Pondering reposts of offical art (Fruits Basket-related)

[rainsometimes]

Natsuki Takaya, the writer of Fruits Basket, has a pinned tweet on her Twitter in Japanese and English:

"再度、注意させて頂きます。
ポイピクを含む、イラストの無断転載、無断加工、アイコンやヘッダーなどへの使用はおやめ下さい。
Unauthorized reproduction of images, unauthorized processing, unauthorized use (icons, headers, etc.) are prohibited.

tumblerなどへの転載もやめてください。"

From what I can tell by Google Translate, the Japanese text says much the same as the English one, with an added line asking people to stop reposting Takaya's art to Tumblr.

Maybe it's just that I don't follow that many actual mangaka, but I think this is the first time I've seen the original creator ask for their individual images (like promotion pictures, cover pics, etc) not to be uploaded by others or used in things like headers and icons.

I guess this means Takaya would disapprove of me using my one Fruits Basket icon here on my Dreamwidth posts, for instance?

I wish to be respectful to creators, but I hope this isn't a widely held attitude in manga creators when it comes to individual images. (I completely understand them being against scanlation sites!)

Unless I've misunderstood and Takaya's statement is meant to cover only new art that she's been posting exclusively to her Twitter, and not art (older or not) that has been officially posted elsewhere...?

Comments

[naye]

I don't know about the attitude of original artists, but when I was immersed in Japanese fandoms it was considered very gauche to use official art for anything! Even if you had a fan-focused webpage or a user account anywhere you either made your own fanart or you used something else for the graphics. So I think it's a general policy asking people not to reuse any of her art in the same way fanartists forbid reposting and reproduction?

[rainsometimes]

I have noticed at least that Japanese fan artists use their own art on profile pics and headers, but I hadn't realized it was a general thing to avoid official art, even among non-artist Japanese fans!

Ahh, that is a little hard to take in, given that the English-speaking side of Twitter is so fond of uploading canon images, for instance when going through liveblogging a canon or discussing a detail or simply just squeeing about their favourite characters.

I have definitely seen Japanese tweets that do the same but it does seem rarer, yeah...

I saw a new tweet on Takaya's account about the issue yesterday, saying, "定期です。Twitterにあげているイラストの転載、転用、加工、ヘッダーやアイコンに使用する事はやめてください。", which Google translates renders as, "It is a regular term. Please refrain from reprinting, diverting, modifying, or using headers and icons on the illustrations given to Twitter." From what I could gather, it did seem to be about material that she tweets rather than all her art in general, but I will do my best to be careful in any case.

[silvermilktea]

(sorry to butt in)


Ahh, that is a little hard to take in, given that the English-speaking side of Twitter is so fond of uploading canon images, for instance when going through liveblogging a canon or discussing a detail or simply just squeeing about their favourite characters.

I have noticed that there's some disapproval of this in some JP circles on Twitter. Sometimes they take the photo with the caveat that they delete the squee tweet later. On Pixiv, I've seen artists redraw the panel completely if they want to comment on it. One exception I've seen that's drawn no comment is comparisons of like, certain lines or panels that differ between the magazine version and the tankoubon versions.

[rainsometimes]

(nothing to be sorry for!♥)

That's very interesting! I hadn't realized at all. But it's true, I have seen redrawn fanart in the context of for instance talking about a given Gintama manga volume - I just thought the fan artists liked to do that anyway!

[silverr]

I wonder how much of it is the general lack of attribution/copyright for many tumblr art reposts?

[rainsometimes]

Yeah... I don't really know. But it sadly happens a lot with fanart on Twitter as well.

But I didn't know this was something published and successful mangaka object to as well, when it comes to just individual images.

[momijizukamori]

CLAMP used to have a similar policy on their site though it's been ages since I've checked (and it was largely ignored in the English-speaking part of the fandom)

[rainsometimes]

I see! I had no idea, I was never heavily into CLAMP.