Gig Denied for using a copyright image without even a single warning. How is this fair?

[spook_san]

Dear fellow fiverr community,

I been an active member of Fiverr since March 2020 ever since Covid broke out. After months of hard work of pleasing buyers, I made Fiverr to be my bread winner for my family.

It took me years to bring a gig up to a level where I had 35, 5 star reviews, nothing negative at all. I struggled hard to make sure I always delivered more than what I was offering and that's how I earned those. 

Last night out of nowhere, I got a notification stating that my gig was taken down | gig denied. I was shocked, I went and checked, they had stated I had used a copyright image... No warnings were given, no body asked me to take down. Years of hard work was thrown across as a slap and I am getting a standard response from Fiverr, I am in disbelief.

I literally told them my situation, pleaded my case stating If it was an image, I will change it. 

They don't seem to understand this is how I am surviving Covid after loosing my job.

I am constantly in touch with the people who placed orders on that gig. What will happen to those? I have 5 active orders and I don't know how to respond to them either.

I go out of my way to make sure I give buyers more than what I offer every time! 

I need help. This affects me so badly they don't seem to even care or even give a chance. 

How is this fair? Am I to loose all those reviews and ratings I struggled over sleepless nights because I used an image, somebody else's image I agree (edit: I was honestly unaware this was violating the terms, I used those to build model websites years ago and found them to be an inspiration), but I didn't lie about what I can do? How come I was not even asked to take down the image?

I don't have the heart to tell my fam that I can't bills next month. 

I need help

 

[mariashtelle1]

2 minutes ago, spook_san said:

How is this fair? Am I to loose all those reviews and ratings I struggled over sleepless nights because I used an image, somebody else's image I agree

I’m sorry, but I don’t have sympathy for people who steal someone else’s hard work and put it as their gig image. 

Fiverr doesn’t owe you to give a warning when you are breaking their rules. You signed and agreed to fiverr TOS and signed that you read and understood them. So it is completely fair from fiverr to remove your gig. 

If you’ve been working “years” with this gig then you had more than enough time to change stolen image or read fiverr rules. 
 

your reviews are not removed, they will stay on your account. Your orders are not cancelled, you can keep working on them. But you will have to create new gigs with your original work, not stolen images. 

[designernoor]

11 minutes ago, spook_san said:

Dear fellow fiverr community,

I been an active member of Fiverr since March 2020 ever since Covid broke out. After months of hard work of pleasing buyers, I made Fiverr to be my bread winner for my family.

It took me years to bring a gig up to a level where I had 35, 5 star reviews, nothing negative at all. I struggled hard to make sure I always delivered more than what I was offering and that's how I earned those. 

Last night out of nowhere, I got a notification stating that my gig was taken down | gig denied. I was shocked, I went and checked, they had stated I had used a copyright image... No warnings were given, no body asked me to take down. Years of hard work was thrown across as a slap and I am getting a standard response from Fiverr, I am in disbelief.

I literally told them my situation, pleaded my case stating If it was an image, I will change it. 

They don't seem to understand this is how I am surviving Covid after loosing my job.

I am constantly in touch with the people who placed orders on that gig. What will happen to those? I have 5 active orders and I don't know how to respond to them either.

I go out of my way to make sure I give buyers more than what I offer every time! 

I need help. This affects me so badly they don't seem to even care or even give a chance. 

How is this fair? Am I to loose all those reviews and ratings I struggled over sleepless nights because I used an image, somebody else's image I agree, but I didn't lie about what I can do? How come I was not even asked to take down the image?

I don't have the heart to tell my fam that I can't bills next month. 

I need help

 

It's too bad hope fiver solve your issue..fiver denied my best seller gig too I can understand 😔😔

[spook_san]

7 minutes ago, mariashtelle1 said:

I’m sorry, but I don’t have sympathy for people who steal someone else’s hard work and put it as their gig image. 

Fiverr doesn’t owe you to give a warning when you are breaking their rules. You signed and agreed to fiverr TOS and signed that you read and understood them. So it is completely fair from fiverr to remove your gig. 

If you’ve been working “years” with this gig then you had more than enough time to change stolen image or read fiverr rules. 
 

your reviews are not removed, they will stay on your account. Your orders are not cancelled, you can keep working on them. But you will have to create new gigs with your original work, not stolen images. 

I didn't even know it was copyrighted till last night. I found it on google years ago, found those as inspiration. They could have stated this image violate copyright while uploading 3 gig images?

[mariashtelle1]

7 minutes ago, spook_san said:

I found it on google years ago, found those as inspiration. They could have stated this image violate copyright while uploading 3 gig images?

Are you even serious? You don’t help your case at all. 
you take something out of the Google (btw which also writes a note at the bottom of every image that they might be copyrighted), you take image that YOU DIDNT CREATE and you are surprised that someone else and not you created that image? 🤷‍♀️ 
What kind of work are you delivering to your clients if you don’t even see anything bad from stealing from the internet and showing someone’s work as yours. 
And no, it’s not fiverr’s job to check copyrights when you are uploading images, it is YOUR responsibility to create your own images. 

[spook_san]

2 minutes ago, mariashtelle1 said:

Are you even serious? You don’t help your case at all. 
you take something out of the Google (btw which also writes a note at the bottom of every image that they might be copyrighted), you take image that YOU DIDNT CREATE and you are surprised that someone else and not you created that image? 🤷‍♀️ 
What kind of work are you delivering to your clients if you don’t even see anything bad from stealing from the internet and showing someone’s work as yours. 
And no, it’s not fiverr’s job to check copyrights when you are uploading images, it is YOUR responsibility to create your own images. 

Ma'am I found these in dribbble. If i can prove that all the gig images were from dribble and since they stated it was open source. Will it be copyright?
 

Is Dribbble open source?

 

 

Free Open Source designs, themes, templates and downloadable graphic elements on Dribbble. 📚Registration is now open for our 12 Week Product Design course. Flexible Learning. Live Mentorship.

[catwriter]

22 minutes ago, spook_san said:

How come I was not even asked to take down the image?

Because there are way too many sellers who use copyrighted images and try to circumvent the rules. I doubt that Fiverr has enough staff to first ask nicely each and every one of them, then check again if they did comply, then ask nicely many of them again (because many either ignore the warning or their English is so bad they don't understand what they're being told).

11 minutes ago, spook_san said:

I didn't even know it was copyrighted till last night.

As per Fiverr's Terms of Service, it's on you to ensure that you have the permission to use the images, or, if your gigs are in the design category (any kind of design), it's on you to create and use only your own images. You offer design, so, it doesn't even matter whether you knew the image was copyrighted; it had to be your own creation.

That being said, you still have your Fiverr account, so not all is lost. Create a new gig for the same service (with images that are your own design, not taken from the internet), deliver the orders you've got, and I suppose that within the delivery message you can also inform your buyers (if they're repeat buyers) that you've got a new gig for the same service.

[mariashtelle1]

Just now, spook_san said:

If i can prove that all the gig images were from dribble and since they stated it was open source. Will it be copyright?

It is. Your work has to be ORIGINAL, created by you, not taken from the dribble. You are showcasing YOUR work in your gigs, not the work of other person from dribble. 

[catwriter]

1 minute ago, spook_san said:

If i can prove that all the gig images were from dribble and since they stated it was open source. Will it be copyright?

Your gig is in the design category. You can't use someone else's images.

[spook_san]

12 minutes ago, catwriter said:

Your gig is in the design category. You can't use someone else's images.

Hi sir, no it does not fall in the design section. It falls under Web Programming category. I had used an open source image I found on Dribble

[catwriter]

44 minutes ago, spook_san said:

Hi sir, no it does not fall in the design section. It falls under Web Programming category.

Sorry, your gig title mentioned custom design.

And the Customer Support representative told you that all the images you add to the gallery have to be created by you.

And here's what I found out about Dribbble images: "Dribbble provides a community for designers to publish their own work, but we don't own any of the shots themselves - the designers retain all rights to their work. ... Please do not use any work found on Dribbble without direct permission from the designer, even for personal use. Doing so can result in legal action." Well, that would explain why Fiverr denied your gig: they don't want to be sued by the image owner.

https://support.dribbble.com/hc/en-us/articles/360056066854-Can-I-use-work-that-I-find-on-Dribbble

[melanielm]

Three years ago, I walked into a store. Some random man on the street said "Go take some stuff" so I did. I grabbed a few products and walked out. I didn't bother to find out if the man on the street owned the store or had any legal right to tell me I could take things for free.

I've been using the products for years. People compliment me on them all the time. All of a sudden, the police come and arrest me for stealing products from a store. Why didn't they warn me first?

This is the same exact thing as taking pictures off a random website and using them as your own.