to clarify, it is totally derision

observe how the software is designed:

title by name.  this submission is copyright.

this is not the phrasing of “by you or for you”.  this is the phrasing of “by you”.  so by uploading something you didn’t actually create, the website is already lying on your behalf, a mere quarter-inch away from the work.  it drives me up the wall every time i bumble across cool artwork and go to see what else the person has done and it’s all fucking commissions.

but really it’s just immensely disrespectful to treat “i made this” and “i paid someone else to make this” as interchangeable.  forty bucks and a paragraph are a hell of a lot easier to come by than however many years the artist spent practicing so they could draw it for you.  show it off all you want, but maybe an art website designed for artists to show off their art is an inappropriate place for that?

especially since you are detracting attention from the artist by duplicating their work on the same website.  you can say “fav and comment on the original!!” all you want, but ultimately why would people bother to click on a link to see the same picture again?

here’s a question: why is it limited to “for you”?  why can’t i upload whatever freely-licensed work i want?  you might say “well because you had no hand in it,” but what about gift art?  what about gift art that is of something you like, but didn’t come up with yourself?  that’s allowed, right?  why is the line drawn at mere intentions?

it’s almost like the furry community as a whole sees artists as faceless art machines whose work they are inexplicably entitled to, and this rule is just in place to keep them present and pacified.  almost.

it does suck that these websites don’t actually support cross-linking in any meaningful way; you’d think that after ten years, FA would’ve found the time to make this a real feature.  i’m sorely disappointed that weasyl decided to appease the masses and go the same route, and it’s a large part of why mel never had any presence there.

might i suggest just getting a tumblr, where at least there’s a standard way to indicate the source for something you didn’t make?  or, hey, learn to draw?