Sta.sh
Note: this is NOT a shot against people who autograph their work in an undistracting manner. Putting your name somewhere in there, or having a little symbol like my TP thing, is perfectly fine.
I've been part of the DeviantArt community for three years now, and in that time I've met a lot of - I'm not gonna sugarcoat it - jerks. You're probably thinking "somebody said mean things about his art." Nope, that's not what this is about. This rant goes out to all you people who absolutely DEMAND that they get asked for their work to be used by every single person who uses it, in every single instance, for any possible reason, ever.
Get over yourselves.
I wasn't going to say anything, but then I was browsing a DA page owned by s/he who will remain nameless, and I found a link to <a href=”[link]>this page in a fairly decent sized banner centered across the top of his/her journal. The banner was simple: "UNAUTHORIZED USE OF ANY OF THIS ART IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED." One part of that linked page in particular REALLY irritated me: "'AUTHOR UNKNOWN' MEANS 'I STOLE IT'" That's just... WOW, I didn't know such pretentiousness could exist.
I ask you people who are so desperate to maintain some sort of autocratic dictatorship over your art: what are you really accomplishing here? If people want to use your art to make some silly little header on their Star Wars Angelfire fanpage, they're going to do it. All you do by posting massive warnings all over your journal and slapping enormous and distracting watermarks all over your art is make people dislike you, hate you, think you're a jerk, and/or not bother even looking at your art anymore. Let me tell you: when I look at a picture that I really like, but then fullview it and see that DeviantArt-generated watermark, that's it, goodbye. Not favoriting that, nor am I coming back. I assumed you drew that picture so other people could look at it, but since you apparently didn't, I'll just be on my way.
Also, what are you so afraid of? An 11 year old resizing your art in paint, blacking out your signature like it's a nipple slip on the news, and posting it on some Angelfire site they'll forget about in two weeks and will thus be deleted by Angelfire due to inactivity soon after? Ooooohhh, terrifying thought, that you weren't asked permission for that. What are you going to do, email the 11 year old and demand that he takes your work down? How is that going to make people want to appreciate you?
DeviantArt automatically gives you a copyright over your work, and gives you all those licenses to play with, so should the minuscule chance that someone actually tries to use your work to make money come to fruition, you'll be able to take legal action. And even THEN, think about it. Will Microsoft come to DeviantArt and try to steal your work to slather on their Windows 7 boxes as their new mascot? No. Maybe the 11 year old has a PayPal, puts it on his Angelfire, and some doof donates him 15 cents because your art brainwashed him. WOW, how can you sleep at night? You're out 15 cents. If you had that money you could make the down payment on that yacht.
Or ok, maybe someone puts your work on some shirts to sell at Sakura-Con, and maybe he makes maybe $30 profit once you take away the cost of the shirts and the printing. So what? You're angered by the fact that someone is profiting in some way off your work, but really, what are you really losing? Is preventing some idiot you will never meet from making some pocket change worth losing fans? You may think nobody would actually choose to not look at your work because of your watermarks, but yes, it does happen. I value my fans and the fact that they love looking at my work more than I value preventing someone I'll never meet from making a minuscule amount of money, but hey, that's just me.
DeviantArt is meant to be a fun community for people to come and share their work, original and fanart alike. Fanart is especially meant to be about the fun, community thing. In slapping on watermarks and posting huge banner warnings on your journal, you're killing everything DeviantArt is meant to be, as well as making yourself out to be a pompous, pretentious snob. Besides, fanart is using copyrighted characters without permission, which those copyright holders CAN get on you for if they deem your work is obscene or against what they stand for or whatever.
As for original work, as I said, DeviantArt issues you copyrights and licenses which you can utilize at will if someone tries to make money using your work. Why do you think nVidia doesn't slather watermarks all over the fairies and mermaids they decorate their video card boxes with? If anyone actually tries to profit on that work in any way that matters, lawyers to the rescue. And hey, if someone takes your picture and uploads it on their own DeviantArt page, all it takes is the submission date to prove who actually made it. So I'm telling you all now: Somewhere along the line someone got into your head and really screwed you up. Stop being paranoid and get back to what art was meant to be: a fun, carefree sharing of creativity, emotion, and passion. All you do with the watermarks and banner warnings is stave off a nonexistent threat and shoo away people who would otherwise like your work.
I've been part of the DeviantArt community for three years now, and in that time I've met a lot of - I'm not gonna sugarcoat it - jerks. You're probably thinking "somebody said mean things about his art." Nope, that's not what this is about. This rant goes out to all you people who absolutely DEMAND that they get asked for their work to be used by every single person who uses it, in every single instance, for any possible reason, ever.
Get over yourselves.
I wasn't going to say anything, but then I was browsing a DA page owned by s/he who will remain nameless, and I found a link to <a href=”[link]>this page in a fairly decent sized banner centered across the top of his/her journal. The banner was simple: "UNAUTHORIZED USE OF ANY OF THIS ART IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED." One part of that linked page in particular REALLY irritated me: "'AUTHOR UNKNOWN' MEANS 'I STOLE IT'" That's just... WOW, I didn't know such pretentiousness could exist.
I ask you people who are so desperate to maintain some sort of autocratic dictatorship over your art: what are you really accomplishing here? If people want to use your art to make some silly little header on their Star Wars Angelfire fanpage, they're going to do it. All you do by posting massive warnings all over your journal and slapping enormous and distracting watermarks all over your art is make people dislike you, hate you, think you're a jerk, and/or not bother even looking at your art anymore. Let me tell you: when I look at a picture that I really like, but then fullview it and see that DeviantArt-generated watermark, that's it, goodbye. Not favoriting that, nor am I coming back. I assumed you drew that picture so other people could look at it, but since you apparently didn't, I'll just be on my way.
Also, what are you so afraid of? An 11 year old resizing your art in paint, blacking out your signature like it's a nipple slip on the news, and posting it on some Angelfire site they'll forget about in two weeks and will thus be deleted by Angelfire due to inactivity soon after? Ooooohhh, terrifying thought, that you weren't asked permission for that. What are you going to do, email the 11 year old and demand that he takes your work down? How is that going to make people want to appreciate you?
DeviantArt automatically gives you a copyright over your work, and gives you all those licenses to play with, so should the minuscule chance that someone actually tries to use your work to make money come to fruition, you'll be able to take legal action. And even THEN, think about it. Will Microsoft come to DeviantArt and try to steal your work to slather on their Windows 7 boxes as their new mascot? No. Maybe the 11 year old has a PayPal, puts it on his Angelfire, and some doof donates him 15 cents because your art brainwashed him. WOW, how can you sleep at night? You're out 15 cents. If you had that money you could make the down payment on that yacht.
Or ok, maybe someone puts your work on some shirts to sell at Sakura-Con, and maybe he makes maybe $30 profit once you take away the cost of the shirts and the printing. So what? You're angered by the fact that someone is profiting in some way off your work, but really, what are you really losing? Is preventing some idiot you will never meet from making some pocket change worth losing fans? You may think nobody would actually choose to not look at your work because of your watermarks, but yes, it does happen. I value my fans and the fact that they love looking at my work more than I value preventing someone I'll never meet from making a minuscule amount of money, but hey, that's just me.
DeviantArt is meant to be a fun community for people to come and share their work, original and fanart alike. Fanart is especially meant to be about the fun, community thing. In slapping on watermarks and posting huge banner warnings on your journal, you're killing everything DeviantArt is meant to be, as well as making yourself out to be a pompous, pretentious snob. Besides, fanart is using copyrighted characters without permission, which those copyright holders CAN get on you for if they deem your work is obscene or against what they stand for or whatever.
As for original work, as I said, DeviantArt issues you copyrights and licenses which you can utilize at will if someone tries to make money using your work. Why do you think nVidia doesn't slather watermarks all over the fairies and mermaids they decorate their video card boxes with? If anyone actually tries to profit on that work in any way that matters, lawyers to the rescue. And hey, if someone takes your picture and uploads it on their own DeviantArt page, all it takes is the submission date to prove who actually made it. So I'm telling you all now: Somewhere along the line someone got into your head and really screwed you up. Stop being paranoid and get back to what art was meant to be: a fun, carefree sharing of creativity, emotion, and passion. All you do with the watermarks and banner warnings is stave off a nonexistent threat and shoo away people who would otherwise like your work.
i make money doing art. sometimes these pieces give me jobs. now, if it is stolen and taken to another place, then its almost like saying "if he stole it, then i can too!" and so on and so on. then, when i show my piece to a potential client, they may have already seen it elsewhere and think, "i won't hire this person as they will give me something that if i print it, i will be sued by the real artist".
i have to post art online. its really my job. honestly. so, now then, if i see an image of mine in 50,000 places, i have lost that image. i mean most clients are in such a rush, they look elsewhere instead of asking if that is really your image. so, yes. i have been forced to put restrictions on my art. and also, the images that a client has already bought rights to also need that restriction as i could be sued otherwise.
this is something that is needed. you can not be a professional artist today without putting it online and then restricting that work.
1. ask, I'll likely say yes. if I say no, chances are I have a damned good reason, and will likely explain it.
2. credits, as I've displayed them in the image, add your name at the bottom to show a history of who's used the base image.
3. far as monies are concerned, I dont care, just act responsibly about it.
4. make sure to have a lawyer on speed dial, never know when they'll actually prove useful.
5. have fun.
However, I do draw the line at using the images for profit. The only stuff I actually put little watermarks on are my badges, which I do sell at cons - granted, the real ones don't have watermarks, but if there was ever a time I looked across the Artist's Alley and saw someone else selling more of my badges for twice the price, I'd be mighty sore, especially at my student income where every dollar counts.
Plus, there was a story told to me by my coworker. A classmate of his was hired at a design & advertisement company a while ago, and naturally, the bosses wanted to see a portfolio. So, he gave it to them, but pretty much all his work had the smallest little watermark in the corner.
Anywhoo, while they were evaluating said portfolio, one of the bosses called over another employee so they could pull up that man's portfolio. It turns out that the current employee had taken one of the hiree's digital paintings, put a few rocks in front to cover the watermark, and pass it off as his own work.
Did the bosses look at the hiree and say "Oh, well you should be flattered that one of our employees used your art to get a job here?" No, action was taken. The employee was looked into then fired, and the hiree took his place. You may say that the person profiting off your work is someone you'll never meet, someone who'll only make a miniscule profit, but the world is a lot smaller than it seems - and outside the internet, art theft is NOT something that can be condoned.
1. If someone tries to profit on your work in any way that matters, lawyers to the rescue.
2. This is NOT a shot against people who autograph their work in an undistracting manner. Putting your name somewhere in there, or having a little symbol like my TP thing, is perfectly fine.
On the other hand, if a photographer has a model pose nude in front of that sunset, takes the trouble to light it in a particular way with soft focus or filters or whatever, and puts some effort into it, I'm more than happy to give him/her his/her desired immunity from being used as reference. Some artistic effort has been put in and should be rewarded.
If the pose is really good, I might still use it as reference while giving credit to the photgrapher, and letting him know. The photographer doesn't own the way the light falls across human muscles from a particular angle. He only owns his photograph, which I haven't touched. He still owns it.
If he's so precious he can't bear to have anybody influenced by his work, he should be printing them out on glossy stock and hiding them in a folio somewhere. It's like hanging a painting in a gallery and then complaining that people are looking at it. Like Tsaalyo said, they need to get over themselves.
Nobody is going to "steal your art" in any way that actually matters, and thinking otherwise and being aggressive to repel this nonexistent threat, yes, makes you a pretentious jerk.