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ztrauq

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Well, I think it's about time to leave DA.  So, I wouldn't expect to see much activity on this account again.  Thanks to those of you who liked this stuff - may you have success in all of your endeavors!

If you want any updates, new website stuff, or any other information, or just to email me for some reason, you can reach me at: 574522e1-0e9f-430a-bce9-a4cb24ac177c (at sign) anonaddy (dot) me.
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So... guess my DA sub will be wrapping up at the end of January.  I'm probably not going to renew it - I don't post here all that often anymore, and the amount of time I'm actually on here these days doesn't really make it worthwhile.  I wouldn't be surprised if I only log on very occasionally - or not really at all.  Anyway, just so you know, in case you're someone who knows me on DA and actually cares about it (which, given that I'm never on, probably isn't many).  

Eh, so that's the journal entry.  Real interesting and all that.

Anyway, catch 'ya later - maybe I'll be back eventually.
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Well...  all that's going to be deleted has been deleted.  I'll leave the rest up, to fare how it does under the loophole-filled DA contract.  

In other news, there's now a photo gallery on my main website, where you can access newly uploaded photos - it even works vaguely like DA, so you shouldn't face any learning curve.  This way, my photos are up on my site, under my terms - which I like much better than DA's, which is unfortunate.  DA actually has a pretty decent community - I can only hope that they honor that, and veer away from the direction of exploiting the immense talent that is catalogued here for their own personal profit.

What will happen with DA... I don't really know.  For now, though, I plan on sticking around, at least in some capacity.  For, despite all of its faults, DA remains a very unique and interesting community - and there is much here of value, when people feel inclined to sit back and take note of what DA truly encompasses.
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"In the event that we have sublicensed your materials to another website, it is your responsibility to have your materials removed from that website and you will not hold us responsible or liable if the other website refuses to remove your materials.

License. to Use Artist Materials. Artist hereby grants to deviantART a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to do the following things during the Term:

b. to display, copy, reproduce, exhibit, publicly perform, broadcast, rebroadcast, transmit, retransmit, distribute through any electronic means (including analog and digital), and electronically publish any or all of the Artist Materials, including any portion thereof, and to include them in compilations for such purposes, by any and all means and media now known or hereafter devised (for avoidance of doubt, the rights granted to deviantART hereunder include the rights to make Artist Materials available on deviantART Site(s), third-party websites and electronic devices);

d. the right to sublicense to any third party any of the foregoing rights in the Artist Materials, or any part or element thereof, subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

Payment Unless otherwise agreed between Artist and deviantART in a writing signed by both parties, the license granted to deviantART pursuant to this Agreement shall be royalty-free."

Well, say what you like about the jark thing, commercialization vs. community, and the like.  In my mind, none of this has anything to do with a huge personal spat, and everything to do with how this site works.

Laid out above are direct quotes from the DA submission policy.  As you can plainly see, the rules are simple - DA can, at any time, grant any other third party a universal license to use your artwork in any way they choose, without any compensation to you whatsoever.

This is a clear example of what I would consider "legalized theft" - and, while there is no indication that it has happened yet, the sad fact of the matter is that this agreement allows it to happen at any time.  And, with the sea change in corporate attitude that is becoming fairly apparent, I wouldn't be surprised if quite a few of you start seeing your work being used for profit by third parties - and then learn that you, simply by using this site to share your work, aren't entitled to any compensation for the commercial use of your works.

There's not much more that I can say - besides, perhaps, be forewarned.  I will most likely be pulling anything of note from this website, in order to protect my rights.

It's kind of funny - if this was all just merely allowing my work to be distributed for free, I wouldn't mind.  It's when work I freely contribute is used for someone else's commercial gain, with no compensation, that I get mad.  If I'm giving stuff away for free, I'm certainly not going to allow someone to profit from works that I intend to be made freely available.  

If you want community, there are plenty of sites that you can visit - and I'm sure you can find some that don't make that community contingent on providing them with royalty-free licenses for everything you post.

Edit:  I have now removed a good number of deviations.  I will most likely remove more once I have them up on my site.  I intend for you to be able to view my deviations here, and much more, from my own site - and under my own terms.
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I'm sure that, by now, most people have heard about the emerging conflict surrounding jark.  Now, I can't say that I was all that hugely involved in this community - I posted a few things, tracked down some interesting art - that's about it.  However, I can't really say that I'm much surprised by any of this.

Remember, a fewjournal entries back, when I was talking about the license?  Like I said, it was pretty obvious that something was going on with the commercial end of things.  It's the perfect opening to commercial partnerships with all sorts of corporations, the end result, of course, being that your artwork, my artwork, anyone's artwork on here has a good chance of being appropriated by the highest bidder, without a cent of compensation.  Back when I wrote the first entry, I was cautious, and thought that given this community, such a thing would have been unlikely - I even decided to post a few more things here.

After all of this, though...  I can only assume the worst.  If you dump one of the founding members of a website, it can only mean two things - a personal dispute, or a business that is about to do something very dangerous.  I'm not sure how much it is one or the other, but regardless of that, I think it's a pretty clear sign - any art and other intellectual property you post on this site, from here on out, is at serious risk of potential commercial exploitation.

Now, that's just my opinion - I have no more hard evidence of this than any other member on DA has.  However, unless things change, I'm afraid that the people running this site are quickly losing my confidence.  I have no further plans to post anything more here, and I may soon hide or delete most of my entries - I have no desire to have someone else profit from my work.

If you wish to see any of my further works, I will be posting them on my own website.  Uploading things to DA is a bit easier...  but I don't think that it's worth the tradeoff at this point in time.

If this community is going to survive, it has to be based on trust and a real community spirit.  Take that away, and you won't have a whole lot left.  Take a page from some other online gallery sites - their user base deserted them for offences far less serious than what seems to be brewing here.  It's good that people are keeping this in mind, and  hopefully the administration will keep their concerns in mind as well.  If not - well, it's easy for a company to have an internet boom - but if you piss of your users, it's far, far easier to go bust.
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Featured

Just about outta here. by ztrauq, journal

Ante'd Up No More by ztrauq, journal

Am I still here? Kinda. by ztrauq, journal

And so it goes... by ztrauq, journal

Can't say I'm surprised... by ztrauq, journal