RANDOM RAGE

there.. if you want to visit the source of what i'm gonna share today.. check the title link..

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bobsters:

11-21-2003, 04:30 AM



Something has really been bugging me lately. I'm sorry for the rant, but I feel like nobody knows or cares about this issue.



It seems like the more I browse through websites in this community, the more I come across blatent art theft. The sad thing is, many of the offenders are totally unaware that they might be using stolen art! A lot of young and hopeful webdesigners make some very nice graphics and layouts using images from massive anime galleries like boyis (http://boyis.com). What they might not know is that much of the CG art that is displayed on that site is taken from artists and compiled into a huge archive without any permission or proper credit. A majority of the work there is wallpapers made by non-commercial Japanese artists. The even worse fact is that the owners of that site are making money off the hundreds of stolen images from all of the banner advertisements. If that isn't wrong,

I don't know what is.



Once, someone took my collection of brushes off my site (and countless other sites too), and put them into an enourmous archive without giving any credit to any of the artists! Essentially, this is what these people are doing. If his site had stayed up longer, then I imagine that many people would've downloaded and reused the brushes giving credit to a person who only spend hours downloading brushes, which requires no work at all!



If you're a person who owns one of those graphic and layout sites, and you use images from places like boyis, think about this: What if someone took your layouts, removed the credit and displayed them in a huge archive for people to download and reuse feely. Wouldn't you feel enranged and hurt? As a webdesigner, I know how much work goes into a layout. Yet, more importantly, as an artist, I know how much more time goes into CG work. Do you think that spending three hours on a layout is a long time? Imagine sitting at your computer for a week or more for 4-5 hours a day working on a single CG. Now imagine this being stolen from your gallery and redistributed in a massive archive without one line of credit given to you. Now, nobody knows who made that beautiful piece of work, and nobody can find your site so they can enjoy looking at it! Wouldn't you feel even more enraged, hurt and discouraged?



If you want to make a a layout using other people's images by all means, do it. However, please think about where you are getting your source art. Just saying "Credit goes to the original artist" doesn't suffice. If someone used your layouts and graphics and wrote "Credit goes to the orignal designer" without a link back to you, wouldn't that violate your rights? As a general rule of netitquite, if you see "Author or Artist unknown" or "Credit to Artist" with no name or link, that usually means that work was stolen. So don't use it!



You might be thinking, "I want to make my site more original and unique!". By using other's work your site really isn't unique and orignial. So many people are using artwork from sites like Boyis, if you think about it, no matter how much nifty coding goes into your layouts, they all look the same! I propose this... use your own images! Take photos, draw, make illustrations and your own characters. Even if you're no good at this, I'm sure there are plenty of people who would enjoy your site even more!



If all else fails, use official art. I'm not reccomending this. The problem that comes with using official art is that you run the risk of getting yourself into a nasty lawsuit. Most of the time, big companies ignore this on small personal websites because it helps promote them. Other times, companies regard this as copyright infringement, and will prosecute all found offenders. So be careful with what you use!



The above statement also holds true for royalty free image galleries like getty images (http://gettyimages.com). I've seen more photos from there popping up recently. When I first started getting into the domain scene, usage of getty's images was running rampant around the web. Everyone and their mother was using these images, until people as young as 12 and 13 were waking up to finding threats of lawsuit in their inbox if those images weren't removed from their sites! There are plenty of free image galleries out there. I often use FreeFoto (http://freefoto.com/index.jsp), Visipix (http://www.visipix.com/) and Earth Sky Water Fire (http://photo.sehnsucht.org). However, it's always best to use your own work! That way, there will only be one of your image on the web!



Please take what I say into consideration. If you have anymore questions, please check out these useful sites: what is copyright (http://whatiscopyright.org/), online fanarts protection (http://www3.to/ofp/) and R.I.G.H.T.S (http://www.rightsforartists.com/).



Most of all, if you agree with me, boycott boyis! =D

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please... i know the length of the article is disturbingly discouraging but i still encourage you to read again.. if you think u don't get the point...



i agree with her/him... i mean you wouldn't want your artwork to be simply distributed to the public without your consent and credit... dba? that hurts.. especially when i read past the links of gettyimages and boyis (where i frequently get images)... cguro that's the reason why i can't access through boyis.. anyway... back to business... since i am still an amateur in webdesigning... i suppose that gave me a little warning about those copyright-abusers... chka look at that.. boyis? may pangalan eh.. may reputation... that site will really be a big loss if ever...and ano pa kaya ung getty? eh for me ok lng... from the start naman it looks like the images in getty weren't original eh... haha.. cguro contributions but if you actually get the picture... may nka embedd na getty images... d'you think that's right? if you're the contributor tapos u wouldn't get any credit?



tss ..bhala na...