Reposting Lost Art To A Comm

[cuddyclothes]

A fan artist pointed me to this comm so I can discuss this.

There is an artist on LJ who has been inactive since 2011. However, their albums are still up. In the meantime, their fan art has been reposted across the internet. Tumblr, DW, LJ, Pinterest, Fanlore, Fanpop and pretty much any other site that has fan art. Much of the art that was originally posted to a comm (not member only) has disappeared.

I've been trying to contact the artist without success, even though I have been trying to.

So, here's the issue. I posted some pictures on a comm I moderate, with a link back to the original albums. Was this the wrong thing to do? Or not, since the artist is no longer around and the work is everywhere? My feeling tends to be that the horse left the barn some time ago. Most of the art is reposted without attribution. There are also Discord sites that archive the art where members can view it. The work is gorgeous and was meant to be public at the time. There are no requests not to repost, etc.

What do folks think? Should I take them down?

Thanks!

ETA: There are a number of posts c.2009 where the artist has allowed people to repost her art publicly.

ETA ETA: I tracked down which ones were available publicly by the artist, including illustrations for a fanzine, and deleted the pictures that aren't.

Comments

[schneefink]

Why did you post the pictures to the comm? If you wanted to share it, why not simply link?

[cuddyclothes]

In large part because they were already everywhere, and the albums are highly disorganized. It was not done with malice or conscious awareness that I was doing something wrong.

[silveradept]

Depending on your legal jurisdiction, and the jurisdictions of the place you are posting, there may be more or less provision for what qualifies as a fair use of another person's work. Selecting maybe a representative image or two so people have an idea of what they are getting in to, attribution, and links to the original sources, if still available, are best practices so that a work doesn't get decoupled from its creator.

Some people use Creative Commons or other schemes to say how other people can use their work, and if that's the case, then follow the scheme and you are doing what they would like you to do with it.

[cuddyclothes]

Thanks! I've posted attribution and links, so I'll take down most of the pictures.

[cuddyclothes]

Actually, the artist has been inactive since 2011. I've sent a message to her hoping to hear back.

[fabrisse]

Hi -- I know that I've posted a statement on fanlore giving some general positions about my doc (e.g., yes, you can podfic/translate as long as you let me know). Perhaps the artist has a similar public statement. Fanlore seems good about keeping track of some of these things.

[cuddyclothes]

Thanks! I'll look for it, but I think the artist is long gone. I took care of it.