oh gross, the Instagram name changing to Bates and the description is so mocking; I feel they're doing this just to piss you off more. tbh the best bet is to ignore them and let them cry out in their echo chamber as this warning is now on both IG and TH (maybe add on DA?). Hopefully theyll quiet down soon and learn their lesson. Sorry this had to happen to you ;/
Huge update: 6/7/2018- Lemon_bab_bates has agreed to give up using Bates and she new has a different character someone gave her. I will be keeping an eye on her just in case she tries to use him again, but as far as I am aware, this is over.
Please do not harass her. She is fairly young but did admit to stealing Bates because he looked cool.
I will still keep this up and be adding a full album full of hundreds of screenshots of evidence to this beware.
Who:
https://www.instagram.com/cyan.adopts/ (This account has many admins but one was posting about Bates.)
Lunar has been removed from Cyan.Adopts. They are no longer an issue.
https://www.instagram.com/lunar_mutt/ (Main acc of the thief)
They have been username-jumping. Their current is my_bab_bates.
Current Username is Lemon_bab_bates.
What Happened: Character Theft. I backed out of a trade with them and they took my character and continue to try to get/get art for him. I got nothing in return for the character.
Evidence:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjlRpM6DLOO/?hl=en&taken-by=kitsugalaxy
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjmAzvdjZ5E/?hl=en&taken-by=kitsugalaxy
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjmBUr2jkI4/?hl=en&taken-by=kitsugalaxy
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjnQj3Dj9va/?hl=en&taken-by=kitsugalaxy
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bjn6jl8jU4G/?hl=en&taken-by=kitsugalaxy
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjrWuQfjqx8/?hl=en&taken-by=kitsugalaxy
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjmigM5jfHX/?taken-by=nevermissadrama
I was originally interested in a dutchie adopt from them, but the dutchie was taken. (original post has been taken down. I have no screenshots of it but I am working to get some) They offered a marshmallow dog in exchange for Bates, which I was going to trade for but then lost interest, becoming attached to Bates again. I backed out (no files were actually sent to each other. They later traded away the adopt I was originally going to trade for. They seemed okay with me backing out but then messaged me out of the blue saying Bates was theirs now.)
I and several people have asked them to stop using Bates because he does not belong to her. She has refused and has been nothing but hostile.
She is actively trying to get art for Bates and claiming him as her own.
There is no arguing with this person. Just avoid and block if you can.
(Bate's Toyhou.se is here: https://toyhou.se/1725459.bates . I never transferred him over or gave her the art for him. She took the pic from my Toyhou.se and is able to use it due to a glitch where my watermarks are not showing up.)
I have filed an Intellectual Property/Copyright claim via Instagram.
I do not know if Instagram will actually do anything about this.
(Post had been removed by me- and yes, instagram did actually do something. They actively removed any posts that were made on those accounts.)
If you see Bates being used/drawn and it was not commissioned/requested by me, please alert the artist and report. Please do not harass/witchhunt this user, I believe that they are very young and they do not know what they are doing is fully wrong.
Update: 6/4/2018 at 12:06, they have changed Lunar_mutt to Bates_the_Mutt_
Update: 6/4/2018 at 1:16 pm, they have taken down the posts with Bates on both of their accounts but are still claiming ownership of him.
Update: 6/4/2018 at 1:50 pm, Instagram notified me that they pulled the posts from their accounts.
Update: 6/4/2018 at 4:59 pm, Their account (Lunar_mutt then was changed to bates_the_mutt_) is gone. I had several people tell me that it appears to be gone. Searched while logged out, could not find it.
Update: 6/4/2018 at 6:31 pm, They are still there but they are username jumping. Last known one was my_bab_bates.
Update: 6/4/2018 at 6:52 pm, they officially blocked me.
Update: 6/6/2018 at 8:47 am, Thought this was finally over... apparently not. They are still getting art of him.
Update: 6/6/2018 at 11:06 am, They have unblocked me for some reason.
Update: 6/7/2018 at 9:04 am, Still working on getting that huge masterpost of everything together. Lemon has expressed interest in giving up Bates but for some reason will not allow me to use the *free* art work she got of him.
@milksteak I'm pretty sure this is some heavily misguided little kid... that being said, talking to them is like arguing with a tree. ;-; I discovered they got a 2nd piece of art done by another artist of him. Luckily, the artist was also very understanding. I have a lot more evidence and screenshots on my iPod, I may just make a stash of them.
I did post this up on DA ^^ My account is also Kitsugalaxy
kitsugalaxy Yeah, if thats the case, then they really are just gonna be childish about all of this. But who knows. Its the internet, I've seen grown adults act like this. And jeez, they went on a rampage to buy art, maybe to prove it was theirs? idk its all just a weird way of thinking. Glad the artists are understanding, though.
I recommend you submit the other evidence as well (just bc the more, the better case you have).
Also i submitted the DA journal to a popular group, hopefully the message will spread then.
@dekusel
I totally agree with you. They actually messaged me on their alt. account pretending to be someone sticking up for them. Their account is gone, I had been in contact with Instagram and they were actually taking action against them... Which is surprising. I'm super grateful for everyone sticking up for me. I am absolutely never selling/trading Bates to anyone after this mess.
Arguing with them is impossible. I'm pretty sure they're young. They should go on some sort of blacklist if there is anything of that sort. I'm so sorry if you've ever dealt with them in the past.
Please let me know if you see anything else.
(I am so sorry if that made 0 sense, I was up until 3 am dealing with this.)
@milksteak All of the art so far was free/requests. I felt super bad for the artists, they didn't know. If they do end up getting any paid art of him I'll have to talk too the artist. I'd probably end up paying them myself because I'd feel so bad about it.
I'm currently making a stash right now, there's so much evidence aaaa
@dekusel (I am so sorry if I am not tagging correctly)
I'm probably still going to use him, just... keep him on the low. A lot of people made art for him (for me!) and honestly that was the sweetest thing ever.
Thank you ^^ Dropped a follow on your adopt acc too
kitsugalaxy (dont worry youre tagging right lol, both @dekusei and i seem to have capital "i"s in place of lowercase "L"s)
Yeah its 100% not the artist's fault in all this, but idk about having to pay them back. i mean, if cyan.adopts pays for the art, and theres no thievery going on in that transaction. Also does that mean that art is yours now? i mean, if its of your character? im honestly not sure how that all works out lol
And that's good, if theres that much evidence on them, and if dekuseI has had similar issues, than this psa is real important. im seeing the updates too, i can help track em down if need be
I just want to throw out there that this PSA is a perfect example as to why archiving is super important!! Almost all of the instagram links are dead, and it makes it harder to follow along ): Sites like archive.is or even gyazo/imgur are absolutely your friend!
Back on topic, though: it's terrible that there are people who do this! Hopefully they don't account-hop enough times as to become unrecognized and do this to anyone else.
venusaur Ah, thank you! I wasn't aware of those websites. I'm re-linking a bunch of things because I put back up my own info on my own account. I thought it was over, then it wasn't, its just a mess.
Their current user is Lemon_bab_bates
Jokes on you Bates doesn't like lemons
kitsugalaxy No worries, I wasn't trying to get on your or anything!! I actually re-read and noticed you're working on finding back-ups, so at this point it's more of a mini-PSA to anyone reading, in case they ever need it for anything too. <3
dekuseI Thank you so much. I've been hearing that people are getting really nasty responses from them whenever they are asked about it. Sadly instagram won't let me file another copyright infringement/trademark thing against them which is really annoying.
Please keep spreading the word if you can... If they actually somehow get a suit of him or paid artwork I feel like I have no choice but to persue actual legal action.
venusaur It's no problem ^^ I've been updating this every chance I get so there is no confusion.