Single post in Regarding Art Theft

To be honest I'm a bit confused by why some people appear to think this is such a big thing to do (just to clarify, I'm speaking about people who are making things more difficult than they have to be, not people with legitimate questions or concerns about this); simply writing "Art is official" on a the bottom of a template, for example, is easy. I put it right into the template design so that I don't need to write it out each time. Constantine: I personally think it's a little bit different when it's art you've payed for. When the artist posts online, of course I'd link back to them even if I have payed for it. But in your instance, where the artist doesn't put their art online, what I'd do is just state that it is commissioned work from an offline artist somewhere. This is just my own opinion though; what Ravyne & other staff would prefer you do for such a situation could be different. And permission can be falsified like you said. Screenshots of permission are especially easy for someone to falsify as long as they have a little knowledge in photoshop. But to be honest, if someone goes through the trouble of editing / falsifying proof of permission... well, that's just sad. e_e Edit in addition to Eltafez's post: Indeed there are some people that truly don't care where their art ends up. But if that's the case, a lot of artists will state that along with their work so that people know. If they haven't stated it themselves, though, that's not reason to assume they are are one of those people who don't care. Receiving permission to use an image that isn't yours & giving credit is always better than assuming. And even if most images used on this site are free use, simply stating that somewhere ("this item is free use etc etc etc") isn't going to hurt you, I promise.