Spam Site Selling Our Work

Our colleague Leonid Afremod has at least 2 of his painting being sold
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/leonid-afremov.html

Are you sure they are his? I've seen a few artists painting in the same style as Alfred.

this one still has the signature on it. i think he is actually painting a new one, but is copying and claiming to have done the original. http://www.oilpaintings-forsale.com/en/tree-p720/

http://www.oilpaintings-forsale.com/en/yellow-leaves-of-handmade-oil-painting-p316/

I see Afremov's signature. Looks like they are reproducing other artists work.

There are several of his Loretta

I once licensed my photographs to a company in Canada for the purpose of copying them and making paintings of them. They were painted in China. I got good money for it. They are not sold as original paintings so they are cheaper.

No birds there so i am safe. :}

I've seen similar for sale on the streets of NYC outside of the Met.

So I guess the question is the Leonard license his work in this way?

Probably not Roseann. Those Chinese knock-off sites are a dime a dozen due to China not having copyright laws. There are actually artists 'farms' in china that churn out un-licenced reproductions of popular paintings by the millions.

There are a number of paintings on that site I recognize, most of the time the images are lifted directly from a selling artists website, signature and all and they are not licenced and the original artist can't pursue it legally.

Interestingly enough, their site is down due to maintenance. If they have a location here in the US, it could be that authorities have caught up with them.

China does have copyright laws. How well they are enforced is a different matter.

If I click on that link is it a fishing site? Will they then know about me?

Dave

Phishing

Never click on links you are unsure of