After all the posts and journalsand backlash etc I finally had to put my two cents in to all of this.
First and foremost I am not an artist at all, i do follow a lot of artist that is for sure... anyway with that out for the way here are some points i'd like to make.
1: Before this whole IMVU\Fa thing was announced the art theft was going on on IMVU and not just there but Second life as well. so all this rage at FA and Imvu is sort of redundant in my opinion.
1) Bob & Sue
Bob is married to Sue, he’s loving the exclusive relationship and his wife.
Bob and Sue have a friend named Steve.
Steve has been getting with Sue every other Tuesday for the last few years.
Bob just found out about it and is understandably irate, so he confronts Sue.
So Sue snaps, “Oh,
now you care but I’ve doing fucking Steve for
years!â€
See, Bob is upset because Bob didn’t know for years; Bob just found out. That’s the situation here, almost no one had ever heard of IMVU, much less was aware of all the theft and fraud. The problem may not be new, but people are just now confronting it; that’s kind of a vital note.
2: So many artist are either thinking about moving to another site, be it sofurry, weasly, etc but come on be realistic here, do you think because you moved to a different site no one will try to steal art form that site and use it on IMVU, Second life or some other place. I mean hell look at e621 site, tons of art from various artists up for grabs and no one has complained about that site.
2) IMVU vs e621
The key difference here is that e621 isn’t profiting from it, to the best of my knowledge. (Full disclosure: I use e621 all the time, it enjoys the benefit of a tagging system people are forced to use; I’ve found many an artist there. To me there is a very, very clear difference between profitless copyright violation and profiting from stolen goods, but that’s another matter altogether. I have no doubt that plenty of artists aren’t thrilled with e621, though, which why there is a Do Not Post list that is followed rather closely.)
The fact that IMVU is profiting directly from mass theft, and rather nakedly at that, makes the crime seem a great deal more organized and wrong than anything e621 has ever done. (I could be wrong on that, though; I appreciate correction if I am, but I don't think the ads on e621 actually turn a profit.)
3: For artist that many many follow on here and leave to another site or just leave the fandom do you think about those who follow you and commission from you? sometimes i wonder because some have moved to another site and traffic is low and some change there name so some users do not know who they are anymore and I'm sure some just stop because they do not want to have to go to multiple sites, for all they follow, and yes i am referring to inkbunny, sofurry, tumblr, weasly, DA and here. I mean that is a lot to follow.. Also some artist who do go to another site never tell anyone they left leaving many wondering where they are. no journal or pic to say " Hey i am no longer posting here"
I guess in short, if you don't want your art stolen, don't post it online at all. If you want to leave Fa let you fans know where and if your changing your name. don't just leave and expect everyone to know where you went. we are not mind readers here. Lastly if you for once think any site is safe out there even a pay site then you really do not know much about the internet, no place is safe as long as 1 person posts to another site without your knowledge.
3) Abandonment vs Branching Out
I don’t think too many artists are outright fleeing FA at this point, and many of the ones that are afford to do so are the big names where enough people will follow that it won’t wreck their finances. Fishermen are going to cast their nets where they know the fish to be, not where they’re going to be when some future event happens; right now FA is leading the pack and that isn’t going to change in 2015 unless IMVU does something drastic.
However, artists and users alike should be encouraged to branch out and spread their existence so that all their eggs aren’t in the same proverbial basket. This should act as a wake up call to some and a reminder to others than we shouldn’t be invested in FA to such a degree that we all ignore the cousin sites. To that end, people should be saving art that they like and syncing their watch lists as best they can manage between the other sites. In short, it is about being prepared to survive on the off chance FA goes to hell without warning.
Still, I’m not faulting people for ditching if they do; it’s better to worry before it’s too late to act, but I prefer to stay and try to influence things as best I can. That’s the entire reason I gave up complete anonymity and stopped biting my tongue.
Lastly, I agree. Nowhere is safe and I oughtn’t have been so complacent that I came to believe FA would always be FA; I regret that, it was a stupid mistake on my part. Semper vigilans, right? And always be prepared.
It applies to more than just Starship Troopers!)
