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some thoughts on "art theft"
7 years ago
guess i feel like yelling my thoughts into the void again
come yell with me, my children
1. true theft is someone taking something of yours and presenting it as theirs, usually for the purpose of substanstial financial or personal gain (whether they achieve that is irrelevant tbh but it's usually the motivator). copyright infringement and being a dickhead are not synonymous to literal stealing, just fucking with the relationship to the art being infringed/dickheaded with. e.g. when you pirate a movie, that's not art theft, it's you breaking copyright law
2. you don't own the copyright to fanart or creations that are directly and inarguably created in connection to someone else's established intellectual property, so you can't claim that your copyright is infringed when someone "steals" it. if the IP owner could hypothetically send you a C&D over it and force YOU to take it down, it's not yours to defend. e.g. your my little pony fanart is in hasbro's hands, not yours. slapping a copyright symbol on a work's deviantArt page doesn't change your legal relationship with an IP
3. when you post your work to the internet, you are forfeiting some level of control over it. this doesn't mean that actual theft is "your fault" or that you have to like the way in which it is used, just that you should (within reason) prepare for the worst, take advantage of the best, and expect neither. most people are not going to be wowed by the average artist's work to the point they build a media empire around one whole drawing, and if they do, you can wait til then to take them to court
4. don't follow my example on this, but whining and yelling are a lot less likely to get you where you wanna be with someone then being reasonable in how you address them. as soon as someone calls me a motherfucker, for instance, i make it my mission to piss them off as much as possible. artsy fartsy people are assholes by default so you shouldn't expect to get your way by being the first to throw a stone. be nice and most people will work with you and stop using your art/give you credit/whatever
5. google is the world's biggest art theft ring, 9/11 was an inside job, and the lizard men are coming to get you, barbra
some cool, semi-related reading/viewing:
https://www.deviantart.com/droemar/.....-One-759429936
https://www.deviantart.com/droemar/.....rt-2-765703542
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfOgKADAtqc
https://www.deviantart.com/painted-.....ight-633074862
https://www.deviantart.com/fristdyn.....-lol-442900169
now go repost my work to instagram
come yell with me, my children
1. true theft is someone taking something of yours and presenting it as theirs, usually for the purpose of substanstial financial or personal gain (whether they achieve that is irrelevant tbh but it's usually the motivator). copyright infringement and being a dickhead are not synonymous to literal stealing, just fucking with the relationship to the art being infringed/dickheaded with. e.g. when you pirate a movie, that's not art theft, it's you breaking copyright law
2. you don't own the copyright to fanart or creations that are directly and inarguably created in connection to someone else's established intellectual property, so you can't claim that your copyright is infringed when someone "steals" it. if the IP owner could hypothetically send you a C&D over it and force YOU to take it down, it's not yours to defend. e.g. your my little pony fanart is in hasbro's hands, not yours. slapping a copyright symbol on a work's deviantArt page doesn't change your legal relationship with an IP
3. when you post your work to the internet, you are forfeiting some level of control over it. this doesn't mean that actual theft is "your fault" or that you have to like the way in which it is used, just that you should (within reason) prepare for the worst, take advantage of the best, and expect neither. most people are not going to be wowed by the average artist's work to the point they build a media empire around one whole drawing, and if they do, you can wait til then to take them to court
4. don't follow my example on this, but whining and yelling are a lot less likely to get you where you wanna be with someone then being reasonable in how you address them. as soon as someone calls me a motherfucker, for instance, i make it my mission to piss them off as much as possible. artsy fartsy people are assholes by default so you shouldn't expect to get your way by being the first to throw a stone. be nice and most people will work with you and stop using your art/give you credit/whatever
5. google is the world's biggest art theft ring, 9/11 was an inside job, and the lizard men are coming to get you, barbra
some cool, semi-related reading/viewing:
https://www.deviantart.com/droemar/.....-One-759429936
https://www.deviantart.com/droemar/.....rt-2-765703542
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfOgKADAtqc
https://www.deviantart.com/painted-.....ight-633074862
https://www.deviantart.com/fristdyn.....-lol-442900169
now go repost my work to instagram
I'd say more but you've already said it all.
YOU CAN'T MAKE A DUTCH ANGEL DRAGON WITHOUT LETTING ME KNOW IT'S MY SPECIES.
I sort of want to make one without telling anyone just to see what they honestly think they can do to stop someone.
i've always wanted to make a DAD that goes against a lot of the species regulations both because they don't look horsey enough for my tastes and also nobody can stop me
But to ''close'' an entire species is like saying ''no you can't have it cause it's MINE''
it's not as if most of them have any defense against people making a character of their species, tho. unless you get the thing literally trademarked, your control would be minimal. someone could "make fanart" and have one, they could draw someone else's enough that it's basically theirs, they could draw something that's "different" but basically the same, hell they could just flat out draw one because nobody's willing to go to court over this. rip people who make closed species and ever come across someone spiteful with too much time on their hands
Many people use their fanart to advertise themselves and gain revenue, so I honestly don't blame people for wanting at least some credit when their work is presented somewhere else.
I don't agree with being a malicious jackass to people though, many times it's enough to remind people that you don't want your work presented in that way and they'll apologize and take it down. If not, there's usually a report button.
(Unless it's those "artists" who just trace their fanart and recolor traced bases, fuck those people.)
that said, fanart is definitely an important tool in a creator's toolbox for visibility. i don't even care to complain about people who only draw fanart because, like, i have actual issues in my life to care about, but it's so much easier to get noticed with fanart these days then yesteryear. sometimes it's a good exercise to show potential employers what you can do with ideas that aren't your own, and that's a sexy, sexy skill to have.
most tracers are like 12 or autistic (not being insulting, i literally mean autistic) and, though it's probably a bother to see happen to your own work and nobody lacks the right to get mad about it, idk if i could say i'd get mad at those kinds of people basically playing around with my pics for funsies. people have asked to make bases off my work and i said no, but i don't have enough emotional investment or belief that they'll make enough gain from them to care if they did or didn't
like honey you didnt invent pikachu idgaf if its pink or whatever
theyre also usually 13 years old and dont know how art sites work
who even cares if fanart is traced and badly recolored? oh no they might get 10 views before they're entirely forgotten about aaaaaa
god i remember the good ole days when i'd harass other children for recoloring simba on dA. Art Theft Is Over Thanks To Me Being A Dickhead
The whole "stealing" art issue is even weirder though. As far as I know can only physical objects be stolen (like an actual painting that's taken away and therefore no longer in the original owner's possession). The whole idea of "art theft" doesn't even apply to digital content, because nothing is actually stolen if someone decides to repost some sparkly, highly original ftm wolf-fox hybrid with a neon-pink dick. Like you said, it would be copyright infringement in the worst case, but only if the dick-wielding wolf-fox lady is actually copyrighted.
that said, do i take the reposting of weird furshit ocs seriously as art theft? no, not until tangible, substantial gain on the "thief's" behalf has been proven, and even then it'd have to be intentionally obfuscating the artwork's relationship to the artist. reposting and going "look at this cool image i got off of google" is hardly the same thing as someone shoving your shit into their portfolio or selling merch with your donut of steel's face on it.
and yeah exactly, most ocs aren't truly copyrighted. there's always that thing about how whatever original thing you create is instantly yours in a legal sense, but that's actually pretty iffy. you want an actual case in court, you better make sure you've got some papers.
Yes, legally proving that you're the actual creator of something can be tricky, especially if another person has taken your stuff and "established" a business of selling it as prints on beer cans or something like that. Then this person could turn around and claim that you're actually the one who infringes on his copyright if he has registered his beer can printing business.
And even if you manage to show that you're the original creator you'd need to find a lawyer willing to make a case against the beer can printer that has a plausible chance of succeeding in court, showing that you lost money because of it (which is usually not the case if it involves personal art). You'll most probably pay much more for the whole thing than what you've lost due to someone printing beer cans with your sparkledogs.