I feel I might owe visitors to this page an explanation for my lack of contribution here on deviantArt. No longer uploading photographs to deviantArt is a conscious decision I have made for a few reasons, but also based on an admittedly gut instinct, which is this: deviantArt ostensibly owns everything you upload.

A while back, I was hard up for cash and signed up for a private product review session via Craigslist. The product in question was a set of laptop bags by a well known laptop/backpack maker. The session consisted of some employees of said manufacturer bouncing ideas off the assembled Craigslist go-ers and gauging their response to ideas and concepts, for a free laptop bag.

I was surprised to be told that one of the concepts in question was a messenger-style laptop bag feature art from deviantArt, printed on the front. When I asked what kind of cut the artists would get from the sales, or if they would see any profit for the use of their work at all, I was met with a shrug and sly, conversational dismissal.

It wasn't always like this. A while ago, a fellow °jark stood up against a change in DA's privacy policy that equivocally would allow the company that is deviantArt to own, profit from, and redistribute work uploaded here without consultation, profit or attribution given to the uploader (much less the original artist, where identifiable). His account of his dismissal is here: [link]

Suffice it to say, he couldn't change things and he is now departed from DA.

These should all be considerations whenever you upload anything to this site. Because uploading here is supporting the site, it's leadership, and it's business practices.