What's this community about?

[matrices.livejournal.com]

Its came to my realization that people don't seem to know what this community is about. Since nothing's quite really being done, and this community's getting more and more people who've joined, I decided to step-up and say something. Please take what I say seriously.

This community, artists_beware, is for warning against bad /commissioners/ .. what is that you ask? A "commissioner?" .. Its a person who commissions you for goods or services in exchange for money. A bad commissioner is someone who is painfully difficult in getting payment from, or someone who doesn't pay at all. They can also be disrespectful, annoying, threatening, harassing, or just plain terrible to deal with. This is not someplace to slander someone, though. It is to respectfully warn others about the situation you had with them.

There's been lots of cases of dubious art "thefts" posted here. And although it says in the community profile "This community also accepts reports of art theft" there's this grey area where everyone seems to mistake what art theft really is.

An art theft report needs several things to be helpful to anyone. A general link to "omg, I think someone took this" is not helpful in the slightest. You need to post the link to the original image and the "copied" image. If you do not have both, PLEASE don't post it.

Try going through the right outlets first, first report it to the website you found it (vcl, deviantart, geocities, etc). Then report it to the original artist to make sure that they have not actually given permission for the image to be used (you will not know this until you've e-mailed the artist, NEVER assume permission was not given --even though that's oftentimes the case. Just e-mail the artist and they can deal with it). If you've contacted the artist and they say its OK to post here in the community, then you can. If you cannot contact the original artist, then its ok for you to post here because we may be able to help identify the artist or help find their contact info. Otherwise, don't post an art-theft complaint.

If anyone else would like to add or elaborate, you're welcome to comment with your input.

Comments

First, thank you.

[capuu.livejournal.com]

And my addition? If you're going to complain about what "you think" is a theft at all, learn the difference between a copy and a reference (http://www.woodworksezine.com/2003/issue07/copyvsref.html), try to reasonably discern whether the supposed copier knows that difference, and if they don't, educate them. That higher ratio of simply ignorant doodlers, as opposed to malicious ones, hasn't changed much since scanners were invented round '91. n_n;

Re: First, thank you.

[b-dogskennel.livejournal.com]

No no, thank YOU. :)

I feel kind of dumb admitting this but I've never really known how far a reference could be taken before it turns into a copy. At least now I have the rule of thumb as provided by that article.
Thanks again!

[limeykat.livejournal.com]

Begging to differ.

Nobody finds out if you don't know who that person is, or what their contact information is.
Turns out in my own post that another artist involved DID NOT give their permission either. (they stated so in my own LJ on the issue)
Since I didn't know who it was, and if I never posted it, they would never have known otherwise.

And, if my own work is involved, I don't have to prove it to everyone else since my link info was plastered on the image which is mine. *shrugs*

[matrices.livejournal.com]

There's nothing to differ about, I stated: "If you cannot contact the original artist, then its ok for you to post here because we may be able to help identify the artist or help find their contact info"

But like if for example someone posts "OMG!!1 look goldenwolf art thefter!" and only provide the stolen image, but know who the artist is. They need to e-mail GoldenWolf about it FIRST instead of posting it to this community.

If it was your own work, since you already know about it, you can take the right steps to prevent it from happening again. Its not nessicary to post it here if you already know about it, because this community is not ment for flaming other artists. Which is sure to happen if you post about it in such a public outlet as this. Report it to the place you found it, and try to e-mail them personally to get it taken down.

This is a community ment for warning against bad commissioners who don't pay, not bad artists. There was another community recently shut down because of so many art theft reports where people got out of control and began hounding the "art theivers" and the LJ staff saw that as harassment. I think we should try to avoid that in this community, and just be respectful to everyone. Even if you've had a bad experience with them (commissioning you or copying your art).

[limeykat.livejournal.com]

You seem to be speaking generically of other frivel posts.. so My own instances aren't actually falling under most of this, so I hush now.