MODERN DAY ART THIEVES

They’re not the ones pulling paintings off walls of a museum, they’re screen grabbing artist’s creations off the Internet and selling them to the public in the form of t-shirts and hoodies.
 
I wasn’t even aware of this massive scam until it happened to one of my artist friends. She came up with this amazing mash-up idea, combining the Stranger Things demogorgon with the Adidas logo. You may have seen it popping up on the Internet in your FaceBook or Instagram feeds…

This is Sarah Cave’s design. It came from her imagination. It came from her illustration skills. It’s hers. Her property.
 
But the modern day thief doesn’t care about where it came from, they just see a great idea that they can make money off of. So, they pull her artwork off her site, upload it to theirs and sell thousands of t-shirts.
 
I’ve seen several of these ads and they have up to 200,000 likes, which equates to god knows how many sales.
 
And the artist that created it receives nothing.

Even this morning, as I woke up to write this blog, I went on FB and saw yet another FB ad trying to sell Sarah’s design. I scrolled down to the next post and it’s Sarah, posting about how she has to spend more of her time dealing with these thieves than she does designing. Right next to each other! Unbelievable!
 
It feels like we live in a day and age where people don’t seem to care if it’s stolen, they just like something and want it, and they’ll take it anyway they can get it, even if it’s wrong. Even if the person that created what they loved gets absolutely no credit and no profit.
 
I just want to spread the word for my friend, who deserves the credit, who deserves the reward for coming up with such a brilliant design!
 
This is a list of some of the illegal sites: teechip, strangerthingsuk, geekworld, gearlauch, kamuistore. (and by the way: it's actually cheaper to buy the shirt on Sarah's approved sites than these rip-off sites! So, not only are they ripping off Sarah, but they're ripping off their customer!)
 
And here are the sites where Sarah Cave’s art is sold legally and she actually receives what she’s owed:
 
TeePublic
https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/760905-stranger…

RedBubble
https://www.redbubble.com/people/sarahcave/works/27053524-stranger-athletic?c=376013-fan-favorites

TeeFury
http://www.teefury.com/athletic-stranger

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So all I ask of you is simple: if you truly love someone's artwork and you want to purchase it, just make sure the site you're buying from is legit and not created from one of these con artists.

Support the artist, not the thieves!