#i'l still stick this in my ai art tag though

[swordandscytheandpen]

Yeah there's a ridiculous amount of hypocrisy in online spaces with high populations of creatives

'Cause in some ways the attitude toward intellectual property is quite liberated. Fanworks, for instance, are often seen as legitimate forms of art even if the creator has explicitly objected to their existence (remember Anne Rice?) Even outright piracy, the ultimate repudiation of intellectual property, is broadly embraced on this website!

And yet when those same standards are applied to their own works, that progressive framework goes right out the window, and people start sounding like NFT cranks infuriated about their JPEGs being right-clicked. The idea of "art theft," laughed out of the room in the context of piracy, is suddenly taken deathly serious when, say, two people post somewhat similar drawings. Or, god forbid, someone shares digital artwork without linking back to the creator. And if the term "AI" is linked to the conversation (as I believe was the case in the quoted post?) Hoo boy.

And I do think this has gotten worse over time. I mean, remember when "original character do not steal" was a subject of mockery, rather than a commonly expressed sentiment?

The double standard of intellectual property rights for "official" works versus "unofficial" ones is manifestly blatant, and yet I almost never see it get called out. It's uncanny.

Remember when this site brought out the torches and pitchforks over authors who objected to their works being published for free on the internet archive?

This site is like one year away from taking the position that writing fanfic is wrong unless you have the author's permission istg