sonicburner7518 · @sonicburner7518
14th Apr 2021 from TwitLonger
The Sonic YouTube community has a HUGE problem that needs to be addressed
I wish to remain anonymous as I do not wish to send harassment to anyone specific, myself included. I am an artist that makes a lot of Sonic fan renders in my free time as a hobby. It is a very time consuming, from-the-heart investment that I am more than happy to continuously put time into because it is something I truly enjoy doing. Throughout the years, I have discovered and made a lot of friends with people online who do the same. It's a very tight-knit community of artists who uplift and interact with each other frequently. Many of us do not make any money off of our art, it is purely out of love for the series.
Very recently a Sonic YouTuber who I will not name (in order to avoid sending harassments towards them), used one of my renders in their video thumbnail without my permission. This goes way beyond just this particular Sonic YouTuber and my own art though. Sonic YouTubers have a tendency to use other artist's fan art, fan renders, logos, etc in their video thumbnails in order to make their thumbnails more attractive and gain better attention.
Most will at least give credit to the artist in the description, but from what I've personally experienced and have talked about with mutals...
***PERMISSION IS HARDLY EVER ASKED FOR***
I have seen it happen time and time again where a mutual's art is used in the thumbnail of a YouTube video without their express permission. And sometimes, even worse, credit isn't even given in the description.
These YouTubers are stealing art from within their community to grow their own content and make money. Just because you give credit in the description does not mean you aren't stealing art. Now, I am not saying that YouTubers can't use fan art in their thumbnails. HOWEVER, there needs to be explicit, written or verbal consent from the artist to do so. For some artists, giving them credit is enough. But for a lot of others, it is very frustrating to have your art grabbed and used completely without your knowledge or permission. There needs to be communication involved when using a piece of work that somebody may have spent hours and hours on, especially if being used in a video that is monetized.
A YouTube thumbnail is one of the most important aspects of the video. It is usually the first thing people see before even watching a video. So I understand the desire to have attractive looking thumbnails, and there are many extremely talented people within this community that create eye-catching artwork. But what happens if you aren't able to get permission?
1. DO NOT USE THEIR ARTWORK EVEN IF YOU CREDIT THEM! CREDITING IS NOT THE SAME AS GETTING PERMISSION!
2. Use official renders/artwork.
3. Try to find and work with another artist who will allow you to use their art for free, but PLEASE DIRECTLY COMMUNICATE AND GET THEIR EXPRESS PERMISSION.
4. Commission an artist to draw something unique for your channel. This option is truly a win-win for everyone in the community. You get an awesome piece of art to use and attract viewers to your video, and you support the extremely talented artist within the community.
5. Create your own thumbnails with in-game screenshots or by drawing or modeling them yourself.
And to all of the artist out there: If your art is ever grabbed for the purpose of a YouTube video thumbnail without your permission and you are not comfortable with it, first reach out to that YouTuber and ask them to remove it. If nothing comes of that, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE speak up. I absolutely cannot stand to see this continue. This is a LONG ongoing issue that needs to discussed. Your art has value and does not deserved to be stolen by other people who are making a profit from it. So please call it out when it happens and inform and encourage people to fight back against this kind of behavior.
Please share this tweet around as much as possible to get the word out, as I think it's finally time we discuss this issue that has been perpetually hovering above the Sonic community like a huge rain cloud for far too long.