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One potentially alarming sentence in this article is "Wix will open up DeviantArt’s repository of art and creative community to the Wix platform, giving Wix’s u

One potentially alarming sentence in this article is "Wix will open up DeviantArt’s repository of art and creative community to the Wix platform, giving Wix’s users access to that work to use in their own site building." Exactly what do they mean by that? Will it be opt-in? Will it only cover art that's already under Creative Commons? Will be it all Creative Commons? Does a Wix site count as commercial use? I can't imagine people would be very happy about their art suddenly being available for use elsewhere without their consent. Hopefully, this is much ado about nothing, and Wix won't do anything terrible, but we've seen technology companies do stupid things before. At the very least, it would be nice if they elaborated on their plans regarding this.

kijin 10y ago
You cannot unilaterally change the license on someone else's work. A lot of images on DeviantArt are under very restrictive licenses. I'm assuming they will present an option for artists to allow their work to be used on Wix sites in exchange for royalties, with the middleman taking a percentage of said royalties.
- problems 10y ago
  There's also a lot of CC licensed stuff that might already be allowing use for such purposes with the authors not expecting any return from it.
- lambada 10y ago
  Well that depends on the terms the uploader agreed to. The license displayed for works is, as I understand it, the license that applies to visitors/viewers not necessarily for deviantArt itself.
  - DanBC 10y ago
    This line is in the current TOS: > DeviantArt does not claim ownership rights in your works or other materials posted by you to DeviantArt (Your Content). Here's the rest of it: > 4. Copyright > DeviantArt is, unless otherwise stated, the owner of all copyright and data rights in the Service and its contents. Individuals who have posted works to DeviantArt are either the copyright owners of the component parts of that work or are posting the work under license from a copyright owner or his or her agent or otherwise as permitted by law. You may not reproduce, distribute, publicly display or perform, or prepare derivative works based on any of the Content including any such works without the express, written consent of DeviantArt or the appropriate owner of copyright in such works. DeviantArt does not claim ownership rights in your works or other materials posted by you to DeviantArt (Your Content). You agree not to distribute any part of the Service other than Your Content in any medium other than as permitted in these Terms of Service or by use of functions on the Service provided by us. You agree not to alter or modify any part of the Service unless expressly permitted to do so by us or by use of functions on the Service provided by us.
    - dspillett 10y ago
      > This line is in the current TOS: > > DeviantArt does not claim ownership rights [to your content] But there might be a clause in there where they claim sufficiently unrestricted license to use that content in any way they chose. Not having copyright does not mean that they don't have license to use the content or let their users do the same.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- kevin_b_er 10y ago
  Read around in the comments. The DeviantArt EULA gives them a blanket license. The artist may also provide a very restricted license to the public. The license is already granted, to DeviantArt.
at-fates-hands 10y ago
I had the same reaction. I could totally see them taking all the CC licenses and open it up as a stock image repository. This could go two ways. One, they open it up and its a total free for all, and as a Wix user, I can just go take someone's images and use them on my site royality free, which is downright scary. Two, they take control of all the work that's under CC, involve the artists and offer them a percentage of the profit to use their art for their websites. Or cut out the artists entirely, which I could also see happening. You have huge opportunity to drive a ton of revenue from the stuff that's already on DA.
- anilgulecha 10y ago
  > One, they open it up and its a total free for all, and as a Wix user, I can just go take someone's images and use them on my site royality free, which is downright scary. Why is that scary? It's the point of CC licence. All they'll have to do on the using site is add an attribution (for ex CC-BY-SA). It's the intention of CC to allow gratis usage and sharing.
Silhouette 10y ago
DeviantArt has been one of the better online hosting services when it comes to their handling of copyright. Buying them won't magically grant additional rights to Wix. Based on the Submission Policy on DeviantArt's site, the essence of the agreement seems to be that as long as the work continues to be on DeviantArt, any DeviantArt site can use it royalty-free under a non-exclusive licence. The artist (or other submitter) is free to remove the work from DeviantArt at any time, and with some provisions about orderly handling the work is then no longer available for use on DeviantArt sites under those terms. The copyright and related legal rights in each work remain with the artist throughout (or with whoever else had them before, but they're not automatically transferred to DeviantArt). Whether the acquisition means sites run by Wix now count as successors and therefore enjoy the royalty-free rights regarding uploaded works is one for the lawyers, but even if it that is the case, it seems that anyone who objects can simply delete their work from DeviantArt and in doing so withdraw the consent required to use the work on any other sites as well. That being the case, it would seem unwise for Wix to try to pull a fast one here, and a more collaborative approach would seem to be in everyone's interests including Wix's.
- bluetwo 10y ago
  It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Deleting things on DA doesn't always do what you would expect, and it surely sounds like Wix thinks they are going to offer work for free.
noahbradley 10y ago
Sounds like they'll let people build websites ala Wix but using their images from DA. Seems fine.
pmlnr 10y ago
Well... if this[^1] is still the DA licence (entry is from 2011), this won't be limited to CC and potentially concerns all art published on DA. [^1]: http://jon-rista.deviantart.com/journal/Very-Concerning-DeviantArt-com-License-221022234 http://jon-rista.deviantart.com/journal/Very-Concerning-Devi...
brazzledazzle 10y ago
Since you can monetize your artwork already on DA I hope this will be as simple and straightforward as opting into it much like you would with prints. And maybe letting someone search any Creative Commons licensed art with that as opt-out.
saycheese 10y ago
Appears these are all the current agreements on their website: https://www.google.com/search?q=site:https://about.deviantart.com/policy/ https://www.google.com/search?q=site:https://about.deviantar...
thinkMOAR 10y ago
For me it means enough, i just deactivated/deleted my deviant art account. This unclearness, plus their in my humble opinion, horribly annoying youtube ad campaign, did not make me ponder about deleting my account for a second.
- pg_is_a_butt 10y ago
  uh... genius... you already agreed to terms... files are already on their servers and in 100s of backups around the world. you didn't delete anything. you're all idiots.
- bluetwo 10y ago
  I hope you deleted your artwork first. If you simply close your account, your work will still show up in searches.
  - thinkMOAR 10y ago
    they explicitly mentioned all my stuff will get deleted.
    - bluetwo 10y ago
      have you checked?
      - thinkMOAR 10y ago
        yes all is gone, there is a 30 day grace period which they don't clearly communicate.
buro9 10y ago
https://about.deviantart.com/policy/submission/ https://about.deviantart.com/policy/submission/ 3. License To Use Artist Materials. As and when Artist Materials are uploaded to the DeviantArt Site(s), Artist grants to DeviantArt a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to do the following things during the Term: a) to prepare and encode Artist Materials or any part of them for digital or analog transmission, manipulation and exhibition in any format and by any means now known or not yet known or invented; b) to display, copy, reproduce, exhibit, publicly perform, broadcast, rebroadcast, transmit, retransmit, distribute through any electronic means (including analog and digital) or other means, and electronically or otherwise publish any or all of the Artist Materials, including any part of them, and to include them in compilations for publication, by any and all means and media now known or not yet known or invented ; c) to modify, adapt, change or otherwise alter the Artist Materials (e.g., change the size) and use the Artist Materials as described in Section 3(b); and ... The only thing a DeviantArt user can do is to delete their content, shut their account, and leave the site. The policies only apply for the "Term" in which a user exists and the art exists on the platform.
- TheArcane 10y ago
  Royalty-free? Looks like a bad deal.
  - Kesty 10y ago
    It's a classic point in most, if not all, social websites or where the content is generated by the user. And it's usually there to protect the website for altering storing and advertising with user generated content. It always has had the potential to be used for bad, we will see if this time actually happens.
    - delinka 10y ago
      "Royalty-free" doesn't mean they can just do what they want. It means they're not going to pay you for the things listed in the license (to which you agreed by hosting on their site.) It doesn't even say "...perpetual license." It's clearly limited to stuff you've put on their systems, while it's on their systems. You remove it, they can't use it.
chx 10y ago
Imagine if they would charge for this and share with the artist.
debt 10y ago
It means artists will start making money from the art they've put on DeviantArt instead of it just being a "repository".
- slavik81 10y ago
  That's already how DeviantArt works. You can buy prints and stuff. The money from the sale is split between DA and the artist.
JoshTriplett 10y ago
Especially concerning given a purchase by a company that doesn't respect Open Source licenses.
jgord 10y ago
Wider HN community could probably have rounded up 36M to keep DA being DA.

kijin 10y ago

You cannot unilaterally change the license on someone else's work. A lot of images on DeviantArt are under very restrictive licenses. I'm assuming they will present an option for artists to allow their work to be used on Wix sites in exchange for royalties, with the middleman taking a percentage of said royalties.

problems 10y ago
There's also a lot of CC licensed stuff that might already be allowing use for such purposes with the authors not expecting any return from it.
lambada 10y ago
Well that depends on the terms the uploader agreed to. The license displayed for works is, as I understand it, the license that applies to visitors/viewers not necessarily for deviantArt itself.
- DanBC 10y ago
  This line is in the current TOS: > DeviantArt does not claim ownership rights in your works or other materials posted by you to DeviantArt (Your Content). Here's the rest of it: > 4. Copyright > DeviantArt is, unless otherwise stated, the owner of all copyright and data rights in the Service and its contents. Individuals who have posted works to DeviantArt are either the copyright owners of the component parts of that work or are posting the work under license from a copyright owner or his or her agent or otherwise as permitted by law. You may not reproduce, distribute, publicly display or perform, or prepare derivative works based on any of the Content including any such works without the express, written consent of DeviantArt or the appropriate owner of copyright in such works. DeviantArt does not claim ownership rights in your works or other materials posted by you to DeviantArt (Your Content). You agree not to distribute any part of the Service other than Your Content in any medium other than as permitted in these Terms of Service or by use of functions on the Service provided by us. You agree not to alter or modify any part of the Service unless expressly permitted to do so by us or by use of functions on the Service provided by us.
  - dspillett 10y ago
    > This line is in the current TOS: > > DeviantArt does not claim ownership rights [to your content] But there might be a clause in there where they claim sufficiently unrestricted license to use that content in any way they chose. Not having copyright does not mean that they don't have license to use the content or let their users do the same.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
kevin_b_er 10y ago
Read around in the comments. The DeviantArt EULA gives them a blanket license. The artist may also provide a very restricted license to the public. The license is already granted, to DeviantArt.

at-fates-hands 10y ago

I had the same reaction. I could totally see them taking all the CC licenses and open it up as a stock image repository. This could go two ways. One, they open it up and its a total free for all, and as a Wix user, I can just go take someone's images and use them on my site royality free, which is downright scary. Two, they take control of all the work that's under CC, involve the artists and offer them a percentage of the profit to use their art for their websites. Or cut out the artists entirely, which I could also see happening. You have huge opportunity to drive a ton of revenue from the stuff that's already on DA.

anilgulecha 10y ago
> One, they open it up and its a total free for all, and as a Wix user, I can just go take someone's images and use them on my site royality free, which is downright scary. Why is that scary? It's the point of CC licence. All they'll have to do on the using site is add an attribution (for ex CC-BY-SA). It's the intention of CC to allow gratis usage and sharing.

Silhouette 10y ago

DeviantArt has been one of the better online hosting services when it comes to their handling of copyright. Buying them won't magically grant additional rights to Wix. Based on the Submission Policy on DeviantArt's site, the essence of the agreement seems to be that as long as the work continues to be on DeviantArt, any DeviantArt site can use it royalty-free under a non-exclusive licence. The artist (or other submitter) is free to remove the work from DeviantArt at any time, and with some provisions about orderly handling the work is then no longer available for use on DeviantArt sites under those terms. The copyright and related legal rights in each work remain with the artist throughout (or with whoever else had them before, but they're not automatically transferred to DeviantArt). Whether the acquisition means sites run by Wix now count as successors and therefore enjoy the royalty-free rights regarding uploaded works is one for the lawyers, but even if it that is the case, it seems that anyone who objects can simply delete their work from DeviantArt and in doing so withdraw the consent required to use the work on any other sites as well. That being the case, it would seem unwise for Wix to try to pull a fast one here, and a more collaborative approach would seem to be in everyone's interests including Wix's.

bluetwo 10y ago
It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Deleting things on DA doesn't always do what you would expect, and it surely sounds like Wix thinks they are going to offer work for free.

noahbradley 10y ago

Sounds like they'll let people build websites ala Wix but using their images from DA. Seems fine.

pmlnr 10y ago

Well... if this[^1] is still the DA licence (entry is from 2011), this won't be limited to CC and potentially concerns all art published on DA. [^1]: http://jon-rista.deviantart.com/journal/Very-Concerning-DeviantArt-com-License-221022234 http://jon-rista.deviantart.com/journal/Very-Concerning-Devi...

brazzledazzle 10y ago

Since you can monetize your artwork already on DA I hope this will be as simple and straightforward as opting into it much like you would with prints. And maybe letting someone search any Creative Commons licensed art with that as opt-out.

saycheese 10y ago

Appears these are all the current agreements on their website: https://www.google.com/search?q=site:https://about.deviantart.com/policy/ https://www.google.com/search?q=site:https://about.deviantar...

thinkMOAR 10y ago

For me it means enough, i just deactivated/deleted my deviant art account. This unclearness, plus their in my humble opinion, horribly annoying youtube ad campaign, did not make me ponder about deleting my account for a second.

pg_is_a_butt 10y ago
uh... genius... you already agreed to terms... files are already on their servers and in 100s of backups around the world. you didn't delete anything. you're all idiots.
bluetwo 10y ago
I hope you deleted your artwork first. If you simply close your account, your work will still show up in searches.
- thinkMOAR 10y ago
  they explicitly mentioned all my stuff will get deleted.
  - bluetwo 10y ago
    have you checked?
    - thinkMOAR 10y ago
      yes all is gone, there is a 30 day grace period which they don't clearly communicate.

buro9 10y ago

https://about.deviantart.com/policy/submission/ https://about.deviantart.com/policy/submission/ 3. License To Use Artist Materials. As and when Artist Materials are uploaded to the DeviantArt Site(s), Artist grants to DeviantArt a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to do the following things during the Term: a) to prepare and encode Artist Materials or any part of them for digital or analog transmission, manipulation and exhibition in any format and by any means now known or not yet known or invented; b) to display, copy, reproduce, exhibit, publicly perform, broadcast, rebroadcast, transmit, retransmit, distribute through any electronic means (including analog and digital) or other means, and electronically or otherwise publish any or all of the Artist Materials, including any part of them, and to include them in compilations for publication, by any and all means and media now known or not yet known or invented ; c) to modify, adapt, change or otherwise alter the Artist Materials (e.g., change the size) and use the Artist Materials as described in Section 3(b); and ... The only thing a DeviantArt user can do is to delete their content, shut their account, and leave the site. The policies only apply for the "Term" in which a user exists and the art exists on the platform.

TheArcane 10y ago
Royalty-free? Looks like a bad deal.
- Kesty 10y ago
  It's a classic point in most, if not all, social websites or where the content is generated by the user. And it's usually there to protect the website for altering storing and advertising with user generated content. It always has had the potential to be used for bad, we will see if this time actually happens.
  - delinka 10y ago
    "Royalty-free" doesn't mean they can just do what they want. It means they're not going to pay you for the things listed in the license (to which you agreed by hosting on their site.) It doesn't even say "...perpetual license." It's clearly limited to stuff you've put on their systems, while it's on their systems. You remove it, they can't use it.

chx 10y ago

Imagine if they would charge for this and share with the artist.

debt 10y ago

It means artists will start making money from the art they've put on DeviantArt instead of it just being a "repository".

slavik81 10y ago
That's already how DeviantArt works. You can buy prints and stuff. The money from the sale is split between DA and the artist.

JoshTriplett 10y ago

Especially concerning given a purchase by a company that doesn't respect Open Source licenses.

jgord 10y ago

Wider HN community could probably have rounded up 36M to keep DA being DA.