I've recently been getting a lot of emails asking for direct links to Etsy listings or Ebay auctions.
In general I don't like doing that because, lets be honest, it's just an advertisement. And, you know, I sell advertising here. At quite reasonable rates, I might add.
That said, I do make occasional exceptions for artists that I like. Someone who's been featured here a few times gets a bit of leeway, while an artist who's posted in-depth build logs or tutorials gets a whole lot of credit on my end. In either case I have no qualms about linking to pages that show off their work and just happen to have a link from there to a sales site. I want to promote artists that make cool stuff, but I don't want to become one of those sites that exists solely to hawk stuff.
On the other end of the spectrum there are a few artists, three at last count, that are forever banned from having any of their work appear here. All three of them made legal threats, something I take very seriously. All three were upset about things that "looked like" or was "similar" to their work. In all three cases I provided multiple examples of the same thing pre-dating their efforts by years, if not centuries. When that failed to soothe them I provided the address of my lawyer. Amazingly, he's still waiting for those legal papers to arrive.
One last thing. I'm an Amazon affiliate and occasionally recommend products. That means I get a cut of your purchase price, at no cost to you, whenever you buy through a link I provide. Sadly, at least from the standpoint of greed, most of the products I've linked to are less than $10, and less than $1 for the out-of-print books. I really do need to start cultivating more expensive, and marketable, tastes.
Hey, as a reader I really appreciate this sort of screening that you do. Thanks.
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ReplyDeleteThanks. My greatest accomplishment is making this a Cute-thulhu free zone. Except for the traditional April 1st posting, of course.
No need for explanations Propnomicon, because it’s your blog and you decide on content. The small guy and the independent need all the exposure they can get as well as all the protection available. There is a lot of great art out there and I stand fully behind copyright laws, so that artists can make a little off their efforts and works.
ReplyDeleteThe smudged side of the coin has a few that want to use the specter of spurious litigation to frighten people into compliance to their wishes, regardless of legality. The irony is that they are the ones who generally make the clones and knock-offs. I have a fair amount of background in art history, so I seldom see anything absolutely, utterly unique but I do appreciate somebody using a historical root for their prop or art object. There is a lot of great stuff out there and I really get a kick out of the ingeniousness and amount of labor that goes into their works.
I also personally recommend books all the time, some are new, some have been in print for a long time and a good number of them are copyright free on Project Gutenberg. Sometimes I recommend an artist, but sadly enough it is often an artist whom I cannot afford … ever, in some cases.
Uh, so you wanna feature my totally awesome Cutethulhu tea cozy? They’re copywrited and nobody ever though of it before. Really (blink, blink). Just remove the “Made in China” label before use, don’t get it near flame and try not breathe close to the fibers or use near food. If you have any questions my lawyer’s company is Dewey, Cheatham & Howe LLC, just ask for my cousin Vinny.
What you do is just great. Thank you.
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