Brazen copyright infringement, 10-mile wide hubris, targeted online harassment.

And sweet sweet revenge.

This story should be a warning to any arrogant cheaters in a creative field.

He infringes my art. I shut down his print shop and ruined his career.

A little backstory, I’m an online artist and this took place when I was in my early 20s. There was a popular artist who calls himself a professional and works in the industries.

I used to look up to him. Let’s call him “Zack.”

Lately, I noticed how Zack’s art looked eerily too familiar to a piece of media I’ve seen before.

So I looked up the images and found it too matched up to his art.

To no one’s surprise, it was full-blown plagiarism.

He was directly referencing official art and profiting off of it by selling it on his print shops online.

He didn’t make any effort to make the reference detaches from the original piece.

I confronted him about it sending a detailed message not to do that and the possible consequences.

I have seen artists in real life who are sued for over $100,000 and to the extent in jail for doing what they did.

How do we think this cheater took it? Graciously, and with professional regret? Of course not.

Instead of being professional and mature about it, he lashed out at me and took it to social media telling me how wrong I was to falsely accuse him since artists use references and how I could get sued for libel.

I was dumbfounded at how clueless he was not comprehending what I was talking about.

He included my username which my blog had links to my contacts. My emails, Facebook page, art accounts, and Instagram.

His fans including his group of friends joined in sending me downright horrific messages to me.

I had panic attacks resulting from the pure backlash of his enormous fan base.

I constantly received hate mail, telling me how horrible I am as a person, how bad my art was, and to the extent of death threats for almost an entire month.

But it didn’t stop there. This “character” thought it best to pour salt in the wound.

The last straw that broke the camel’s back was when he directly referenced off of my art and made money off of it. I didn’t know how to find a lawyer and I feel hopeless and angry that I couldn’t do anything about it.

Later it hit me if I can’t do it, then maybe another artist can or anyone holds the copyright. The last time I remember, Zack never credit any of these artists for his references.

I looked into the art he referenced and examine each official company matching Zack’s art. I used google search to find anyone working for a said company and voilà! I found a staff member for a branch in a different continent. Let’s call him “Cody.”

I contacted Cody’s Facebook and tipped him about Zack’s activity through messenger.

I uploaded and sent a copy of their art and Zack’s art for comparison.

Cody just simply replied, “Will contact our legal team, thanks for the notice.”

Another week passes by and during the time he constantly posts to every damn thing I post about in my art blog. And then silence.

That was probably a very long week indeed…

I checked his print shop was removed. His response to my message was taken down from his social media. He stops talking to his “friends” publicly.

Days later a fan was asking about him and he responded how he is no longer friends with them cause they are very toxic hypocrites.

One of his former group of friends contacted my friend and cried about how awful a bully he was. Of course, my friend didn’t care.

It was the most glorifying feeling I have ever rejoiced. This would’ve been avoided if he at least heeded my warnings. How he handled the situation was not professional AT ALL.

About 5 years later I had been informed that apparently, he has a tough time getting back into the industry after there were allegations of his past copyright infringement.

The biggest one was having a lawsuit with the big company Cody worked for.

Yeah that would do it I think.

It sounds like a lesson was learned that day.

Let’s see what folks had to say about this behavior.

This commenter reminds us that online karma is always around the corner.

One person had a similar experience, wishing they had the comeuppance this guy did.

Another commenter praised OP’s actions.

While this might be the best tongue-in-cheek summary of the story!

It really does feel great to hear a story come full circle the way it’s supposed to.

Say hello to karma!

Want to read another story where somebody got satisfying revenge? Check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.