v-s.net v0.6

Monday, 10:11 pm in The Soapbox

Jesus. The last post got 60+ replies. Ouch. Artists versus the dA admin ( dygel).

So before everyone leaps up and leaves dA, honestly I’m willing to believe dygel’s interpretation of dA’s terms of service (since s/he was probably involved in its drafting). That is, that the terms refer to dA performing basic systems maintenance tasks like resizing your images into thumbnails. This is pretty standard stuff.

I think people leapt a bit too hard into the “OMG dA is selling our stuff to these t-shirtists in NYC” vibe, and I apologise (especially to the dA admins) if this came on a bit strong.

The fact of the matter is, that dA is doing you a service by hosting your stuff on their server (something which I’ve gone over before as being very, very expensive). They want to cover their asses legally, and rightly so. I guess if it still really bothers people that dA reserves the right to reproduce works (ie. limits your exclusive right to reproduction and distribution, even if only for making thumbnails or promotion or whatever), then by all means leave. But, honestly, I trust dA.

I guess the point I was trying to make with the last post was that by putting your work up almost anywhere on the internet you are most likely in part signing off some of your exclusive artists’ rights, even only temporarily, and even if it is only so that the website you have signed up with can run like it’s supposed to. The other lesson, of course, is read the terms of any website you sign up for carefully, and if in doubt, stay away.

Though I’d still like an explanation for the dust covers…

• Tags » deviantart. dramallama, famous on the internets