Fan Art Theft

[Todd]

Fan Art Theft

Hey guys, we've had some issues with shrines being plugged here that have layouts using uncredited fan art. We want to take a quick moment and clarify Amassment's position on fan art usage so that everyone is aware.

Out of respect to artists, we believe any webmaster who uses fan art in a layout should do so with the artist's permission and proper credit in a disclaimer or layout section of some sort. A lot of us use fan art with permission and credit artists, and that is perfect. A number of us even comission art for layouts, and that is definitely fine as well, as it supports and properly credits the artist. This post is not meant to discourage use of fan art in any way, but to encourage you to use it properly.

Please note that “Google Images” and “Deviant Art” are not acceptable sites to credit. After receiving permission from actual artists, link their sites or Deviant Art profiles instead. If a piece of fan art is found and you do not know who the artist is, as far as Amassment is concerned, you should NOT use it.

Having stated our position, I want to say we are not police of the shrine community. We will not contact members who have shrines using uncredited fan art. We will, however, delete any plugs posted here at Amassment for those shrines and remove those shrines from our directory. Shrines may be replugged and resubmitted to our directory after the uncredited fan art either gets credited, or is removed.

If anyone has any questions on this, please comment below, or PM Masao or myself. Thank you! Get back to making awesome shrines!

[Lethe]

There are anime/manga galleries that have very bad reputation due to the fanart lifting on top of the lack of credits that you've mentioned - zerochan, for example, is popular, but steals a lot of fanart, so zerochan shouldn't be sourced for things like that. (zerochan does sometimes list the artist's pixiv ID though, which still doesn't make it right, but at least you know what to avoid.)

As for Minitokyo... I sometimes see doujin scans there, but rarely fanart spam, so I think those are usually the exception? I haven't really read up on what their policy is, and usually browse art for very old series, so I'm not an expert on this. It does help to pay attention to tags, artist name, etc. though, and compared to other galleries, I think Minitokyo is quite safe.

One advice I can give when dealing with images of which you aren't sure whether they're fanart is to run the address through Google image search AND https://saucenao.com/ to cover popular platforms where people usually post their fanart (DeviantArt and pixiv in particular).

[Robin]

Thank you for posting this topic! Sometimes the mistake is an honest one, but we have to be careful nonetheless. (I learned my lesson early on when I "sourced" an image from Google Images without knowing it was actually uncredited fan art. Got a rightfully angry email from the artist--I've never changed a layout so fast in my life.)

[Todd]

The thing is, there are a lot of shrine builders who go to anime/manga-specific galleries like minitokyo.net with fan art submitted by users. We can't tell whether these users are the original artists or those people who just grab art from other sources and then just submit them.

In the case of Minitokyo, (I can't remember the others. I've bookmarked so many but ever since the computer crash, I've lost a lot of them) each user account has a "comment" board at the bottom, so you can contact the user there for permission. Some users have links to websites, but there's no other contact info provided in each profile except for that comment board at the bottom.

Just one tip to give. ^^

Thanks for bringing this up, Adri. I think users submitting others' fan art to other sites as their own is a problem itself, but not one we can be in any kind of control over. I would like to warn webmasters to be careful and mindful of the information you just brought up when using fan art from those sites, so I appreciate you bringing this to our attention! Lethe's tips as well, are super helpful.

As far as Amassment is concerned, however, if a member gets permission to use fan art in a layout, we need to assume the fan art is from the person who gave them permission unless they learn otherwise. Then, my hope would be that the webmaster would take the stolen fan art layout down on their own. Basically, we need to leave it up to each member who decides to use fan art to take their own precautions to ensure they aren't unintentionally using stolen fan art.

Our primary concerns, the things we look for, are credit and permission. If you find out a member is unintentionally using stolen fan art, and crediting a thief, please let the member know, or contact one of so we can let him or her know. Thanks!

[Mikari]

Seeing people credit Google or similar things annoys me to no end. Also, a credit is not automatic permission unless the artist has stated that it's ok to use as long as you credit, otherwise, you have to ask, simply crediting without asking is not an excuse. This sadly happens a lot, not only in shrines, but to an alarming rate on You Tube.

I don't even know why anyone would want to claim a fanart as their own when it's not. As an artist, it just seems so hypocritical and mean, like wanting to cover one's own (real or perceived) lack of talent with stolen talent. Congratulations, you just proved that on top of your lack of confidence in your own work and the lack of willingness to obtain the talent you want through practice, you're also a liar and a thief. If you keep working at something, you'll eventually see improvement, even if it's slow. It is when people stop trying to develop their talent that they become truly talentless, and it must suck to be a talentless criminal.

Sorry for the outburst, I'm sure you can tell this is an issue I feel strongly about. On the positive side, I always feel appreciation when I see someone taking the time to properly credit and be respectful, it says a lot about that person too. It's also nice when someone asks to use something I made. Asking and crediting marks the difference between respectfully sharing and stealing.

[Todd]

I guess another reason why I don't really do shrines anymore because I'm a little afraid of the "shrine standards," where there has to be graphics-heavy on the theme, just so viewers would know that it's a shrine and not some boring general-looking site with just content. Something like that.

My reply is a little off-topic to this announcement, but I just want to point you in the direction of Nyxmidnight's awesome collective. Hardly any of her shrines are graphic heavy, and some don't have images at all. I find her style really unique and interesting. The lack of images actually make her sites stand out, and they're great reads. There certainly are no "shrine standards" I'm aware of! Feel free to start a new topic on this in Shrine Discussions if you want to discuss it further!

[nyxmidnight]

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee senpai noticed me

[Todd]

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee senpai noticed me

Of course I noticed you! I... always have.

Hehe, will do. I stopped by nyx's and they are really nice. :) My current style is pretty close to hers (I think the only images I'd put on mine is a background image or two and the link buttons lol). ^^

Awesome! I noticed your similar styles, too. But yeah, point is, she proves you can make shrines in it! (You realize no one here will leave you alone until you shrine again, right? :P) I jest. In all seriousness, don't feel pressure to make a shrine if you don't want to. Just saying you can in your preferred style, is all. :)

[Laura]

I was thinking about this topic for some time...

I think using an artist's personal work without permission for a layout is wrong. There's no question about that. As an artist myself, I think it's fairly obvious to tell the difference between official art and fanart, but I realise that's potentially because I have a trained eye. I know there's people out there who can't tell the difference between 2D animation and 3D animation (seriously, I'm not kidding... I don't even know how).

But what about doujinshi art? It's technically fanart because it's not official material. You can argue that because you've paid for it and the author is making profit from using characters that aren't their own, it's more acceptable. I'm not sure how I stand on it myself; I would probably scan in images from the doujin for a gallery but I'm not sure how I'd feel about using it for a layout. Any thoughts?

[nyxmidnight]

I dunno. I used to review doujinshis and I have received mails from Japanese doujinshikas asking me to take down the samples of the art I had put up (just one or two pages) because they didn't like having their books in the hands of a foreigner and reposted on the net. I would be very hesitant to use anything that is not official material.