Artists United Against DA Policy

This petition is to outline and bring awareness to the various mistreatment of artists on DeviantArt’s website. (Herein referred to as “DA” whereas the artists are herein referred to as “we“.)

Policy #304 (http://help.deviantart.com/304/ ) allows obvious forms of art theft (direct copying of images) and seriously undermines the Copyright laws which are protected by the Government, that were bought and paid for by those who’s artwork gets duplicated. Furthermore, if an artist tries to protect his or her own works, even in a polite fashion, they get banned for harassment and more often then not, the offending thief remains untouched. We understand that referencing from existing work is in fact, a natural and necessary part of the learning process, however DA refuses to make a policy where citing references used is mandatory and instead slaps bans on the artists that only want credit for their work. There are no warnings given before a ban is put into place. Furthermore, those that get banned, for however long, have no idea what they did wrong to be banned in the first place, which brings the second point of this petition.

DA Administrators refuse to keep members (paid or free accounts) informed, keeping them in the dark as to what is actually going on with the site itself. Complaints that have been logged and protested on various parts of the site have endlessly gone ignored. It doesn’t matter if those issues were fixed, what matters is how DA -handled- it up to that point by virtually shutting out its members until issues were resolved, then never appeasing the questions that were asked. Once again, we feel ignored.

We would like to outline the fact that speaking ones own opinion, using the Second Amendment (whether it be in forums, comments or the like) about any of DA's decisions, can get you banned, and how DA seems to hold that fact over the heads of the Artists, further increasing the worry of getting banned for inquiring into a site that is supposed to be there for them. We feel DA would rather ban its members then listen to them, regardless of the fact many of us are paying supporters.

The fact that clubs like this one: http://anti-ban-deviants.deviantart.com/ exist on DA alone is a shocking reality to the truth of DA’s policies. This petition is an attempt to amass awareness to the outcry of many of DA’s Artists, who’s cries have thus far gone unheeded, and the outrage felt by those whom are sickened at DA’s treatment of Artists.