#i am an artist and a LAWYER

[hellenhighwater]

you got zero business calling other people weasels you self-obsessed turd

What part of "I made this as a gift for my dad with no intention of selling it" made you think I was trying to draw attention? I'm not trying to start a shop, I just have been bombarded by requests to buy something I wasn't selling, so I put it up for people that wanted it.

This is tumblr. We frown on art theft here, and the original post said, very clearly, that that flag was a custom design I'd made myself. Instead of just reblogging the post, someone chose to crop out everything except my work and then re-post it without credit. It's since popped up on the social media feeds of several high-profile individuals and companies, and then was almost immediately merchandized by several custom-print tshirt companies, all without any attribution. This annoys me.

Look, just because art is funny doesn't mean it's not art, and I really, really don't appreciate having my work taken and circulated without credit or permission. It would be different if they'd asked. I'm not going to pitch a fuss about it or tell people they can't share the cropped image post, but that doesn't mean it should have happened in the first place.

[theminecraftbee]

-slamming bolt upright in a cold sweat- what do you mean verbal contracts cleo. what do you MEAN verbal contracts cleo. artists if you're doing commercial work you're A) charging much higher rates and B) making them SIGN A CONTRACT, right? right? you understand why that's VITAL, right? why having a written contract is VITAL for commercial work? you understand? you make them sign a written contract? please if you go looking in proper artist/graphic design circles i'm sure you can find a basic form that's legal in your locality and doesn't require you talk to a lawyer but if you're doing commercial work you're MAKING THEM SIGN A CONTRACT RIGHT--

[girlcalledwhatsername]

🍂This user is always happy to see ao3 surpass their donation goals btw.🍂

This user is glad to see publically-funded archives of all kinds and especially those with a history of standing against censorship, especially fully volunteer-run ones with artists generously sharing their works for free, especially well organised ones that I respect the hell out of.

[blueberryfruitbat]

@staff

I retain ownership and rights over my content.

"We never want to do anything with your work that surprises you" Selling it to Midjouney without warning surprises me.

But not AI, which you profit from and we don't, which is different than allowing Search Engine APIs to see and display the art.

And you are getting paid to use my art and content, which should mean I get proper reimbursement for my creations, which are as you say "entirely mine".

[legendary-guest]

I am quickly realising that I really like post-Graduation Drakgo to be...careerists. Forget defecting to the side of good, forget villainy (okay, they can't quite forget villainy), forget choosing sides. They forge their own path!

Becoming legitimate fine artists is one I actually like, even though the idea spawned from a joke in conversation. Dr. D's the 'artist' (the face) and Shego is the 'muse' (the actual artist behind the pieces). Dr. D just takes credit and soaks up the attention. She lets him, she doesn't mind just being the young, attractive girlfriend hanging off his arm. It's cute watching him run his big mouth, trying to speak about things he doesn't understand. If she's really honest, things she barely comprehends, too.

I also need artist post-Graduation Drakken and Shego to do a Jackson Pollock-tier piece that's the aftermath of something stupid, and it sells for a ridiculous amount of money. Shego, Drakken says, that's it! Why didn't we (we - we is nice) think of this before? We'll become artists! Look at these shmucks, they're forking out the big bucks just to have a piece done by the heroes (heroes, the two of them, he's including her) of the world! Quick, you speak high society corporate, you tell them what it means! It's been a long time since college, and since college English classes, but she manages. The flowery language, the eloquence, the sheer and utter bull that she conjures for all these millionaire and billionaire snobs and art enthusiasts. They're sold, hook, line, sinker.

Shego does glass sculptures (thank you once again to @gogofordrakgo for thinking of this). A sculptor in general, probably...yes. I see the vision.

Man...maybe it's because I've associated Drakken with Picasso due to my last post, but he needs to be cubist. He has to. I can feel it. A fauvist, too (because he doesn't know you need to mix the paints beforehand and you shouldn't really be using them out of the tube. He only finds this out after an art critic gives a glowing review for a piece of his). Is this all one giant joke? Maybe. Does it amuse me? Yes. Do I like it? Yes.

Thanks to @flowery-laser-blasts' post about a dream, I also need Dr. Drakken to become a lawyer. It's important to me. He'll pass the bar exam, somehow, I say, speaking as if I know what the bar even is let alone what it entails.

Realistically, though...no, you know what. Shego and Drakken are lawyers, let them both be lawyers! They'll be lawyers for villains, give them a fighting chance! They got a law-firm, giant, horrifying billboards on highways and everything! They make Kim's job so much harder, not like villains weren't already escaping prison regularly! She's even considering changing her college major, whatever it is, to law, just to fight them! Oh my goodness, it'd be great.

[cuteniaarts]

What if… Suiren in Vaatu’s colours 😳👀

[kittykichi]

Where is Photoshop getting its AI training from?

Well, probably from scraping. And your stuff might be already in their database without your permission. Above is a screenshot of my Photoshop app with my original picture of my butterfly/moth pin with my watermark already baked in. I was trying out their generative AI tool that is integrated with their new version to see what kind of potential problems could arise and I found one immediately.

As you can see in the image, when I clicked generative fill and typed in "cabbage moth wing" it generated a slightly garbled flipped image of my pin. Where did it get this? Adobe states it's not using your images to train their AI. So let's believe that's true and that when I edited the original photo in Photoshop, it didn't use it from there. I also don't think used the pre-existing pixels to generate it. The generative AI is using a different source than the Content-Aware tool they have.

So it must be from where I've posted it online. After all those are keywords I use for my project. That would be Etsy, my Shopify, and my Instagram page. While nothing in their terms explicitly calls out selling your imagery to AI companies (as far as I've found in their legal pages) they could be. Or, my theory is, Adobe purchased data from people who were scraping the internet.

Currently Adobe prohibits you from using anything created fro their generative AI for commercial purposes (personal use only). It will take your AI text prompts. My worry is that they don't say they won't use it in the future and their already using a database that more than likely has illegally scraped data.

I have no advice except perhaps don't use their tool. It's pretty cool honestly, but we must simply make a moral choice here.

[heyitsphoenixx]

ever since i was a little [redacted] i always wanted to be a person who has a place in society

[thelooniemoonie]

hm. im feeling a bit conflicted tonight.

so i'm updating my redbubble right now, adding some of the art i made this year and what not, but given i made a lot of deltarune art this year i didnt upload much.

and the thing is? should i add my deltarune stuff to redbubble?

keep in mind this isn't a matter of demand, it's because a while back i remember toby fox mentioning in this tumblr post a while back specifically stating not to put undertale/deltarune stuff on mass-producing sites like redubble.

but when i go into redbubble's search, i see a whole bunch of artists posting deltarune stuff anyway?? has there been a change regarding toby fox's views or like. are all of these artists at legal risk now

[taviokapudding]

This year my dad found & gave me the Montblac my mom misplaced in 2016 that was supposed to be my deceased grandpa’s uni graduation gift; yesterday I got to draw for the first time in 3yrs without pain & inked a Diluc with the $500 pen

I ordered normal pens right after, it’s okay to laugh and cry

I know my old man is upstairs probably cackling because he used to doodle with his fountain pens. And also I’m relieved I can still draw & didn’t lose all my skills but the numbing in my shoulder has now evolved to soreness so I’ll try to draw once a week to build those muscles up again. Tldr my dominant arm is low key fighting the urge to slide outta my arm socket because in 2019 I fell and tore my trapezius muscle next to my spine with the hold the size of my hand. Tbh I only have a functioning right arm purely out of spite & self recovery since then & only until recently don’t suffer from the debilitating pain anymore but anyways.

The way I just 💀 upon realizing the ink refills are $20 & I bought 30 pens for the same price. And like y’all don’t understand, I re-inked the drawing 3 times to build up the depth between the Five & Below $5 color pencil layers. That’s like $4-$8 in total

I knew it was expensive but I never looked into it until my dad saw what I was doing and busted out laughing because apparently he did the same mistake when he graduated law school.

My first drawing in 3 yrs accidentally turned my sketchbook into an physical asset because of the fucking pen and I gotta save up to buy the refills down the road because THE INK WAS SO NICE TO DRAW WITH *punches air* I HATE THAT IT WAS A GOOD EXPERIENCE OH FUCK ME

[stsebastiens]

btw guys, thanks for reading my rant abt the musical stipend. one of the actors offered to give me her dad’s number, he’s a lawyer and he’s apparently so insulted by the way this director treated the cast/crew that hes willing to do pro-bono work for any of us lol. im gonna wait a few more days, email the director about my pay, and if she starts trying to stiff me we’ll see where we go from there. 

[hiimjustarandomidiot]

Howdy people! How are y'all? I'm great! I just finished doodling the Siblings! And I intend to show you :D

I'm gonna start wiiithhh... You!

Ahhh... Yes... Sunniva! My most skilled employee! In the circus, she had multiple roles! Acrobat, trapeze artist, tightrope walker... The extra arms come in an handy, y'know? A lovely person too, and beautiful looks! Wich is weird why she wasn't one of the audience's favorite, she is aurely mine! Well- I never knew who was the audience's favorite- almost nobody clapped at us, and when someone did, they always praised everyone equally! But it's better like this, I wouldn't want jeaulosy to creep in, and to rivalries to form in our little family!

Also a wonderful healer! Making an amazing job at stitching up her brother! On the topic of him, lemme tell ya a little thing or two about him!

Sullivan! Love him or hate him, I doubt he cares! Or he does, then you need to watch your words around him! He will use every chance, every little mistake you make, to remove you out of the picture!

You might ask, 'why does he seem so beaten up?' Well it is because, my lovely fella, he doesn't feel pain! And he cannot die, a bit overpowered much, right? And by being so, he tends to be a little... Reckless, with his words AND actions, and that causes him to lose a limb or two... But I love him as much as the others! Even if he isn't as social as his other brother... But it's okay! The stage isn't for everyone.

[gltzgghln]

grrr having mixed feelings on my blog being 18+ now cuz. my blog is for Everything and isn't inherently nsfw I just need to tag things more responsibility. also not everyone puts their age in their bio so it's a bit confuzzling

[hashtagloveloses]

The headline is pretty awful but this is one of those things that gets worse as you read it:

The 14-page petition, filed in Shelby County, Tennessee, probate court, alleges that Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, who took Oher into their home as a high school student, never adopted him. Instead, less than three months after Oher turned 18 in 2004, the petition says, the couple tricked him into signing a document making them his conservators, which gave them legal authority to make business deals in his name.

"Michael Oher discovered this lie to his chagrin and embarrassment in February of 2023, when he learned that the Conservatorship to which he consented on the basis that doing so would make him a member of the Tuohy family, in fact provided him no familial relationship with the Tuohys."

Oher was a rising high school senior when he signed the conservatorship papers, and he has written that the Tuohys told him that there was essentially no difference between adoption and conservatorship. "They explained to me that it means pretty much the exact same thing as 'adoptive parents,' but that the laws were just written in a way that took my age into account," Oher wrote in his 2011 best-selling memoir "I Beat the Odds."

But there are some important legal distinctions. If Oher had been adopted by the Tuohys, he would have been a legal member of their family, and he would have retained power to handle his own financial affairs. Under the conservatorship, Oher surrendered that authority to the Tuohys, even though he was a legal adult with no known physical or psychological disabilities.

While the [movie] deal allowed the Tuohys to profit from the film, the petition alleges, a separate 2007 contract purportedly signed by Oher appears to "give away" to 20th Century Fox Studios the life rights to his story "without any payment whatsoever." The filing says Oher has no recollection of signing that contract, and even if he did, no one explained its implications to him.

The [movie] deal lists all four Tuohy family members as having the same representative at Creative Artists Agency, the petition says. But Oher's agent, who would receive movie contract and payment notices, is listed as Debra Branan, a close family friend of the Tuohys and the same lawyer who filed the 2004 conservatorship petition, the petition alleges. Branan did not return a call to her law office on Monday.

"Mike's relationship with the Tuohy family started to decline when he discovered that he was portrayed in the movie as unintelligent," Stranch said. "Their relationship continued to deteriorate as he learned that he was the only member of the family not receiving royalty checks from the movie, and it was permanently fractured when he realized he wasn't adopted and a part of the family."

For years, Oher has chafed at how "The Blind Side" depicted him, saying it hurt his football career and clouded how people view him. He has said that based on the film, some NFL decision-makers assumed he was mentally slow or lacked leadership skills.

"People look at me, and they take things away from me because of a movie," Oher told ESPN in 2015. "They don't really see the skills and the kind of player I am."

"Beyond the details of the deal, the politics, and the money behind the book and movie, it was the principle of the choices some people made that cut me the deepest."

[idk2085]

Image by:@angeltailz(on twitter)

Ok guys I want to show you everything that happened

1.Their account

2.The story

The story is on Twitter, here is the link to understand this story WhExpoder

3.Trusted artists who fall deep into the hatred hole

Unfortunately, like any person who has made mistakes, there are always people who dare to throw ropes at them to help them. If you see a person who supports and accepts the apologies of Java AND Bug please block them or bring them to their senses!

4.Let them fall towards forget

Unfortunately as I show them to you, it is time to say goodbye to them, so unfortunately if you see their account OR you are subscribed to their accounts you must block them!

5.Why am I showing you this?

This is due to the fact that I want to protect you, minor and adult. I want the safety of Strangers but also of my family and especially you, my subscribers, but also to the artist that I love and who are friendly...But also because I have a dream... to become a lawyer one day...But usually my account is only for drawings but I really want to help

6.The proof that I blocked them

I don't have Instagram so...

7.The lesson of all this

You should never trust people too much, especially when you don't know them in real life, be careful with your choices of trust!

[elodieunderglass]

It's not really my business, but honestly it feels like it would be advisable to hire a copyright lawyer. Like I don't feel like you're in it for the money, but it might be gratifying to have the guy milking your idea at least have to formally acknowledge you. I think I'd do it just for the peace of mind to know if I've been "legally" wronged or not. Either way, hope you continue to inspire, and live out a peaceful life.

(In reference to this post about the guy who pretends to have invented “Elder Teletubbies,” specifically how he is now kickstarting DnD minis of them.)

Ha, well, it’s all a little tricky I think. I might, hilariously, post on the r/legaladvice Reddit (even though they’re all cops lol) because the only thing I want here is for him to stop selling my “transformative work,” and ideally to stop pretending he invented it (which might be difficult as he appears to fully believe his work is creatively independent.)

I think if anything, my post counts as protected commentary or a transformative work of BBC’s Teletubbies, and I think it’s stinky to profit on that stuff in general (like I’m 190% okay with buying LotR fanart on stickers ! but I wouldn’t dream of trying to publish a fic with the serial numbers filed off. Why?)

I think ultimately I’m not a grifter, I’m a grownup, and I think it’s several levels of eye roll to sell fanart of a tv show on this level. I would be embarrassed to touch money made on that. I’m too fucking scrupulous and artisanal. I have toyed with a silly original novel for funsies since 2019 but keep saying things like, “oh, people will think this is too similar to something else that already exists” as if a silly original novel I write for fun has to somehow pass a Bar of Originality higher than anything salary-writers aim for.

I’m also pretty anti-intellectual-property myself in that leftist sense where I don’t believe people should be acting as if creative works are, like, oil. Like the resource extraction angle of intellectual property freaks me out, I don’t think getting super high-horse and snotty about Magical Brain Property is entirely compatible with the artisanal temperament I personally got going on here. I am like snufkin about this, simply smoking a pipe and making a flower crown saying “poor fools! Producing works for market, and serving as the guard dogs of the market, lest their work lose value if it becomes more common!” I do not have a high horse. I am not going to post 6900 words about the importance of defending fucking… Mickey Mouse. I buy those lotr stickers on Etsy! I do have a horse, but it’s a pretty low horse.

If it was his own work I would not care about this guy doing this in the least (apart from loftily calling it stinky - but hey, nerds are common and nerds are stinky, it’s not rare) IF he wasn’t STEALING FROM MY ANTI-COMMERCIALISATION DREAM TO DO IT.

That’s the bit that PISSES ME OFF too much to ignore: that and accepting compliments for being original like 😌 yes my twisted mind did this idk lol.

Like if you asked him point blank about the artistic choices he’d be like idk my twisted mind just sees the Teletubbies this way teehee! but if you ask ME why, for example, the adult Teletubbies live in the forest I’ll explain that in 2017 I was at a major life crossroads and this dream was ABOUT that. It was goodbye to my identity as a foreigner from the pine forests, and full steam ahead to settling permanently in the fucking shire (where the baby teletubbies on the bbc show live). It was about going back to work having had my first child, and saying goodbye to my various career dreams for myself (famous scientist! Published author!) as I chose instead, finally, the responsibility of working humbly as a public servant for the actual good of society. It is about witnessing the wild and saying “I am not of it, but it is my job to be its witness and voice.” That’s why the adult Teletubbies are dancing in my native forests while I’m watching them from the English hills. This guy doesn’t know that he just vaguely heard “spooky forest cryptid” and didn’t develop it at all, I do more work than that with FANFICTION in my time off!!!

So it’s really about nebulous stuff and ethics and not something worth paying a lawyer for I think!

But thank you so much for this, I think the thing that gets most perennial about it is the TOTAL GASLIGHTING of the “outside world” of the rest of the internet like, fully believing they invented this, and they DIDNT. They’re so wrong on the internet and they don’t know