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Fan Art Law


cloud1414

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It seems there’s nothing quite as dear to the hearts of many of our deviants as their production of fan art, and at the same time, there is nothing so knotted with legal and ethical headaches. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but in the form of fan art it has also become one of the most frustratingly complicated. At some point, the sheer volume of fan art around a single property may become so large that the issue rises to another level of scrutiny by the creators of the original work.

With this dynamic in mind, we thought the following panel that Josh Wattles, our Advisor In Chief here at deviantART, and a mystery guest named Harold Smith, gave at Comic Con this year might be of immense help in understanding the ever evolving elements of fan art law.

Josh Wattles, $makepictures is an expert on copyright law bringing perspective and experience to the issue from multiple creative industries. From art, film, music, and books, Josh has been directly involved in or advised on copyright issues for the biggest properties in the world. He is also a copyright professor teaching courses at at Loyola, Southwestern and the University of Southern California law schools in Los Angeles.

Read More Here: http://techgnotic.deviantart.com/journal/Fan-Art-Law-326536193?utm_source=elnino&utm_medium=messagecenter&utm_campaign=091112_NET_FanArtLaw&utm_term=button

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I wish you had given us your opinion instead of just pasting the first three paragraphs, haha.

It's interesting to see the different attitudes people have and then see their reactions to things like editing art--a debate I posted in the Mako Reactor. Like I see things like this:

Certain companies should just learn to suck it up, stay out of it, or use it to their advantage.

Expecting that kind of attitude out of a company or corporation, but not expecting it of artists themselves, just smacks of hypocrisy. Fan artists want to be respected, have their copyright and work protected, but they won't extend the same respect towards larger entities, which, by all means, is usually staffed by human beings. Official art is still made by a person--probably someone who had been dreaming of creating art that will be backed by a large company. People just seem to have this idea in their heads that sizable entities like that are ~the devil~ and are out to get them. And that rich people are the root of all evil. (Maybe they are.)

The fact that there are rich ass people making a big deal about this annoys me.

And some of the comments are really... well...

Well this sucks... I don't understand half of the words! >:V Can someone summarize this for me?

your not the only one im too stupid to understand the smart talk here.:/

in all respet i don't understand or agree. no afence

(How is it possible to disagree if you don't understand... I don't understand astrophysics, ergo, I disagree with the concept entirely??)

Also amused by how often people have questions or concerns that are addressed in the video. They get really aggressive and confrontational about it too.

One of the slides is really interesting, and is similar to an argument brought up when it comes to editing art.

Their love can be a direct challenge to the original Artists, to their publishers and at worst to the canon of the work.

But they (the fan artists) don't see it that way, of course. They say they never take credit for the content, that they attribute ownership properly, that it's a tribute to the original, that they're doing it for fun. But if anyone does anything of the sort with another person's fan art, whether it's creating photosets or signatures, they don't see where parallels can be drawn. They just take it as a personal affront. Is it so outrageous, then, that a larger entity might react the same, considering it's still run and staffed by people, at least one of whom is likely the artist of the original content that the fan art is based on?

Fan artists talk about obtaining permission, turning up their noses when people say it's difficult to obtain permission from an artist who doesn't speak English. But I can't imagine any of these artists obtain permission for creating the fan art in the first place, and what do you want to bet that if told to obtain permission, they would complain about how difficult it is?

It's definitely interesting, though. I'm about seven minutes through the video (for some reason it's loading super duper slow for me). Thanks for sharing!

Edited by Emotional Outlet
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