Beware: Teckly

[leahtaur.livejournal.com]

WHO: Teckly, and to a lesser extent, Werefox. Hrs2D is the animator involved but I do not blame him whatsoever; he assumed that Werefox had my permission to alter my work.

Werefox seems to have been the one to go forward with the alteration of my work but when an admin asked him to remove it upon my request, he did so without complaint (to me at least.) Teckly is the one who has resorted to call-out journals and name-calling.

WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/teckly
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/werefox

WHAT: Teckly commissioned a two character artwork of his character and Werefox's back in September. He paid $130 on September 3. There was a queue ahead of him and his piece had detailed shading, which led to his piece being finally completed and delivered on January 18. I apologized for the delay but other than a minor fix to the finished product, he seemed to like it. So there doesn't seem to be an issue with the actual artwork.

This is the artwork (NSFW!): http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7237555

However, on February 22, I noticed that Werefox had uploaded an animated version of my piece. My piece had never been intended to be animated and I felt that it represented my work poorly. I contacted Hrs2D, the animator, and asked what kind of permission had been given.

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb70/Leahtaur/hrs2dnotes.jpg

(As a side note, the "issue" I had had with Werefox had actually been with Teckly, now that I remember -- he had asked me to make an alteration to the character after the entire piece had been completed rather than in the sketch stage when it should have been brought up. Nevertheless, it was a very minor change.)

I didn't want drama, so I made a trouble ticket asking that Werefox's upload of the animation be removed. The admin gave him the option of removing it himself, and so far as I know, he did so willingly.

This would have been the end of it but Teckly began noting me.

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb70/Leahtaur/tecklynotes.jpg

I regret taking a slightly snarky tone with him. I should not have said that I could have the art I had done for him taken down -- I merely meant that copyright law *technically* would allow me to do so, but I would never do such a thing. I am perfectly fine with Teckly and Werefox having the art I made for them in their galleries provided it remains unaltered. I tried to reply to Teckly's last note but found he had blocked me.

And that would have been the end of THAT but Teckly made a rather rude journal about me.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/47368034/teckly.png

EXPLAIN: Unfortunately all of this could have been avoided had Werefox asked my permission to alter the commission I drew for him and Teckly. I do not like my artwork being altered without my permission, so it led to this. I am not making a beware to advise others to avoid working with either of them, because up until this point, our dealings went perfectly smoothly. However, artists working with them should make it perfectly clear that the commission sale does not come with the right to alter or make derivative works. I did not say this myself because I felt it went without saying, and it bit me in the butt. I also felt that the way Teckly reacted after this went down shows vindictiveness and should not have happened. I was fine with having the piece removed quietly, without fuss, and without all this drama.

Comments

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Teckly's call-out journal is more than enough of a beware for me. 'Just go die', 'A stupid people', 'when you have no brain', 'just an asshole'. Really? How old is this guy?

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

Agreeing with the above, it's more than warranted on Teckly at least. Since Werefox took the altered piece down voluntarily I wonder if it was just a case of ignorance on his part rather than deliberately going against the artist's wishes.

[morti-macabre.livejournal.com]

Well I think his journal comments do all the speaking necessary.

It's clear you tried to handle this in a fairly professional manner and were met with strong opposition and venom that could have been easily avoided.

Beware warranted. I guess that's something you'll have to make clearer to your patrons since it's /so hard/ to understand. Ahem.

[taasla.livejournal.com]

Wow, I am so disappointed to see this. Both of them have been repeat customers of mine, and they have been nothing but pleasant to work for.

Edit- Gonna have to retract my last paragraph. I can't find said notes at all to confirm it. I still am disappointed to see Teckly act like this. The notion that full rights can be sold for a mere "$130" drives me nuts.

I have been sifting through my notes, and I could have sworn that they asked me for permission to get a commission animated by the animator. Don't take my word on it yet until I can find that note, though. FA's note system is just so hard to track anything down.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

A lot of commissioners genuinely think the art is entirely theirs even if they only paid like 5 dollars. They see it the same as buying a toaster or the like. I'm 99% positive he just didn't realize this isn't the case and wasn't meaning to be malicious about it. Werefox, that is. Now the other guy...

[taasla.livejournal.com]

I think it's because people seem to think your every day furry character can be copyrighted, too. Of course, that's a whole 'nother can of worms.

[leahtaur.livejournal.com]

If that is so, perhaps they intended to do the same with me and just forgot? I'd be sad if that is the case, all of this could have been avoided. :/

I absolutely agree as well -- they were both absolutely great to work with until this happened.

[taasla.livejournal.com]

I had to retract that; I can't find the notes to save my life. It makes me second guess working with Teckly at least, though.

[magusmanx.livejournal.com]

Oh dear... Things like this are so hard to explain to the general public. I've tried explaining it to my husband, relating to various projects he wants to do and it's so difficult to make them understand.

[leahtaur.livejournal.com]

I agree that full rights shouldn't be $130 or anywhere near that -- but at the same time, the price wasn't the issue, you know? If they had just asked I probably would have been cool with it, for no additional cost. After all, they wouldn't have been asking for full rights, just limited rights to alter (or whatever the correct term might be.)

Now if we were talking print rights for $130 that would be a different story. :P

[chronidu.livejournal.com]

This beware is definitely desreved and will be noted. I don't think you were even being that snarky honestly.

It will never not disturb me the level of self entitlement people will get with artwork they've purchased, nor their unwillingness to educate themselves on just what rights they have over an artists creation, even in the case of commissioning it.

The rights belong to the Artist always unless you have discussed and contracted otherwise. Simple as that.

[leahtaur.livejournal.com]

Thank you for saying that, I reread what I wrote later and had to wince a bit. ^-^' But perhaps it's not as rude as I thought.

I am considering writing a "What Commissioning an Artist Will Get You" type journal to avoid just that type of self entitlement, and perhaps to educate a little. I'm still trying to dig up the A_B posts covering copyright law and the like.

I won't say who, but in a copyright/piracy journal written by Artdecade, I actually saw a frequent commission customer (non-artist, non-writer, non-musician) say, "In furry art, we are the stars." Meaning anyone who commissions art. I think that says it all as far as entitlement goes.

[latilombax.livejournal.com]

Teckly's about my age, but sheesh, his attitude really make this beware duly noted

[ryunwoofie.livejournal.com]

Wooow someone I will avoid taking a commission from. Beware well warranted. :|

[leahtaur.livejournal.com]

I did end up making a journal informing commission customers of their rights. Would anyone like to correct me on anything I might have gotten wrong? ^-^' I have almost all of my knowledge of such things from, well, here, but I'm sure some of you have a more intimate knowledge of such things and can correct me.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3206675/

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

This is becoming kind of a "trend" on fa, to go and get commissions animated. It's happened to me, and while I don't exactly BLAME the animator, I was upset he never once asked me if he could do so. Neither did the commission client who bought art from me. I was kind of shocked and a bit angry when I found out, and don't really appreciate people animating my work. I cooled my jets and let it slide the first time. I won't be so nice the second.

Another artist who animates peoples commissions is Washa ( http://www.furaffinity.net/user/washa ), and while it's not enough for me to Beware on them, I think it should be noted that they will animate without asking permission of the original artist.

What Teckly did was low, and I think he's certainly someone I would be wary of after this.

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

Teckly is also not a native English speaker (his page says he's from France,) so I imagine that issue is doubly-compounded.

[magusmanx.livejournal.com]

Yea D: That also makes it difficult.

[frazzled-niya.livejournal.com]

Wondering if you have a TOS that people need to agree to/read before hand...It may be something to seriously consider now-a-days with all the scamming and stuff like this happening. (if you don't have one.)

:\ and that "call-out" journal. WOW...Um no paying $130 doesn't give you the right to do whatever you want to the image...Up the $$ a lot more...that attitude is horrid, beware indeed.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure freeland/copyright law is the same as in the US though, if not at least 99% similar. Not sure how much of an excuse this is.

[ljmydayaway.livejournal.com]

She does: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1698423/

It says right in there "Altering the commission without permission is not permitted."

Sucks that people refuse to read (not you, just commissioners like the two mentioned here :/).

[leahtaur.livejournal.com]

In Teckly's and Werefox's defense, that clause was not there before. It is there now because this happened. :/ I had thought my ToS covered most contingencies but until now it hadn't occurred to me that someone would pull this without asking first.

[leahtaur.livejournal.com]

To be fair though... "asshole" and "just go die" are pretty clear. There's no need for insults in what could have been a relatively civil situation. I think those insults will hurt Teckly's reputation more than the copyright infringement that this was all about, to be honest.

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I wasn't very clear! I wasn't referring to his journal at all, but your notes trying to explain copyright law to him. Language barriers are difficult enough to work around at times, I can only imagine trying to explain legality is even more difficult.

I totally agree that his journal was way outta line and completely uncalled for, especially when I thought you were being very civil.

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

I'm not trying to excuse his behavior at all. ^^; All I was saying was that it's difficult to explain legalities to speakers of your own language, so I imagine that it's even more difficult with a language barrier.

If someone asks you to take down a picture, whether it's because of a legal violation or something on Facebook that's embarrassing, then you should respect their wishes and do it, not throw a fit over it - that just seems like common sense to me.