the worst, which was that he’s lying to me and I was scammed. So I called him out for being a scammer, and he said that it was because he “had no internet” and had to wait until early February to get it back. So I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

After two weeks, I asked him to give me a refund, but he refused. I questioned him again about showing me proof, and he had to wait for the internet to return. So I waited two days. During the process, I showed him my screenshot that I have proof of sending him the money. He said that everything is correct, yet he kept telling me that nothing was received. I asked him politely to the best I can to update me on the information he was trying to tell me. He finally showed me his end of the transaction to see that he “didn’t receive the payment”. So I proceeded to calling PayPal again (for the third time) and informed them of the situation. They refused to check and only said that he indeed received the amount I paid him.

I sent him (and it was panic) a few emails to connect on PayPal together to resolve the situation together. Instead, he refused to reply to any of emails. 1 week later had passed, and it came to the drastic solution that he’s not willing to work with me at all. I had to resort to threatening him to contact PayPal immediately on what’s going on. He instead replied, declaring me a liar for the exact same proofs we showed to each other. This confirmed to me that he had scammed me for a simple $36 two picture commission.

Since I had paid with friends by mistake, I’m not able to get my money back. This was a mistake on my end. Also, I feel that I learned not to freak out when a situation like this should ever happen again. And I also believe I shouldn’t be sending multiple messages at once out of panic (which may led to this). I also wondered if it was really on PayPal error if he really didn’t receive the payment I made to him. However, he refused to comply with my suggestion of calling PayPal again.

WHO: Puppygas/AmyToes

WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/puppygas (FA), http://amytoes.deviantart.com/ (DA) -> Has adult content

WHAT: 7-version plus bonus mystery art YCH (8 images in total)

WHEN: 9/19/2014 (Autobuy) -> 9/22/2014 (Payment) -> Present Day

PROOF: (Identifiers and explicit adult details have been redacted to the best of my abilities)

The YCH I autobought: http://sta.sh/0hja80pytsq
Details of YCH: http://sta.sh/01u6pvchmrej
Paypal payment: http://sta.sh/01ri84mz71o
Last interaction with Puppygas: http://sta.sh/01nhv3vbk1uu
Last journal entry of Puppygas: http://sta.sh/02dh8oem9oxy
A note I sent 4 days after that journal was posted: http://sta.sh/01228bx1se1h

EXPLAIN: On 9/19/2014, I autobought a YCH piece from Puppygas and sent over the details for it. On 9/22/2014, after reviewing the details, Puppygas gave me a Paypal address to send payment to. I waited a while, but heard nothing back. On 12/10/2015, I got Puppygas' DA name and sent her a note through that site, to which she showed me a few pics and asked me to be patient. Eventually, on 12/14/2015, she gave her last response after I asked her to fix a few things about the pic. After that, no responses to my other notes on DA and FA since then.

I really did not want to make this entry, but for a pic series that was to be completed by the end of December 2014 with constant progress updates, only to have to fish out her from the progress sketch showed to me followed by finding out only one sketch (not even a complete picture) was completed in the year and 3 months after I first bought it, I can't stay quiet about it anymore. I do not want my money back at this time, but I do want what I paid for to be completed.

Her last entry on DA was on 2/1/2016 and I sent her a DA note a few days after that. Perhaps it was bad luck that I missed her, but it would be even worse luck if this YCH remains unfinished.

She should've had at least told me other ways to contact her other than FA and DA. I tried those, the email address I sent my Paypal payment to and I got no response as of today.

I want to point out that she's not a bad artist, but her lack of communication with me is the reason why I'm posting this.

Hey everyone! Sorry to bug y'all with silly questions, but my partner and I seem to be finding ourselves in a bit of a pickle and were hoping that some of you lovely people could offer us a bit of guidance.

Last June we entered a rather large raffle hosted by an artist we both admired. The artist in question was using it as a way to boost their watcher status, one of those 'get one entry for watching and commenting with your ref and +1 for every new watcher you refer' sort of deals. Being fans we sent friends their way to help them reach their goal and out of the hundreds of entries we were both fortunate enough to win the 1st and 3rd prizes. At first, we patiently waited for a few months, figuring that paid commissions would take priority (and that's totally understandable), but as time passed we noticed that the artist had eventually moved away from commissions and has since made several gifts and personal art-trades, seeming to have forgotten about us. Under normal circumstances it wouldn't be a big deal to just send the artist a polite note inquiring about the prizes, but over the past few months they've been displaying extremely hostile and passive-aggressive behavior towards their watchers. The littlest thing sets them off and when they get upset it riles up some of their more aggressive supporters, making my partner and I nervous about bringing the subject up.

Does anyone have any advice on how to go about this without angering the artist? Or are we better off just forgetting about the entire event and moving on?

Thank you very much for your time!