DeviantArt.com

[Wish]

I am perplexed why people use Deviantart.com for a means of promoting work, when the work can so easily be stolen and used elsewhere and plus the submission agreement seems a little in favour of deviantart.com gaining power over the artists work.

Can somebody explain why they use deviantart.com ?

Anybody have stories to tell and EXP to share of their misfalls with this kind of thing?

Of the top of my head, the plus is there is more opportunities. But oppurtunities for what exactly?

[Innis Cabal]

Because its free

[Rogue 7]

With just about any online site, I think, people will be able to steal work fairly easily, as long as it's free and available. If Deviantart is a reasonably easy and well-designed site to use, that's the reason to use it over others. Especially because generally, if you're trying to self-promote, you're not getting paid, so it does you well to get your work out there, even if it's stolen.

[Turcano]

This (http://ifavetrash.deviantart.com/) is the best DeviantArt account ever.

[Nerd-o-rama]

I believe DeviantArt is generally used by either hobbyists who don't care if their work is stolen, or people who want to give themselves free advertising by having their work stolen and hoping it gets credited. And really, any kind of image hosting on the internet can lead to theft. I believe that's why people use watermarks.

[Shraik]

i use it because my friends use it and I have work that I want to share with them. They're only ones reading it so what do I care.

[Ego Slayer]

dA's Copyright Policy (http://about.deviantart.com/policy/copyright/)

I'm actually not entirely sure how copyright works if you don't actually have it done "legally." Yeah, you're possibly opening the door for an infringer, but even if you had a written copyright it would still be a pain in the ass. :smallconfused:

The way I see it, if said artists didn't have dA, then they'd most likely be uploaded elsewhere anyway where it can still get stolen. And if it's something particularly important you watermark the work/have a written copyright.

[UglyPanda]

Benefits include:
-Having a bunch of people critiquing your work and/or making inane comments.
-Most of the people who will see your work on the DeviantArt would've never seen it otherwise.
-Not having to run your own website, which costs time and money and takes time away from your work.
-The kind of person who would buy your stuff or pay for commissions is the kind of person who visits DeviantArt anyway.

[RabbitHoleLost]

Plus, its very easy to water-mark your work on deviantart so that its harder to steal.

I use Devi purely because there are so many people on the site.

[Paragon Badger]

You'd rather I use photobucket? (http://shytom.deviantart.com/gallery/) :smallwink: