Boy, what a time! Don't let the current uproar get ya up in knots though. XD

Current uproar? 0_o

There's been a few journals and such, a SF rep pulled a wrong move by saying "don't be butthurt if a commissioner edits your art without permission", and it caused quite a fuss. They are currently doing some PR to redact the statement. Figure I'd let ya know before the whole "SoFurry is X" comes bawling in.

Oh dear :S

Well, it is the art that they paid for. Why shouldn't they be allowed to edit it?

See, there's alot of problems that come with this subject. Mostly concerning copyright, more so than principal. Some would think so, yes. But there are people who don't like the stuff they created to be edited afterwards, without permission.
In some cases, I can see many reasons to edit a picture. But at the same time I can see the artist's point of view of it is somewhat defacing their work, accurate or not. Really comes down to who you are dealing with in both regards.

It's the same sort of debate in the commercial music world (composing for media anyways), the question is are you getting hired for your own creative inspired genius, or are you getting hired to make their product (game/movie/whatever) better? 95 percent of the time, it's the latter, so the people paying you ultimately have the final call as to how it sounds, and how it makes their product look. They don't know how to edit it, so they make you do revisions a billion times until they're happy, and it's legal. Pain in the ass, but that's reality.

There's a few exceptions, where Spielberg at this point will hire John Wiliams and let him have free reign pretty much, as he trusts his instincts, but without complete trust, ultimately the artist's job is to give the paying individual what they want, and if artist isn't willing to do a million little changes, and paying individual *thinks* they can do those changes justice... no matter how in love an artist is with their own talent and craft, when money is involved, it's in service to another, not to themselves.

two cents' worth

Legally, if you're making it for someone else, they have the right to do what they wish with is since it's their property. It's like if I made a cosplay for a customer, they have full right to do whatever they want with it unless I bound them to a contract that carried over even after it was in their possession, which is really hard to enforce unless it's a signed agreement.

On the other hand though, that lady that "fixed" the Ecce Homo? If she'd paid Michelangelo to do the original, then did that to it, I'd kinda understand if Mike was more than a little bit upset.

I've got no idea on what the law says, but it woud seem fair to say that if mike wanted to own his own work, he shouldnt have sold it, right? (assuming he sold the artwork to this woman in this scenario)

Getting upset doesnt entitle someone, surley?

I don't know what the "default" is as far as the law goes, but at least in the music world (and I'm assuming in the art world as well), those rights are up for negotiation before money changes hands. That's always something to discuss - who owns the creation, if the artist still does, they're "licensing" it, then what can payer do with it, where are they allowed to distribute, can they make changes, can they require artist to make changes, etc.

Long story short, what does Mike "Selling" it entail? That's something he should know beforehand.

And I agree that getting upset doesn't entitle someone, some radio guys I like have a mantra "Just because you're offended doesn't make you right", but in these circumstances I'm just sayin' I understand.

I completely agree. I would be devastated if someone took something I made for them and completely changed it. I can understand a few minor changes (like if they lost weight after the costume was made) but completely changing the whole thing would make me really upset.

I was over there back when it was still Yiffstar, it's like all the non-FA furry porno hangouts, cool, but not as convenient as FA which is pretty much the central hub where all the artists are in one location so you don't have to spread yourself across too many sites to follow all the awesomeness that interests you