When he was made aware of it by one of his followers, Don said he immediately messaged Chris Brown, although he wasn’t expecting a reply.
The Manchester-based artist also says he contacted the singer’s management.
“The only thing I thought I could do after that is just post about it on my social accounts,” he says.
Don’s post on Reddit showing the two videos next to each other got upvoted – a way that other users show their support – nearly 80,000 times, which he says he “wasn’t really expecting”.
“I just wanted to bring some attention to it. I don’t expect I’ll really get anything else from it, like money-wise,” he says.
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This isn’t the first time something like this has happened to Don. A few years ago, another artist put his work at the start of a music video on YouTube that gained more than 2 million views in the year it was up before Don saw it and reached out.
After weeks of back-and-forth and “non-responses” the record label offered Don $250 (£190).
“I thought that was kind of laughable at the time because at the very least, if you’re going to compensate me, I thought maybe they would pay the rate I would normally charge for a project like that.
“It would have been at least about four or five times more.”
This was before Don offered his work online for free, so the video had been ripped from his YouTube page and uploaded illegally, infringing his copyright.
“In the end I was just happy for them to take it down – and they actually did eventually – so they admitted they were in the wrong there.”
Being a visual artist who works predominantly on online, Don says you almost have to expect that people will use your work now.
“Once you post something and it’s out on Instagram or YouTube, it’s very easy to just snag it from there. And I know other artists who’ve had the same thing happen to them.”
Regardless of how Don’s artwork ended up being shared to Chris Brown’s Instagram page, he just wants artists to approach things honestly.
“When I post things and collaborate with other artists I’m really conscious of making sure I credit everybody. And I expect other artists to be similar. They know it’s not something they created.”
