Image thievery, or no harm no foul?

[Guest deojusto]

So powers out at the Super Bowl so I felt like re-starting a conversation on a topic we discussed awhile a go, but has been on my mind for awhile. A long time ago there was a topic on how people go about getting their images for characters and whether it was ok to take someone else's artistic work and attach it to your character.

 

First off, I'm as guilty as anyone, if not MORE guilty regarding this. Almost 100% of my character pics come off deviantart. For a long time I felt like as long as I wasn't making any money off the character, and was never claiming the artwork as my own, it was no harm no foul. If any creator asked I'd pull the character, but that chance was near to 0.

 

Now I'm not so sure. I've seen a few things arguing the other way since then which challenge those ideals. Since the FPL has maybe 3-5 creators currently it won't be as a diverse discussion as last time, but what do you guys think? Should we set up informal rules regarding art selection? Should taking art from unknown artists without permission be allowable? Would it be ok if the art is printed, example, Naima is the white rabbit from the Batman comics. Would those artists not be harmed since they're already famous and wouldn't care even if they did know? What about pictures of people, actors, screenshots from film and TV, ie (and I don't mean to single anyone out) Karla Glimmershine via that chick from Warehouse whatever.

 

How do you go about finding images? How should we go about finding images that aren't heromachine bs?

[Guest Darxeth]

I don't think it should be a problem, as long as you credit the Artist.

[Guest Dinsdale Piranha]

To be extra sure, it'd be nice to send an e-mail to the artist saying what you'd like to do, since you're effectively displaying their work publicly. My guess is that most of them have been asked about similar uses in the past and wouldn't have a problem.

[Guest Pseudonym]

Maybe we should just have an artist credit thread.

[Ivan]

I like to take work from famous artists who got paid a lot of money for their work. For example, I think I've mentioned before, the image for Silver's Hammer was taken from a DC Comic book cover. No offense, starving deviantartists, but I steal from only the best.

[Updatedude]

It's probably no harm no foul. I mean, this is the internet. At least we're "usually" not taking a guy's picture and then sticking the "troll face" on it.

[Bergy_Berg]

Maybe we should just have an artist credit thread.

This is an excellent idea. That way we give credit where it's due, but don't distract from the story of a new character by putting a shoutout in their write up.

[Guest MikeEB]

Is there an optional 'artist credit' field in the character sheet?  I don't think so, but it'd be a good idea.