How bots are stealing artists artwork on twitter

Artists have told the BBC how their artwork is being stolen from social media and sold for profit online.

They claim malicious individuals are finding their art, often with the aid of an automated system known as a bot, and uploading it on to a website where it can be sold on a T-shirt without the artists permission.

The individuals then comment underneath the artists work on social media with a link to the T-shirt website, tricking the artist's fans into thinking it is an official product.

Some artists have claimed this entire process can occur without any human intervention.

They say the bot finds the image, uploads it to a third-party T-shirt-selling website, and posts the link automatically.

This led some artists to try to get their own back on the bots by posting images that clearly state they are infringing copyright.

There is no indication that the people doing this are in any way associated with the websites where the T-shirts are being sold.

But there is frustration that the websites are not doing more to stop it.

Rob Schamberger, a professional artist who works with pro wrestling company WWE, told the BBC how the automated system works.

"Its something that really needed to be addressed," he said. "I noticed the trend was it always happened whenever someone responded theyd love to have this on a shirt."

"Someone has programmed something to search Twitter for a phrase (such as, I want this on a T-shirt)," he said. "It takes the image, puts it on to one of these T-shirt-selling websites, then sells the products more or less instantly. Its automated."

He also warned that the websites where these items are sold may not necessarily be above board, and advised his fellow artists what they should do to avoid it happening to them.

"Some of these websites may not be legitimate at all," he said. "They could just be taking peoples money.

"This is a kind of more insidious and nefarious thing. So if you respond to my artwork saying you want a shirt of this, to protect my work, I have to block you."