Fan art theft
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[edit] Introduction
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[edit] Types of Thieves
Lady MacBeth, a MediaMiner.Org admin and FanLib member, made the following characterization regarding the different types of fan art thieves:
1) Those who steal only professional artwork - scans, screengrabs, photos of framed art, etc - for personal collections or fan websites. Because the anime owners in general have been very lax with fan sites, "fair use" of images has a somewhat more flexible meaning than it tends to have among American IP rights professionals. Unfortunately, a segment of this population also steals doujinshi scans, excellent fan art, and fan art made by other professional artists (such as these <a href="http://www.daizex.com/multimedia/images/artists/index.shtml" target="_new" rel="nofollow">Kanzenban Tribute Images</a> done by a variety of well-known mangaka in tribute to Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z). Generally speaking, this subset usually thinks that they are stealing more "official" art; that's what happened with the piece of my art that I mentioned earlier in this thread. The person who stole it thought that it was official DBZ art (which was flattering, in a way, because at the time I focused on replicating the original artist's style for each series I drew for). Because I integrate my signature into the art itself, like many professional artists do, the person who stole it didn't realize that my name was a signature and not just text on the image. Another example of this can be found on <a href="http://evolutiongoku.weblogger.terra.com.br/" target="_new" rel="nofollow">this page</a>. Scroll down to where you see the picture labeled "Gohan SSJ4!" This piece, one of a set done by Studio Stomita, is fan art. It's also one of the ones snagged most frequently due to being mistaken for official series art. The next image down is an example of that - someone not only nicked it, but cropped it, edited out the background and props, and recolored it, just like when they recolor or edit screen grabs! Talk about insulting to the original art!
2) Those who steal both professional art and fan art without regard to the artist. These people know that they're stealing, they know that they're supposed to notify the artist, and they simply don't care. They tend to believe that "because everyone else does it," it's okay for them to do it to, and when you call them on it, they will generally fall back on that argument.
3) Those who steal both professional art and fan art and make at least some attempt to credit the artist. This group generally just wants to have a large collection posted somewhere to bolster their popularity and be "cool." They have seen enough collections to know that they're supposed to credit the artist, but either don't know how to properly attribute works or else are too lazy to track down all of the artists and their websites to give proper credit.
4) Those who steal both professional art and fan art and try to claim it as their own - plagiarists. Usually, you don't see screengrabs or obvious manga scans in this group, but you will find more obscure manga panel scans, doujinshi scans, fan art (of varying qualities - many in this group don't realize that actual artists can tell the difference between art styles) and sometimes official art made for merchandise such as notebooks or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shitajiki" target="_new" rel="nofollow">shitajiki</a>.
It can be difficult at best to combat the first three; because art is often considered to have "no value" outside it's aesthetic value, many people feel they are not "hurting anything" by taking the images and posting them elsewhere. And, while it's true that limited use of small, low-quality images may be used for educational purposes such as wikis, many fans feel pressured to provide larger, better-quality images in order to have a more popular website or gallery. It doesn't help that other fans encourage the behavior; when I found an art thief on this very site earlier today, some of the reviews on the stolen pieces included:
find more!!!! find more!!!!!! plz big sis?! *puppy dog eyes*(The term "big sis" may or may not mean the person is actually their sister. It's also used as a term of endearment for older female peers among some anime fen, because of a comparative term in Japanese.)
I didnt know konkro was so hott.. * Nosebleed looks down.* WOW! MOMMY! ><
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuu_Watase" target="_new" rel="nofollow">Watase Yuu</a> (Yuu Watase in English format) is the original artist for the image.)
I LOVE Yu WATASE!!
lol my was just about 2 bleed 4 real no jk lol hes SEXY!!!!!!!!!!!! lol
drools.......wow.......now that is something I would like to see in the anime lol
Though like I said before, I am not aware of a good solution outside of banning the offending member(s). It's about as effective to lecture people about stealing art as it is to lecture them about stealing music, and stealing art doesn't have as large of a potential for a serious fine, loss of your Internet service, or confiscation of your computer. [1]
[edit] External Links
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