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chariot313 · 5 years ago

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but why is reposting BAD?

i thought i’d make an faq filled with every excuse in the book about reposting, for those who still don’t understand why it’s bad…or for people who don’t know what to say in retaliation to these! so here we go.

first of all, an artist doesn’t even NEED to explain themselves. in the same way with someone who says “dude, make sure that soda is diet” or “please don’t tickle me”. they don’t want you to do it. you don’t need to test them by ignoring them. the reason doesn’t matter: it’s the person’s wish with THEIR things. if you had any respect for others, you’d just take it at that.

BUT for some people, they don’t want to respect others at face value, and want their reason. (which, i might add, is rude.) so let’s get into that:

but i’m giving you exposure! isn’t that good?

no.

you’re not giving artists exposure. for people like myself, freelance artists, you’re hurting us. about a year ago, i sent my portfolio off to an indie game. in it, i had a piece of work that had been reposted (that i didn’t even know about). i was told much later that they “looked into it” and saw that my work was posted by someone else, which means now they have no idea who the artist was, and THEREFORE can’t be sure my work was legit. i lost a potential job to a repost.

doesn’t matter if you say “i didn’t draw this”. sometimes, they don’t even look. they just look to see if it’s on any site other than your own. and that’s terrifying for artists. so don’t endanger our livelihood for instagram likes.

besides, you’re not even giving exposure if you didn’t credit, cropped out the signature, or somehow made the resolution so low to where you can’t even see the signature. which brings me to…

but i credited you!

some people still don’t want it reposted even with credit. the last answer should show you one of the many reasons why.

you’re dictating what i can/cannot put on my page! this is MY page!

and it’s MY art you posted. you can’t take something i did and do whatever you want with it. imagine if you took someones drawing, photocopied it, and spread it all around the town without their permission. they’d have every right to be angry, right?

but you posted it online, which means anyone can do anything with it. so if you don’t want it reposted, don’t post it online!

i have to post my art onto my websites to build a fanbase, something crucial to an artist. it shouldn’t be on ME to not post it in the first place, it should be on YOU to not repost it. you’re just echoing victim-blaming arguments.

you’re basically saying “if you don’t want to be bullied, don’t exist.” which is a terrible thing to teach people, rather than “be nice and respectful towards others.” yes, i know our world isn’t perfect. but that’s no excuse to contribute to vile things.

well i would be honored if someone reposted my art. and my friend doesn’t mind reposts, so why should you?

good for you! good for them! but did you know there’s more people in the world other than just you and your friend? we have wishes and feelings too, so you don’t get to project your own emotions onto what WE should be feeling as well. i love peaches. some people don’t like them. that doesn’t mean that now they have to eat peaches because i don’t mind them.

what an artist creates automatically belongs to society, though.

go steal the mona lisa and tell me how that works out.

everyone can VIEW it, yes. artists want others to view their work! we just don’t want you to do stuff with it we asked you not to do.

WELL THEN SPEAKING OF THAT, since i can’t put your work on redbubble and sell it for myself, why do you have an umbrella of the starry night?? huh?? you STOLE van gogh’s work! (yes people have legit said this to me)

putting my work on items and selling it is totally illegal. van gogh’s work is owned by companies now, who have authorization to print it on things. and i’m just ONE freelance artist who is, you know, still alive and not giving permission to do that. you can’t compare a dead artist from the 1800s to a digital artist in 2017. apples to oranges, my dude.

well i SAID “credit to the artist” so i DID give you credit!

because saying “the artist” really tells people who i am and lets them visit my websites! thank you so much!

but all sarcasm aside, that doesn’t do anything other than show you were too lazy to find the artist. same thing with “source: the internet” and “who drew this xD” or misspelling my url on purpose or putting the credit under a cut. OR cropping the image to cut off my signature! you didn’t give me credit.

it wasn’t on the website i wanted it on! you should have more social media.

i’ll have the social media i want to have. not up to me to make more accounts on more things just so you won’t disrespect me.

but i don’t remember where i got it. besides, i reposted SOOO much work and saved it all a long time ago. how can i find it now?

reverse google image search is so great.

also, if you didn’t know the artist, that’s a HUGE reason not to repost it in the first place!! you didn’t even know if it was okay since you never got to see their position on that!!

take down your video with stolen fan art. take down your entire fan art twitter account. i don’t care “how hard it was to save those images” or “how many views you have now”. you got all that attention from someone else’s hard work. searching for art will never be as hard as making it. if it were that easy, you’d be drawing all the art yourself.

but i asked the artist and they didn’t say anything! i assumed it was okay.

yeah, i feel you. it’s the same thing as when you ask your mom if you can borrow some money, she doesn’t answer, so you just steal it from her purse. no answer means the answer you want to hear, right?

wrong. don’t take “unresponsive” as a yes. that’s disgusting.

well i honestly don’t care. artists are just selfish. i’ll repost their art if i want to, just to show them how much i hate their stance on reposting. and (insert another really edgy statement here from someone who only says things to get a rise out of people since their life is empty)

one day you’re gonna come across an artist who has no chill and wants to sue, and can actually do it, since some people put their work under HEAVY copyright. and i’m gonna kick back in my chair with a nice capri sun and watch it all happen, since you have that kind of attitude towards people.

yes, this whole thing seems a bit. well. “salty”, as some would put it. and i have every right to be irritated over this. all these questions are asking “WHY should i respect their wishes? give me a reason” or “but here is my excuse rather than just taking it down”. time after time, artists are villainized just for telling people not to repost.

like i said, the artist not wanting you to repost it SHOULD be reason enough! we’re so tired of having to fight people just to have respect for our art. we have to deal with tracing constantly, so can you please take reposting off our plates? i know bad things will always happen, but that’s no reason to make it worse by contributing.

artists are generously putting our art out there for free. if you want to keep seeing our art for free (btw we don’t HAVE to, all the big artists could just up and leave and go to patreon), maybe show us some respect? because we get pretty dejected when we see strangers getting attention from something we did, and it makes us want to remove everything we show you guys. you say “don’t post it then!” but would be mad if all fan art disappeared.

if you want to keep the art, respect the artist making it. there’s a real person behind that drawing.

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chariot313 · 5 years ago

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i’ve gone on and on again about art theft / art reposting. i know not everyone is aware of it, so when i see someone reposting or editing fanart to make their own post / memes, i don’t think much of it. i usually just message them and explain things / ask them to take it down.

what disappoints me tho is seeing followers of mine who reblog my posts and even my PSAs about art theft– reblogging posts with art theft. like come on, you guys should know better by now.

just because it’s a pretty picture or a funny meme, doesn’t make it any less stolen. just because you weren’t the one who made the post doesn’t mean you’re in the clear when you reblog it. it’s actually worse. you know about art theft, but you reblog art theft.

i looked at the reblogs of a meme featuring fanart used without permission from a jp artist who DOESN’T PERMIT THE REPRODUCTION of her work, and i saw a bunch of followers that regularly reblog from me. the original poster was easy to talk to but even if she deletes the post, the reblogs will be there.

guys, please try to care more for others. can’t we think of the jp artists? some people here don’t want their work or their friends’ works to get reposted, but then i see them reblogging stolen art from jp artists. sigh. it’s not just about pretty pictures and funny memes. honestly, this is why jp artists mostly dislike the en fandom.

what’s worse is, now i know most people don’t listen because the ones i saw reblogging the post actually reblogged / liked my PSAs about art theft.

just please. if it’s not official art, and it has a signature– it’s fanart. if the original poster isn’t the artist (it’s easy to tell) then it’s probably reposted / used / processed without permission. you may not know or care about the jp artists the fandom reposts from, but please be decent. you wouldn’t want anyone to take anything you worked hard on just like that, right? i’m honestly so disappointed. i mean no one should care what i think, but it’s just so disappointing.

please do not reblog posts / memes that use stolen art. it’s easy to ask the original poster to take the post down, but the reblogs are problematic.

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chariot313 · 5 years ago

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Reblog art. Always.

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chariot313 · 5 years ago

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by @found_it_on_google over on instagram, bless their soul

hope this helps yall artists and friends of artists out!!

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chariot313 · 5 years ago

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PSA Regarding Art Theft

Hey guys, it was brought to my attention that this topic needs to be discussed again. I’ll be very serious when I say this shit needs to stop. The otome fandom is really small compared to many, and therefore it’s something I think we can get a handle on if we put ego aside and just take responsibility for our actions.

Moreover, because it’s a smaller fandom you can bet that if you’re reading this rn and feel guilt over knowing you went (or regularly go) to Pixiv or wherever else and took an artists work without asking and then came over here and posted it for notes, people know you did. Maybe not all, but some, and that’s enough and word spreads.

No one is saying you can’t repost art here, or across platforms. It’s amazing to give artists more exposure and let people enjoy the beauty of their hard work across multiple languages. But if you can’t even put in the effort to google translate a message to get permission but post it anyway, you should be ashamed. And MUCH more so if the person politely declines and you ignore their wishes.

Creating art of any kind is scary. It’s sharing a piece of yourself out in the world and honestly opening yourself up to critique even if it’s unwanted. Can you imagine posting something you worked really hard on and maybe it’s so personal your friends and family don’t even know about your hobby. And then all of a sudden some asshole has posted it without you knowing and it’s showing up all over sites in a language you can’t read and people are saying things at 30 different links and you can’t understand 100% and maybe it’s mean comments, maybe they’re making fun of you, ?? you don’t know!!

Maybe some weird knock off site is selling fucking notepads and shitty thin sweaters with your art on it now. Maybe some of the people in your real life use Pinterest and one day they’re coming to you showing you your secret fan works and saying “this looks like yours??? You’re into this???” And you JUST WANT TO DIE. It’s anxiety inducing and overwhelming and literally a loss of control over something that is supposed to be YOURS and personal and joyful.

THAT’S what you are opening someone up to when you repost art without permission. You don’t fucking know the artist, you don’t know if they’re using a pseud and in secret, you don’t know if they’re insecure or anxious or scared of having lots of people view their stuff. You don’t know if they’d be suicidal over having their work stolen. You.DONT.KNOW. That’s why you ASK. It’s not complicated or difficult. It’s common decency.

And maybe it’s scary the first few times you do it because you aren’t fluent in the language and you don’t know if you’ll just be ignored but I promise just about all will be happy you asked, and very polite, and most will be okay with it. And hell, maybe you’ll make a friend over time. Even if you’re just badly google translating back and forth.

You’re posting this art because it meant something to you in some way when you saw it. So respect that process, respect the person who brought it into existence. Cheese and crackers— just fucking ask.

And for the rest of you, you’re fucking responsible too.

Because for every one person that reads the above and agrees with it, there’s always going to be the asshole that says “hah, fuck you, I do what a want you can’t stop me” and this is where the rest of the fandom comes into play. You are just as implicit in this process.

I’ve had my work stolen more times than I can count and I can’t tell you just how much more sickening it is that i saw the people who were regularly in my notes, the people in my DMs saying how much they appreciated me etc or that they were huge fans, these same people were turning around and reblogging literally the same thing word for word and giving praising tags to my plagiarizers. And I wanted to yell HOW CAN YOU NOT EVEN CHECK OR REALIZE??? HOW CAN YOU JUST QUICK CONSUME AND REBLOG AND NOT EVEN THINK. It hurt. It hurt a lot. And it made me feel like I shouldn’t even bother anymore, because I kill myself over my work just to have someone else get tons of notes and all the praise.

Be more critical of what you consume. These reposters keep going because of YOUR ENGAGEMENT. If someone is NOT an artist yet is consistently posting art work after art work, ask yourself where it’s coming from? Who is the artist? Is this ethical? Did they ask permission? Are they even naming the artist and linking back? If not, STOP FUCKING REBLOGGING IT. If there are no notes, the reposting will stop. Someone’s mental health, and not to be dramatic but you never know—someone’s life, is more important than you reblogging a fucking picture of a 2D fake character that looks hot.

Anyway, I’m done preaching. Love you all that read through the whole thing. And if you are someone who steals art for likes and will continue to do so, or if you thinks it’s okay to steal something someone worked hard on without their permission, then unfollow me and never talk to me until you find some maturity. xoxoxo

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chariot313 · 5 years ago

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Is anyone else sick of all these “RP” and “muse” Twitter accounts that just steal fan art without consent from the artists and caption them with cheesy dialogue?

#twitter #art theft #rp #roleplay #role play #muse #fan art #respect artists

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chariot313 · 5 years ago

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Western social media has no respect for Japanese online artists - and it’s killing online art

The visual arts have evolved to suit the most popular medium of each era. In nowadays’ case, the internet is the go-to method of sharing the fruits of one’s labour). However, as stated in that tweet thread of mine you can see if you scroll down a bit (assuming you’re viewing this post on chariot313.tumblr.com) different cultures have different attitudes towards how their customers react to their products. This include you know what fuck the formalities, I’ll just say it: The exclusively western concept of someone seeing something they like online and hitting the share button to stimulate the “Haha, upvotes go ‘brrr’!” dopamine in their smooth-ass lizard brain will be the death of online Japanese artists. Or rather, it has been already, and you would know that if you’ve ever seen an artist’s Twitter bio be in mostly Japanese save for one sentence in English; “Reprint is prohibited.”.

If you want to hear me rationalize the absurd claim I just made, feel free to click the “Keep reading” button. Otherwise, turn back now and save yourself from me possibly wasting your time.

Alright, you’ve chosen to stick with me. Just remember, you asked for this.

Introduction

Social media as a whole is based around sharing (posting, uploading, submitting, tweeting, blogging, streaming etc.) and other’s reactions to what one has shared (views, likes, subscribers, favorites, followers, upvotes, retweets, reblogs, crossposts, etc.).

However, miscommunication and culture shock due to language barriers and cultural differences is one of the many factors that can negatively affect one’s experience on social media. For example, the Japanese artist community, active on sites such as Twitter, Pixiv, NicoNico Seiga, FC2 blogs, etc.. Twitter is mostly inhabited by English-speaking users. Here in the west, our main motive for sharing something on social media (such as art) is for fame and recognition. However, over in the East, most online artists only upload their works to the internet for personal use. I’m not saying one cultural attitude towards sharing art is better than one another, but when these two worldviews collide, the culture shock can negatively affect the careers of artists who are unaware of the other culture’s differing views on sharing art.

So, I’ve listed numerous social media platforms below and I’m going to elaborate on how each of them contributes to the alienation and discouragement of Japanese artists.

DO NOT WITCH-HUNT OR HARASS THE CULPRITS I’VE LISTED AS EXAMPLES; THEY ONLY SERVE TO BACK UP MY ARGUMENT

Twitter

Go into the twitter search bar and type in the name of an anime character (usually female). What do you find? Most likely an account named after said character that does nothing but post unsourced fan art of said character with cheesy “in-character” captions on them.

Exhibit A [NSFW]

Exhibit B [NSFW]

Exhibit C [very NSFW]

Aside from that, Twitter isn’t that bad in this regard, as a lot of the art that gets stolen is originally uploaded to Twitter anyway. But I’m just getting started.

Wattpad

Ah yes, Wattpad. One of the “trinity” of fan fiction communities (the others being fanfiction.net and AO³), featuring many different stories with varying degrees of readability. The problem is the option to add a picture to adorn your fanfiction, at which point most of the authors google “<fanfic subject> fan art” and use something from there without considering the repercussions. This causes Wattpad to be one of the top results when reverse image searching to find the source of some fan art, aside from another site I’ll mention later on...

There’s a subreddit I often browse called r/ChurchOfJirou, a community for sharing anything relating to the character Kyouka from My Hero Academia (I mean come on, she’s like the cutest thing ever). A lot of the posts on that sub are sharing fan art of the aforementioned character. One of the rules in the sidebar is “always include the source in the title or the comments”. And most of the submissions make good on that rule. However, a lot of the posts are from Japanese artists on Twitter or Pixiv, and following the source link leads you to find the artist’s bio, which usually has something along the lines of “don’t repost my work”. And what’s more, the biggest offenders (of submitting art to the sub without OP’s permission) were the moderators of the subreddit. You know, the ones who are supposed to be enforcing the rules? I even got so fed up that I called it out, to which one of the mods replied,

“It doesn’t really make a difference, does it?”

Luckily, not all subreddits are like this. For example, other MHA-related subs like r/BokuNoShipAcademia or r/ChurchOfMinaAshido have moderators that are more considerate of artists’ wishes. Overall, Reddit is usually a hit-or-miss when it comes to this kind of thing. At best, you’ve got subs like the two I just mentioned which make sure to respect artists, and at worst you’ve got people trying (and failing) to edit out watermarks. Also, not to self-promote, but this tweet of mine represents this situation pretty well:

Imgur

Imgur isn’t that bad compared to the rest of these, but it’s a common one that people link to when asked for the source of whatever they’ve shared on Twitter or Reddit or whatever.

Amino Apps

Amino Apps is a strange case. I don’t know much about it since I’ve never used it, but from what I do know it seems similar to Reddit in that there are numerous communities for different niches. That said, judging from the way it clogs up Google image search results, I doubt OC art is posted there often.

YouTube

Now, you may be thinking, “How does a video site rip off others’ art?”. The answer is uploads of soundtracks. Look for any OST from a video game or anime on YouTube and the picture used for the video will likely be some fan art by a Japanese Pixiv artist, usually one that forbids reposts of their work. Not only that, but if the uploader did bother to add the source in the description, it’s usually not even a link to the actual source, more likely a link to Zerochan or Pinterest or something. Now take into account that some of these videos get millions of views. Imagine working hard on something, and some numbnuts takes it, slaps some music onto it, uploads it to YouTube, and gets millions of views while you get next to nothing in comparison.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B (re-upload; original had nearly 40 million views before it was copyright claimed)

Exhibit C

and many many others

Alright, this is the big one. When Pinterest isn’t giving recipes or wardrobe ideas to suburban white moms, it’s clogging up Google reverse image search, punishing anyone who just wanted to find the source of some cute fan art. I feel like this meme by ZebitasMartinexSi on Facebook sums it up:

For example, this piece of Legend of Zelda art by Twitter artist @_nomeri_ (I’ll just link to it, since it would be hypocritical of me to embed the image even though @_nomeri_’s bio warns people not to repost their art). Good art, right? Well, if you right-click and hit “Search Google for image”...

...yeah. Pinterest is a plague. It thrives on theft. Even worse is when someone will post fan art on Twitter/Tumblr/Reddit/etc. and have the nerve to say “IDK the source I found it on Pinterest ^_^”. Or worse yet, they link to Pinterest saying it’s the source.

Instagram

While many other sites rag on Instagram for its reposting of memes, it’s no better when it comes to reposting fan art, especially from Pixiv. I’ve seen lots of stolen pieces with fan fictions written in the description. Personally, if I were an artist, I’d rethink my career choice if I saw my art reposted on Instagram with a half-assed fanfic under it, so I don’t blame Japanese artists who close their Pixiv accounts after seeing that. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to prevent it from happening in the first place.

DeviantArt

DeviantArt is more “renowned” across the web for its niche circles of bizarre fetish art, but in its defence, there are some legitimately good pieces on there. If you do find a good one though, try checking to see if all of the uploader’s pieces have a similar overall art style, because if not, that’s a sure sign of someone passing off some Pixiv user’s art as their own, which is unfortunately fairly common on DeviantArt.

9Gag

Not a whole lot to say about 9Gag. I mean, it does contribute to reposting of art, but nothing really separates it from the others on this list, aside from its watermarks. At least the watermark gives away the fact that something was reposted.

Know Your Meme

You know that Zelda pic by @_nomeri_ I was talking about earlier? Well, to add insult to injury, it became an object-labelling meme.

Imagine putting hours into something and politely asking others not to repost it, only to find that some nincompoops on r/DankMemes made it into an object-labelling meme.

But this isn’t KYM’s fault, per se. Know Your Meme only documents memes; they do not create them. However, as someone who regularly browses the Know Your Meme image galleries, I can say that the image gallery has essentially become Know Your Fan Art (unlawfully reposted fan art, that is).

Redbubble

There’s an NSFW artist I follow on Twitter by the name of Nico-Mo. A while ago, his Pixiv account was suspended, and there were numerous pictures on there that he had not uploaded to his Twitter or DeviantArt, so I found a mirror of one of those pieces on Gelbooru and reverse-image searched in hopes of finding it on his Twitter. No such luck. What came up instead was a .png of the piece made into a sticker being sold on Redbubble. In fact, that’s one of the major reasons why artists disapprove of their art being reposted, as it may find its way onto a sticker or a T-shirt being sold as merch without the original artist giving consent nor the artist receiving so much as a single nickel.

Facebook

Surprisingly, I think Facebook is one of the least offending sites on this list. Still worth mentioning, though.

Funnyjunk

Like Imgur, Funnyjunk isn’t that bad compared to some of the rest of these, but this exchange in the comments of a repost of an MHA artist that deleted their account (not hard to see why considering people straight-up ignored the big-ass watermark at the bottom) is proof enough of western social media’s flippant attitude towards ruining online artists’ careers.

Aggregator imageboards such as Yande.re, Konachan, Danbooru, Gelbooru, Rule34, SankakuComplex, Zerochan, etc.

I don’t think I need to explain these. But like Imgur, these are what most people link to when asked for source instead of bothering to find the original post.

We Heart It

I don’t know much about “We Heart It”, but it seems to be a “Pinterest Lite” considering it clogs up image search almost as much as Pinterest does.

iFunny

Basically the same as 9Gag, in the sense that its watermarks are a dead giveaway.

4chan

I’m not sure if 4chan really “counts” among these, as it’s a chat board where nearly everything is impermanent anyway. However, I was once on an NSFW subreddit where one submitter used a 4chan thread to get Patreon-exclusive material from an artist to upload to the sub (even though one of the rules of the sub was “no paywall content”), so that alone earns 4chan its spot on this list.

Tumblr

Yes, not even Tumblr is innocent. Although I’m sure you knew that. Similar to what I said about Twitter, look up any blog named after a fictional character and it’ll likely be chock-full of unsourced fan art.

“Why is this even important?”

Because if an artist sees that their work is being reposted, depending on the artist, they may delete the original post when they wouldn’t have to if people had just respected their wishes. Now, if an artist wants their works gone from the internet for other personal reasons, that’s up to them and we should respect them for it. But artists taking down their works due to mass reposting is 100% preventable, which is why it’s sad. If you don’t respect an artist, they won’t create art. Simple as that.

“Why do you care so much?”

Eh, I’m just weird like that. It just ticks me off when anything online, whether it be art, or a video, or whatever, is lost. In my opinion, nothing hurts more than clicking a Pixiv link on an imageboard and being greeted with “The work was deleted or the ID does not exist.”.

“But lots of western artists forbid reposting of their art too!”

Indeed, that is correct. But while many artists of every nationality and culture frown upon reproduction of their work, it seems only western social media is responsible for reposting art in the first place. I mean, why else do you think Japanese artists are saying “Reprint is prohibited” in English when the rest of their bio is in Japanese? Because English-speakers are the ones reposting.

“But exposure can help an artist!”

Yeah, that’s true...

...but “exposure” doesn’t mean much if those “exposed” to one’s work don’t know or care who it came from.

And if you need even more reasons, look no further than these posts about the same topic by other blogs:

https://cranberrywitch.tumblr.com/post/143456002228/stop-reposting-art-from-japanese-artists

https://thegospelofnagisa.tumblr.com/post/143308182398

https://edendaphne.tumblr.com/post/163117317030/ive-been-wanting-to-make-this-educational-cheat

https://marklightgreatsword.tumblr.com/post/190056977650/discourage-art-theft-in-fandom-in-2020-dont

https://letusrespectpixivartistconsent.tumblr.com/post/92189994896/why-is-this-important

also, not to self-promote but I made a thread on Twitter on this topic about a month ago that you can check out here.

That’s all.

posted Jun 14; last edit Jun 21

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chariot313 · 5 years ago

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Stop reposting art from Japanese artists

and stop reblogging reposted art from Japanese artists. Stop spreading it around. This gives reposters (as well as regular fans) the impression that reposting art is acceptable. It’s not. It’s harmful to both the original artist and the fanbase.

First off, it’s against pixiv’s terms of service (Act 13, article 2). If you can’t read Japanese, a simple run through Google translate will do the work. It’s also right at the top of the help page in English. Because it’s literally only Western fans who do this. Outside of pixiv, on their private websites, most Japanese artists say clearly in English to not repost their work. This screenshot is just one example of many. I don’t want to link to some actual websites for obvious reasons.

Fanart— especially nsfw/R18 fanart— is on shaky legal ground in Japan. Copyright holders are generally willing to turn a blind eye to private websites and pixiv, but are not always able to if a certain fanart gets spread around too much. The most common example is how popular fanart makes its way to unofficial bootleg merch. You see it all the time at anime cons, where fanart gets mass-produced for profit and promoted as official merch. The original fanartists can get sued (or otherwise punished) for stuff like this, despite not having anything to do with it. Many fanartists are also professional manga artists, and they run the risk of losing their job due to copyright issues and out of fear for their publisher’s reputation.

But even besides legal issues, it’s plainly disrespectful.

Art you find on the internet does not belong to you. You have no right to take and edit and redistribute someone else’s work.

Common excuses I see are:

“But I always source!!!” GREAT… BUT YOU’RE STILL REPOSTING ART WITHOUT PERMISSION. Crediting the artist doesn’t suddenly make it alright to do whatever you want with their work.

“I can’t speak Japanese so I can’t ask permission!!” There’s Google translate and many websites that offer Japanese lessons. Language barriers should not be a problem.

“They put it online, so it’s their fault it’s getting stolen/edited.” Nice victim-blaming. Artists put their stuff online for their own enjoyment, not for other people to do with it as they please. Artists have deleted entire galleries because of this. Artists have even stopped drawing completely because of this.

…There is no excuse for being disrespectful. Stop trying to defend your rude behaviour and instead just respect artists.

If you absolutely must repost art, this blog has a lot of tutorials for non-Japanese speakers on how to ask for permission.

This is directed toward people who reblog reposted art just as much as it is toward reposters. When you reblog reposted art, you are perpetuating the problem. If you absolutely must reblog reposted art, don’t reblog it unless it clearly says that it was reposted with permission!! Not to mention the fact that many pixiv artists also have blogs on tumblr if you cared to look.

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