Resources for Artists Against Ai
Protect Your Art from Scraping and Your Best Social Media Options
Scroll down for social media sight ratings. Artists are finding it harder to protect their artwork from AI scraping theft. They are forced to delete imagery and leave social media platforms they once trusted due to terms of service changes that compromise our work and industries. Artists are asking, "How do I protect my art?" and "Where is it safe to post?" This entry seeks to answer those questions. I will do my best to update as new resources become available.
HOW DO I PROTECT MY ART FILES?
Signing and Watermarking: While both of these are easy to remove digitally, it's important to communicate ownership to the general public, without damaging the integrity of the image too much. Clients and art directors don't want to see big logos etched into your art. Signing and also hiding an extra signature or logo within the work can help prove general copyright infringement.
Copyright Registration. As soon as you create an image, it is legally copyrighted as yours, but you have much better protection and the ability to take legal action with financial recourse if your art is officially copyrighted. It's good art business hygiene to file copyright quarterly. Registering images as a group is recommended. Here is the link to the US Copyright Office:
Ai Disturbance: Ibis Paint is a low-cost digital art program with an AI disturbance filter tool built into the save function. The program is here: https://ibispaint.com/?lang=en-US
Instruction on how to use it here: https://www.instagram.com/kazwindness/reel/C7qESCOApGA/ This is fast and very easy to use. Glaze does something similar. See Image Poisoning below for more on this.
Downside: The glazing or disturbance filters provide some protection by making your art less reproducible, but these are not failsafe.
Image Poisoning. Nightshade along with Glaze help make your work unusable for Ai image generators. Here's how and where to get the program downloads for free: https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html#
Downside: Nightshade is memory intensive and can take up to 15 minutes to "poison" an art file. The embedded textures can make your art appear odd. It is designed to make Ai misidentify what your art is, making the results less reliable or unrecognizable, but software has been created to "clean" files and new software that reads imagery at the surface level and recreates it with Ai.
Rating of Social Media Platforms for Artists
0/10: Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads) Why? On July 18, 2024 the Terms of Service (TOS) require opt-in for AI scraping third-party image licensing. Meta actively takes individual art pieces (and everything else) for AI training and profit. They use and promote AI image generation.
0/10: X/Twitter Why? On Nov. 15, 2024 the TOS allowing posts and artwork to be scraped, used, and licensed goes live. The block feature is also disabled.
01/10: Adobe/BeHance Why? On June 2024, Adobe rolled out an automatic Ai scraping opt-in to all their programs. Cloud storage was especially compromised. They are now trying to mitigate concerns by assuring artists they will not use their work without permission, but we don't have much reason to trust them as the TOS has not changed and they have stolen artwork and embraced Ai image generation.
01/10 Deviant Art Why? Promotes Ai Generated imagery. Has a shifty history, allowing for AI scraping and making it difficult to opt out and remove imagery. Artists leaving in droves. Not vibrant. Bad vibes.
06/10 ArtStation Why? Does not allow Ai scraping. Upholds your copyright. Allows Ai imagery and reported to be overrun with it, but requires disclosure. Shows a commitment to real artists.
08/10 BlueSky (find me @kazwindness) Why? For children's publishing especially, this appears to be where we are migrating. Agents, publishers, and creatives are building networks here. The owners have taken a public stance against Ai scraping, but there are some Ai tools on the platform. Glaze your work.
09/10 Cara (find me @kazwindness) Why? Excellent for artists networking with other artists. Strongly against Ai and strongly for artists rights, provides some glazing. Not as strong for finding work. Yet.
05/10 TikTok (find me @cuddlekaz) Why? Videos, imagery, and data can be scraped from the platform, but the TOS does not specifically opt artists into scraping in the way Meta and X does. Might be banned in the US. Hopefully not.
05/10 Substack (you found me!
) Why? There is nothing preventing scraping, but Substack does not appear to be actively scraping for its own use.06/10 LinkedIn Why? Outside scraping is prohibited, but you must opt out of Ai training and scraping in your profile settings. https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a5538339
10/10 Personal E-mail List/Newsletter/Website Why? This is your best bet for owning and protecting your artwork and contact list. Research the provider's terms of service, and opt out of AI scraping and crawlers with the exception of findability on internet searches.
What else? Comment!
Remember to contact your local representatives and national legislators and urge them to protect artists' rights, copyright, and human labor. Several copyright lawsuits are in process that should result in better protections for artists, but we must stay vigilant and united in the meantime.
This and more information can be found on my blog KazWindness.com
Thank you, Kaz, for this incredibly helpful guide. Your brilliant layout with rankings and reasons makes this post one that all illustrators — and the Kidlit community at large — should read.