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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Pirates plunder city artist's work

Online thieves steal image, spread it over the Internet

By: Aldo Santin

Posted: 06/11/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

PHIL.HOSSACK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA Winnipeg artist Kal Barteski found out her artwork has been stolen online and appears on coffee cups, tote bags, necklaces and has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times. She had no idea it was a hit.

Online pirating is associated with music, movies and TV shows but city artist Kal Barteski fell victim to it when a home decor store in Vancouver downloaded an image of a painting from her online gallery blog.

The Vancouver store was selling poor-quality reprints of the image for $25 -- without Barteski's permission or sharing revenue.

When Barteski began researching the extent of the online theft, she discovered her text-painting -- a small, square painting with the simple message, "be true to who you are" -- was everywhere on the Internet and likely thousands of people and businesses were profiting from her work.

The image is displayed on tote bags, coffee mugs and necklaces and had been downloaded more than 1.5 million times on the microblogging platform Tumblr.

It's all over Facebook and MySpace and was even used in porn videos.

"It was everywhere, and I had no idea it was being used," said Barteski, a graduate of Red River College's advertising art program who has also studied design in New York.

"If it can be posted 1.5 million times, even if I had a quarter for (each) of those times, that's a decent amount of cash."

Barteski, 34, a graphic designer and artist who works from her Wolseley home, wasn't even selling the painting when it was stolen.

With such a widespread theft, Barteski said she can't even imagine the loss of income involved.

The Vancouver store will stop selling the prints, and has agreed to share with her its sales records (which it hasn't done yet). Barteski has also begun selling the print herself.

And, she did some painstaking work for two weeks by contacting every blogger and online site that she could identify that had illegally downloaded the image and asked them to stop.

While the music and film industries are using the courts to hammer pirates, Barteski is trying the educational approach. She created another website, linkwithlove.org, to promote the proper use of Internet images.

"If that little graphic can find 1.5 million people to repost it, there's got to be a way that we can teach 1.5 million people proper ways to use intellectual properties online."

In addition to the site, there is also a Facebook page and Twitter account devoted to the issue. Barteski has also created badges that she is encouraging people to post on their sites that identifies they accept responsible use of online intellectual property.

"It doesn't really feel good when you see my handwriting or my artwork overlaid on porn," she said. "I totally understand there is no way to get that back, and I totally understand that happens to everyone, but it's time to educate people."

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

Link to Kal Barteski's online gallery:

http://lovelife.typepad.com/kalbarteski/

Link to Kal Barteski's text-painting, be true to who you are:

http://lovelife.typepad.com/buy_lovelife/buy-be-true-to-who-you-are-prints-here.html

Link to Kal Barteski's latest blog site that promotes stopping the online theft of intellectual art:

http://linkwithlove.org

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 11, 2011 B1

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