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

[altocello.livejournal.com]

(late reply is late, I am sorry!)

The feedback makes you want to make MORE. So, yes, leaving happy thoughts and praise for any creative is just a feel-good positive feedback loop. And asking is just POLITE.

In a way, being in that place between NNF and BNF is fairly uncomfortable for me. If I'm a NNF, I get no love at all, but no one would take my stuff. If I'm a BNF, it's obvious when something is mine, and therefore it's not any harder to steal but more obvious that it IS stolen because it's recognizable to a lot of fans as being MINE. Somewhere in between is where your stuff gets noticed, pinched, and the person gets away with it. And most artist's are in that in between place.

But yes, it's always sad to see a talented artist chased off by piracy. That just sucks. :(

[leochi.livejournal.com]

Oh, never mind! :D At least you DID reply. *grins*

True, true! Recognition and feedback are a mighty fuel to creativity. As for asking, well, the online generation apparently still has to learn manners, which wouldn't be easy, I guess.

TBH I've never actually been a real fan. I got sucked into that world by a coincidence, when I stumbled upon naadi's work and did a single "fanart" for her beautiful fic "Checkmate". She was the one to invite me to join LJ and I had to grope my way through the jungle of fandom, encountering quite a lot of different creatures, from the cute to the monstrous.

Some aspects I liked, but some bothered me quite a lot. Greed, drama and art theft were the ones that annoyed me most.

Ah, well, it's behind me, now, but it took me quite a while to extricate myself from that entanglement. I guess something similar is what happened with some of those artists. The negative aspects of fandom just overpowered the good ones. One feels so helpless at times. (After doing some research recently, I've actually discovered quite a lot of my art on Tumblr, which makes me want to growl - and not in a good way. Not one single pic was posted there with my permission. Well, there was a link referring to my DA page, but if I hadn't done the research, I'd never have known.)

OK, so that's enough of a rant, lol. I'm sorry to have bothered you with my blabber.<3

[altocello.livejournal.com]

No worries! I created this post so that there would be a place for folks to have a discussion about stuff like this. It's just good to get it out in the open. Thanks for participating! <3