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

[kitty_fic]

THIS! ALL OF IT! ♥

[k-nightfox.livejournal.com]

100% agreed. Couldn't have put it better myself...esp cuz I am not so coherent when I am angry.

[mab.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. There was a kerfluffle recently too about somebody reposting other people's fics to their own site, not claiming credit, but also not telling the authors.

[fuzzytomato02.livejournal.com]

+ eleventy billion my friend.

[phoenixacid.livejournal.com]

This irks me too. I always feel a little iffy when I'm unable to include a signature or watermark to my works. I've been thinking of asking whether mods would mind adding a watermark of some sort (e.g. a sentence like "this artwork is a submission for the ___ fest 2013") to the bottom corner of anon artworks as a precaution. It wouldn't help much when it comes reposting works, but at the very least, it will help people trace the artwork back to the fest and/or prevent ppl from using a "clean" piece of work, if that makes any sense.

[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.

[alby-mangroves.livejournal.com]

This is not fucking okay. I am so angry right now. Please tell me the knucklehead has apologised, at the very least.

[kathyh]

All of this!

I used to make icons, which is nothing like creating unique art, but someone reposted them once as hers and I was furious (and I'm a generally calm person). How someone feels when they've created the image themselves I hate to think.

[thilia.livejournal.com]

People just ignore statements like that. I've had my art reposted on Tumblr multiple times (from my own Tumblr - which seems kind of ridiculous, doesn't it? Just click 'reblog'!) and they even cropped out the signature and watermark (making the picture small and blurry in the process), so... yeah. If someone wants to repost, they will repost, whether there's a statement or not.

I reported the first person who did it, and it was taken care of in less than a day (you go, Tumblr support!). After that, I never really bothered to let them know anymore cause as soon as the post gets a few reblogs on Tumblr, there isn't really much you can do cause it's out there, whether they delete the "original" post from the reposter's blog or not.

These days, I make sure to always make my watermark/signature hard to crop out (in the center of the pic, rather than the corners), so that even if it does get reposted, people can find the original source.

For fests... I like phoenixacid's idea :) Or - crazy thought, let the fest post the art on Tumblr. Of course even then, should the artist want to post her own art on Tumblr afterwards, most people will already have reblogged it from the fest's Tumblr and she won't get many notes anyway.

There's no ideal solution, but putting the DO NOT STEAL note ON the artwork, rather than below it would probably help a lot already :)

[clawdine]

I totally agree. See, I'm between the line of DO NOT REPOST AT ALL because I do understand art rec blogs and stuff, but this was for an anon fest, and it HADN'T been posted anywhere else. And their credit was a tiny "x" after three lines of their "feels".

It wouldn't have been so galling if they had put big captions: Art by anon at the merlin_art_fest. Although it'd still be wrong because THE ART FEST HASN'T CONCLUDED. argh.

[leochi.livejournal.com]

EXACTLY why I've removed ALL my fanart and decided never to draw fanart anymore. People just don't get it. Not only are artists underappreciated compared to writers, people also seem to think they need much less appreciation or feedback. Also, how much time does someone spend looking at a pic that took quite a lot of time to draw? A few seconds? Maybe half a minute? (And that's quite long, too.)

It doesn't only happen here, it also happens on DA, that's the sad thing. You can point out that you don't want your art reposted without permission as much as you like, you'll always find enough morons to ignore you completely.

Oh, and what's really bad about it, some absolutely fabulous artists like Sherant and others have completely disappeared, and don't even post original art anywhere. :(

[mayfly-78.livejournal.com]

I get where you are coming from. Sometimes I think I really should start signing my pieces. But I just can't bring myself to do it.

One thing I have noticed is that fandom treats art and fic differently. As if creating art is somehow easier (well to me it is, but that's completely besides the point) and as such requires less respect. You are so right. No one would ever post a whole fic without citing the author, but I frequently find art without reference to the artist.

*sigh*