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Artists, think before you act/Piracy isn't always bad [RANT]
12 years ago
I will not name names here and request no-one else does if they know who I'm talking about.
An artist is having trouble with one of the various chan sites because a user requested someone post his artpack. [It hasn't been posted yet and since he doesn't want it to be posted I hope no-one uploads it.]
In one of his journals the following comment thread happened:
USER: Maybe if it is released you will get more people legitimately purchasing it from you after enjoying the contents of the downloaded copy. I do that all the time thats what i call supporting the artist if i like the work a lot i will legitly purchase it from them if it was originally paid work. I support ##### fully.
ARTIST: Not at all, who would do that? That's just hypocresy :P peopel would get for free, give it a quick look and then have it in some corner of their C: disk. Very few are the ones who, for example, download a videogame, try it out and if they like, then they buy the original thing.
ME: Guess I'm one of the few then.
Probably 90% of the furry comics and books that I own are a result of sites like this, I find them there, enjoy them and then go and buy them to support the artist. [The other 10% are either from the same people or they had originally been webcomics I read for free.]
While this kind of thing can cost people sales it can also get them more publicity and sales from people who otherwise wouldn't have found them or wouldn't have risked their money on something they only had a brief blurb to go on.
ME: Note: I'm not defending the site. You asked for your stuff to be taken down and that request removed, they should do so. I'm just saying that what the above commentor said is not hypocrisy and that sites like these can be useful sometimes.
No responses to that, no idea if he even read it.
Next day he posts another journal saying that he's taken his artpark off the net completely and stopped selling it, that he feels the only way to "win" in this situation is to not play and hope that those who have the pack won't upload it.
I made a comment that I cannot paste here because he hide the comment then blocked me over it, the comment went basically like this:
While it's upto you what you do and how you handle this issue I have to be honest.... you didn't win, you lost.
It's possible that no-one would have uploaded your artpack, this means you wouldn't have lost out on sales. By removing the pack from sale you have cost yourself sales because no-one can buy it now.
If someone did post it to the site maybe it would have cost you sales but there's no guarantee of that, most people getting things for free would just have gone without rather than paid for something.
If it was posted you may actually have gained sales as people on the fence over buying it could see what it contained and buy it [or donate to you] as a thankyou to support the artist.
By removing the pack from sale no-one can legitimately buy it and this may actually cause someone who did buy it to share it so that people can see your art.
Again, I do support him doing what he wants with his art. I just don't think he made the right choice and tried to show him how some good might come out of it....
The result... he blocked me without a single word to me and that kinda pisses me off. Why do people just assume you are a troll when you have a dissenting opinion? What happened to having the ability to have a damn discussion and different opinions?
That artist has lost any respect I had for him.
An artist is having trouble with one of the various chan sites because a user requested someone post his artpack. [It hasn't been posted yet and since he doesn't want it to be posted I hope no-one uploads it.]
In one of his journals the following comment thread happened:
===================================USER: Maybe if it is released you will get more people legitimately purchasing it from you after enjoying the contents of the downloaded copy. I do that all the time thats what i call supporting the artist if i like the work a lot i will legitly purchase it from them if it was originally paid work. I support ##### fully.
ARTIST: Not at all, who would do that? That's just hypocresy :P peopel would get for free, give it a quick look and then have it in some corner of their C: disk. Very few are the ones who, for example, download a videogame, try it out and if they like, then they buy the original thing.
ME: Guess I'm one of the few then.
Probably 90% of the furry comics and books that I own are a result of sites like this, I find them there, enjoy them and then go and buy them to support the artist. [The other 10% are either from the same people or they had originally been webcomics I read for free.]
While this kind of thing can cost people sales it can also get them more publicity and sales from people who otherwise wouldn't have found them or wouldn't have risked their money on something they only had a brief blurb to go on.
ME: Note: I'm not defending the site. You asked for your stuff to be taken down and that request removed, they should do so. I'm just saying that what the above commentor said is not hypocrisy and that sites like these can be useful sometimes.
===================================No responses to that, no idea if he even read it.
Next day he posts another journal saying that he's taken his artpark off the net completely and stopped selling it, that he feels the only way to "win" in this situation is to not play and hope that those who have the pack won't upload it.
I made a comment that I cannot paste here because he hide the comment then blocked me over it, the comment went basically like this:
===================================While it's upto you what you do and how you handle this issue I have to be honest.... you didn't win, you lost.
It's possible that no-one would have uploaded your artpack, this means you wouldn't have lost out on sales. By removing the pack from sale you have cost yourself sales because no-one can buy it now.
If someone did post it to the site maybe it would have cost you sales but there's no guarantee of that, most people getting things for free would just have gone without rather than paid for something.
If it was posted you may actually have gained sales as people on the fence over buying it could see what it contained and buy it [or donate to you] as a thankyou to support the artist.
By removing the pack from sale no-one can legitimately buy it and this may actually cause someone who did buy it to share it so that people can see your art.
===================================Again, I do support him doing what he wants with his art. I just don't think he made the right choice and tried to show him how some good might come out of it....
The result... he blocked me without a single word to me and that kinda pisses me off. Why do people just assume you are a troll when you have a dissenting opinion? What happened to having the ability to have a damn discussion and different opinions?
That artist has lost any respect I had for him.
Myself, I very rarely buy comics or packs online if there's only one or two small previews, because they don't give much to entice me. if it was at a shop, I could look through it to see if I would want to buy or not. It's the same with games, I don't want to drop $60+ on a gamble if I can't try it, unless certain reviews rate it high enough. On the gt website, anything with a score of 8 or higher is generally well worth the price. With movies, I will buy them if they entertain me enough.
Also still trying to figure out how that person got hypocrisy from the initial comment. O.o
I personally pirate a lot of games only to go buy the games when I have the money to spend, if I find it was worth my money. I don't have enough disposable income to buy things without knowing I will like it first. I'm sure I'd be the same if I actually was interested enough to buy art, for now though I feel that there's way more free art than I could possibly look at, so I don't need the "premium" stuff.
Well, it's his loss in this case, even if he can't admit it himself.