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Unofficial CG Artwork
by CatI can't even remember when the "trend" started for using stolen unofficial CG artwork. All of a sudden, it seemed to spread, and now it's hard to surf the net without running into a layout or an image gallery that uses such artwork. Just because someone's site is in a language you can't understand does not mean that it's perfectly fine to just take their CG artwork from their site for your own uses. Get permission first. Just because you credit the artist of that CG artwork does not mean that you're automatically "ok". Get permission first. Unless you have the artist's consent, it is theft. What I find funny is that the owners of graphics sites are probably the most paranoid people on the web when it comes to having their online graphics stolen yet so many of them have absolutely no problem with stealing an artist's online artwork. Do I hear "hypocrite"? Yeah, I think I do. (By the way, I, too, am a graphics site owner. I'm not here to diss all graphics sites. It's just easier to use graphics sites as an example.) Let's go over some typical graphics site situations... 1. Usually graphics sites only allow people to use the pre-made layouts archived on their site, but not the layouts that they make for the graphics site itself. If someone else took the layout made for the graphics site itself, but credited the graphics site back, it would still count as theft, right? That's because the person took the layout without the creator's permission. Is that not the same when someone takes an online CG artwork without permission but still credits back? It is the same. 2. How about this, a wallpaper site. The webmaster of the wallpaper site does not allow his/her wallpapers to be placed on other sites. Well, if someone took the wallpapers, redistributed on their site but still linked back with credit, is that ok? No, it's not. So what's the difference between doing that and taking someone's online artwork without consent and redistributing them in an image gallery? There's no difference. 3. Now take numbers 1 and 2 and pretend that the offender did not give credit or took graphics on the site and used them without giving credit. Most graphics site owners would probably blacklist the person, try to shut down the person's site, rant about the offender in his/her updates or blog, etc etc and... etc. Yet, they don't mind doing the same offense to online CG artwork? 4. Imagine this: someone took a layout from a free graphics site but forgot which one so they place on their site, "I forgot where I got this layout from. Please let me know if you know the creator." People wouldn't like that; they would call that theft. Gee, doesn't that sound like, "I forgot where I got this CG image from. Please let me know if you know the artist." Why, I'd say that they're almost the same. 5. If someone broke a graphics site's terms of usage but cannot read English, that still counts as theft, doesn't it? In the same way, just because someone cannot read Japanese is not an excuse to take an artist's artwork from his/her site without the artist's permission. Many of these CG art sites have one line of English actually. They usually say something along these lines: Do not use any images/artwork on your site. 6. I see this on sites a lot. "Please do not take any of my graphics! I spent a long time on them!" I'm pretty sure that the artists spend a longer time on their artwork than someone else would by stealing it and putting it in a layout. Don't abuse their hardwork. I'm not saying don't use unofficial artwork at all. Just make sure you get permission before doing so. I've seen art sites disappear off of the net because of problems with theft. It's a shame for that to happen. Just a simple e-mail will do: "Can I use your artwork for a layout?" Is that so hard? More information: Online Fanarts Protection |
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