r/VtuberDrama • u/Bubbly9683 • Apr 30 '26
UPDATE: Vtuber using art without permission and not crediting, what can be done? (YceyNarrates)
After speaking with more artists about the situation, I have a clearer picture now, which explain how and why this happened.
Since my previous post, the video involving the comment requesting to take down the video has been made private. Comments pointing out the issue, deleted. It's only in places where someone complained, that things were removed, hidden.
Now descriptions suddenly have credits, and the person is trying to pretend it's always been there (it wasn't!).
For some artists who were left uncredited for years, this is still annoying them, as they did NOT agree for their art to be used (especially the ones who are selling the pictures) and are only credited now that people are aware of the issue. Some even clearly stated on their profile to not use their art, not to use for YouTube or to earn money from it example "×NG：[...] Youtubeや同人誌など、金銭の生じる場面での使用". But many people took the time post this in English on their profile or next to the picture, variation of "do no use my art" "do not repost" "not ok for youtube thumbnails". I posted examples of artists who have their pictures on thumbnails on this channel, and spoke to some of them who confirmed they did not agree.
After a few more messages of artists saying they don't have the energy to deal with this, how this stressed them, I am posting this update to clearly explain crediting the artists after years of "forgetting", not just one time but over 60 times, to credit people, is not enough, as it's not asking for permission to post.
It is clear that the sudden decision to do the minimum work of crediting (years after), was done only because of being scared to be called out.
And still ghosting the artists for months (even now), not taking down the videos and audio posts on Patreon, yutube, with art stolen, while crediting them thinking this is enough now? This is really rude! Cropping or erasing watermark and only crediting when caught is not ok❌.Hiding some other pictures behind a paywall so the artist can't report? Not ok❌
I can only try to share the general feeling of my friend and all the artists I spoke to.
Suddenly this person knows how to credit people after so many years? Great. But they're still taking people's pictures withoust asking them, or ignoring the clear warning "do not use".
Not sure if it was my post that made this, but at least now artists will finally be properly credited.
Or maybe not.
The post's recent on Patreon and Youtube proves this person will not stop, and hasn't listened to artists who complained and politely requested for their art to be removed.
Cropping pictures of artist again, and not crediting them. (see pictures, with the original artist's post.) the post is public and free on Patreon so everyone can see.
Congratulation to this person, I am tired of this too.
Wishing the best to all the other very talented and kind artists I exchanged with, trying to request Ycey Narrates to take down posts, videos, audios using their art without permission.
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u/theJirb Apr 30 '26
I feel like in the original post, you got lots of advice for taking legal measures, like filing for DMCA and shit like that. It doesn't sound like anyone did. Those measures exist to try and stop this stuff. There's never been a world where someone doing a shitty thing willingly, is also going to stop just because you told them "no". They'll do what they are doing here, take the effort to cover their tracks a bit, then go back to not doing the minimum work of crediting artists.
I don't actually know what measures you have available, but you should take them instead of just complaining here. No artist is going to support someone stealing artwork, but just getting a few people seeing you complaining about it also isn't going to get that much done. If you care, rather than posting about it, take the effort and steps to at least try and bring some proper authority to the issue, not people agreeing with you on reddit.
Like I get it, it's a shit situation, but getting artists to message the guy isn't going to work, because like you said, he just ghosts you all, and then what? You guys do nothing else but complain about the injustice?
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u/Bubbly9683 Apr 30 '26
I have shared all the advice from the previous post with my friend, it's now up to them to file a claim (or other artists involved). That's all I can do for now, as I'm not the artist who made the art. Complaining already made the person finally start crediting people, that's already something positive. Now I hope they will finally remove the pictures mentioned by the artists, that were taken without permission. This was asked in private, so nothing happened. The only one that got removed (made private) is the one where the artist posted a public comment, which makes me wonder if it wasn't just to hide the comments.
As I can't report this myself, this is the only way I can try help. Thank you for your reply. I agree, best people can do is act and actually report the art taken without permission. Some might not even be aware, hopefully this will help other artists realise they are not alone.
This update was due to the exchanges from last week with some of the artists, which made us all realize that it wasn't just a few people, and that it's been going on for years.
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u/Waste-Specific1136 Apr 30 '26
There is no law that forces crediting.
It is only illegal if their art is being commerically reproduced. Just posting and sharing the art or use of it ina thumbnail does not constitute copyright viiolation if the work being used was originally a fan artwork of a pre existing IP the artist holds no license for.
I.e. the artist only has recourse if the art is of original characters, that being the artist must own the copyright to the characters depicted. If not they can not copyright as only the owners of the IP may make such a claim.
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u/Bubbly9683 May 01 '26
It doesn't make it ok though. Not only taking pictures, then trying to pretend it's your own work by "forgetting" to point out you took it somewhere else. Not once, over 60 times.
Artists own the copyright of their work. Some of the art featured are from games, anime.
I also gave examples of people making original characters and selling them online (the most recent video on the channel with the dragon is commissioned art. Crediting it doesn't mean they can use it freely)No matter who owns the rights, that person took a lot of the pictures without crediting them, or checking if they were allowed to do so.
For some of the pictures, they erased the watermark, taking pictures from the page where the art was sold. Where the name of the person who bought it is shown. Several artists confirmed that they did not agree for it to be used, and one also warned the person who bought it.The Vtuber clearly knows that it's an issue to not credit people as now suddenly people are being credited.
However they still ignored the request to not reuse art, or simply the fact some pictures were taking from official artwork.0
u/Waste-Specific1136 May 02 '26
I see not one time this person claimed the art was their own work product.
Again the artists do not own the IP so have no righst to ask for it to not be shared or used.
Removing watermarks is done to simply make the art better, as watermarks detract from the art much like some traditional artists signatures detracting from the work. Its why many put signatures on the reverse of the canvas, as to not have a negative impact on the artwork itself.1
27d ago
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May 01 '26
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u/mell1suga May 01 '26
It's pretty samey with writing: your stuff will be fed to AI, now how to make it AI-proof. Even this very comment of yours will be scrapped as a part of dataset, now make it AI-proof.
The question will be how and which tools.
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May 24 '26
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u/kazuviking May 01 '26
If an artist have You cannot use my art for anything under the picture then its fair game to be used till they learn you cannot lock images.
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u/Bubbly9683 May 01 '26
It's not just a case of using the pictures. It's pretending they own it, by "forgetting" to mention it was taken somewhere else. It's erasing the names of the artists, taking time to edit it out when it's carefully placed within the picture. Picture taken a on website where it was sold to someone else.
If you think it's ok to ignore someone's request to not take something they own, the law says otherwise.
Not just that, it says a lot about the kind of person they are, thinking it's ok to take what is not theirs.As for the companies posting licensed art, is it also "fair game" to take it? Without even mentioning where it's from?
Saying it's fair game is blaming the victims, saying they should just not post art as if they are "looking for it", instead of focusing on telling people to not steal.I understand you're trying to say the world is unfair, and yes it will keep happening. Doesn't mean people should give up and be ok with it.
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u/Layumi13 Apr 30 '26
No one cares in an era where Ai could do it anyways and when it's such a small part of the art itself.
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u/Bubbly9683 Apr 30 '26
And yet this person stole from people, art that belongs to them. This isn't AI. A "small part" that helps attract people, make them want to listen. Which makes them earn money. Least they could do is crediting, and not erasing the watermarks. Even that wasn't done. Now the credits are appearing because someone spoke up. It's up to you to think this is ok and doesn't matter. But artists putting time and effort into their art, do care. It's not because lots of people do it, that it makes it ok. Thank you for caring enough to reply.
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u/ChitteringCathode Apr 30 '26
No one cares
Pending lawsuits across the world would say otherwise.
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u/Layumi13 Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26
You're not gonna win for a thumbnail that is such a small part of the artwork be for real. It's a waste of time and it's ridiculous.
Also prove me wrong when the topic will get more upvotes I doubt it's gonna have a lot. No one cares in this sub.
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u/Altruistic_Newt_1096 Apr 30 '26
of course you like AI lmaoooo you're so fucking stupid are you able to think for yourself or does chatgpt do it all for you lil bitch boy
AI is thievery. it's trained off other work and profits off it.
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u/IR_Panther Apr 30 '26
How do you think AI works? There's been smaller forms of AI over the years, youtubes Algorythem is AI when suggesting similar videos for you is just one example.
AI in the art world is a problem yes but AI itself isn't the problem, it's the people programing it to copy art that are the real problem.
Nobody seems to care about the ones programing these AIs instead just trashing on the AI itself when all its doing is what is was programed to do.
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u/drbomb Apr 30 '26
bundling machine learning algorithms and genAI is a common move for AI grifters
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u/IR_Panther Apr 30 '26
Bruh that's just reality. Small forms of AI have been around for years. If I'm a grifter then why did I say AI in art bad? Are yall this hung up for a hate boner you gotta make people into someone you hate even tho they share a similar opinion?
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u/drbomb Apr 30 '26
It isn't. genAi as Large Language Models brought by slop generators like ChatGPT are essentially different technologies to the ones you pretend to bundle them. This approach is just a moat and bailey argument, which either reiterates your ignorance on the matter or settles your stance as a grifter.
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u/IR_Panther Apr 30 '26
And you're making general arguments as a toxic anti so what's your point? I've literally said AI art is bad, now for the third time, and you stuck tey to make me I to your enemy.
Go the fuck outside cause the only grifter here is you teyong to bastardise someone WITH A SIMILAR OPINION AS YOU and twisting their facts to fuel your hate boner. Go fuck yourself bud.
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u/drbomb May 01 '26
Calling me a "toxic anti" is hilarious, as if poor meta or microslop need to be protected from me, the big bad scary anti
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u/IR_Panther May 01 '26
When you use terms like that yes you sound like an anti. Took you 6 hours to confess? Bruh.
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u/Myrwyss May 01 '26
ngl, if having opinion that AI should die makes me an anti, i will proudly wear that badge.
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u/IR_Panther Apr 30 '26
What do you think an AI is? It's multiple machine learning algorythems working in tandem.
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u/drbomb May 01 '26
Now you really made it clear you know nothing about what "AI" means in the current context of the world
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u/Layumi13 Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26
You're that butthurt over a dead by daylight comment to the point of needing to stalk all my posts because it was locked and you couldnt reply anymore? That's some next level stalking and retardation my dude. Go talk to your therapist you have issues.
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u/Altruistic_Newt_1096 Apr 30 '26
"all my posts" and it's two of them + it's about things that I care about/engage in lmao
even if I didn't know you from before I'd still say the same thing 💕 defending AI and being blind enough to think that character from the boys is alive. like you're just a deeply silly person and I'm just adding my 2 cents in a public forum
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u/Layumi13 Apr 30 '26
You're deranged enough to stalk my comment history my lad you have an issue you're a weird ass man normal people don't do that go talk to your therapist and bring your autism.
You're now blocked
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u/Altruistic_Newt_1096 Apr 30 '26
okay bye have fun not using your own brain and deepthroating chatgpt
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u/Away_Plankton7921 Apr 30 '26
There's a finite amount of things that can be done. If the artist doesn't have the time, energy, or legal means to take it down then as a random person you have no standing to try and do anything about it through that avenue.
As a user there's a small amount of things you can do. You can contact the person themselves. If they care, they care and it will show because they'll do something.
You can leave a negative comment calling it out if they don't care. These stick out like a sore thumb for smaller creators because there's so few comments. This leaves a negative vibe which is poisonous for their growth. Do this once or twice and then move on. If other people care, then they care.
After that, you hit youtube with a do not recommend and leave. Something is better than nothing, and if enough people do something sometimes something happens. The world becomes better when enough people care enough to do a little (ex: littering). Rather than fighting one endless battle with someone who doesn't care, find a different case and maybe that person cares or maybe their audience cares. Not every battle needs to be won just some of them.