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I just received an e-mail from Virginia McEnerney, the executive Director of Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. She stated that all of Kasey Bowman's awards have been revoked. She also said that they never gave her the $10,000 scholarship or any monetary prizes (unlike what everyone has been telling me so I'm rather confused on the matter; perhaps there was some sort of misunderstanding?). Her plagiarized piece has been removed from the site and the award will be given to someone else.

McEnerney said that Kasey Bowman "acknowledged that she has made a mistake". I have yet to receive any personal or public apology from Bowman herself so it's not all over yet but at least Scholastic has finally acknowledged the plagiarism issue after almost a month (I first contacted them on April 6th).

Thank you all for helping me with the issue. I am very grateful for all the support and information people have gathered about Scholastic. However, please remember that while what Kasey Bowman did was shameful, please express your opinions about her in a civil manner. Please do not flame her with threats or cyber bully her.

Thank you all again for everything! I will keep you guys updated

Original Post:

I haven't been active on dA for a while because I've been busy with finals but now that it's over, I come back to see that my drawing "Selfish" has been plagiarized and won 2 gold awards at the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers Competition www.artandwriting.org

You can see the plagiarized drawing at www.artandwriting.org/ORGGalle… but you have to go to "FILTER", then click on "Art", then "Painting". The thief in question is Kasey Bowman who copied my drawing

Mature Content

and renamed it "Stolen Wings". Is it just me or is this oh so ironic? She even copied the poem word for word...

Here's a screen capture:



There's even an article about her  www.democratherald.com/news/lo… and all the awards she won and how she got to go to New York for it.
And in another article, she comments on "her" work, and how it was inspired by a poem. Yeah, because reading my poem inspired her to draw something that looks almost exactly like the drawing? What are the chances of that?
www.democratherald.com/news/lo…
And she will be awarded by her school www.albany.k12.or.us/district/…

If she plagiarized my work, maybe her other winning painting "If Wolves Could Fly" might be plagiarized as well. I do not recognize it myself but perhaps you guys have seen it somewhere else? bloximages.chicago2.vip.townne…

Sad thing is, that's not the real problem...

I actually found out about this art theft on April 6th and e-mailed the Scholastic people at info@artandwriting.org about the issue with all the info required on the the "COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT CLAIM NOTICE AND PROCEDURE", but I did not receive a reply. I was too busy with studying and research essays to look into why, but now I do know and it's really pissing me off. If you check their current Terms of Service page www.artandwriting.org/terms , you'll see they've changed the copyright infringement procedure to "do not send such notice to our e-mail address", instead we must mail to the address or fax them (without providing a fax #). There's a statement saying they can change the procedure anytime they want without prior announcement.

I will be writing a mail to them...ONCE THEY PUT UP A PROPER ADDRESS TO MAIL TO!
This is exactly what they have on the site:

"Legal Department
Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, Inc.
557 Broadway – Room ______
New York, NY 10012

Or send us your written communication by facsimile to:  [FAX Number]"

Room??? So we're not suppose to e-mail, there's no fax # (just the words "FAX Number")and the address is incomplete?

Why am I so angry? Let's see, the Scholastic Alliance for Young Artists and Writers is the leading organization in helping young artists getting noticed, yet they take copyright infringement issues so lightly. I know for a fact that the person who informed me about art theft also contacted the the Scholastic people; she told me that even her AP art teacher and fellow classmates wrote to them about the unfairness of the competition. Yet we were all ignored because the plagiarized drawing is still on their site and people are still noting me about the issue.

Is this how young artists should be seen? Winning a contest held by people who are so irresponsible that anyone can cheat their way to the top? Even Myspace has a better copyright protection program; at least when I e-mail them about it, I get a reply within a few days, and they don't randomly change the procedures to make it my fault for not sending in the complaint properly.

I would really appreciate it if you guys could e-mail them at info@artandwriting.org or a&wGeneralInfo@scholastic.com and tell them how you disapprove of their poor copyright protection procedure. Though seeing as how they like to ignore e-mails, I'm not sure if it'll work but I want to try. I really don't want any future contestants to loose to an art thief and be ignored.

*sigh* I just needed to rant this out. I'll be sorting through all the notes and e-mail in the next fews days and hopefully put up some new drawings as well. Chapter 2 of Knite will be out within a month, and since I'll be on break, I can finish a new chapter every month. Thanks for being so patient with me, guys

New Update:

Thanks for all the support and help!!!

I've e-mailed Kasey Bowman's art teacher and I'll hopefully get a reply on Monday. Since all the helpful people on dA found other contact info for me, I'm also  planning to mail/call/fax the Scholastic people on Monday as well. I'll keep you guys updated on what happens by then!

Thanks again for the overwhelming amount of help

This lovely person made me a fanclub I feel so flattered, Thank you!!!

There's a group now! made by Thank you so much!

You guys flatter me too much XD