How Can I Tell Where My Character Is Being Used Without Permission?

The Age of Character Copying?

Anyone who has created a character has probably felt this unease at some point.

“Could the character I drew be turning up somewhere without my permission?” In reality, that fear is not unfounded.

As illustrated by the “Protection Project” undertaken by one character brand itself, popular characters in South Korea continue to be targeted for unauthorized copying.

The most common—and often most damaging—form of infringement involves taking a character image without permission and using it on merchandise, printed materials, or packaging.

The problem is that this kind of infringement often goes undetected until the products have already been mass-produced and distributed through overseas manufacturers.

By the time the creator notices, a substantial quantity may already be circulating on the market.

Late discovery is a problem, but an even bigger one comes afterward. Even if you say, “That is my character,” many creators have no clear way to prove it.

Experts generally recommend the following order of response.

First, secure screenshots of the sales page, the URL, and the seller’s information. Then report the infringement to the Copyright Protection Agency or, if necessary, proceed with legal action.

And throughout this entire process, one factor can make a decisive difference.

Whether the work was registered in advance.

Registration does not create copyright, but when a dispute arises, it can significantly strengthen your ability to prove that the work was originally yours.

A structure that stops leaks before they happen, rather than reacting afterward

Legal action is, in the end, a response after the fact.

It means spending time and money to fight back after the work has already leaked into the market.

Decoblocks is focused on what comes before that stage.

The goal is to prevent images from escaping beyond the sales page in the first place.

In the WordPress ecosystem, it is common for people to obtain an image URL directly and load the image on another website without permission.

A basic way to prevent this is hotlink protection: the server blocks access so that an image is not displayed unless the request comes through a legitimate payment or licensing process.

This creates a structure in which the original image cannot be accessed without going through the sales page.

Recently, Decoblocks discovered and immediately patched a security vulnerability that allowed users who had not paid to access certain paid sticker packs through a specific path.

That means the company is continuing to strengthen the system that filters out unlicensed access at the source.

In addition, the platform is developing a system in which a license is automatically revoked when a payment is canceled or refunded, then automatically restored when the license is registered again with the correct domain.

Ultimately, these safeguards all serve a single purpose.

To ensure that a character registered by a designer reaches precisely—and only—the people who have paid for it.

There is no such thing as a perfect shield. But there is a clear difference between having no safeguards at all and continually finding and sealing the gaps through which things could leak.

For designers, the most important question is ultimately this: “Can I create with peace of mind?”

It is difficult to produce good work while worrying that a character you created could be copied and circulate anywhere.

What Decoblocks is building is not a flashy marketing promise, but the largely invisible work of closing these gaps one by one.

We will not claim that the system is perfect.

But we can say with certainty that Decoblocks is taking this problem seriously and continuing to improve its protections.