Once again the monster that is Desktop Nexus, and its plethora of incredibly stupid members raises its ugly head again
It annoys me no end that I seem to have to send out reminders like this every year or so about this site which needs killing slowly and painfully by the fire of a thousand suns.
Its members are now trying a new tack of apparently "crediting" and saying they have permission from all of YOU, yes, even you lurking in the back row there - you have apparently given them permission to redistribute YOUR work on desktop Nexus as wallpapers.
I might add, that if you have actually been idiotic enough to give somebody permission to redistribute your artwork in this manner, you and by granting and receiving permission - them - are still responsible for accurately providing the required credits as per your agreements with the original stock providers you used when creating your work. It is furthermore YOUR responsibility to make sure anybody you have apparently given permission to credits properly as its YOUR artwork, and YOUR agreement.
If you don't particularly like the sound of that, I highly recommend you go and check to make sure somebody isn't telling porky pies about having permission from you - www.desktopnexus.com/
A few users who seem to be saying they have permission and who seem to have ridiculous amounts of "permission granted" artwork in their galleries -
UPDATE 13/05/2013
All accounts I have contacted directly so far via DN or DA have made the effort to remove any images that were violating my terms of use which is very much appreciated.
I would like to say that a lot of artists are still very confused about what they may or may not have given permission to other people to share, so its absolutely vital both for you as artists, and for the people asking for permission that you understand what it is you are agreeing to!
Please don't just agree without checking and making sure you understand!!
I really hate having to spend hours and hours and hours of my time sorting out things like this, I can promise you its not enjoyable.
To all the artists I've spoken to directly via note, thanks for getting back to me so quickly - I really recommend you speak directly to the users commenting down there \/ about having gotten permission from you if you haven't - I know many of you have said you didn't even realize or know :/
PREVIOUSLY
Those of you who have been on the site for quite some time will probably remember the last joyful catch up with Mr Harry Maugans (the owner of Desktop Nexus) who told us last time that he wasn't going to remove a moderator from the site who was supposedly "moderating other copyright issues" - despite the fact that they had copyright violations in their own submissions.
Ironically about 3 months ago Harry tried to add me as a contact on LinkedIn. I'm sure you can imagine my response.
Lets not forget that Mr Maugans is making money from your artwork through all the advertising and page hits on this site. He is ultimately, through the members of the site using your artwork for commercial gain.
Reporting Violations and passing on the information above
Desktop Nexus has a "report" option on each submission, however they seem to ignore these as we've discovered before. You are better going directly to the DMCA form that they have now added.
www.desktopnexus.com/dmca-clai…
Please please do pass on the word to your art/stock/manip friends and check the site in case your artwork is being shared as a desktop wallpaper!
Personal Reminder
I myself as a stock provider DO NOT give artists permission to display their work anywhere without credits for my stock - furthermore I DO NOT allow images using my stock to be redistributed as wallpapers. This is a requirement in my terms of use and is non negotiable. I will be sending out reminders to this effect to peoples names who have come to my attention and I will be issuing take down orders if the issues remain unresolved. I'm getting sick and tired of people playing fast and loose with the terms of use I place on my stock, and yes you may argue that you are not responsible for other people sharing your work, but I'm sorry, you are. Its YOUR name associated with the artwork, and YOU are the one who by downloading my stock agreed to abide by my plain and simple terms of use in relationship to crediting, informing me of the use and letting me know when you display your work on any site other than DA.
My full terms of use are here for your information and to refresh yourselves with if you need to - elandria.deviantart.com/journa…
Lanny