I've noticed that one of the pieces I posted was taken down on a request from its commissioner. I know we are to have permission from artists before posting, but is it standard procedure to ask commissioners as well?

It's a good idea, but we have no way of enforcing that.

So who has control over the request of a piece being taken down? The artist or the commissioner? Because I know there's been arguments before over whether someone who commissioned a piece of art can do a takedown request, or if the person who actually made it has to do it themselves.

Digital_Kindness said:
So who has control over the request of a piece being taken down? The artist or the commissioner? Because I know there's been arguments before over whether someone who commissioned a piece of art can do a takedown request, or if the person who actually made it has to do it themselves.

Usually it's the individual who holds the copyrights to the piece of art, If I'm not mistaken. That depends on how the commissioner and the artist share ownership of the piece. On most occasions, the artist has copyrights over the digital version while the commissioner has copyrights over the physical version.

Furry_Fanatic said:
Usually it's the individual who holds the copyrights to the piece of art, If I'm not mistaken. That depends on how the commissioner and the artist share ownership of the piece. On most occasions, the artist has copyrights over the digital version while the commissioner has copyrights over the physical version.

Without an explicit transferral of rights, the commissioner has copyright over nothing. They have physical ownership of a physical copy (meaning, like any other property, it would be theft to take it away), but they do -not- have legal right to photocopy or otherwise reproduce it without permission from the artist.

This is according to US law.

Digital_Kindness said:
So who has control over the request of a piece being taken down? The artist or the commissioner? Because I know there's been arguments before over whether someone who commissioned a piece of art can do a takedown request, or if the person who actually made it has to do it themselves.

On this site both can file a takedown request successfully.

NotMeNotYouMobile said:
On this site both can file a takedown request successfully.

Then what happens if, for example, the commissioner files a takedown request and successfully has it removed, and the artist puts it back up? Or vice-versa? Personally I think it should be artist-only for takedown requests, but that's just me...

Digital_Kindness said:
Then what happens if, for example, the commissioner files a takedown request and successfully has it removed, and the artist puts it back up? Or vice-versa? Personally I think it should be artist-only for takedown requests, but that's just me...

Comissioner wins because they whine {Coughcough} I mean, they "Own the rights to the charactuuur"

I have seen plenty of takedown requests denied because it was the commissioner instead of the artist making the request. It's just one more thing on this site that comes down to what admin sees it first, instead of any hard-and-fast rule.

Foobaria said:
I have seen plenty of takedown requests denied because it was the commissioner instead of the artist making the request. It's just one more thing on this site that comes down to what admin sees it first, instead of any hard-and-fast rule.

No, I'm the ONLY administrator that handles takedown requests right now. That's one area of the site where "whichever admin gets to it first" isn't going to fly.

Our takedown policy page addresses all of these questions from what I can tell: http://e621.net/static/takedown

The artist retains their copyright to an image unless they tell the commissioner otherwise. However, a commissioner can still have an image removed on the grounds that it contains their own intellectual property (their character(s)) being redistributed without permission. This is why a company like Hasbro can request the removal of all MLP artwork if they wanted to (not including OC's), because MLP is their intellectual property.

A commissioner can not, CAN NOT have artwork removed if it doesn't contain any of their own intellectual property, like a character. This is stated on the Takedown Policy page as well to make sure commissioners and e621.net users understand this.

Additionally, refusing to process takedown requests from character owners ONLY means that they're going to go right to the artist and complain to them about it (we'd essentially be forcing them to). This unnecessarily involves the artist, who might decide to just have all of their artwork removed at that point and to be placed on the Avoid Posting list instead of having to submit takedown requests for their commissioners all the time.

Foobaria said:
I have seen plenty of takedown requests denied because it was the commissioner instead of the artist making the request. It's just one more thing on this site that comes down to what admin sees it first, instead of any hard-and-fast rule.

There is no truth to any part of this post.

Char said:
Our takedown policy page addresses all of these questions from what I can tell: http://e621.net/static/takedown

What pages link to the takedown policy? I looked for it before I started this thread and couldn't find it.

confused said:
What pages link to the takedown policy? I looked for it before I started this thread and couldn't find it.

On the far right of the top bar, in the "Contact" tab, under "Takedown Information".

There's also a link to it from the landing page: http://e621.net/

Char said:
There's also a link to it from the landing page: http://e621.net/

Might I suggest adding a link to the takedown request page? I think that would be an intuitive place for one.

confused said:
Might I suggest adding a link to the takedown request page? I think that would be an intuitive place for one.

There is already, in the last line the first link.
It is a bit hard to see depending on the current mascot displayed but it is there.