[SALTY]

Didn't know exactly which category to throw this under, so here we go. (If a mod/admin feels like making this into an official announcement, feel free.) I know a few sites have been hit by the thief at the moment, and from what many admins have gathered they also made an appearance earlier this year under the name Buckley. They have also went around as Mack, Natalie and now Irene. (Not to be mistaken for the real Irene.) At the moment, they are stealing profiles, character concepts, avatars, hovers, you name it. They are even stealing identities now, as they are impersonating myself and a few other members. I feel as if posting up a topic to spread the word would be far more useful than individually trying to contact each site.

While I'd usually attempt to avoid starting a witch hunt, it is no news that this person is not innocent, and they are in fact a repeat offender. From what I'm aware, Laika also had a problem with them a while ago. They are using a proxy to alternate between three ip addresses at the moment, and while I'd offer to give these out over private message- they are confirmed to be proxy addresses, meaning that nobody is actually being harmed from them being public: 167.114.102.230, 98.26.150.88 & 152.26.26.51 is the one they are currently going by.

If you have any relevant information to share, such as sites they have been on, what they have taken, etc. Feel free to post below. Please keep it as civil as possible, as I said, this is not a witch hunt, it's an attempt to stop an ongoing problem, thank you.

[THE LEVIATHAN]

I am so tired of these clown ass unks stealing. Thanks, SALTY.

[SIFR]

Normally I do not approve of these kinds of threads, but in the case of this person, I've gotten complaints from both Laika and now Pyos.

Now that I have access, their IP addresses have been banned from Gangnam Style.

If you need some sort of proof (lord knows I need a lot of it before I'm convinced), this is the imgur file that I've had bookmarked displaying Buckley's activities against Laika. Two solid pieces of evidence:

Laika's template on January 2, 2015 and Buckley's template on March 1, 2015

Laika's template on December 27, 2014 and Buckley's template on March 2, 2015

As for evidence for Pyos;

Pyos' character Jackdaw created April 29, 2015 and Buckley's character JQ created May 10, 2015

There are other bits of evidence but these stood out the most prominently and resulted in actions already being taken at No Heroes.

The roleplay community doesn't support plagiarism, ladies and gentlemen, I would've thought this was obvious.

The IPs listed above have been banned from Gangnam Style, like stated before, and we'll be keeping watch for more theft.

[EMMIE]

/nod nod

The issue with Laika happened on BATTLECRAFT and the moment that Laika contacted me about it, the person was banned.

Apart from that, this has happened numerous times on CAIRO / SHIRO / KAMIDERE's sites as well, where he has contacted me about characters on his site where they have been stolen from other sites, or characters on my site where they have been stolen from his sites, using icons and application elements taken from others.

Every time it has happened, I have banned them but they are using Proxies so it is a never ending struggle.

[SIFR]

May 22, 2015 10:07:22 GMT -8 EMMIE said:

/nod nod

The issue with Laika happened on BATTLECRAFT and the moment that Laika contacted me about it, the person was banned.

Apart from that, this has happened numerous times on CAIRO / SHIRO / KAMIDERE's sites as well, where he has contacted me about characters on his site where they have been stolen from other sites, or characters on my site where they have been stolen from his sites, using icons and application elements taken from others.

Every time it has happened, I have banned them but they are using Proxies so it is a never ending struggle.

Probably won't do much, but have you banned their Global ID as well?

[mailee-papyrus]

While I'm pretty mad for the people who's works are being stolen... please don't go on a wold goose chase.

Yesterday, a person came to the site I rp'd, accusing me of being this buckley- despite (when I actually looked into this) the only similarity between my character and theirs was the fc.

Luckily for me, the admins were nice enough to ask my side and whether if it was the case- I never even heard of Battlecrafts or looked at No Heroes. Now that I know the reason why they did accuse me (looking for this ass hole), doesn't change the fact you might get someone ban who's 100% innocent of these accusations. I want to remain anonymous, though the person who accused me probably knows already, and I wished you asked me first rather than pointing fingers.

It hurts to be accused, I just joined that site, I don't want to start my first week with a goddamn bad rep because of me getting randomly blamed for thief.

Thank you and I hope this ordeal finishes fast.

[SALTY]

I'm not looking to start a fight, but for validation, I was the one that went onto the site you've mentioned. I contacted the Admins due to a suspicious suspect, yes, it is unfortunate that myself and three other people did see a massive resemblance between the characters. (The fc, overall personality and unique trait involving birds). Due to my concerns, I gave them the IP addresses listed here. I did, in no way, ask them/tell them to ban you. I had a suspicion/concern and I did my best to deal with it, on the slight chance that one may have been Buckley. As I said, it's unfortunate that there were suspicions towards your character, but with this person going around and taking characters, ideas and such, it's always to be safe rather than sorry (especially if I do have a handful of people questioning me about "my" activity on sites).

In my opinion, you were proved innocent, there should be no further issue.

[Calico Cat]

I'm from that same site and would also prefer to remain anonymous but if you're not looking to start a witchhunt and your not looking to start a fight. For future reference please refrain from stating in a cbox/shoutbox that you're there to speak to a admin about a thief and that 'i'm pretty sure its the same troll' whose done it before. Keep it to pm's its easy enough and simply ask someone who has an admin's skype to alert them to the urgent message. As you saw it caused a bit of tension within the cbox. Also please refrain from stating there were 'massive' similarities especially towards the previous persons character. The matter was solved you can no longer claim there was if there was difference proven. and unfortunately even if it is 'in your opinion' once that seed of doubt is planted the person might be found innocent but it's still going to be there. So please everyone just do this carefully if you do happen to find someone that does have similarities because as rp'ers we do tend to gain inspiration from different places and the FC themselves. I love this site and it does upset me that someone is going around stealing things.

[SIFR]

Before I begin, an earnest thank you for alerting me to the fact that this board can be posted in by guests. It means I have to go through and make sure the other boards can't be posted in by guests, as it's a great formula for bot spammers trying to sell product getting out of control. Unfortunately, this requires you to sign up in order to continue this debate, to which I apologize.

That being said, they are right. Should you suspect your material of being stolen, subtly either signing up to the site to converse with the head admin over PM or find another way to privately converse with them, if only to keep the incident subtle and not stir up the rest of the board into discomfort. Be considerate of others.

And that's applicable to all of us.

[PEARL]

I do want to say that if the person is changing their IP address, he or she is probably resetting their router or using an IP address change program like Hide My Ip. Contact Proboards directly and they can do something about it.

Something I really don't understand . . . . is why everyone is getting so bent out of shape about these issues. The person stole from you. Is there much you can do about it besides ban them? No. Why do people care so much when nothing can be done? When you post something on the internet, there is bound to be at least one person that steals it. Sorry.

I am not siding with the thieves because what they did is wrong. I am being honest. People are going to steal shit and cause drama. They have nothing better to do than cause drama and ruin things for other people. What we need to do is not throw a tamper-tantrum, blame innocent people, bring drama to other sites, close a site, threaten to bombard a site with hateful messages, and allow ourselves to get out of character. We are grown adults. We do not need to retaliate to try and prove a point. You just need to continue on and do what you enjoy doing. I don't think any of us come on the internet to bicker with one another. Let everyone know about the person and forward the IP address, but it is not necessary to get upset about something you know you cannot do anything about. We all know the difference between a cheap knock off what hard work looks like. Please don't let it effect you as much as it does. It's not worth it.

[corsica]

Um. What.

Like, really? We're doing this now? We're actually throwing our hands up to theft because "there's nothing you can do about it"? Is that the measure by which we decide whether or not something's okay to do or not? You're practically coming into a thread of upset artists and belittling them for being angry. Like how dare you? Especially when you know precisely what the situation is. This person has stolen everything from icons to WRITING. She's literally stealing the whole point of being in this community and not only that she's GIVING the things she's stolen to other people. And you're telling us to just say oh well? Don't be mad about it?

Really?

Yes, proxies are easy to come by. Yes, thieves are difficult to completely get rid of due to that. But you know what makes it even harder? When people like you come to spout blase do-no-harm shit like that. By saying do nothing about this shit, you're saying tolerate theft. I don't care what you say about 'not siding with thieves'; if you weren't doing just that you wouldn't have to say it. You are literally that person who sees ants in the kitchen and decides to just let them take over because "there's too many of them" and as a former thief yourself I have serious doubts about your sincerity.

I don't condone jumping the gun and banning everyone who doesn't show you proof that they made what they say they do, but the answer is not sit on your hands and twiddle your thumbs. If someone comes to you and says that their things have been stolen, you don't wait for the thief to reoffend. You don't give them the benefit of the doubt. You get proof, and when you have it, you should ban. The end. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

I'm sorry if this sounds angry, but this is absolutely an ongoing issue. She's stolen my group's icons and templates, she's even stolen our ooc names and continued to steal under them. She's gone so far as to impersonate an admin of this very site(GS). So please, stop trying to lessen how much of an issue this one person is in particular. It's precisely why she's still doing it.