Staffing Art Based PB Handling

[Yume 99]

I tagged this staffing but I'm happy to hear both sides of this.

 

Anyway!

 

So, I know (I think? there are at least a few still running) there's a relatively extensive ani-manga/art/cg faceclaim/playby circle left in RPdom. And I'm kind of looking to hear from that corner for a few reasons. I'm starting a board that really, highly lends itself to art/anime/cg characters rather than real life pbs, and I want to keep the feel and I will probably keep animanga pbs. But that led to some discomfort, and I say that because I grew up when no one paid much attention to art that was being used for characters, but I've had my eyes opened to it a lot more in recent years, and it's kind of a thing, art theft in rpdom. I'm not 16 any more and I can't really just look away from that particular issue because I know better now.

 

How do you guys vet to avoid art theft? Like obviously you can create a rule against it but what about enforcing it? Do you just insist on official art from whatever the claim is from? Which is all well and good but people do  draw their own characters or commission others to do so for them...and I don't want to exclude those people but I'm not sure how to go about making sure that it's not actually someone else's that they don't have permission using. How do you guys go about doing that - if you do?

 

So as an admin now do you vet to avoid art theft? Or do you as an admin just leave it to the artist to claim the work and ask it to be taken down? I'm genuinely curious for perspective here - from members who've seen it handled and what sorts of rules/guidelines/etc they find helpful, to what worked if/when you were staffing a board using animanga fcs.

 

(I do just want to say here, please don't turn this into real life claims versus animanga ones. I'm not looking for 'reasons' to go RL instead, just advice on how to handle this particular issue).

[Morrigan 1,826]

I've only used a CG/ART character once. She's a canon Star Trek character called M'Ress. I found a really awesome 3D artist that made some great 3D models of her on DeviantArt. I ended up sending her a DM and asked to use it on a roleplay and I was given permission as I promised giving credit in my signature (actually I also did this for an art version of Mila Kunis as a Vulcan). I was provided permission from both and as such I still have screenshotable proof of both for the site and the artist in question.

 

As such I recommend if you use art either you get permission or you use stock images or you make it yourself.

[Kazetatsu 263]

If its theft from one member to another you can discipline it directly on your site.

if it's theft from a professional artist, well, first you need some rules. Some artists are willing to let their work be used for non-commercial purposes, Rules would be something like creative commons licensed work only,  or get permission from and credit the original artist, and don't sell work that isn't yours.
 

for fan art and media sources such as animated movies or comic books the lines can be a bit blurry. If it's not for commercial use, and the players aren't taking credit for things they didn't make, then most of the time it'll go on without issues, but better to be safe than sorry.

You can benefit from a guest friendly theft report space, if an artist stumbles upon their work being used in a way they didn't allow, then they should be able to file a complaint and show that the stolen work is theirs. That way you can have something taken down if you really need to.

[Bezyle 31]

So one of the best things about being a forum with ads is that we can pay the artist for the rights to use their work. All of the art on the forum (excluding the characters for play bys) is paid for through google ads, PayPal and patron subscribers, and Amazon ads. Collectively we have found a way to bypass this issue when it comes to forum art and things of that nature. When it comes to face claims things get a little bit hairy, but the way we mitigate this is by making sure that if you are using a picture the original artist is credited on the profile picture. We also have an excel spreadsheet for every character and a link to the artist page. We have found the artist on artstation, deviantart, pixiv and have purchased and personally vet a majority of the art we use. We also have a staff account email for our site where we do all of our business so if any artist wants us to remove their art it is an extremely simple process for them. If you see us post an ad on your site, know that the art is 100% paid for. With cash to spare, to pay our staff of dedicated artist for other projects I love our art flow. 

 

It is really easy to approach someone for their talent, and I am sure they almost always appreciate the business. 

Edited August 9, 2018 by Bezyle

[Dragon 673]

What exactly are you defining as "art theft"? 

Because legally and technically speaking, it is "theft" to use any visual portrayal without the original artist's explicit consent in whatever form - be that a drawing or a photograph or what have you. Copyright law is actually very narrow. For example if I were to screen shot a scene from my favorite show - lets use Punisher as the example - and just draw it, that still legally qualifies as "theft" because the source material is identifiable. I don't even have to ever make an attempt to profit from it, the producers could file a claim against me.

[Yume 99]

58 minutes ago, Dragon said:

What exactly are you defining as "art theft"? 

Because legally and technically speaking, it is "theft" to use any visual portrayal without the original artist's explicit consent in whatever form - be that a drawing or a photograph or what have you. Copyright law is actually very narrow. For example if I were to screen shot a scene from my favorite show - lets use Punisher as the example - and just draw it, that still legally qualifies as "theft" because the source material is identifiable. I don't even have to ever make an attempt to profit from it, the producers could file a claim against me.

 

In this particular context I'm referring to using art from places like tumblr, pixiv, and DeviantArt (as examples) without the artist's permission/knowledge and generally expressly against the noted wishes in said artist's notes on the work, or standing information on their pages/journals/whatever. When I have seen it previously, muchof the time, even without credit (though putting credit in the signature or whatever doesn't make up for it if the artist asked for their work not to be used in the first place)  Fanart that the user didn't create - though less so - and also original characters / commissions that other people requested, things of that nature.

[RaWolfe 43]

The Art theft is something that black marked my organization (I don't own it, I just suffer their reputation so to say lol). Artist made complaints on the number of art theft that writing groups were using without their consent. Nowadays, we have a zero-policy regarding art theft. If the player can't prove that the art was given by permission, I remove the image from my site. If the player puts it back up, then I warn him to get the permission or I remove the person from the site. 

There is something I have become very clear in, artist work their ass off to get a beautiful art done, give them the credits they deserve!

[Quell 249]

Assuming it is a Fandom game, I usually just require canon images. And disallow fanart of any type -- which is a bummer for cute Christmas avatars, etc.

 

It sucks, but that is the safest method as far as I can see. Other people have some good ideas, though! I'm definitely considering some of them now~

[Dragon 673]

4 hours ago, Yume said:

In this particular context I'm referring to using art from places like tumblr, pixiv, and DeviantArt (as examples) without the artist's permission/knowledge and generally expressly against the noted wishes in said artist's notes on the work, or standing information on their pages/journals/whatever. When I have seen it previously, muchof the time, even without credit (though putting credit in the signature or whatever doesn't make up for it if the artist asked for their work not to be used in the first place)  Fanart that the user didn't create - though less so - and also original characters / commissions that other people requested, things of that nature.

 

Gotcha. 

 

So my two cents here - in my experience most artists don't mind their work being used so long as they get credit for their work, the user is not trying to pass it off as something they did rather than the actual artists, and the user is not profiteering off the original artist's work. If someone created a magical code that could sense non-permissed use of art work then probablu 98% of rp sites would be shut down immediately. 

 

What I would do, personally, is I would include in my site rules that all artistic representations require artist approval, and the player has to be able to provide proof of approval to staff - make it part of the character app process even, if feasible. So if its a DA artist that says 'yeah this is free use' require a link to that. If not, require a screen shot of the direct message asking for permission and being approved. 

 

Someone might try to argue that 'oh I made this' conflicts can arise, but Google's "Search Google for Image" function is pretty phenomenal so that tool alone will virtually cut that issue down to a zero. 

 

Unfortunately my suggestion will make more work for you and your staff, as it requires so much info-vetting. 

[Deep Sea 326]

Oh, well, now I feel like shit. It's ironic because I went to art school and have done commissions before.

 

I've seen some boards keep a running list of the artist of each faceclaim that each character uses, and some sites that use a general disclaimer that says something like "It's the user's responsibility to not claim art as their own".

[Yume 99]

50 minutes ago, Deep Sea said:

Oh, well, now I feel like shit. It's ironic because I went to art school and have done commissions before.

 

I've seen some boards keep a running list of the artist of each faceclaim that each character uses, and some sites that use a general disclaimer that says something like "It's the user's responsibility to not claim art as their own".

 

I mean there's no reason to feel like shit. That's not necessarily a bad way of handling it, every admin does things their own way. Which is what this was about - seeing how other people handle it.

 

I mean, when I was running boards previously I basically ignored that it was a possibility at all. Never had anyone approach about it but also wasn't proactive about making sure it didn't happen. In hindsight, I know it did because I actively recognize some of the fanart pieces that were used in biographies. (is it possible they had permission? sure. but I didn't ask and it didn't occur to me to either).

 

Also I really appreciate the ideas and feedback here. Thanks guys!

[CovertSphinx 710]

I choose to "not worry about it" unless it becomes an issue. As long as nobody is trying to pass off the work as if they did it or profit on somebody else's hard work, I leave it up to the member to be responsible for what they post. There is a guest friendly space on my board, so if any artist finds an image they created being used as a picture representation of a fictional character and has an issue with that, they can inform us of the theft and Staff will take action to correct the situation. Normally we encourage members to linkback or list credit to the artist (DeviantArt, Tumbler, ext original artwork mostly) when they know who the artist is, but I don't go scour people's accounts for usage rights information. 

[Kit the Human 759]

Ditto @CovertSphinx

 

I encourage users to get permission and display links back to the artist's pages. But I won't police it.

 

If an artist reaches out over the usage, I will remove the image and let the user know that they need to be a bit more responsible 😉

[Lawman 88]

My stance is similar to @CovertSphinx's. I choose not to worry about it - I add a general disclaimer that all images used on my site are the properties of their respective artists, and that in no way, shape or form do we claim anything as our own; nor do we attempt to profit off any intellectual property that does not belong to ourselves. And last but not least, a note to any artist that might drop in and see their work being used - if they object to it being displayed on my site, are free to contact me or any of the staff and we will honour their requests to have the offending image taken down.