Cartoon | Make shit yourself #instagram

I've spoken about this before. And it's coming out again, do people just NOT get it?

I have spoken about this before on indieBerries - in a wild raging fury post. (dropped the F bomb. A lot.) Today I want to talk about it again. But I'm not wild and ragey like before, I'm just...
sad.

A little while ago (on National Braai Day), Jane tagged me in a post on instagram in Deon Govender's instagram feed. In his instagram account, he has used a graphic which I created. For those of you who read this blog - you will recognise it right away below from the screen-shot I took:

Yep. That's mine.

The thing is, it is virtually unavoidable to stop people from using my graphics and images without my permission. For some reason, people (generally the more ignorant ones) believe that because it's online it's FREE FOR ALL.

It's not.

I drew that graphic and unless you have commissioned me to create something for you, it belongs to me.

What makes me so sad about this situation, is that I was not credited in ANY way for the use of this graphic. "DJ DEON" (who works at one of the leading radio stations in South Africa) did not take the time to google the correct owner of that picture (me). If you google "braai cartoon" my image is number 3. "DJ DEON" could have found my name, my blog and appropriate places to link back to if he had tried. But he didn't. (EDIT: His instagram account has since been changed to a Private Account)

What upsets me, is that of the 2787 people who saw "his" (MY) cartoon in his feed, there may have been just ONE person who thought, "Hey! That's so funny! Where can I see more?" If my name, or a link to my instagram feed, facebook page, website, or twitter account had been posted alongside MY cartoon, that may have generated just ONE new blog reader (out of 2787) for me.

Who in turn, may have shared my blog with just ONE of their friends.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

If you do not credit the person who created the work, you are in essence, robbing that person from the opportunity to shine.

And that's pretty shitty.

Just because something exists on the internet, it does not make it free for public use. Be mindful of what you are posting and whose work you are using. Credit the artist, author or creator where it is due.

Legally, I would be well within my right to sue for copyright infringement.

Just a thought.

And I am in no way the only person affected by this.

Speaking of Instagram (and copyright in general), the other day I came across an awesome picture (something like this), from someone I follow on Instagram. My immediate reaction was, "WOW! That is so cool! You are so awesome!" I double tapped that shit so fast to show my wild appreciation for the creativity of this instagrammer -

Two scrolls later and I saw the exact same image appear on someone else's Instagram feed.

BUMMER.

So neither of you were awesome and creative and cool.
None of you actually created that cool graphic.
You just took it from someone else via pinterest.

In a similar style, I created the above graphic. Yes, I took inspiration from the original image, but I CREATED IT MYSELF.

It took me two minutes and a bag of pencils.

To show you that I really did create that graphic all on my very own - here I am:

I look way happier in this picture than how I feel about this situation,
so I added in some tears.

The completely IRONIC thing is, that by posting other people's graphics, images and words to make your own instragram account more "inspiring" and "creative" you are DENYING YOURSELF the opportunity to break out your own freaken creativity! To be inspired by your OWN DAMN SELF! TO SHINE YOUR OWN GLOWING BRILLIANT LIGHT.

We are all creative.

ALL of us.

Those of us who activate that creativity, become MORE creative. That's just how it works.

Get out your pencils, line up stones in your pavement, doodle words on paper, cut out letters from a magazine, arrange leaves in circles, take photos upside down, document the life of your sock, bump up the exposure in every single picture, add words over your pictures. Whatever. It doesn't have to be beautiful. I would ten times rather follow a "shitty-looking" instagram account that is genuine rather than a "beautiful-looking" instragram account that is just Pinterest.

I HATE looking at an instagram account and genuinely not knowing if that graphic is something you made, if those are YOUR words (and thoughts) or something that someone else made that you took off the internet. LINK ME TO THAT PERSON, because THAT is who I want to follow.

In my opinion, the very reason why instagram does not have web application (and why the uploading process is only accessible via a phone), is because it was intended for people to share THEIR lives, THEIR photos, from THEIR phones. Not to just re-post everything from the internet.

Makes sense, doesn't it?

While I'm at it (I'M ON A ROLL TODAY), I want to talk about those "inspirational words/quotes" images that we are seeing more and more of on instagram. (You know the ones I'm talking about)

Something like this:

(created BY ME, using Studio App)

While I do think that there are some amazing words and quotes which we can all take inspiration from (and which I do love reading) these images and "quotes" were not just generated by the internet. SomeONE, some person (graphic designer, doodler, calligrapher, artist, poet, writer) created them. They laid out those words onto a black/white/brown page They should be credited. If you cannot find the correct owner of the image, MAKE A NEW IMAGE YOURSELF.

Created via Studio App (free)

This also obviously pertains to photographs which you did not take and is particularly prevalent to photographs of celebrities.

Did you personally sit across from Marilyn Monroe and have coffee with her? In which case, you should TOTALLY instagram that shit. If however, you did not personally take the photo, then the photographer needs to be credited, as for the photo above, the original photographer is Milton Greene. (In an ideal world, you should actually ask the photographer permission BEFORE you use their image).

Super popular instagrammers like Kayla Itsines have started posting photographs that do not belong to them - which completely irks me - MAINLY because they have built up such amazing and MASSIVE amounts of followers and they have SUCH a golden opportunity to shine a light on the person who created/photographed/penned those images - but they don't. And that's sad. Even although some of the images have watermarks from the original photographer, a link to that person, is the right thing to do. For me, it starts destroying your credibility if you continually post things that are not yours. Because then, who are you even?

Anyway,

that is my 2 cents on the subject.

Follow me on instagram (or my yoga account) if you'd like, where everything is 100 percent legit.

Happy Hump Day Everyone!