I've learned through trials and errors that it's not okay unless you have written permissions to use any part of whole of someone's work.

A "forum member".  As of today.

As of today correct, I would never have been a member here at all if some guy had not gone on Pond5 and said some thing on the forum about how you could get are work for free on this fine site. Minor investigation on my part later and Taaa Daaa! I'm a forum member!

Really I'm not trying to be mean, just trying to get my point across, and as a forum member that's OK for me to do right?

I'm not flaming anyone, just using the forum, being an active forum member that's what it's all about right?

"I'm a forum member right?"

"... being an active forum member that's what it's all about right?"

".... that's what it's all about right?"

Three rights do indeed make a wrong!

Also Hankers I sent you a message thanking you for your help earlier, (that you didn't respond to at all)I think I have been really nice about all this... Even when I was told that, they not sure the rights I have to my own work, I didn't lose my cool I was nice about it. I have been nice to Jafo in PM too. Really I don't have to be nice about it, I decided to be. So why are you acting in such a hostile way and saying you will remove my ability to post? That's just not justified if you ask me.

Hey NP KK5hy, and thanks for your support! I posted links on P5 and invited the artists there to come here and check it out. I figured why stop there though, so I posted on SS and Revo too. Hopefully we can stop this free give away of our work from taking place for much longer. I wonder if any of them will take it upon themselves to strap on there lawsuit boots and go to town on this place. It would give them so much cred with all the artists who upload on there site. I mean I'm not suggesting that, but talk about good publicity...

Luxor was saying that he tried to DL a clip from here and he couldn't open it up because it was full of nasty stuff and it set off his virus protection. I wouldn't know personally I have not DL a clip from here.

Hey thanks for the advice I appreciate it and it seems like it came from a good place. I totally understand what your saying, but the funny thing about this is, I just wanted to poll users... I didn't want to make this a big thing. See the sites I work with take this stuff extremely seriously, and you just never know what type of site this is when you have only been a member for a few hrs. Basically my poll was not to flame anyone I have no need to flame the accused because I have all the prof, I have already supplied it, if they need more I have plenty of it... I have no doubt in my mind that this will get taken care of with haste. I had a very similar situation on youtube and got it resolved there in less then a day... 

I really simply just wanted some feedback. I totally don't get all this shoot back and flame this, or that.. I'm just chatting, there has not been flames in my opinion..Seriously think of the things I could say...

Really though can this just be about the poll? I don't want to talk about the bigger issue, people keep bringing it up and I know it's interesting, but come on stick to the poll people! That's what it's about!

So far 2 say NO IT'S BAD!!!

Zero say yes lets take stuff!!!

Also this is not really a public forum, it is owned/run by a private company and being a member does not give any of us the right to post whatever we want. I am not implying anything about this thread just letting you know how it is here.

Well I'm new and I saw allot of copyrighted work being passed out for free, so I thought there was a need for a poll.. We are all entitled to our opinions, and being my first few hrs on here I figured it was the best way to find out if it was a little P2P scam, theft site was to just poll the users. That's harmless enough right? Seriously this is the internet, you I'm sure have been on it for more then just today... You can understand how much of that goes on in the world right? Can we stop treating the poll like it's criminal? I'm not the one stealing and passing around copyrighted work. Also if it's taken seriously, let me check right after I post this to see if my work is still available on this site. If it is, then I have some doubts about how seriously it's being taken. Thanks for your 2 cents though, great stuff keep it coming people.

OK well the terms of service are in severe violation, so I'm really wondering when that's going to get fixed. Thanks for filling me in, I can assure you I have already provided the prof of ownership... So just waiting for action, I would provide it to you guys too but that would be outing the guy, and I guess that's considered flaming here? Personally I don't have a problem outing him because he is stealing from allot of people.

There is no need for the poll did she really say that! Your a nut lady, and that's why we love you, you crazy silly nut! She kind of looks a little like Sara Palin... That's a good thing right? Regardless the poll is educational, what's wrong with that? Not sure how many of you unknowingly downloaded stolen work, pretty crazy right? You had no clue your were part of the problem, it's not your fault. The guy who did it, and for the life of me I can't see why he did it since he makes no money on this, tricked people into thinking he was the original creator of the work. Strange stuff, really weird... I'm very puzzled as to why he would do this, maybe that should be what the poll turns into know, guesses on why he would do this.

Well then if you know the original artists of this work, have them privately contact an admin to have it removed.

Again WC does not condone ripped/stolen work and it will be removed if proven to be so. A poll will not do anything to expedite this happening.

99% of the members here know WC's policies so this poll is really kind of redundant.

Unfortunately, I had to go through the trouble of getting my material removed from YouTube earlier this year and they took almost a full 24 hours... so that's pretty reasonable.  Although it's very frustrating to know they are still there being downloaded.  In the meantime, I know the authors of a few dozen other clips in the offenders portfolio and I have contacted them about it.  For good measure, I screen-shot his entire portfolio in case it's needed for any legal stuff.

Eternal, I sent an email to all of the agencies where I sell my work.  Since they have the deep pockets and vigorously defend the copyrights of their contributors (since it affects their bottom line as much as ours), I would suggest you do the same.

In the meantime, I think it's only fair to be a little patient and see what WC and Stardock does over the next 24 hours before escalating this.