So Deviant Art decided to go and delete my Azumanga Daioh Christmas animation, claiming that it breaks copyright. This is outright ridiculous for multiple reasons.

For those who are curious, here's what the offending artwork was:

[link]

Basically, a little animated icon that takes the short "jumping characters" animation from the show and adds little animated Santa hats. I thought it'd be innocent, cute, and something other Deviant Art users might be interested in using as IM icons or something. Deviant Art apparently disagrees. DELETED!

*grumbles*

First of all, I think that Fair Use excuses just about anything you might find on a website like Deviant Art, and this piece in particular - this thing wasn't done for profit or advertisement, it didn't dramatically alter the nature of the original work (I just added Santa hats!), the affect it would have on the original work is minimal to nil or perhaps even positive, and while it does draw heavily from animation used in the show, I stated in the work's description itself that this original animation was not my own, something anyone familiar with the series would know anyways.

The second of two messages I received on this deletion claimed the deletion was for the reasons "art theft" or "no permission", but these are also poor reasoning - Fair Use requires no permission by the original owner of a piece of art, and as for "art theft", it's not like I was claiming that the original art of the show was my own.

Second of all, if this isn't a huge case of "pot calls kettle black", I don't know what is. If I had a nickel for every anime or videogame character featured in artwork on this website, I could very well be a millionaire. Why they chose my art over the countless other pieces on this website completely mystifies me.

Perhaps Deviant Art is just over-reacting to prevent the possibility of a frivolous lawsuit, but even then, this is a tad ridiculous, as I highly doubt my tiny little icon is going to draw any lawsuits, and even if it did attract legal attention, it would only require a quick remedy. Did the parent company that owns Azumanga Daioh really sue Deviant Art over my tiny little icon? I seriously doubt this.

As a result, I find myself highly unlikely to post further content on Deviant Art. As much of my work features licensed properties, it seems pointless to continue to bring them here when they may very well be shot down, and in addition, I feel little desire to support this website with my content when it seems as though they have taken to overbearing and arbitrary levels of censorship.

I like the premise of Deviant Art. A place where artists can share content and comments is a really great idea. Unfortunately, what this website has become runs counter to everything that art stands for - namely, free expression. Maybe someone else somewhere will attempt something like this again, but this time do it right. However, until that time comes, I doubt you'll see me contributing further to the art community.