Really Terrific Questions!

Journal Entry: Wed Nov 3, 2010, 2:06 AM
Good morning deviants!

Before talking about the Really Terrific Questions coming out of the great comments received on the deviantART Stock Project, we want to address a few simple misconceptions about the Stock Project on Fotolia.

:bulletblue: You are NOT required to provide a social security number at sign up unless you plan to apply as a stock provider.  Artists and others who just want to buy stock do not need to provide a social security number.  The reason for the social security number has to do with tax reporting requirements when you are paid for your work.

:bulletblue: You are NOT required to sell stock exclusively through the dA Stock project with Fotolia.  If you decide to be exclusive, your royalty will be higher.  If you don’t want to be exclusive, you can still become a provider to Fotolia.


The biggest question we have from the comments is:  Will all the free stock on dA get swallowed up in a new stock offering?  It’s easy to just answer “no.”  But a better answer would be to have the community tells us what to build and what to leave alone.  Maybe “free” stock on deviantART could be better organized?  What would this look like? Maybe the “rules” or “conditions” for using free stock could be better stated or could be more uniform from artist to artist?  Or maybe it should just be left alone as is as a true community solution that moves with the community’s will - - organized essentially on a one-to-one basis.

A clear message seems to be a need for commercial stock licenses to allow the use of stock only on deviantART.  So it would be great to have some specific feedback from more of you about what the rules would be in terms of when and where commercial stock can be used on deviantART.  For example, what if people paid a small amount, like a subscription, to use the commercial stock in any art that stays only on deviantART?  Or should it just be free for listed uses?

What does “only on deviantART mean?”  No prints? No downloads?  No off-site sharing? Would it be OK to use commercial stock in a dA Portfolio if the stock was part of a manipulation or of a sample design?  It’s easy to just say “yes.” But people who make a living from stock may not feel the same way.  So what would be “fair?”

There are many other issues brought up in the comments so far and a number of really constructive suggestions outlining how dA should approach stock. This would be a really long, intricate journal if we tried to list them all and it’s time now to get really focused answers, a couple of questions at a time.  So consider these the first among more to come and thanks so much for participating in this terrific dialogue!

:dalove:

Visit the dA Stock Project w/ Fotolia