“Credits to the artist” is not enough.
“But the signature/ watermark is cropped so I don’t know whose artwork it is”. If it’s unclear who the artist is, don’t repost.
“I didn’t crop this. I reposted this edit from somewhere else”. If it’s clear that the artwork has been cropped and/or edited, don’t repost.
“If the artist doesn’t want their work to be reposted, maybe they shouldn’t post it at all”. No comment.
This has been getting my attention again lately. Many more people are reposting my art, even though it is very clear that the artworks they repost are cropped so that you can’t see my signature/ watermark. And this is happening to many other artists as well!
Some reposters are very happy about the attention they’re getting (This person didn’t mention my name and cropped my signature and watermark) :
Some reposters are aggressive about it:
And others believe that recolouring isn’t theft:
It’s not fair to the artist.
Like I said
before, be fair and give credit where credit is due. Cropping the signature/watermark or claiming the artwork as your own is probably the most insulting thing you can do.
An artist doesn’t have to explicitly mention in every single post that they don’t want people to crop/edit/recolour/etc their work.
It doesn’t take a lot to ask beforehand, add a link and mention a name. Don’t be lazy, and respect the artist.
Repost culture needs to end. I know I’ve said this a lot before, but it really is problematic for the artist.
We artists post our artwork online hoping for feedback as well as sharing our talent and skill and ideas with the fandom. It’s not our fault if some jealous bean out there decides to steal our work, crop out our watermarks, and reposts it. We are not the bad guy when we decide we’re going to ask these jealous beans to remove our art. It’s not our fault these jealous beans decide to throw a huge fantrum and start pissing and moaning about how they’re the victim of online bullying.
I have enough experience with this kind of bullshit in the Lion King fandom to write a fucking BOOK detailing the art thieves reactions!
For example: One such jealous bean decided they were going to crop out TsaoShin’s watermark and proceeded to post it with a quote from TLK. Not 24 hours later after having been asked POLITELY by three people, that they posted a baww journal proclaiming how they were being bullied. This bean even accused my friend for bullying her when she was warning the fandom about the bean’s abusive behavior. Within that same day the jealous bean proceeded to make two more baww journals whining about how they were a victim. My friend eventually got her journals and status posts removed because they were pitching such a huge fantrum that people believed the bean’s whining.
Another fun example: A popufur TLK fan artist decided they were going to risk posting a pic too close for comfort to another popular fan art piece that is constantly stolen and reposted. Two people told them it was too close for comfort. But what does this person do? They target me and make a baww journal calling me out. Because I had posted my disgust with what she has done on Tumblr. That was a very fun experience. It showed me just what a cunt that person was and proved that just because an artist has nice art, they can be a toxic and spiteful individual behind that sweet and innocent exterior of theirs. It also showed me who would rather kiss her ass than stand up for the original artist they ripped off. Which disgusted me to no end.
Both of these examples happened over the course of the beginning of this year.