So recently I found the need to make a post like this. To explain what reposting is, why it is wrong and what you can do about it. I’ve found, a lot of people don’t really know that. Or maybe they just don’t want to know. Anyway, I still felt the need to make this. So let’s do it.
Reposting is when you take an image, art work, graphic, gif… that isn’t yours (Read as; not made, edited, created… by you) and upload it onto your own account. Simple as that.
Now, a more prominent question.
“Why is reposting wrong?”
There are many reasons to why this is wrong. Reasons different for every person, reason people often don’t see as a reason to why this is wrong. Let me list a few.
You take away credit from the original poster.
It is no sign of respect to any artist.
The same image turns up over and over again in a tag, which is really annoying.
People assume you edited/created the art you uploaded, the original creator gets no credit.
The no credit thing is really a thing to keep in mind.
A lot of work was put into it, even if it is just a gif. Even when it appears as a simple edit to you. People do these things because they want to. Because they like it. Because they feel the need to contribute something to the fandom they are in. And maybe even because they want some recognition and notes. For you to take all of that away, is simply rude and disrespectful.
It actually counts as copyright violation. Something people often forget is a ‘crime.’ I’ll go into this later on in this post.
So those are just some of the reasons to why reposting is wrong. Now, speaking out of my own experiences, reposters often don’t take this as a reason. They often hold these things up against is, making us, the artist, feel like /we/ did something wrong by pointing out they reposted. It happens all of the time. I’ll list a few things I have come across to, answers people gave me when I politely asked them not to repost, and to take down my graphic/edit. I’ll also explain to why I believe what they said, was wrong.
“I didn’t stole anything from you, I never even visited your page!.”
This you’ll hear very often when you are dealing with reposters. They probably never even seen your Tumblr. Which still doesn’t give them the right to do whatever they did. There’s a lot of sources to where they could have found your artwork. Think about google images, weheartit, pininterest… and so on. I will list and explain all of these later on in the post. Anyway, it doesn’t matter whether you have visited the website or not, it gives you no right to repost whatever it is you have reposted.
“But I credited you, look there’s a little link.“
Another thing you’ll often see/hear. People indeed do that sometimes, repost your thing and put a source underneath. Now.. Let me tell you this; mostly the source is wrong and it wouldn’t lead to your original post at all. And second, people don’t care about that. 99% of people on here wouldn’t take a second to check wether you actually created that or not. Especially not when you put a link and still make the source connect to your own page. Speaking about this, reposting something when you actually know the original post makes everything, imltho, even worse. You know where the edit is, you know who made it… Why don’t you just reblog it? Why don’t just just click two times and have it on your blog. Why do you feel the need to go through the entire upload thing when all you have to do is click two times and have it on your blog? I assume people do this to gain notes/followers… And that is rather pathetic and once more disrespectful, because the person who created the thing that has been reposted deserves that credit and those notes/followers.
"You should be thankful, look it has …. notes now!”
No. We artists should NOT and I repeat NOT be thankful for you reposting our art AT ALL. If anything, we should be offended. Which most of the time we are and we have every right to be. Reposting is not a way of appreciating you love the thing we did, reposting is not something we should be thankful for.
Those are just some of the most common things I have come across from. Believe me, I have seen about everything by now. I also found, people are incredibly rude when you point them out they have reposted something. I barely ever come across someone who friendly replies. Of course, there have been some. But they really are outnumbered by the amount of times people shouted, called me names or whatever for just asking them to take down MY piece of art. If you want to know a few things; they involve calling my followers psycho bitches for letting me know about the repost, saying I cyber bully, saying I was causing them to feel suicidal. Yes. It really goes that far.
Recently I found a lot if people putting together gifs/edits that aren’t theirs in a photoset, but claim they made the photoset. This also is reposting. This also is wrong. And so is taken an already edited image and just putting it into black and white.
Anyway, to carry on, as I said earlier there are a few things people consider as a source, which isn’t really a source. Here’s a list.
Weheartit: This website is probably the worse thing ever for an artist. Basically everything on there is stolen and credited in a wrong way. It gives an easy opportunity to repost things you find on there on Tumblr and it automatically creates a source that goes back to weheartit. Now I know it’s easy to find things on there, but please, keep them on there. They are already stolen once, please don’t do it a second time. So now all repeat after me: weheartit is NOT a source.
Google Images: Yeaa, we all did this I guess. Googled our favourite show/ship/anything. You’ll find load of great images, art work, edits… It is alright to save them to your computer. But it is not okay to reupload them. Follow the link you find on google, find out where it comes from and usually you’ll end up on some sort of Tumblr. Yes I know, it takes a /little/ bit of effort. But still not as much effort as it takes to repost the entire thing.
Instagram: Aaah, instagram is like a repost heaven. Or hell. I’d call it hell. If you go through the Sherlock tag on there, you won’t see much original posts. Graphic after graphic, edit after edit gets reposted. On top of it, IG doesn’t come with a good report system like tumblr does. All we can do is ask them, but really. This drives me crazy more then anything. Because people won’t listed at all. As long as they gain followers though things they haven’t made, all is well. Fuck people who spent hours on what they just claimed as theirs. (Just to make sure, that was sarcasm.)
Well, those are pretty much the main things about reposting. There’s a million more things to it and I could write/complain about it all night, but yea… Let’s move on to things YOU can do to prevent this.
Take a second to look at the source.
Please do this. If you see the source is weheartit, or IF there is a tag/URL on the image you see and it IS NOT the same as the source, please do not reblog it. Don’t spread those reposts, instead either message the original poster OR just message the blog who reposted and FRIENDLY (always friendly. Never hate.) ask them not to repost. If necessary explain them why, they might not know.
Find the original post instead of reblogging the repost.
Yeaaaa I know, this sounds like a lot of effort too. And ain’t nobody got time for that, but you would really show your feelings towards a graphic/artwork if you did this instead of reblogging the reposted version. If there’s an URL on the image, you can just go to that tumblr and most artist have a tag for their art on their blog so it’s easy to find. If that isn’t the case, grab the URL of the image (right click, copy image URL) and take it to google images. Once there, you see this little camera in the right corner. You should click that and you’ll get this:
Past your URL there and 9/10 times you will find the original post.
If all else fails, and the person doesn’t have an ask. Please report them to tumblr. Don’t be afraid to do so. Just contact the suport and send the the links of your original post and the reposters. They will take it down. Click here and read more.
At the very end I’d like to add some anon hate I collected over the time I have been fighting against reposters. You’ll probably come across any kind of this if you do so as well.
“It’s just an edit, not like you spent hours and hours to create it."
"You put it on the internet so everyone is free to use it however they want.”
“when you create things you should know people are going to steal it.”
“why do you care so much. Get a life.”
Just a smallllll few examples of things I often hear. The best thing you can do is ignore them. I know it’s difficult. They make my blood boil with anger. But they aren’t worth it. We shouldn’t let them get to us. We have the right to care about our art. We are right, they are wrong.
If you come to this point. I just want to smooch your face and tell you how much it means you have read this. I hope the posts makes at least A LITTLE difference. It’s better then nothing.
Thank you, take care and remember you’re beautiful. :-)
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