Squidi had this to say regarding my post:
When you've got a view from the top, it is easy to look down on everyone
I’m honestly not looking down on you buddy. I’m simply letting you know that as a person who has actually had experience with this sort of thing, you have no legal grounds at all to do the sorts of things you are doing. I understand that sending emails that threaten to contact ISP’s or worse may cause some people to give into your demands. However I’m letting you know that when you send out those sorts of emails eventually you will send them to someone who actually knows a thing or two about copyright laws and how they apply to digital artwork.
I am simply trying to give you some advice. I’ve been in your position countless times and the best thing you can do is just roll with it. If someone is using your work as an avatar just send them a nice letter asking that they please provide a link back to your site. I see my artwork being used as avatars in nearly every forum I visit. I take it as a compliment. These people have chosen to use something I drew to represent themselves amongst their friends. If someone asks where they got it they will more than likely say Penny Arcade. All it’s doing is getting your name out.
I understand that you want to protect your work but you have to weigh that against the value of viral marketing which can be huge for a web comic. You have just disabled the ability to right click on your images. Honestly that’s a bad move if you want to increase readership. You want people to save your comics. You want them to print them out and put them in their lockers. One person saves a comic and shows it to a friend and you have a new reader. That is probably the number one way to gain new readers.
By the way, you will be hearing from my lawyers.
(that was a joke)
-Gabe out
