Deviant Art Warning

[cirianz]

For anyone who uses deviant art to display their artwork, You may have noticed that they have recently changed their print shop & as a part of that have changed their terms of use agreement. It is VERY long & lots of small print, so if you didn't get around to reading it... for your reading pleasure...

Licenses to deviantART. For the purposes of offering your Artwork for sale and fulfilling orders for your Artwork through the Print Program and for the period during which your Artwork is placed in the Print Program, you grant to deviantART a worldwide, nonexclusive, royalty-free, right and license to (a) reproduce, distribute, transmit, publicly perform and publicly display the Artwork, in whole or in part with or without the Artwork of others, in any manner and media including, and not as a limitation, uses of the Artwork to promote the Print Program and deviantART; (b) modify, adapt, translate, create, re-format, store and create derivative works from the Artwork, in whole or in part, in any manner and media, and (c) sublicense the foregoing rights, in whole or in part, to any third party, with or without a fee. You hereby grant to deviantART and its sublicensees a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use all trademarks, trade names, and the names and likenesses of any individuals that appear in the Artwork and the right to use the name that you submit in connection with the Artwork."

All the bolding is mine of course, The first sneaky little one is not uncommon & is one of the reason's why I usually read the T&C on a site before I put any artworks up on it.
But, the rest is particularly sneaky & nasty.
They can change your artwork any way they see fit & still sell it, as yours, without paying you a cent & without your permission or approval.
They can sublicence to ANY third party, without your permission & they will also have all the Royalty free rights that you grant to Deviant Art.
Plus they can use any images of the people you might care about who are in your picture, in any way they see fit, also without your permission or right to say no.
This was hidden 3/4 of the way along a very long page of very dull & boring fineprint. It was definitely designed not to be noticed.

I have to say that my opinion of the Deviant art site just took a major nosedive. This agreement is seriously Dodgy!

 

[dcloud]

That's the reason I stopped going to that web site ages ago. I never really cared for that place and when I learned about that very thing you posted above I knew why. Thanks for providing the info. I'm sure many don't even know about it.

 

[muckshifter]

To put it simply ...

"Anything you upload or post on the Internet is fair game for anybody to do as they will"

... it don't matter what the Law says your protections may be. If you put it on the Net, be prepared to "see" it elsewhere.

 

[cirianz]

Yeah, is always a risk, Gotta know that as any sort of artist if you're putting your stuff up on a website. Nevertheless, there's a lot of difference between Jane Blogs printing off a few piccys to put on her wall or to send to mum, and a very large comercial site, that is asking you to hand over to them, what basically amounts to full copyright rights, including the right to grant legal useage rights to any third party they fancy & claim 'fees' (royalties) for themselves. In what becomes a legal contract as soon as you put something in their 'print shop'.
Also to legaly manipulate your artwork as they see fit & then put it out as your own, thereby affecting your reputation as an artist, or photographer, or author (it includes literature). & as an artist of any of these types, without a reputation you have nothing.
J. K. Rowling (or whoever) would likely have gone down the toilet after the very first book if the market was flooded by tons of crap knockoff books all legally marked as having been 'written by her' & there was nothing she could do about it.
My Daughter writes FanFic, which, technically is a breach of copyrite, but any smart author regards that merely as free advertising & the building of a loyal fan base. But if some of the rubbish tomo sees was up there on the shelves with Rowling's name on it...
At least now she does have legal rights to prosecute, & thats what helps prevent something like that happeneing.
& that is what they're asking you to hand over to them.
Well, guess you better not go & get famous

 

[cirianz]

Also, I forgot to mention sorry, but
The pictures that we put up on the net have been resized, with all the subset loss of quality that involves.
However, to submit a picture to the DA 'Print shop' you must provide them with a full resolution, unsized image, of a quality suitable for comercial printing (which is what they do after all) Which is subject to approval & will be rejected if the quality is not high enough.

Personally (& I know not all artists share my view) My attitude is, that if someone wanted it enough & had the money, then they would buy the original anyway. If someone wants to print a copy off the net to put it on their wall then they are welcome to. It costs me nothing & brings pleasure to the individuals involved. If you want a copy then go for it. I would honoured.
But, if you want to start selling them, then that's something else....

 

[TriplexDread]

Naughty, Very Naughty!!

 

[Anon_F]

cirianz, my paintings are more like pollocks early work, i love to throw it all on