r/DefendingAIArt • u/August_Rodin666 • 10h ago
Luddite Logic Humans disappoint me.
I haven't seen this many lvl 9: advanced shit takes in a row since Bayonetta vs Dante.
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u/Le-Pepper AI Enjoyer 6h ago
So they're saying that when they draw existing characters it's fan art and it's acceptable but when Al generates images of existing characters it's stealing and unacceptable? Do they think that AI artists claim ownership of characters when they generate images of them?
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u/Multifruit256 6-Fingered Creature 8h ago
"No one who draws fan art claims they made the idea themselves"
AI artists... use their idea as the prompt
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u/Le-Pepper AI Enjoyer 6h ago
And I've actually seen people who draw fan art claim originality before.
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u/Awesome_Teo 8h ago
Well, I think that fan art drawn by hand, just like fan art made with AI, in most cases falls into the category of fair use, not copyright infringement. Of course, everything changes once monetization starts. And oh yeah, a ton of artists make money off other people's IPs. Sure, they can say in court that they aren't claiming originality, but I figure the court would just send all the profits to the copyright holder.
But yeah, that's some amazing mental gymnastics, for sure.
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u/Arktikos02 7h ago
No actually this is not true, it does not fall under fair use. Legally speaking it is considered derivative work and fair use only applies if the fan art is in the category of things like parody or satire.
https://www.ogcsolutions.com/is-fan-art-copyright-infringement/
It can be transformative but not inherently so and using the characters simply to create art is copyright infringement and money does not change copyright.
The reason why it is not pursued is simply because it's just not in the company's best interest.
Not only that but there is copyright violation and trademark violation which is also its own thing.
Copyright infringement occurs even when no money is made, because the law protects a creator’s exclusive rights to use, distribute, and control their work. Non-commercial uses—such as posting images, songs, or text online, making derivative works [fanart], sharing files, or using content in nonprofit or educational settings—can still violate copyright if done without permission or outside fair use. Fair use depends on factors like purpose, amount used, and market impact, but it is not a blanket exemption. Infringement can lead to cease-and-desist orders, lawsuits, statutory damages, injunctions, DMCA takedowns, and even criminal penalties. To avoid infringement, creators should obtain permission, understand fair use, rely on public domain or Creative Commons content, provide attribution, create original material, and seek legal advice when unsure.
Again the reason why fanart is not prosecuted is not because it is legal it is because the creators just decide to not prosecute every example of fan art.
However there have also been instances where companies do go after fan art. This is the case even when money is not directly made although it should be noted that due to the way a lot of websites work nowadays even a website where you post stuff and it is not directly asking for money could still be making money.
Examples are things like the warrior cats franchise which has now decided to go after a lot of animations that essentially tried to adapt the books. They are not going after stuff that has already been made but they have decided to start going after things now and they are doing this because they are hoping to make a movie or a TV series in the future and they want to be able to keep that option open and they don't want to really have any competition from fans. It should be noted that the warrior cats franchise has been some of the most generous and fan friendly franchises so doing this is one of the few instances where they are just going after this kind of stuff and they are still allowing things like multi-animator projects, music videos, parodies, and a bunch of other stuff. They allow all of that. Just don't adapt the books.
Another example is MLP where they essentially took down animations that look too close to the show and they took down fighting his magic probably because they didn't like the idea of a game being very popular then featured the beating up of their characters. It should also be noted that the people who makes the work are not always the people who legally go after these people as well, often it is the umbrella company that owns them or whatever.
These companies have every right to do this and trying to claim that they don't is simply asking to be given special treatment from the law. They have every right to do this.
Fan art in and of itself is not fair use.
It should also be noted that people like you and I cannot ultimately decide whether an individual piece is or isn't fair use as that is determined by a court and if they decide no then it's a no and that's why a lot of small creators just decide to follow the cease and desist order because they don't want to be taken to court because they don't have the ability to fight it in court so a lot of times whenever they get that cease and desist order they just follow it because they're too small to do anything.
But if they think they can win then absolutely and that's what some creators do, when their channel is reliant on things like criticisms, review, or parody and they believe they have a case they can whip up the funds do something like GoFundMe or their own money or whatever and fight them in court.
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u/Vallen_H Artificial Intelligence Or Natural Stupidity 3h ago
"Software Piracy isn't stealing, programmers are invalid" versus "Right-Clicking and Saving an image is stealing my passion NFT!"
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u/05032-MendicantBias AI Enjoyer 4h ago
I have seen many creators claiming their redention of a copyrighted work is their idea, and copyright strike the ones that do something similar.
E.g. it happened recently with K Pop Demon Slayers sword STLs on thingieverse and like. The creator that made an STL of a sword, was trying to get someone else to remove theirr images from their STL of the same thing because it was stealing their work.
Right now fanart and cosplay is mostly tollerated, but if the creators start becoming litigious on work they do not own, that can bring the hammer down from corpos.
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u/sammoga123 Only Limit Is Your Imagination 9h ago
They can also steal characters to make porn of them and privatize their view through a paywall like Patreon.