Visual artists' work is being stolen when supportive followers recommend to them that they put their art on t-shirts. Presumably, the bots search on Twitter phrases related to art and t-shirts, and then, according to the BBC, they steal the artwork, upload them on third party t-shirt websites, and reap the profit from any sales.
Some even believe there's an established algorithm that allows the bots to quickly track artwork that they can steal and profit from. Artist Jesse McLaren fell victim to this and then tweeted, "So I posted a picture of myself wearing a shirt that I made — and then immediately had reply tweets featuring my shirt, that I designed, for sale. Like there's an algorithm that just finds Tweets containing shirts, copies the image, and sells it asap. It's ... really impressive?"
The BBC further noted that the third party websites don't appear to have any connection to the artwork being stolen, indicating that someone, or a team, created the bots without the consent of the t-shirt production companies. The situation is awful for artists, but artists have rallied and even gotten whoever is behind the bots to accidentally admit their scheme. According to Waxy, Twitter user @nanadouken posted a simple design that read, "This site sells STOLEN artwork, do NOT buy from them!" with a heart and a winking face. The design soon appeared on a t-shirt website, as expected, proving a bot's involvement.
Ultimately, the battle between artists and these thieving bots is ongoing, but we can only hope that artists pull out on top.
