So you are browsing the net one day and find an oddly familiar work of art. While it may or may not be outright obvious, someone, somewhere will infringe on your legal copyrights as an artist. Once the offender is located, what do you do?

Cool Down
First off do not lose your cool. Do not seek some sort of retribution and do something rash. You are a professional and need to act as one. Err… Unless you aren’t a professional… In which case you should hire an army of monkeys to F5 the offender’s website and cause a DoS attack… Yeah… Bad idea.

Draft a Letter
Now you have to let the offending party know that they have been ‘noticed’. Take note that I said ‘noticed’ and not caught. You don’t want to outright blame someone for copyright infringement. You need to tactfully approach the situation and treat this individual with respect. Hey, chances are they have no idea they did something illegal.

The following letter should NOT be a way to approach the offending artist:

Dear Scummy McScummerson,

I have noticed that you are in the business of not only ripping hard working people off, but also offending the art and cultural differences between ‘chimps who paint’. You see, I have found that you blatantly stolen my superiorly artistic ideas and defiled them with that disgusting stub you call a paint brush. I would suggest you remove that festering pool of soured medium from your website or I will be forced to hack your site and do it my damn self. Or perhaps I will just beat you with a dead herring.

Your move creep…

So, obviously this will NOT compel this user to do anything other than sending a reciprocal nasty-gram. Perhaps this approach will serve you well:

Dear Insert Name Here,

While exploring you site recently I noticed something alarming. It would appear that you have reproduced one of my works. While I enjoyed your other works, I must insist that you remove the work that encroaches on my copyright protected work. Please do so within five business days or I will be forced to exercise my rights to evoke a Cease and Desist order.

Thank you for your cooperation. I hope you understand.

Ok, does your sweet tooth hurt yet? Well, in a way it should. You never know the thought process of the other person. With the ‘goody two-shoes’ approach you are almost guaranteed a positive response.And by the way, check out Lorelle On Wordpress for more nifty content on copyright infringement.