Geezz, I've always been a great admirer of your works and one day I thought it would be a great idea to support you by making a gallery to showcase your art. Seeing that they were freely downloadable on the internet the need for permission was not clear to me. Perish any and all thoughts about the sale of any works of any kind. This was never even a faint consideration. Only to drive customers to the artist sites and to feel I was supporting you in some small way. Grand swooping apologies to all and please keep up the good work. Tony Ariel's Dreams webmaster

Contact Anthony. Here his original statement send me in a mail actually: "I only posted the images without realizing that I had to first ask since they seemed to be freely available on the internet for download. So I placed the images and the links to the artists site." Maybe it could contribute for a clearing. Nevertheless I wrote Anthony, that he should delete all my images - I gave him the permission first - in his gallery and he did it quickly. It was my decicion first of all in solidarity to the artists and my friends here a Renderosity.

Ok I think we have gone as far as we can with this discussion :) Anthony, it is clear that your intentions were good. I must also thank you for removing the Renderosity images from your site when members asked you to! Hopefully you can see after reading this thread how important it is to first ask an artist before posting their works. Lets just chaulk this up to a learning experience and call it a day :) Thanks to everyone for posting their thoughtful and constructive comments. ladynimue Poser Moderator

Hey everyone -
Seems rather Ironic that by trying to avoid problems it has only caused more. Sigh,

Anyway - I have re-opened this thread as I believe if anyone wishes to continue this discussion it can be done in the same civil, thoughtful and contructive manner as before.

Please accept my apologies to those members who had more to say on this subject - all that is asked is that your comments remain constructive and within the TOS.

Thanks for your understanding
Sincerely,
ladynimue
Poser Moderator

I made a comment about this thread being locked for no apparent reason because I did have something to add. At this point enough time has gone by, and I'm irritated enough, that I almost don't see the point. My point in bringing the subject up, however, is that there isn't anything in this thread that even merits a warning to stay within the TOS. As a member, I resent this site controling discussions that are no where near TOS violations. There is nothing wrong with healthy debate. Attempting to stop something before it gets to a TOS violation point is understandable in theory but in reality it's treating members like children.
This is not personal to any of the moderators. They are doing a fine job in my opinion. But please wait until a definite violation has occured (and I don't mean healthy debate) before even issuing a warning please.

Actually such semi-patronizing statements as the one from deemarie is the ones that would justify a locked thread. As Kendra clearly stated TIME HAS GONE BY and what would have been approproate to add 3 days ago may not be so today. It is not so much this thread in particular as the IDEA of locking threads "just becourse" that made some people - including me - feel like we were children uncapable of seeing what to say when. so there... :o)

My comment To Kendra was Not Patronizing At All - I was truly interested in Kendra's opinions on this subject... Shrug. Sorry you took it any othter way :( ladynimue

This is the statement that was posted above - Just so you know that I Truly Was Not Patronizing Kendra - In her thread in the Forum News she indicated that she had more input on the subject to this thread ... "Please accept my apologies to those members who had more to say on this subject - all that is asked is that your comments remain constructive and within the TOS." ladynimue

Oh but I didn't refer to YOUR statement ladynimue. I hope you didn't took it that way. It was not at all what I meant. But this shows how easily things can get misunderstood here. Partly due to having a lot of members where english is not our native language. :o) Personally I was going to add some brilliant remark when I found the thread locked, but my state of Teflon-brain effectively prevented me from remembering WHAT, at the time where the thread was reopened L Sdet var nok ikke svigtigt alligevel G

Well, I'll add a politically incorrrect statement to the mix. I'm truly annoyed by people who think browsers should prevent image grabbing. As if people's artwork is the only thing on the web. It is so narrow-minded and chauvinistic. There, I said it.

I don't think image grabbing is the problem! Unauthorised image grabbing is more the problem but only when the items grabbed are used to give others credit, financial rewards etc.... I don't mind people taking my stuff from the net (although I have nothing worth taking, still learning the ropes) I would mind if someone came into my house grabs one of my paintings off the wall and then go and hang it in their home. I can see were people are coming from in I do feel for them, I don't like to see this sort of thing happen but unfortunately it does. Truth is, post it on the net and no matter what steps you take to protect it, it will be grabbed by someone. Try to secure it too much someone will find it a personal challenge just to grab the item. Boot on the other foot, how many of you have gone to an art gallery with your camera?

Setting the record straight, I took nothing personal. I simply commented on something I felt was wrong. Nothing personal meant, nothing personal felt. :)

Image grabbing on the net will not end. It's that simple. But there are some sites that do display artwork with the artists permission and we should be careful how we approach someone if we don't know the facts. One person contacted me about their site and displaying specific types of images and it's done so well that I'll even email him when I have new images he can display.

But this: www.jonathonart.com/saddam.html
is a real eye opener. (link from Poser Pros) Your copyright can be violated at any time in places where you can't touch the person for it. I would imagine that web images aren't easy to use in this way but it still makes sense to either paste COPYRIGHT all over your images or don't post them. Too bad those are the only safe choices.

If you would like to get a first hand take on what happened wih Saddam and Jonathon . . . - Please check out Issue 4 of the Renderosity Magazine - vshane {Vicki Shane} [One of the magazine's staff writer's is doing a series on Famous Artists] She interviewed Jonathon Earl Bower for Issue 4 of the Magazine. It's a very exciting article and Jonathon goes into depth about his stolen image, also his take on digital art. Issue 4 Article Painting from Poetry - artist Jonathon Earl Bowser by vshane (Vicki Shane) - Page 52. ladynimue