Of Copyright Issues, Public Domain, Creative Commons, Cabbages, Kings and Fools ................
Of late there were heated debates on Steemit about plagiarism
Of late there were heated debates on Steemit about plagiarism, copyright and such, and artists are being pilloried for drawing their inspiration from sources they did not name. Now if you need a list of my sources, I would have to append a encyclopedia of listings of my sources, compiled over my 50+ years activity in art. And yes, many of my works contain in some details images from other sources - as a representational artist, this is common and quite normal. The only ones that may escape the trap are perhaps abstract artists splattering paint aimlessly all over the place and by sheer accident and gravity are even hitting the intended target, their canvas. But I digress. The only thing exempt from criticism is a virginally empty canvas. Period. And even that might be considered plagiarism:
Blank canvas: London gallery unveils 'invisible' art exhibition
Image from page 69 of
"Publications relating to the wedding of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor,
and Margarita Teresa, Infanta of Spain" (1666)
But lets get to the meat of the subject - and I simply copy parts of one of my comments to What is Art Plagiarism - if interested, check out all the comments on it, some of it quite revealing with whom and what we are dealing with here.
@ryivhnn - If it is stock, then they have implied permission to use it, depending on a number of things (most stock is sold as a license to use). Some stock is creative commons (and it would depend on the license), but most stock you have to pay for, so it is yours to use without any restrictions, except if your license specifies a specific use only (you basically get what you pay for, and unrestricted licenses are costly).
As a artist, you would have access to a lot of stock here Stockfree Images if you join the site. There are other services available, like Megapixl - all you have to do is google for free stock.
If you use stuff that is in the public domain, then you can do with it what you want without any restrictions. Usually, copyright expires after 80 years or 100 years (depending on country) after the death of the author. Extensions are sometimes granted to heirs of the artist if they apply for it.
Here is a link for Public Domain Images on the Internet Archives Flickr Blog , the best source is the Internet Archives Website (you find the link on this page The Public Domain Review).
And here is another interesting exemption to copyright, and it is called Freedom of Panorama - otherwise you would not be allowed to publish photos of your holidays in Paris, for example. Please note: this exemption includes images of art in public spaces! So feel free to copy David in Florence, it is 1) in a public space and 2) it is in the public domain!
But what you create from it, is indeed copyright - like this old drawing of mine from 1975 that includes a image of David:
Now to the part of your comment ".....cobbling together mattes by photobashing .....":
In the instance that an image has been altered adequately, one may be protected under a “de minimis” defense. This implies that the amount of the source that has been copied is small enough to be justified by court.
I have studied copyright issues for decades and have posted many times about it in my blogs and on my websites and networks.
Of course this Jaguar pretender troll has no clue about any of this.
Note: I have it from one of the curators of @ntopaz who said this to me, quote:
otto, he does not work for ntopaz, in fact, he has been banned from ntopaz
Lets hope @artzone follows suite.
We need to return to a level of sanity here on Steemit! Too many self-appointed experts with a Napoleon Complex around.
The bottom line to all this:
Dear Artist Friends: don't be intimidated by bullies and trolls, fight back! Flag what you feel is vindictive and abusive action. Don't give a bully an inch of space, and if we stand together, then hopefully this scourge will be history
photoshop work by myself from a (unpublished)photo of me by my friend Leo Toetsch
One of the things I used to do when I was young was to go to the Academy in Vienna (where Peter Gric later studied in the Master class of Arik Brauer). It has a excellent art museum, and I watched students copy old masters to learn techniques, composition, color etc. This is still practiced today in some places where traditional methods are taught.
A excellent article about this is:
Example shown in this article:
Blackhead, Monhegan by Edward Hopper - public domain
Image: https://www.wikiart.org/en/edward-hopper/blackhead-monhegan-1919
Maybe one of the sad developments in this day and age is that art students are discouraged, and seemingly here on Steemit bullied, for honing their skills by learning from others and from their peers.
I for one have no problem with someone trying to copy my work, my technique - which I have also taught in workshops. I have published many of my artworks on Flickr with a CC tag and certainly would not go after someone to learn by copying my work.
Picasso supposedly said: “good artists copy, great artists steal”
but regardless if he said it or not, this is a quote that is well known. A good answer to this is found in Quora: Whether this quote is from Picasso, or merely attributed to him, doesn't make much of a difference. The underlying meaning of the message is the same either way
UPDATE:
I included these points and expanded on it in a separate post:
GOOD ARTISTS COPY, GREAT ARTISTS STEAL - quote attributed to Picasso
Hi Otto,
I have no idea about what happened but it seems really sad to hear such a story. However, there is one thing I can tell, you were in my curator team at Ntopaz and you did not have time to continue the duty. We understand your situation. You have reputation in the real life, outside blockchain and a very busy man...in the end I have to let you go.
At the moment, I am taking a break from Ntopaz too. I have another important project to continue and can not be everywhere all at once.
Ntopaz is a good platform where all the artist should not missed and I admired the work which has been done so far.
Keep it up my friend and hopefully we will meet at the Steemit meet up soon.
❣️
Thank you for your reply my dear @siamcat - and I understand how busy you are - in a previous comment I already wondered how you can manage it all! Myself, I will have to take a break (too late today) from Steemit period, because again I was invited, accepted and signed the contract, to exhibit with a Gallery which is putting on shows in various centers starting in September. I will need to create new work for this, so my studio time will from now on be my priority!
💖 - it certainly would be nice to meet up in person again! Might want to arrange a studio visit instead, next time you are in Vienna.When is the next Steemit Meeting? I would have to look if someone posted anything.
I checked, and then contacted them on WhatsApp:
something else - I also feel encouraged by other people, and this is a answer to my comment, made by someone who also promotes artists:
Thank you Otto,
See you soon at the meet up 🌻
Hi Otto,
First of all I wanted to mention that having this dispute has given me an opportunity to learn YOU from different positive sides. I see that you really love Art, this is your Muse, your Admiration, your World where you live. I see that if any of your friends been attacked, you just come to help with everything you have, in this situation with all the knowledge you have.
The next, I wanted to thank you for such comprehensive post and it was interesting to learn quite a lot from the information put together, I bet you spent quite a bit of time for that, but also it feels that you have a lot of passion and frustration with the situation and being powerless to do anything. I believe in real life it would be much easier. I hope many people will read your post and I am going to resteem it too, and I hope you will be able to hear many opinions too.
We, human being, like it to have comfortable and not be bothered if it is not affecting us, we just try to ignore and that is something that I heard from one of the witness who I couple of days ago asked to get involved in resolution of this situation.
One lesson I learnt from it, the Artist community needs to stay together, support each other, there is nobody else who can help us, only us.
Really enjoyed your post and wish you better Sunday, Cheers,
@stef1 Thank you so much for your encouraging words. To put the resources together was not as difficult as it seemed: I had compiled these resources over many years, adding, deleting and updating on the website I maintain for over 500 of the best Visionary Artists worldwide.
You find this, and more on my page dealing with copyright and also other advice for artists:
https://www.vagallery.com/copyright.html
I've been doing this since 2009 as a reaction to a charlatan and serial scammer on Facebook and other social networks who conned artists into paying him money for being featured on his website, using some of my more prominent artist friends as bait (he stole their stuff off the net and pretended they are members of his site). That story is behind us now. He is where he belongs - in oblivion.
Yes, it costs me time, effort and also money to maintain and administrate the site (and there is more than one, including a private network). But what I get from it is karma in spades! Were it not for the networking, I would by far not be invited into so many exhibitions worldwide, get to travel and meet these artists at joint venues etc.
PS checking your latest post, this cretin hit you too! I commented on it.
Excellent article! Thanks Otto for bringing some light into this!
.... and I followed up on it:
https://steemit.com/artzone/@thermoplastic/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal-quote-attributed-to-picasso
Thank you @thermoplastic! for publishing this information is very complete, you are an experienced artist and show your great wisdom on the subject of plagiarism helps many artists who like me are new to art and do not know much about this subject, tend to accuse us for something that maybe we do not know is wrong or not.
We artists must unite so that the depraved as a jaguar "who knows nothing about art, in his life he has created something" It may be that he feels frustrated by that. Do not continue to annoy the artists and literally kill us in the chain of blocks, What happens to a Venezuelan artist is very strong, because they practically live for what they generate here and draw daily to survive in this terrible situation that is experienced in my country.
I do not understand how a subject can get excited
with something like this.
Accusing a person who only draws to live and who is not experienced in the case, does not know anything about it, nor have they told him what to do and what not to do, if not directly accuse. If this guy wanted to help, he would be day and night on the #introduself label telling the users what is and what should not be done in Steem so they do not have plagiarism problems in their stay here.
I have not seen any robot educating or helping new users, after they spend time on the platform they accuse them and as I said they literally kill them in the block chain.
Many EXPERIENCED ARTISTS, who know about art! agree that copying can be done many times to learn, if not, there would be no artists! because one had to learn from another person who did something.
In my case I have never been to an art school and what I have learned I have done in the time I've been drawing in steemit, seeing how other artists do here and in places. I watch videos and the artists who make the videos invite you to see other artists to learn and to inspire you.
Then with time you will find the style of drawing,
Sorry if I extended a lot!.
I appreciate your insight on this, Otto.
Thank you very much. It is a difficult subject, and trolling artists that had made some mistakes in the past, particularly young and beginners, trying to intimidate them, that is not the way we should tolerate in our community!
You got a 7.75% upvote from @ocdb courtesy of @stef1!
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Check our website https://thegoodwhales.io/ for the whitelist, queue and delegation info. Join our Discord channel for more information.
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@ocdb Thank you kindly - and I definitely know what @ocd does. I voted for you a long time ago!
I think we should be more relaxed about copyright rules, most of us are amatuer artists that are still learning. Be inspired by other more established works of art is a great source of knowledge.
I did some study about the copyright rules because as a collage artist it is very important to know what to use and what is prohibited. Actually there no laws regarding the subject about visual arts. The only exception is the de minimis law (that you mentioned) which is actually more for music copyrights but kind of covers images also.
Thank you kindly for your comments. My main concern is here about the bullying of artists: one was bullied about posts from over half a year ago. Now this troll deliberately dug through that artists postings that far back! I call that sick behavior.
Yes.. I checked his post, very sick behaviour. I could call it almost fascist in nature.
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you are not kidding! In fact, you are right on.
'You are only as original as the references to your source is obscured'
Someone said that once, maybe it was me.
I only discovered this discussion now and have been trying to catch up with the drama.
You seem to have a good handle on it while Jaguar seems to be painting inspiration with the same brush as copy and paste.
That said I do like the images of jaguars that they uses in their posts. They seems to be a good photographer of wildlife.
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Daniel - @ammonite - the images of jaguars are scraped off the internet - they are from wallpapers. Not his own. He is a plagiarist worse than any of the post he flags!
Yes I checked it already. I was subtly trying to point out the irony of their posts.:)
Dear Artzonian, thanks for using the #ArtzOne hashtag. Your work is valuable to the @ArtzOne community. Quote of the week: Art, freedom and creativity will change society faster than politics. -Victor Pinchuk
Thank you - much appreciated!