“Credit to the Artist”
“Not mine,” “Source unknown,” “found it on Google” and other variations are some phrases you probably see unfortunately too often if you are follower or contributor of an online art community.
These are usually the captions you see when someone reposts art without permission from or viable credit to the original artist. Reposting, in this context, is taking an illustration online from an artists page and publicly posting, not sharing, but re-uploading the piece to your own page, profile or blog. This action becomes problematic when you post it without the original artists permission and without a source.
Sadly, this phenomenon is not an uncommon one. It happens on likely every social media platform where images can be easily accessed or shared; some are more notorious for reposting than others. Some artists allow reposting of their work as long as there's proper credit, like putting a link back to their page or profile in the caption. Other artists don’t appreciate reposting at all; even if you give credit. Then there are some who don’t mind if you repost with credit, as long as you ask them first. While this is certainly a problem, it must also be understood that even though there are plenty of unpleasant users on the internet, not every person who reposts is aware of what they’re doing wrong. Some simply don’t know the negative effects reposting without permission or proper credit.
When it comes to reposting, there are several aspects a lot of people don’t consider. One aspect that I really relate to as an artist is the amount of time put into each piece. When I make a full color illustration, it usually takes six hours to several days to finish it, depending on how much free time I have to devote to it. For some artists, they put more time into the piece. For others, they put less into it. In addition to the time factor, there’s also effort, frustration, patience and dedication. Contrary to popular belief, drawing is not easy. Getting good at it takes a lot of practice, patience, time and energy. So when you take someone else’s work without their permission and with no sign of any sort of credit, that’s very disrespectful to the artist and shows very little consideration to the time they put into the piece.
Another aspect is viewership. Artists usually share their work so they can get some kind of exposure for their work. When a work is reposted with no permission or credit, it hurts the artist. If the reposted piece gets tons of shares, likes, etc. and no one knows who made it or the person who reposted it had the audacity to take credit for it themselves, the artist is left in the dark and doesn’t get those views, shares or likes that you took away from them.
One last aspect is simply how much respect viewers have for the artist to begin with. If an artist says you can repost their art with credit in their profile description or after asking their permission, then go ahead! If they say they don’t want their work reposted at all: don’t do it: ever. If you don’t know the artist’s position on reposting and want to repost their work, ask for permission. If they say yes, then it’s okay. If they say no, don’t repost their work. Unfortunately, what happens a lot is that people either repost with credit but with no permission from the artist, or they simply repost with no credit or permission at all.
If you do this unknowingly and unaware of the negative impact, it’s not too late! Everyone makes mistakes and hopefully learns from them. Learn how reposting can negatively effect the online art community and amend your ways! If you do repost without credit or permission, knowing full well what you’re doing, then you’re being extremely disrespectful to the artist and their wishes. A common excuse for this behavior is “if you didn’t want this to happen, then don’t post it online!” This excuse is not valid. The artist took out the time to make the piece and share it with their viewers. Most artists don’t upload their work, expecting it to be misused in any way. It’s the responsibility of the viewer to treat the artist and their work respectfully and not misuse it or modify it in any way. If the artist doesn’t want their work redistributed or modified without their permission or at all, please be respectful and don’t do any of these things. Sometimes, artists stop posting their work online altogether due to constant reposting without permission or credit and it’s very sad to see artists leave the community due to something that could have been prevented.
So, what can you do to help? Not everyone handles confrontation well, and may find contacting violators directly to be intimidating. One of the best things you can do is if you know the artist of the reposted work, (there are now also ways to find the original source of an image like Google Image search, SauceNAO, TinEye, etc.) you can contact them instead and they can take the required actions necessary to deal with the situation. Or if you see someone you know doing this, you can tell them about how reposting can negatively effect the online art community, how it can hurt the artist and encourage them not to repost unless the artist condones, they have permission and they give proper credit. As the internet continues to develop more and more, it’s becoming easier to share media; and more users need to become aware of how to share and consume this media in a respectful manner.
