Shop Filled With Stolen Digitals Taken Down At Bonanza

Digital owned by Kika Esteves

The Giftgenie shop at Bonanza was taken down, as of this morning, by admin or closed by the owner, who was stealing the work of graphic designers. Some of the work stolen and listed included digital papers and images by Kika Esteves, Maishop and Pop Stock Images. All of the images in this blog post are stolen files images which I've taken from the Kaleidoguide shop overview at Bonanza: http://bit.ly/1NS57uu. The Giftgenie shop is gone, but the Kaleidoguide review remains. I am glad so that I can show you some of what was stolen.

Digital owned by Maishop (the digital that I bought from Giftgenie)

There were oodles and oodles more graphics, digitals and clipart files at this shop, in fact, over 3,000 product listings! I believe most were probably stolen, because many had brand names and logos on the banners. I bought the ribbon banners file, which had no brand. I now know that they belong to Maishop, because I just saw them at her Meylah shop.

Digital owned by Pop Stock Images

I had mentioned via email to the shop owner, when I was browsing, that "I see you are selling Kika Esteves papers." She/he replied, "Yes, with permission of course." This was a bold-faced lie of which I was unaware, but something about the shop kept nagging at me. Something was not right. I really thought that the store was some type of graphic clearing house. I did not ask, but the owner did not explain to me how she/he was being allowed to sell the work of others. I kept wondering how, and thinking that maybe I could do this for more exposure. Interestingly, there had been a problem with the shop that frustrated my ordering. When I complained to the seller, she said that she had someone listing products for her. Apparently she had someone scraping the Net to steal digitals and list them in this shop. The listings were incomplete or flawed in some way, and the seller had to go behind the person and correct the issues.

Digital owned by Kika Esteves

I recognized Maishop and Kika papers from Meylah, where I have a shop. I'd never seen Pop Stock Images, but since the logo was so distinctive, I decided to Google it. When I was able to make time, I contacted each designer, telling them my story. I explained how it had been bothering me, and asked if they had given permission for this person to sell their graphics.

Digital owned by Maishop

Though I had wondered, I was stunned when each designer said no permission was given. I had learned years ago that this type of theft was happening regularly. I've seen websites established to post theft alerts. I've also seen creatives image theft complaint posts in various venue forums. I was still shocked and dismayed that I'd run across an actual thief. I sent the three designers links to some of their products at this shop, after which they contacted the shop owner and Bonanza.

I am glad to know that this thief seller and the thieving shop are gone. We know that they are throughout the Internet. Like resellers of cheap, knockoff merchandise, who keep popping up at handmade venues, they migrate, rename themselves and offend repeatedly. We won't stop exposing them though. We won't be forced off of the Web because of security concerns, but we'll continue to enjoy the eCommerce that we work so hard to develop.

You can use Copyscape to help protect your online content. The site shares this about their service: "Copyscape provides a free plagiarism checker for finding copies of your web pages online, as well as two more powerful professional solutions for preventing content theft and content fraud." I have been planning to use it to regularly check my own content, but haven't worked the habit into my schedule yet. It is an important part of online selling.

Please visit the shops of these designers whose work was saved from being pilfered one more time:

Kika Esteves Digital Cuties:  Meyla    Etsy

Maishop Digital Art:  Meyla    Etsy


Pop Stock Images:  Website    Etsy

Also visit my shops EmbellishMart:  Meyla   Bonanza