The Origonal Head Hunter wrote:if we are going to take down banners made with "stolen" art, shouldn't we take all banners down, since they were made with anime footage originally created by someone else that we used without express written consent?
With that in mind, shouldn't we take down all the AMVs too? O.o
Knowname wrote:why are we all being so pissy here. If somebody copys somebody else's FREELY MADE FANBASED DESIGN than that somebody think there deserves to be two in the world! Who cares?? If the org public sees that banner and deems it worthy though there already is a banner like that, maybe a majority of the org public LIKES that banner SO much that they'd like to see it twice! I'm betting that YOU are the maker of said banner and as most ppl like their work, you probably wouldn't mind having it come up 2x in the order of banners. Who CARES?? Who's losing here?? What food is this taking off of the table? This is so pointless.
Um, I believe they mean the artwork used in the banner, not the banner itself.
But seriously, I'm not saying that the artist shouldn't have any say what happens with their art, but people come over here jumping up and down about "stolen art" like they're trying to take credit for it and/or make a profit from it, or like they did it on purpose to use it for evil. No one is trying to take credit for anyone's art. Heck, this site is more or less all about "stolen art", so its pretty much a given that no one made their source material. Same goes for banners.
Then there's the whole problem of uploading art to the internet. I've seen sites of major artists that are coded so that you can't take art from the site (well, you can screen shot, but then you're putting more conscious effort into it than 'point-click-save'.), but deviantart doesn't have that. So art from there may end up on other sites and then picked up by org members and used on a banner. Yes, there are some who will knowingly use deviantart art on banners even if the artists don't want it used, but there are others, like myself, who try not to use art from deviantart so that we don't wind up using art that shouldn't be used.
In fact, several months ago, I ended up under attack for deviantart art used on one of my banners. The thing was, I had gotten the art from another site, but apparently it had originated from deviantart and I didn't know. But even though it was a mistake, I got flamed by all their friends like I had intentionally taken their work, tried to pass it off as my own, and then went on to became greatly rich and famous off it. Which was not the case at all. (Things did get sorted out and I did manage to settle things with the artist, though.)
I'm not saying 'You're the dumbass who posted it on the internet. Deal with it.' As an artist, you should be able to keep some control over your work, and if you don't like how it's being used, you should be able to say so and have it removed. I'm just saying, if you do have your work on the internet, keep in mind the reality that its near impossible to ensure that your work won't end up elsewhere. And if you do see your work somewhere else, flying off the handle at the person and crying 'art thief' isn't always the best solution, since there's a good chance the person got it from someone else, who may have gotten it from someone else, etc. So the original artist and their intentions may not be known to the user.
Now there are some who do not respect the artists and will ignore you even if you ask nicely. But here we generally try to be as respectful as possible, given the nature of the site.

. As Doki pointed out, its just best to put the link to the original image and to the image that uses the art in the mod drop box or email it to the address he gave, and they will remove it. (Since banner creators no longer have control over their banners once they are uploaded.) But you have to give links to both, or they won't know what to remove or have proof that it should be removed. And if you provide all that and don't get an answer or any action, keep trying. The mods/admin are only human after all.
