We're All Plagarists

Of late, I've been getting the occasional comment asking me to identify the artist of some picture that I've posted with relationship to my wiki.  The signal is to condemn me for attaching an artist to my written work without that artist's permission.

For those who may not know, there are these sites on the internet called Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.  These sites post literally billions of pictures, with new ones appearing every day.  These sites share these pictures with one another, so that any one picture that might appear on one particular pinterest or instagram site, will also appear on thousands of other sites.  The number of pictures that have the artist identified on these sites is less than 1%.  That is because the people who use the internet just don't care.  They find the picture, they share the picture, they download the picture.

When I am looking for a picture for a given page on my wiki -- for example, something about shields -- I go to google search images and I type, "Shield" "Fantasy Art".  This produces scores, sometimes hundreds, sometimes thousands of pictures, depending on the subject matter I've searched.  These pictures rarely, if ever, have any notation as to who the artist is.  Very often, if I don't like the size of the picture, I can right-click the image and select, "search google for this image" ... whereupon, I will find dozens and dozens of source images that are of different sizes.  Again, these images are listed by the website, NOT the artist, and do not make any attempt whatsoever to identify whom the artist may be.

I pick the image I want and I put it on my FREE website, where I keep my pictures, which -- although it isn't Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter -- does absolutely nothing to capitalize on these pictures in order to put money in my pocket, any more than do the millions of other sites posting the same pictures with the same desire for clicks, the same desire for attention, the same algorithm that drives every site on the internet.  There is nothing special about my placing of a random picture on my random site that isn't duplicated on billions of other random sites that exist elsewhere.

The notion that 16-year-old Jinny Pandermiss on the internet can download any of these pictures on her Pinterest page because she likes to look at them and write fan fic about the images for her Facebook group, but I can't, for, apparently, "reasons," is laughable.

I am not the gatekeeper of the internet.  I am playing by the same rules everyone else is playing by.  IF an artist does not want their art copied a million times on the internet, then I suggest NOT posting their image on the internet.

The artist is Li Joshua

If the artist wants to come and break my personal balls, threatening legislation or some such against me personally, when I can point to thousands of other sites with the same picture being displayed, then I'm going to explain to them something called mens rea, and further explain that if they want to win against me in court, they're going to have to bring suit against every other person also doing what I'm doing.  Otherwise, why me?  Specifically, why am I being targeted?  If you're targeting me, and not everyone else breaking the same law, then your intention is to persecute an individual, not to right a wrong.

And yet, if the artist wants to talk about it, I'll listen.

On the other hand, if some dumb troll on the net who isn't the artist wants to talk about it, well ... go fight google.  They're the enemy.  Not me.  I'm just the enemy that's tiny enough to make a troll feel like they can win a fight.

I will not be publishing these comments when they occur.