“Author unknown” means “I stole it”
I can’t believe this is still happening. The fan art fandoms haven’t learned anything I guess.
Is there anyone here who remembers that time when tons of Pixiv users deleted their artworks and profiles in early 2010/2011?
I was an active member in the Kingdom Hearts fandom on Deviantart during this period. Art theft and reposting was a big issue back there and it’s still a hot topic. A Japanese artist on tumblr contacted me for help and advice on how to take down reposts, art thefts and everyone who uses her fan art without any credits or given permission.
I was immediately thrown back to 2010 when Japanese artists on pixiv removed their entire content because western websites - mainly Deviantart, Photobucket, Rule34, Livejournal, Twitter, tumblr - just to name a few, reposted art without their consent.
A lot of Japanese fan art popped up on dA, usually posted by kids that just go “lol I found this on google XD Dunno who drew it” or worse: claim that they themselves drew or traced it. Or made an edit out of it for their own purposes. I even encountered someone who sold Japanese fan art as commissions for prints and merchandise.
Mind you, Japanese fanartists tend to take art theft VERY seriously. You often see banners for the Online Artist Protection union on their websites and in the worst case scenario, like we had with Pixiv back there, Japanese fanartists will take their sites or blogs offline when they get tired of people hot-linking and/or reposting their art on other websites.
I speak from experience as a constant victim of art theft.
Now as a fanartist myself, I have certain rules about using my art which are often ignored and not respected when I look at all the instagram profiles who are reposting and editing my art without permission. Believe me guys, I’m WAY more chill than Japanese artists, as I allow to repost my art with visible credits given and at least a link back to the original post!!
However, many artist aren’t so generous at all, so here are three golden rules for you obnoxious reposters!
Did you ask the artist for permission before reposting/editing? No? Don’t repost!
Don’t know who drew it?! Don’t repost! It’s not that hard!
Lack of content of your favourite character/ship? Start commission the artist or make your OWN art instead of stealing someone else’s, or support the original artist by liking/faving/commenting and reblogging (not reposting!) their art!
The moment you repost a fan art without knowing and crediting the author, you stole it!
Third party reports for copyright infringement in which they specifically ask for DMCA notices from the copyright holder are our only hope unfortunataly, no matter how obvious the art theft is. There are two issues though; First, most Japanese artists might not even know English or don’t want to deal with something this bothersome and second, even third party reports basically won’t always work since many websites simply don’t give a shit.
I experienced this several times on tumblr and instagram. If you report the stolen submission nothing happens. If you ask the thief about on the infringing post they will just delete it or insult/block you off. I’ve seen mods on Deviantart who said that “it (the art theft) has been like this for years and that third-party reports would be heavily abused”, but I say those websites are just too fucking lazy to give a damn about art theft.
The only thing that personally helped was mass reporting.
I see complains about lack of art of certain characters or ships in many fandoms. People repost art from artists without permission and justify this with “there is lack of xy on my blog so I just posted it!” But did you know? This behaviour isn’t only disrespectful towards the artist. Art theft also destroys fandoms. By reposting/editing/tracing fan art you piss off artists so much, that they will stop making and posting content of your beloved ship/artist.
Please take my words into consideration when you see stolen art with no credits given. Report the post, report the user if their profile is full of stolen art and tell your friends about it to start a mass report.
If you need help on taking down your art on other websites, let me know. I’m certainly ready to report the shit out of any art thief.
Thanks for reading!
