Cases of multiple tubes from picsfordesign.com being shared

We get letters from our customers that contain information about multiple cases of numerous images from picsfordesign.com being shared. For two weeks we have been monitoring the situation and taking action, so we are now ready to comment on it.

Who does it

It's a small group women from Florida and other US states (it's information that's openly available, we do not collect it n any special way).

Why they are doing it

Well, they are fighting against our Themis Panda, believe it or not, and this is what they proclaimed. However, the fight of adult females against a drawn character is the kind of diagnosis that's out of our competence, because this should be determined by qualified professionals only.

Who may need shared tubes and why

Everyone must be interested to see the full version of our pictures, especially in PSD format, because PicsForDesign sells beautiful pictures with plenty of unique layers that can be enabled or disabled. We understand how amusing it can be for many and do not prohibit to download the pictures that have been shared. The thing is, however, they are good for nothing except for viewing them in such cases. PicsForDesign keeps track of the purchase history for every customer and we know exactly who purchased what and when. If we see a design of a website or blog, or a tag, we check the license and the owner to see if they purchased that picture. If they did not, they will have to remove the design or the tag. So, taggers do not really need shared tubes for anything.

Can sharing harm our store and honest customers?

Nope, no matter how hard they try and how much they share. We love tags and animation that our taggers send, we have regular customers, affiliate forums, we give gifts, hold contests, develop the tagger's community and try to make everyone welcome and comfortable. All this can work only if the tubes are purchased legally and used according to the license terms of use. Our sales have not decreased because of that.

How does PFD protect its artists?

Our artists are the ones who suffer form all the sharing the most. No one enjoys seeing their pictures uploaded to a file sharing server, after all the hard work and effort they put into it. This is why we came up with special software nicknamed Panda, which allows determining with 100% certainty which account the picture has been purchased from. It's helping us a lot at the moment. The accounts of those violating license terms of use are blocked, we send abuse reports whenever there are any links being shared, and they are removed shortly by those websites. Piracy is something no website condones, not even file sharing websites. Of course, it will not solve the problem of piracy once and for all, but it significantly reduces the losses our artists may suffer because of sharing.

What you can do for us and our artists

If you noticed any cases of sharing, we would kindly ask you to do the following:
1) If this is a group where you can post messages – express your opinion on what's going on;
2) If it's a file sharing website – send us a letter that contains links to the tubes shared so that we could file an abuse report and ask to remove the links. You can send it to panda@picsfordesign.com. You can be sure your message will remain anonymous.

Do not take any notice of people trying to blame you for spying or twist your arms. You are an honest and responsible customer, and very often a talented artist or designer. You have a right to express your opinion to those who steal openly, so not be afraid to say what you really think. Piracy is impossible to eradicate, as today it has become a part of our society. However, pirates do need to be told who they really are and put on the spot. They have to be made aware they do not belong to the society of honest talented people, because they are nothing but petty thieves unable to fill their own lives with any meaningful activities and hiding their uselessness under the glorious word "rebel raiders".

Always yours,
PicsForDesign.com Team

Post comment

You can, according to our TOU.

Can I animate tubes...for instance making a tube wink?

We do appreciate large contributions, and Cookie is known to have contributed a lot. This helps our artists be even more creative without fear they will not be supported and it's a great thing to do. We would liek to take this opportunity and thank every contributor for supporting the art of the super creative people selling their work with us and invite them to view more of our prepaid projects :)

BR
Alena Skalska

Trolls what they are and enjoy doing to others
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)
Url must include internet in brackets to get correct page.

TO JUST VENTING !!!!!!!!! Where do you get off telling anyone how to spend their money and what comments they leave? You sound like a HATER .. Pure JEALOUSY. I am not running up any credit card bills. Your ingorance is showing .. I use a Visa Debit or Mastercard Debit through my Pay Pal account. It's cash from my bank account! You talked about not stealing tubes cause artists have bills to pay and families to feed. WHAT do you think they are doing with my big donations? IT IS helping them out. So how dare you say how I spend or how much I can give when it's none of your business. I am fortunate enough to be able to show my appreciation and thanks through my large contributions. I want artists to know they can trust me that I wont let their projects cancel out if I am a participant. And if you're so keen on ranting on and on about how other people should act, why are you hiding over here? Have the guts to tell what you think in front of the major contributors at the main site. See what kind of responses you get to a TROLL like you. And if you didn't want any responses, you should have kept your trap SHUT!

I just came across this thread today and I can't believe some of the things being said here.
The following is just my opinion:
I happen to agree with the PFD staff and owner (s).
Illegal sharing of PTU (pay to use) tubes is STEALING!
There are plenty of artists out there that allow their work to be used free for non-commercial tags. If you want free tubes, use their FTU (Free to Use) art. There is very good free art out there!
However, if you want to use art from PTU artists, then you need to pay for it.
These artists have bills to pay and families to feed just like the rest of us. Creating art for sale is their job and they deserve to be paid. It also costs money to run a website and pay staff.
I love the pre-paid tubes too. I spend only what I can afford and typically buy a few extras for my friends who cannot afford them at all.
I am not rich, nor am I foolish with my credit cards. So I save my money and budget for my tube purchases.
Yes, I've seen people who brag about how they chipped in "BIG TIME" on the pre-paids and find this very annoying. If you can afford it - great! I love to see the artists get lots of well-deserved money for pre-paids.
But you don't need to brag about it. It makes you sound very shallow and materialistic. One might think you have more "dollars" than "sense", high credit card bills or simply are in desperate need of attention.
If you chipped in lots of money, the artist already knows it. The rest of us don't need to read all about it. lmao
In summary, sharing PTU tubes without paying for them is stealing. If you like the art, show your support buy legally buying, not illegally sharing tubes.

Now I'm done venting. Judge me all you want, but keep the verdict to yourself. :b

Pirates & braggers alike: If any of this really bothered you or struck a nerve, then take a good look in the mirror.

I love PFD and will continue to support them as I can.

Well, you already HAVE contacted our support service and we already answered, providing the reasons. We should continue this conversation via e-mail, if you don't mind.

I am certainly NOT trying to discredit the company. There are a lot of great artists on this site and I have supported them by purchasing their work. I'm not sure how to contact support services.

If you prefer to remain anonymous, it's your right, but you understand that such claims will not be taken seriously. Secondly, when we block an account, we have very serious reasons for it, and we do have concrete proof and results by the Panda script. Mistakes are impossible and the certainty is 100%. Before you post anything like that you really have to clear it out with support service. At the moment this seems like an attempt to discredit our company. Again, all you need to do is settle this with support service – anonymous messages like that will not get you anywhere.

Well, I recently tried to purchase a few tubes that I had found tutorials for I wanted to do and found out I was blocked and it said something about yet again pandabot had found I had shared tubes, which I have NEVER done. I looked thru all my tubes from artists on picsfordesigns that I could find and I have purchased every single one of them. I am terribly upset over this because I don't have a blog, I don't have a 4shared account or anywhere else to share tubes with anyone and I would not do that. I have a photobucket account that I use to put my finished tags on and someone pointed out to me that since my albums are public, someone may have stolen a tag and then tubed the image from it. I am in groups with some of the artist on PFD and it would never occur to me to use their work without paying for it. I just hope that since I have sent a letter to the panda e-mail address, they will supply me with some kind of proof, that I have done something wrong or show me the web site that I have supposedly uploaded tubes for people to download, because it simply doesn't exist and never has.