Three journals in three days... that's a new record for me! Apparently I have to rant about yet another thing, happening in the always restless and never too complex world we have today.
There's been some drama circulating around the fandom recently, regarding a few Youtubers who make music slideshows with vore drawings taken from art galleries. The whole thing sparked up after an artist contacted such a channel to request a takedown, the user didn't agree to removing the video, and a whole riot erupted over the subject of art theft. I already expressed my view on most of these journals... which in short is that the video creator did wrong to not take down the video when requested, even if I also feel that artists going after such videos may qualify as copyright trolling, although both legally and morally they of course have every right to do so.
Now although there were both points I agree with and points I don't agree with, what bothered me in some people's reactions was something else: I'm noticing that a lot of folks are acting as if websites like Youtube and Facebook are supposed to be these heavenly places full of people that agree with each other, where a bunch of virtual police officers are ready to bring justice and solve any beef a user has with another user, and where censorship should be as harsh as national television. This is referring to a few comments which are collectively saying "how dare Youtube not immediately act against such cruel copyright infringement"... which is at least a legitimate point compared to comments like "won't you please think of the children seeing this on the free and open internet"! So allow me to blow my fucking brains off, regrow a new head, and vomit out my thoughts:
I will begin by stressing out the essential: Youtube is not Furaffinity! A website the size of Facebook cannot be moderated like a website the size of Eka's Portal! If someone steals someone else's art on here, a moderator will be dispatched. This moderator will assess the situation, say "oh yeah, I know this guy", and ban or warn the offending user. Youtube is a place used by millions... from ordinary people to media companies and celebrities. There is no one on Youtube who has the time and resources to investigate every single issue in the world. Heck they can't even find any competent coders, who can stop the website from glitching and breaking all the time... and it's Google we're speaking of here! They tried fixing their lack of moderators with an initiative called Youtube Heroes, whose purpose was allowing users to moderate the platform themselves... needles to say everyone was at Google's neck (myself included) as the program was basically going to empower internet trolls and SJW's with the right to carry out personal vendettas. So until an artificial intelligence program capable of human intelligence is researched, don't expect that to change anytime soon.
Now obviously, anyone can report an offending video. Bad news however: The system is mostly intended for the entertainment industry and popular online celebrities, who have verified websites and a mass of people that can vouch for them! You need to fill out a form containing proof that you're the author, which is also not very safe for your privacy granted they ask your real data for it. Agent Smith knows who you are, and agent Smith knows what you've been drawing. Some artists have done this still, and there are reports of it even working a couple of times, although I must say it's surprising. The person checking the complaint needs to somehow verify the data, including looking at... your... art gallery... hmmmmm.
You see, we're talking about furry vore artwork here. This basically means that when you file a copyright complaint with Youtube, you basically tell them the following: "There's this video that stole some of my art, you have to look through it and find out where it is... also here's a link to my gallery, you'll have to go through that as well and see that it matches". The moderator proceeds to watch an entire video showing all sorts of wonderful critters gobbling up each other... after which they need to enter the website furaffinity.net and open up your gallery, only to look at more of them lovely arts until they find at least one that matches. Obviously they don't even have proof that your FA gallery is truly you, though by this point they've probably taken the window rather than the elevator. I'd like to let readers picture the reaction of a Google employee, as they're drinking their coffee at the top of a skyscraper as multi-million dollar deals happen in the next office, going ahead and doing all that... because I'm legitimately having a blast every time I think about it.
Which brings us to the last issue some users brought up: *takes a deep breath of air* "At least make it age restricted! Won't anyone just think of the children, who might come across all this vore art on the free internet? What will happen when they see those images, which are almost as bad what they're seeing on Cartoon Network"? For those who believe this is a concern, there's a video I'd highly recommend watching, which explains in great detail thoughts I don't feel like typing a whole paragraph about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umDr0mPuyQc
Conclusions and disclaimers: Before you grab your pitchtorch and fork, I am not supporting art theft! As I said a million times, if an artist asks you to remove their works from something you posted, do so out of respect for that artist. Beyond that however, and beyond the sole issue of wronging another artist by disrespecting their requests... please, let us stop making pointless drama out of things that don't require it. Also understand that as much as it sucks for some, copyright cannot be enforced everywhere on the internet: Attempting to do so usually takes more resources than possible, and punishing people over any case of copyright infringement would lead to total tirany... unless kids posting an image on Facebook should have the cops show up at their door, in which case we'd need more prisons than residential buildings. Thank you also if you stuck around to read all this, which apparently went on for longer than I thought.
