Yeah, here i go again.
There was a bit of Tumblr Drama earlier and i'm finding it hard to forget about it. If you watch my Tumblr, or Facebook, you might have seen parts of it, but the details aren't super important. It's something most of us have either dealt with first hand, or have had to witness at some point being done to an artist we know:
Someone sees an image online and likes it, thinks it's ok to take it, use it, not share who made it, change it, etc.
No, this isn't new. Being old enough to remember the beginning of the internet that's similar[ish] to what it is now, i can tell you this isn't a new internet problem. I'll share something that still embarrasses me: when i was first online and creating sites to put god knows what on [we're talking '93-'95, maybe later] i used other people's work to make my site pretty. I don't remember giving credit most of the time. I didn't think twice about it. I didn't know copyright covered that stuff. I thought if it was out there it was free to use, so long as i wasn't trying to profit off of it. I wasn't yet an "artist" with my own stuff to have stolen, so i didn't understand. And given that everything was still so new, the information online not so easily shared, i hadn't yet seen a single thing that told me otherwise. The big name artists who work i was "borrowing" didn't even have their own sites yet. [I remember waiting for David LaChapelle's site to launch!]
Time went by, the internet grew, that information was more readily available, more talked about, and i'd started becoming a photographer, and so eventually realized what i'd been doing was wrong.
I'm not making excuses for myself, i'm just stating that i didn't know, but i also admittedly didn't care enough to make sure first. Since then, especially since becoming a photographer, when i would catch people posting my work without crediting it, or changing my images, i'd get in touch with them and find that they usually didn't realize it was a problem either. Honestly, i do think this is LESS of an excuse now, but i don't think it's entirely impossible, especially given all the kids online today. I think the main problem now is that people KNOW and they do it anyways, and so many artists are so overwhelmed by the prospect of keeping on top of it they just let it happen.
Now, it's definitely up to each artist to decide how they are going to deal with it. As usual i'm not trying to say that my way is THE way that everyone should follow, i'm mostly just confused by the apathy a lot of artists seem to have with the whole thing these days. If you're not going to stand up for your own work, or protect it, who is?
No, it's not avoidable. It's not something that can be policed effectively. It is undeniably going to happen. My policy is simply that i think you need to pick your battles. Ignoring the situation definitely isn't going to help solve the problem though.
Most of what i act on i consider common sense. If my images are being used as ads, passed off as someone else's, put on a site i don't agree with, or altered, i try and do something about it. [All those things have happened, by the way. "Fat Girl Blues" has been stolen and put on ads and sites for diet pills or the like so many times it makes me want to hurt people.] I also choose to put a copyright ON every image. Of course it's annoying, of course there are ways around it, but what i think the kicker is, is this: If i see my image posted somewhere and the copyright has purposely been cropped out or covered in some way, that shows me the person who did it has gone out of their way to be able to post the image without anyone knowing who it belongs to. That is not saying "i like this image and i'm supporting the artist". And that pisses me off. At least if someone has just grabbed the image and posted it without removing that copyright, there is less harm because my name is at least right there on it. I'd PREFER someone include my name, a link to something of mine, anything, but so long as the image isn't being used commercially, and *i'm* not being misrepresented, i usually choose to let those instances slide.
If i never took the time to even check this stuff out, i wouldn't know. If i didn't take the time to [politely and calmly] get in contact with some of these people, they might not ever know that it's wrong either.
In general i would like to see everyone to take a little more responsibility. I see images all the time, especially on tumblr, where there is no credit given. Reblogged by people who are artists themselves. I'll readily admit i've gotten caught up in the ease of "oooh, pretty" *clicks reblog* and then just moving on without having checked to see if credit was given. Lately i've been making a much more conscious effort to not reblog anything that doesn't give credit. I'll heart/like it, but i'm not going to help pass around an image without giving support to the artist who created it. I get something out of the art i see and like, i share other people's art on my tumblr in hopes other people will like it and get something from it too. None of that exists without the original artist. THE ARTIST DESERVES SOMETHING FOR THAT. If i really love it and want to share it i'll use the wonderful [but double edged sword] that is the google image search to try and track down the artist who made it so i can share it WITH credit. It's not hard! It usually doesn't take too much time! And if i can't find it, i'm disappointed for sure, but it's not like my life is wrecked if i can't share it.
Lots of people think there is no harm in any of it. I think there is. I think most of the people who do it are aware it's wrong, but know it's such a daunting task for most artists to keep up with, they're pretty sure no one is going to come along to call them out on it. There are tumblrs who change other people's work to fit into their aesthetic and have thousands of followers because they essentially just have what all those people see as good taste. Some of them even have ads, which means they are paid for posting other people's work, which they have altered and/or not credited. The original artist, if not recognized, is not going to get anything out of that situation, are they? Yet someone who has done almost nothing does. And that's fine?!
If you have a tumblr, pinterest, blog, whatever, just use common sense when it comes to something that doesn't belong to you. Most artists will NOT MIND you posting their work so long as their name, a link, something is included that indicates who it belongs to, and all without you having to ask permission first. [Because remember, it does belong to us. By law, even.] If there is doubt, then ask first. If you're asked to take it down, do it. Don't alter other people's images in any way, unless you've paid for the right to do so, or it is something that was given away for free. And don't alter an image AND give credit to the original artist. I liken it to someone taking a picture of a pile of dog poop and telling the world "look what caryn took!". Dramatic, maybe, but i've never seen anyone do anything to my images that i feel improves it. Mostly because the images i post look the way i want them to look, or at least did when i posted them. If you don't like the image that way, oh well. Not liking my decisions doesn't overrule copyright and suddenly give you the right to "fix" it for me. Just move along. If you feel the urge to work on some images, taken your own, or find some free stock images to play around with. You don't have to steal to express yourself in that.
It's all about respect and being conscious of the time/effort/work that goes into all art. And acknowleding that, for many of us, this is our job. Maybe even our second or third, but definitely the one we love most. No one expects people to work for nothing, but for the majority of artists, when we create and then post it online we're doing it for free. Most of us hope in one way or another it will lead to, at worst a little money via print sale, exposure that leads to a show, something like that, but basically it usually boils down to wanting the ability to live off our art. In the meantime everyone gets to enjoy it, for absolutely nothing.
And I think it's adding insult to injury if we're just allowing people to abuse that.
