_{First, I am not going to be offensive. I'm pretty much expressing what I firmly believe is nonsense, and within that I'm only expressing what I think it is. Please, I'd love to rant, but I think this sort of thing should be handled with care. I'm nice enough to think about what I'm typing Be kind.}


Here's my personal opinion about those icons you see above. I'm sorry, they're totally, completely, utterly the most useless, most nonsensical things I seen here. It's childish. I imagined that one day, somebody will make something like this, and it happened.

So why is it "useless" or "nonsense" as I say? Well, put it this way, you put that there and how is it protecting your work? Is it even going to protect your work from somebody else? Who are you protecting it from? Art thieves? Look, if you want to use it, fine! There's nothing wrong with putting labels stating that you have rights to it. But believe it or not, that label is misleading. (Which I will explain why later.) See, now somebody needs to go and make multiple labels that state copyright specifically.

Summarizing the copyright is the most daunting task ever! The US Copyright which is listed under Title 17 of the United States Code is a big bulk of "talk" on intellectual property. It's 13 chapters long and a bunch of appendix pages. Within it are the lawful protecting statements of what the copyright is. But wait, how do you state copyright? Does anybody even know what copyright IS specifically? Do we all deeply feel knowledge enough about this big big piece of important writing? Do those stickers even come down to this? I would have to give it a no. I don't see where the authorship comes from, I don't see why it's even got the power.

HOLD ON this is getting confusing! Let's go back nice and easy on this. What do you mean "you're not authorized to use this work?" I strongly believe this was meant to state that work should not be used in other art works! Yes to prevent thieves! But it also prevents your average blog user from blogging about it. It prevents others from posting it in the news section. It prevents pretty much any communication for the work unless given permission. OOPS that's not what it was meant right? I strongly hope not.

Adding that sort of statement is almost as saying "hey you can't use my work in ALL ways possible." You can argue about what it means behind, but to a web user who just came across the work, the tag states what it states.

So to quickly summarize it here's what I'm trying to say:

It's misleading / understated and does not express full usage and rights. Simply not enough.

It does not recognize the copyright or creative commons but stands on it's own.

It can also inhibit communication and sharing.

It's confusing. You got the Copyright and creative commons already. Why need a 3rd license?

So Skybase, why are you arguing about this?

I find that many of the works posted here are not exactly commercial benefits. This makes me want to question why are people on deviantART so protective about their artwork? The average user does not make profit from works here at all. It is a different story if 80% of the users actually make more than $100 per month. I thought deviantART began for enjoyment and leisure, and you upload your works because you want to show it to others.

Why inhibit showing it to others? DeviantART even added a feature that allows others to blog about your artwork. You can download artwork. You can even talk about it anywhere you go on this site. So that misleading little sticker says you can't do all of that. So much for the word "Social Networking."

I quickly realized that sometimes being overly protective is NOT going to help myself at all. I think if you have the guts to upload your artwork on such a massive website, then you shouldn't be afraid about people talking about it. You shouldn't be afraid of others "ripping" your work and posting it in other places! Why? It's free advertisement. You didn't have to pay a penny for your work to get there. And plus it's a great indication that your artwork is popular.

(Hey now, it is a different story if there's profit by somebody else involved.)

Use creative commons. It's almost the same as copyright. It offers freedom for viewers and lovers. You'll never have to worry about people ripping your work and posting it in their blog.

So don't rely on some useless "sticker" that states nothing. You don't need to go into protectionism. Seriously, better off free than not commented on.

MINOR NOTES:
<sub>1. Of course, if you see somebody crediting themselves with your work, tell them no.

2. Copyright is a lot more than just protecting your work. It's a big body of law that states everything from what gets copyright, what it means to infringe exclusive rights, what "rights" are, what the limitations are... so on.</sub>