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rant thread about online art theft and its effects in
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I've noticed that the Western (DeviantArt, NewGrounds, Tumblr, Patreon, Twitter, etc.) and Eastern (Pixiv, Seiga, Fantia, ...Twitter again, etc.) "circles" of artists have very different attitudes about the sharing of art
Western artists are more open to their art being shared, gaining fame and followers, and overall leaving an impact. Eastern artists, on the other hand, usually upload art for personal use and are very strict about others sharing their art, even with credit.
I'm not saying either Eastern or Western attitudes on art sharing is better than the other, but when these communities collide, the culture shock can negatively affect artists' careers.
For example, I once saw this neat work done by a Japanese artist on Reddit. The source link was in the comments, and I followed it only to see the tweet had been deleted. The artist's bio was mostly in Japanese, save for three words in English:
"Reprint is prohibited."
"Reprint is prohibited."
Those words are all too common in Japanese twitter artist bios, as they have taken notice that Westerners who are unaware of the strict Eastern attitude towards sharing art to take their art and share it online (primarily on Pinterest, seriously fuck that site)
Seriously though, if you find any (SFW) artwork done by a Japanese artist that they took down from their Twitter and/or Pixiv and reverse-image-search it, " http://Pinterest.com " will dominate the results. That site thrives on theft.
... I'm getting off-topic...
... I'm getting off-topic...
... and DeviantArt isn't much better. The niche circles of bizarre fetish art are one thing, but most of the few good pieces you'll find on there is just stolen from Pixiv without any credit given. Even if it was given, most Japanese artists don't care. What I'm saying is:
If someone's bio says something along the lines of "Don't repost my art"
Don't
repost
their
art
Don't
repost
their
art
Now, if an artist wants one of their works gone for other, possibly personal reasons, that's their decision and we should respect them for it. If customers don't respect artists, they won't make art for their customers. Simple as that.
However, an artist being forced to take down their works due to mass reposting is 100% preventable. It would not need to happen if people were more considerate. It's sad knowing that these kinds of things ARE preventable.
somewhat-related side note: I once saw someone get down-voted in a Reddit thread featuring someone's art for asking for the source. Really! Down-voted for wanting to support the creator? That's the kind of attitude towards ANY online creation, not just art, that needs to stop.
sorry to get all soapbox-y, but I just needed to vent.
/end thread
... seriously, though. Fuck Pinterest.
/end thread
... seriously, though. Fuck Pinterest.
