On the internet, it's often every man for himself, and that's exactly the type of situation where content creator and Reddit user Lostinthesnakepit, aka Snake, found himself when he discovered a website had stolen his tutorial on making movie prop replicas.
But as the man explained on the subreddit 'Petty Revenge,' instead of sitting back and filing complaints, he decided to take matters into his own hands and came up with a plan to get back at the pesky thieves.
If your hard work is on the internet, some people might want to steal it
Image credits: olia danilevich (not the actual photo)
But as this guy has proven, there are things you can do about it
Image credits: jm_video (not the actual photo)
Image credits: lostinthesnakepit
The author of the post told us the whole ordeal has impacted the way he shares and protects his work online
"My love of Star Wars got me into [recreating movie replicas]," the Reddit avenger explained to Bored Panda. "I wanted to create a lightsaber and found a guide on eBay in the late '90s. It all started there. After that, I found the Replica Prop Forum (RPF) in 2000 and have been a member ever since. I am not as active in that community, but I still check in from time to time and I still speak to friends I made there. I also still have the props I have built/bought over these last 20-ish years. I always felt a greater connection to a film when you can hold a prop from that movie, even if you made it yourself."
When it's not just another project but rather part of a passion you’ve been working on for decades, such thefts are beyond infuriating.
Similar cases are quite prevalent. For example, MASV, a file transfer platform for media professionals, found that 47% of video content creators who collaborate with brands or influencers have had their work used without permission. Furthermore, a very similar share of said brands or influencers either didn't respond when alerted to their use of unauthorized content or only removed the content after a significant delay.
"As far as 'nightmare fuel,' I wanted to find pics that were insane but not entirely pornographic," Lostinthesnakepit added. "I wanted the revenge to be more funny and 'WTF am I looking at?!'"
Moving forward, "I did start monitoring my site stats and connections better, usually at the end of each month, just to see who might be linking my images," the author of the post said. "I never had another instance like that of that scale. On the occasion that someone was using an image of mine for their business, claiming it as something they built or owned to sell, I would swap a pic again and then it would stop."
Image credits: Glenn Carstens-Peters (not the actual photo)
People loved the revenge story, and some shared their own similar experiences
