Reccing vs Reposting; fandom etiquette musings

[altocello]

I was going to do some drawing tonight, but ended up doing this instead. This needs saying.

OK, so I just thought I'd post a note after all the kerfuffle on tumblr today regarding a totally amazing piece of art that was posted at the merlin_art_fest. The gorgeous piece of art in question can be found here at the art fest, where you should leave it love in the form of a comment if you appreciate it at all. Personally, I think you'd have to not have a pulse to not appreciate it, but that's me, lol.

And I want to say that this is me just getting this off my chest. No fingers being pointed other than the parties directly involved in this particular case.

ANYWAY. The point being, some knucklehead on tumblr decided to not read the rather POINTED and CLEAR statement just below the art, in which it was stated that the art was NOT TO BE REPOSTED ANYWHERE without the artist's express permission. Given that the art fest is currently anonymous, there is NO WAY to get the artist's permission. But this person posted the art to their tumblr anyway. Not a LINK to the post with the art, but the actual image itself.

Now, being amazing, it attracted a lot of positive attention. Which is lovely, except that none of that attention was given to the ARTIST. It was all being given to the knucklehead, who had nothing to do with actually creating the art. I don't care if the artist doesn't have a tumblr. I don't care if you have the attention span and patience of a gnat. You ask the artist if it's okay, FIRST.

My confusion and frustration has to do with why it seems to not be clear that re-posting someone's art without permission is not cool. The analogy I've seen a lot from various friends today has been that you wouldn't repost a fic in it's entirety, that would be blatant plagarism, so why is it somehow perceived as OK to do it with art? That, somehow, posting to a platform that the artist doesn't have an account for is doing them a FAVOR somehow. I'm sorry, but I wouldn't post your fic to AO3 for you, please don't post my art to tumblr for me.

My feelings on this are that it would have been fine to flail about how lovely the art was and to post a LINK to the original post, where others could also leave happy comments in a place where the artist can receive due credit. Essentially, a rec post.

I have had several of my pieces re-posted to tumblr (and one to facebook, oddly), most without my knowledge. In every case so far, the person reposting has always credited me and provided a link back to my original post where they found the art. That makes it marginally better. But I would have been much happier if they had just ASKED ME FIRST. Instead of me hearing about it from a friend, or me finding it by doing a vanity google. Which I do, from time to time, just to see if anyone has lifted any of my stuff recently. Which is pretty sad, really.

I mean, I know it's the internet, and that once it's online, it's not really just mine anymore.

Except that, really, it IS. I deserve credit for making it, and I deserve to see if it makes people happy, and I deserve to read the comments, because that's the ONLY payment I will ever receive for any of it.

Comments

[dk323.livejournal.com]

rather POINTED and CLEAR statement just below the art, in which it was stated that the art was NOT TO BE REPOSTED ANYWHERE without the artist's express permission.

I completely agree with you on this and the frustrating downside of Tumblr, but below the art, it says "do not use it..." The word "repost" is not specifically used.
This artwork is the sole property of the artist who created it.
Please do not use it, in whole or in part, without the expressed consent of the artist.

For me, I don't see use and repost as synonyms. If others do, then I'm the odd person out here. To me, do not use means do not use the image to make graphics without expressed consent. Do not repost means as you say, someone who's not the artist sticking the original image on Tumblr for example and having people reblog it without the artist knowing the true level of appreciation their artwork is receiving.

I think to better the rule, "do not repost" should explicitly be mentioned to add to the do not use. Since people are reposting on Tumblr, then maybe they've been deciding "do not use" only applies to graphics-making with another's work not to a simple reposting of the unaltered work...

ETA: This issue was brought up at the Merlin art fest comm so the mods are aware of it. Sorry for addressing it here too ... I guess in the end people should take "do not use" as meaning do not repost at all without consent.

[altocello.livejournal.com]

No worries, I think it's something we all should talk about. It's clear there are some fundamental and persistant misunderstandings about art etiquette. I'm not sure WHY it's so complicated, but it is. The important part is the consent. Why is it so hard to ask? Or, if it's anon, why is it so hard to wait for the reveal and THEN ask? If you can't wait, why not just REC it?

"Use" does imply that you make some kind of transformation on the work, ie take the manip and make it a part of another manip, or do a drawing based on it. And that's a pretty common sense thing to NOT do with someone art without asking them about it first. Though there are folks who don't understand that either. Reni had to chase one down last year and report them to the Stop Plagiarism folks.

"Reposting" seems to be something that a lot of fans are OK with, but I stand by my analogy of reposting art as being like me reposting a fic in it's entirety on my DeviantArt journal with a note on the end saying, "Oh, BTW, it's not mine, it's this person's". Put that way, it's obvious that it's really NOT okay.

And I agree that this highlights that perhaps the note on the art fest pieces should include something SPECIFIC about not reposting, though I would have thought that an *unsigned, anonymous* piece of art would be a rather obvious POOR choice to repost, as it would be so EASY for someone unscrupulous to STEAL. Especially since no permission was asked for from the artist, because it's anonymous. But that's me, speaking from my perspective.