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Update as of 9/14/2014: I have seen no "real" attempts from Aelli's end on her getting me the name of the person she supposedly bought my base from. Because of this, I cannot come to believe that what she told me was, in fact, the truth. Whatever the real truth is, is a complete mystery to me. Along with this, I can't really come to believe, at least now, after MONTHS of waiting for her to come up with some sort of hint as to who she "bought" my base from, I am pretty much at the point that I am starting to honestly believe that she used my base, thinking that she could get away with not crediting me. To those of you who are currently reading this, checking updates to the A_B forum/group, I will leave this last update for you all to read. PLEASE beware Aeilli/Aelliana and avoid contacting her. If she goes out and takes free linework and tries to profit off of it without crediting the original source, then lies and doesn't even bother trying to sort out the matter truthfully, she has shown she cannot be trusted. UPDATE: She unblocked my fiance to say her apologies. I am currently talking to her now to solve the matter. It seems, from what she is telling me, that someone else had uploaded the linework and was selling the files for monetary gain. Currently we are talking on a calm civil tone and trying to figure things out. At the time being, the issues have been explained and are almost solved entirely. This is fairly long, but details everything that happened. The issue itself lasted over the course of one day, but I continue to worry that other artists will have their work stolen and resold if this isn't brought to light, and we cannot simply "report a user" on Furaffinity without the issue of their Trouble Ticket System being backlogged. Please read to avoid this thief. (Used spoiler since LJ Cut wasn't working in the preview) Also, to the moderators, I apologise for all the issues with this submission, not really sure what is happening to cause it to go wonky. WHO: Aelli / Aelliana WHERE: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/aelli/ and http://aelliana.deviantart.com/ WHAT: Violation of Rules for Free Lineart Use and ART THEFT WHEN: Timeline: This happened on the 12th of July and is a continual worry. PROOF: My dropbox has all screenshots from this incident as the user in question has removed all art, BUT threatened to repost it. The original post of mine (All are downloadable via dropbox) FREE KITSUNE LINEART (FA) (Contains NSFW content) KITSUNE FEMALE (DA) (Contains NSFW content) KITSUNE MALE (DA) (Contains NSFW content) This one could have also been the Cboi lineart since they are "the same" as one another The stolen/traced work: FemaleFox.png Fennec.png MaleFox.png RedPanda.png UPDATED: Managed to save four out of the five she had posted since she deleted them (these are using the tail from my lineart). I am not concerned about these getting pulled from the site since they were free, but they have her watermark on them, so I figured I would add them to the list. Grey Female (Slightly edited by the adopter) Green Female Also seen on her "Fiance's" profile Pinkish-Purple Female Tan Female Overlays of their "art" and my Linework proving that they repurposed my work without permission or credit FemaleFox.png Fennec.png MaleFox.png RedPanda.png EXPLAIN: Alright, so here is how the ENTIRE THING played out. I had logged in to simply check messages before starting on school work when one of my watchers had contacted me via note (to which I am extremely grateful for) that the free to use lineart that I had posted on DeviatART (It is posted to both FA and DA) was being used for adoptables even though I had asked that it NOT be used for monetary gain without permission, or otherwise. I thanked said watcher for telling me this (and left them out of the situation for numerous reasons) and tried to civilly contact Aelli about the situation. I left a comment on her RedPanda post (which has been deleted since), simply saying "Could you please not use my linework for adoptables" and I DID link them to the original post. They then hid the comment (which is why I do not have a screenshot of it but it is seen on some of the screencaps of hidden comments). I then posted a shout on their page, they again, removed the shout and proceeded to block me. I rooted around a bit on their profile and was able to find their DeviantART link, and I did contact them via private note on my account DarkSinnister (the free linework account). The note reads from bottom to top due to how DA handles PM's. They soon after I contacted them on FA, posted this journal trying to play the "victim of fake accusations" because "the art looked similar". My fiance Huntingslea (whom I told specifically not to comment) went ahead and posted a comment on the journal (as seen in prior link) and this is the conversation that played out. Huntingslea_FA-Conversation-with-Aelli.png to which she basically still continued to deny the blatant and hard to counter evidence that was brought up. I had gone as gracefully as I could so I wouldn't end up getting agitated, I went about it calmly and tried to resolve the issue without too much stress, but they continued to defend themselves and proceeded to say that I was harassing them simply because I was trying to SOLVE the situation in a calm manner. Granted, I did do a few stupid things, but once they removed the work, I removed all traces of me asking for help on resolving this (since FA is still BACKLOGGED with TT's). They then said, or basically promised/threatened that they WOULD repost their "art work" on FA and DA and that they had "no control over how I feel about it" and that it wasn't their "concern". I did take notice that they had done this BEFORE and basically gotten away with it because they hid all comments and blocked the users (those are unrelated to this post though, so I will not post those links). I have provided the "adoptables" above as an overlay on my linework, which I did shortly before/after contacting them, and as you will notice, all they did was alter the tails, legs, Breasts (for the female) ears and move the arm up just ever so slightly to try and get past that they were doing this without permission. The user -somehow- legally/honestly obtained new lineart and -seems- to be avoiding claiming anything that they did not do as "theirs". Even with this though, I still fear that they are going to try to repost the "adoptables" that they did with my free linework (which is still, against my Rules of Use if they did NOT ask permission). I do not want anyone within the art community, artist or watcher alike, to possibly get scammed by this user. I really did not want to resort to this measure, but I STILL fear that she will repost those images and try to scam users into thinking that they are entirely her work and sell them. Current Mood: Aggravated EDIT: So apparently the adopts that she used the tail from my original submission were given out for free. I am thankful for that. Still upset she used my work without permission, but glad other users weren't scammed into buying them. EDIT2: Apparently she unblocked me to tell me to leave her alone. I have a feeling that someone saw this post and asked her why, or warned her about it. If she IS reading this post. If she just simply will CREDIT ME FOR MY WORK, as well as NEVER use it again since she is now basically on a "black list of sorts" (meaning I blocked her after she contacted me), I will GLADLY call this resolved. All I ever wanted was credit where it was DUE. EDIT3: So she removed the images without trying to SOLVE the issue in the slightest. As far as I am concerned, this issue has gone unresolved and this post will remain as is. EDIT4: Her note can be seen HERE with my response to her, I think she sent this after deleting the images with my tail linework in them.

On the 29th of May, I Bought 3 Acrylic charms from Vani's Square site. It does not utilise PayPal. Then nothing happened for several months. I DMed Vani on Twitter for a status update, 26th July; and my second attempt was answered: 4th September. I haven't heard from them since. They have a public Trello that is used for Commission work, and a public Twitter: while they have not posted recently, they have Liked other users' posts. It is now the 28th of October, and given the artist's record, I don't imagine I will receive anything.

Mar. 16th, 2012 at 12:47 PM keshimeg WHO: Vani/Vanimute/Vanillakitsune aka Stripesandteeth/Ash WHERE: VanillaKitsune.deviantart.com (now deactivated) also Vanimute@DA Vani@FA Stripesandteeth@Tumblr WHAT: Digital chibi, Digital Portrait WHEN: August 6th 2009 up until 20th December 2011 PROOF: Proof of payment http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm46/keshikins/stuff/ashpayment-1.jpg Original commission request was made on her Vanillakitsune DA account which has now been deactivated. I have placed screencaps of what conversation I could get, they are in the explanation. EXPLAIN: I have been a customer wronged by Vani/Ash. At one point I thought we were on a very good level, enough to say we were sort of friends. While my situation has a better ending than most as I received a refund in the end, I will share it. I've wanted to share it for a long time but always felt the need to tip-toe around her feelings and her fans. I'm done hiding though, because her behaviour is not on. I was happy with my outcome, despite having to fight for it for so long. However, after seeing her open more commissions, well, that angered me! I feel upset and sorry for the people who are still waiting, and those new commissioners who have no idea. I commissioned Ash on August 5th, 2009, this was on her VanillaKitsune DA account. She was wanting to save up for some ragdoll cats. Her art was an inspiration and I think this was around the time we were acquaintances. I ordered a chibi ($15) and a digital portrait ($50). I am a very trusting person and I really wanted to help. Full payment of $65 was sent upfront, I was extremely excited! Here is the payment proof http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm46/keshikins/stuff/ashpayment-1.jpg A few months passed and I finally received a my chibi. It wasn't the highest quality of art (pencil sketch coloured in) but I still did enjoy it, hey I got art for one of my biggest inspirations, yipee! Here is the chibi commission http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm46/keshikins/Art%20for%20me/Kyle/Kyle_Commish_by_Vanimute.jpg At this point I was pretty confident I will get my digital portrait soon. I waited.. and waited. Ash has changed accounts to Vanimute on DA so I found her there and watched her. I continued to see her upload new art (none being commissions) but still I waited patiently! I take commissions myself and understand that sometimes you don't have the right inspiration. I also kept into account she was in college. A while passed and I discovered she was active on FA under the name Vani, not only uploading personal art but.. taking more commissions? I made an account on FA just to follow her and wait, still very patiently though! It came to the point where she was continuously opening commissions, until finally making a journal about her to-do list/queue. The one we know ever so well http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1953643/ My commission is a year and a half overdue at this point, you would think I would be at the top of the list? I am all the way down the bottom! At this point I was done patiently and silently waiting. I voiced my feelings, albeit in the open but I think I had the right to. You can find the conversation here http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2014394/#cid:16534744 I generally like to be a kind person and give everyone the benefit of the doubt, even after being told it was my responsibility to keep in touch with her. Also if you read her reply, it is full of excuses (valid or not) and not one apology to me (I ended up being the one apologising?). As a commissioner myself I feel it is my responsibility to let my commissioners know if there will be a delay, also at least have the decency to own up to your mistake, have some humility and apologise?? So after feeling like the bad guy, I noted her on FA, here is a print screen. Note how I am still very understanding! http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm46/keshikins/stuff/Ash1.jpg Well, that note was never read. I couldn't understand? I was told to note her! I waited months for a reply, it still says in my outbox that it has not been read. So I sent another one, this time I did not sugar coat my feelings. I was done, this was unacceptable. She still had $50 of my money and not one apology. Here is the note http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm46/keshikins/stuff/Ash2.jpg After this on not being read, I discovered I have to email her school account? Awesome! So far we have gone from Vanillakitsune@DA, Vanimute@da, Vani@FA (all of which have been abandoned) and now her school email. I sent the same message to her but via email. To my surprise I got a reply. I got an apology, we worked out what I wanted. I gave her 5 different characters to choose from. All different species and levels of fun in hopes this would be helpful. In these emails I reverted back to being kind and understanding, hoping to not upset her. I understood she was stressed and made a mistake and honestly didn't want to ruin any chances of receiving my art. This was the 7th/8th of June 2011. I received an update 2 weeks later, with some sketches. Awesome, it looked like we were getting somewhere. I replied saying I liked them, thanked her and hoped for her to continue. 2 months I waited, and sent her an email wondering what was going on. I didn't receive a reply. This is getting quite long, I promise it ends soon! I then discovered her on TUMBLR. We are so far away from commissioning her on Vanillakitsune. Tumblr has an ask system so some months after the email I sent, I sent an ask about it. I don't have records of what was sent, but I expressed my unhappiness again and stated this was unfair. I was told since I found it unfair I would get a refund. If I remember correctly a few weeks passed and I had to send her an ask again! This time the reply I got was her paypal email, telling me to send her an invoice for the refund and that she would have it by the end of the week. I sent it on the 6th of December. I received the refund 2 weeks later, on the 20th of December, 2011. I commissioned her on the 5th of August, 2009. I am happy I got a refund, although it took a look of persistence. I remained nice and understanding the majority of the time. Forgave her constantly and chased her around the internet. While I finally got my money back, so many others are not this lucky! More of us need to share our stories. People need to know that commissioning Ash is a bad idea. We need to stop being scared of her fans and hurting her feelings. She may have nice art and be popular, but not saying anything in public seems to be allowing this behaviour. She has run away with hundreds (maybe thousands?) of dollars, and continues to do nothing to right her wrongs but rather make it worse! Hopefully one day this will end. I hope that she can change her ways, own up and make up for her mistakes and complete any overdue art/refund people. It will take some time but she has dug this hole and continues to to this very day! You can only be supportive and forgiving for so long before enough is enough.

Mar. 13th, 2012 at 9:23 AM ariakitty WHO: Vani/Vanimute/Vanilla Kitsune WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/vani/ WHAT: Two icon commissions, cost $24 (The total was actually $25.03 because she requested that I cover the paypal fees. I sent $26 just so the number would be even. I am aware that you're not supposed to pay extra to cover the fees but at the time I didn't know this.) WHEN: Payment sent March 21, 2010 Proof of payment. PROOF: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1284224/ Journal where commissions were offered. (March 21, 2010) EXPLAIN: I commissioned Vani for two icons in March 2010. In the journal she does state that she wouldn't be getting to these specific commissions until May. So I did not expect to see anything until the summer/fall of that year. There was really no concise list of her current commission queue, but in the journal where she offered these commissions she made it seem like she didn't have that many to do. Around December 2010 she posted her commission queue: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1953643 I kicked myself when I saw how massive her queue was, had I known she owed that many commissions I wouldn’t have commissioned her in the first place. A year goes by and I figure it's time to contact her and inquire about the status of my commission. I tried to contact her through FA on June 28, 2011. The note was never read. So on September 19 I sent her an email, I never received a reply. (I can provide screens of the email and the note but I wasn't sure if that was necessary.) Her tumblr is active and she has a new DA page with new art posted: http://stripesandteeth.tumblr.com/ http://maplemutesandtea.tumblr.com/ (not as active) http://www.stripes-and-teeth.deviantart.com/ I don't really know how much of it is commission work and how much is personal work. I didn't start to worry until I saw a question that she answered on her tumblr about why she left DA and FA. On September 23 I sent her a note through her maplemutesandtea tumblr and I did receive a reply. I responded back telling her I'd be happy to wait for the art as long as communication between us was good. Needless to say, I did not get a response to my second note. (I would provide proof of that but tumblr doesn't keep a record of sent 'asks'.) February, 29 I decided to try to contact her again through tumblr. I forgot to take a screen of it before I sent it off. But I had asked her how things were going and if she needed refs. I figured after almost 2 years she probably didn't have my character refs anymore. She has not responded to that note. On March 11 she posted to her tumblr offering more commissions. I’m a little disappointed. She has a queue of 50+ commissions that she hasn’t made good on, yet she’s taking on more work. I'm glad to see that she won't accept payment until the commission is finished but... What about the rest of us? Vani is a talented artist and I really hate to see her dig herself into such a deep hole. I didn't want to make an A_B entry about anyone, let alone Vani. She took on more work than she could handle and I know she's very stressed about it. But I wish she would communicate with me. I am patient and I am willing to wait quite a while as long as the artist stays in touch. I sincerely hope this can be marked as resolved someday.