Facebook tlk art thieves

[Elton John]

I've noticed that a lot of tlk pages on fb upload art that isn't theirs. Often they don't give any credit to the artist themselves.FB has a policy where any image is uploaded to the site is now owned by them for commercial use and sadly this is legal.

This has caused a lot of talented artists to use those ugly da watermarks that ruin the beauty of an image.

So, here are some guidelines to proper uploading of art there.

1: is the art yours? You can upload it to fb if you want.

2: Is the art by someone else? Don't upload, ask for permission first and if given a 'no' do not upload out of respect for said artist. Even if given permission think twice about it as some artists steal from others as well. If given 100% permission from said original artist give them full credit.

3: art that is officially owned by disney is an iffy subject but I doubt they will cause a fuss if you use a simba avatar on the site from a tlk movie screencap.

4: did you comission said piece or given it as as a gift? Better ask artist first because they might not like it.

Agree? Disagree? Add to this if you want.

[Gemini]

I've heard FB has a really terrible reputation for having art stolen uncontrollably. Many artists don't really like posting there, or they have to use heavy watermarks. Even dA is having a lot of art theft going on unpunished, and a lot of people are actually very upset about it. Thing is, it's really hard to track a lot of this stuff, and there's a lot of legal grey areas. But I agree.

General rule of thumb - if it's not yours and it's not something that the artist has said is free to use, then don't upload it without the artist's permission and credit. It'll only help it get stolen more. Commissions are a bit different, but I'd still credit the artist if you decide to use it.

But yeah, FB really isn't a good place to upload art in general. I think it might be because FB is not an art community, so you have a lot of random lay-people who may have never picked up a pencil before and don't know the "rules", so to speak, so they kinda just assume everything they see online is just another internet meme or free-to-use picture that they can repost wherever they'd like, not realizing that it's a private person's work and that they're actually harming them (especially if they use it commercially, which is downright illegal, period). I don't know how good FB is at handling these situations, but I think it's simply best to just report any art theft you see there and keep your own work off of it (or with a watermark).

I think you definitely hit the nail on the head, though.

[Ninaroja]

Yeah, it really is annoying I've had a fanfic of mine stolen and while it was really frustrating I was luckily able to have it removed by the offender. Nothing infuriates an artist more than seeing their credit stolen.

Sadly I'm not really sure how it can be stopped there's just too much art and too many selfish people out there

[Shadowfax]

Having had alot of my art stolen in the past (My Ginga fanart), I can relate to how annoying it is for artists to go unrecognized and have their art stolen =(

All you can do really is report it and hope it gets removed, or the thief atleast credits you.

[PrincessKiara]

I don`t have anything to add, you summed it up perfectly.
I`m not a fanartist myself, but I do browse many Disney fanpages on Facebook (and manage one in honour of Kiara/Simba`s Pride) and I sadly come across many who post fanart without credit as well as people who somehow edit fanart, whether it`s adding text or changing colours. It`s really awful and I feel terrible for the poor artists who have their hard work stolen and put on display without being asked or credited. It`s as if people think they can just post and share any image they find online. There are groups dedicated to finding stolen art and telling the managers of the fanpages to remove said art, but they usually get ignored/blocked...

[Troll Berserker]

My friend created a group where we can post pages that steals. Almost all facebook rolepleayers steal arwork and worse some even edit them and claim as their own. We've been dealing a lot with those stupid kids with very little succcess.
I had some of my work stolen and there's still a page that has an image I did for a friend of his original character. They blocked all my pages and pretend they are deaf and blind when I ask them to at least credit me... The saddest thing is that you can't do much about it except talking to them and in most cases they rudely snap at you, get butthurt and bawwlock you. Or they delete stolen work just to steal again Facebook doesn't give a damn about your reports unless it's a fake name on provate profile. Art theft, child porn, harassment, photos of dead animals apparently "don't break their comminity standards".
And don't you dare to use common sense, that makes you a bully