Interest
Artists Leaving Pixiv Over Dispute With Modern Art Group
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
A number of artists have been leaving the artist community website pixiv after a modern art group called Chaos*Lounge started using images from other artists on pixiv, modifying them, then using the modified images in its works. (Pictures of Chaos Lounge's works can be seen on its website).
Many pixiv artists have started leaving the site and migrating to other art community sites, such as TINAMI and PiXA, as a result. On Monday, TINAMI reported 2,500 new registrants or 50 times more than normal, and on Tuesday it reported over 10,000 new registrants or 200 times more than normal. PiXA reported 100 times more registrants than normal on Tuesday, crashing the site's servers.
One pixiv artist by the name of "sekitoba," posted her reasons for leaving pixiv, claiming that Chaos*Lounge "takes others' images and tears them up and calls it art." The user also claims that what Chaos*Lounge is doing is violating pixiv's rules, and that when others used the same technique as Chaos*Lounge and posted their works on the site, their account data were deleted.
The pixiv site issued a statement addressing the situation to all of its members on Wednesday, and apologized for its delayed response to those who have contacted the site about it. The site denied that it has a relationship with Chaos*Lounge and its members, and also denied that it is cooperating with the group in producing and exhibiting works. The site acknowledged that Chaos*Lounge was mainly formed from users of pixiv. Although the group has been introduced in the events and magazines alongside pixiv, pixiv said that there is no relationship between the two in these activities.
The site explained its delay in taking action by saying that it did not receive complaints from copyright holders about the uploaded works, so it was difficult to take quick action. The site added that it hoped that it would deal with the dispute while hearing from its users and outside experts.
[Via Yaraon! (link 2), Temple Knights]
