Repost - Tumblr took it down (after 236 likes and re-blogs) for no reason. There is nothing about this image that violates their precious little guidelines!
Every single link in that quote is a link to a comprehensive ink drawing book that is/was widely available. Even if you don’t count the ones that are out of print (but are in libraries, art classrooms, and are available online) you’re still looking at *at least* ten, one of which has been in continuous publication for 100 years and two of which are differentbooks written by one author. Also I own two books that aren’t even directly linked here (both about cartooning) that include comprehensive pen and ink techniques as part of a larger whole and cover materials materially similar to what Dunn is saying was plagiarized, and that’s not even getting into the really specific and narrow “pen and ink animals” “drawing in ballpoint pen” “pen and ink landscape” “pen and ink for comics” “pen and ink and watercolor” “pen and ink and charcoal” books that are out there that also cover basic pen and ink technique in a pretty comprehensive way. There are so many pen and ink instruction books that attempting to open links to all of them in the various places that I found them crashed my browser.
He also really, really doubles down on “there is no functional difference between these sections and the layouts are identical” when A) there is a functional difference because Dunn wrote a technical instruction guide and Parker wrote a low-key how-to book for casuals that is primarily about motivation and mindset and B) Dunn’s book has a strong vertical layout and Parker’s is square.
It is making me bugfuck crazy that he’s claiming these two layouts are duplicates.
One of these pages is twice as tall as the other. One has a centered brushstroke font as the header with descriptions under each of four tools; One has left-aligned text with a sans serif header and single-word descriptions next to nine tools. One has tools that are presented illustrated at an angle that points to the gutter of the layout, one has tools that point to the center of the page. We are, literally, not the same.
My second favorite quote from the lawsuit is this:
“Dunn has found many supporters online, who believe that Parker has committed plagiarism and infringed on Dunn’s copyrighted works.”
Friend, what your twitter followers think isn’t legally actionable.
The suit claims that the uses of Dunn’s work were numerous and far reaching, but looking at the images used in the filing it kind of looks like Dunn hasn’t gotten a copy of the book and is still screencapping from the ten images on Amazon. Shoutout to this absolute maniac on Pinterest who not only did a side-by-side comparison of Inktober All YearandPen & Ink Drawing but also compared Pen & Ink Drawing to a bunch of other ink illustration books. Also I’m pretty sure Inktober All Year Long is unreleased and the lawsuit is based on sales continuing until December 2020 but I can’t find the book anywhere new or used and the few people who have reviewed it have claimed they got it because Amazon sent it to them on accident after delivery was cancelled and every seller that I can find that had links to it lists it as backordered or now has a 404 error for the book.
Here’s another pertinent quote from the suit:
Authors instruct on pen and ink drawings in multiple ways. Dunn’s work, however, is not the result of restating standard methods or formulae, but is his original expression born from his creativity.
I do continue to feel really, really bad for Alfonso Dunn, because it really seems like he spent a lot of time reinventing the wheel and is upset that a similarly popular artist is also making a wheel. Like, in the original video he REALLY fixates on the idea of “varying” strokes, and insists that the use of the word “varied” or “variable” must be plagiarized from him because he spent so long coming up with the right word to use for that technique - but the 100-year-old pen and ink instruction book I discussed earlier has a multi-page layout about varied strokes.
Anywaythe lawsuit was filed in September of 2021 and so far it’s been just a shitload of extensions to serve papers and motions to dismiss and motions to extend the time to respond to the motion to dismiss.
I don’t think that Parker is perfect (I actually find him pretty annoying and I do agree that it is very questionable to claim exclusive ownership of an event that became popular because of millions of participants) and I don’t think that Dunn is malicious, but in this case I do think that Dunn is wrong. This guy has a take on it that pretty much aligns with my opinion.
And I’m interested in the outcome of the case because a lot of the claims that Dunn made in his video and appears to reiterate in the case have to do with attempting to claim exclusive rights to teach art fundamentals using extant language, so that’s actually pretty important!
Anyway I am going to continue to Be Weird about it.
I know this blog is pretty dead but does anyone know another art/blog/visual site that I could move my guro and porn content to? I have a hentaifoundry acct but I’m just not a big fan of that site and feel like my amateur ass doesn’t really belong there idk. Not sure what to do…
Ironically enough the ban makes me feel like creating more 18+ and guro art lol ofc
The decision reflects the unfair treatment pro-Palestinian campus activists face across the country
by George Joseph
This Monday, to kick off End Israeli Apartheid Week, the Barnard-Columbia chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine hung up a banner in front of Barnard Hall, featuring a map of historical Palestine. In response, students and parents from campus organizations like Lion PAC and Columbia Barnard Hillel immediately began a concerted email campaign, demanding the sign be removed because of its “anti-Semitic” content. And so, despite the fact that SJP obtained official permission to put up the banner, even explaining the message of their sign beforehand, Barnard President Debora Spar made the decision to tear down the banner the next morning.
The banner, as shown below, depicts a map of historic Palestine to affirm “the connection that Palestinians living in the diaspora, the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and as citizens inside of Israel, feel for one another, despite their fragmentation across time and space,” said SJP organizer Feride Eralp. Nonetheless, Columbia Barnard Hillel President Hannah Spellman claimed that such a display was “offensive and threatening” because it did not include Israeli territorial markings. Yet, despite the obviously contestable meaning of the sign among the student body, Barnard’s administration promptly decided to rip off the banner, effectively violating their own space policies in order to favor the demands, and artistic interpretations, of pro-Israeli campus organizations. Did the banner, which had already been approved, become “anti-Semitic” and “threatening” in the eyes of administrators over night?
“It has been a long-standing tradition to allow any recognized Barnard or Columbia student group to reserve a space and hang a banner promoting their event,” acknowledged Barnard President Deborah Spar in an internal email to Lion PAC (SJP received no such personal email). But nonetheless, she declared, after thanking students for their demands, “We are removing the banner from Barnard Hall at this time and will be reexamining our policy for student banners going forward.” Such a response came as a shock to SJP activists, who were not even informed until campus media picked up on the story.
“People have suggested its not fair to have something so politically charged next to a Barnard logo, but if so, then there needs to be consistency,” said SJP activist and Barnard sophomore Shezza Dallal. “Feminism, Pro-life-these are all very politically charged topics, why were their banners kept up, but ours is brought down now? You cannot just accord freedom of speech until it makes certain people feel uncomfortable.”
Another student, who wanted to go by Khan, complained that both the Columbia and Barnard administrations consistently privilege the needs and beliefs of some student groups over others. “Barnard’s conduct on this was extremely swift. We went to bed having put them up, and in the morning they were gone,” she said. “When we want to get something done, we are not considered a priority. For the Muslim Students Association it has taken two years for us to get a regular religious life advisor, but when one individual, former Hillel president or not, made a Facebook status, all of a sudden this blows up into immediate action.”
Many students felt that the censorship is symptomatic of larger structural disparities and institutional dominance. Columbia and Barnard’s Hillel Center for Jewish Student Life, for example, has its own enormous building on campus, from which it regularly hosts organizations and events explicitly justifying Israel’s occupation of Palestine and arranges hundreds of students’ free trips to Israel as part of the “Taglit Birthright” program. The program has received much criticism for the unapologetically propagandistic image it presents of the Israeli occupation, not too mention its clearly offensive premise that any Jewish American has a right to visit and live in Israel, while millions of dispossessed Palestinians continue to languish in refugee camps across the region. Yet Columbia and Barnard continue to actively support these programs and institutions every year.
In her email to Lion PAC, Barnard president Deborah Spar claimed that the censorship was necessary because her administration’s approval of one hand-painted sign, depicting a map of historical Palestine, gives “the impression that the College sanctions and supports” SJP activities. What impression then do the multimillion dollar Birthright trips, officially associated with Barnard, give in comparison? While one student organization can’t even put up a map of many students’ homeland, another is encouraged to promote and expand programs, which normalize the oppression of the Palestinian people and strive to create a new generation of Zionist apologists.
The decision is part of a national crack down on Students for Justice in Palestine. Today, for example, Max Blumenthal reported in Mondoweiss that the Northeastern University administration suspended their SJP chapter for the year and is threatening two activists with expulsion and NYPD style interrogations for the high crime of leafleting mock eviction notices, drawing attention to the Israeli practice of placing demolition notices on Palestinians’ homes about to be bulldozed. Surprisingly, the Northeastern Hillel chapter railed against these flyers because they “alarmed and intimidated students,” but did not release a follow up statement condemning the state of Israel for the alarm and intimidation stemming from actual Palestinian evictions every day.
In his report on the administrative crackdown at Northeastern, Blumenthal explains, “The suspension of Northeastern SJP is the culmination of a long-running crusade against the group led by powerful pro-Israel outfits based in Boston,” including Charles Jacobs, the founder of the anti-Muslim non-profit Americans for Peace and Tolerance. In the past, Jacobs has claimed that Students for Justice in Palestine are “anti-Semites, Israel haters” attempting to “justify a second Holocaust, the mass murder of Jews” and possessed with “an irrational, seething animus against the Jew of nations, Israel.”
“I stand with the SJP students at Northeastern,” said Columbia sophomore Ferial Massoud. “This is a part of a larger agenda on the part of universities to crack down on pro-Palestinian activists, which is preposterous not only because of the unjust bias of the administration, but more importantly because the university is one of the only places today where students are supposed to have freedom of expression.”
At Barnard and Northeastern, SJP activists were disappointed by this absurd rationale for their censorship, but nonetheless refused to be silent. In the last few days alone, Northeastern SJP students have raised thousands of signatures to drop the absurd charges against the two targeted students, and at Barnard students have decided to go out onto campus everyday to share their experiences with the larger community. “As long as injustice exists we’ll continuing speaking out, because we refuse to be censored,” declared Barnard first year and SJP organizer Jannine Massoud. “It is our duty to speak out because so many Palestinians cannot still to this day.”
I managed to get a couple of paintings by John William Waterhouse flagged. The women were all fully clothed, too. Heckuva job, Tumblr!
(Psyche Entering the Gate to Cupid’s Garden, and Ophelia, if you’re curious. The algorithm seems to pay attention to large photos with two flesh-toned crooked elbows in frame, for some reason.)
I’ll add to this that if the ultimate goal really was to protect kids from being exposed to traumatic material, most of these other books and movies don’t really accomplish that anyway. I had nightmares about Maus when I read it when I was in my 20s, and I had nightmares when I watched Boy In The Striped Pajamas and Schindlers List. I do actually think Schindlers List is a good movie and that was a real person so I don’t put those on exactly the same level, but my point is that even when the main character is shifted away from the Jews in concentration camps, they still have the potential to be very distressing for anyone sensitive to it. So yeah I do think there’s room for debate about how much detail is appropriate in a school setting, knowing that every individual student will have different levels of ability to handle it and that the way students have to compartmentalise multiple 5-8 classes and only have an hour for each is not really a good setting for encountering/processing traumatic material, but I don’t think the argument that something like Boy In The Striped Pajamas is more appropriate holds much water, because it’s also potentially upsetting. And that should force people to realise that it’s not really about whether the story itself is distressing for kids but rather whether it’s palatable to white adults who fear being forced to confront white guilt. I really like the part about how shifting the perspective of the story is about reassuring the white gentile reader that they would have been one of the good ones and lets them distance themselves from the reality of it, because that’s what’s distressing to the adults, not the gory details.
One thing I hate about the NSFW ban on Tumblr is that it has caused people to push the boundaries of what is allowable to an extreme.
Like…back when NSFW content was allowed, you could just turn off seeing that content if you didn’t want to see it. You would rarely encounter things mislabeled, and when you did, you could flag them and Tumblr would then mark the blog NSFW, so it wouldn’t totally shut down the blog.
Now, there are people who post content in various tags I like to browse, that are really pushing the borders of what is SFW (we’re talking nude pics with tiny edits censoring only genitalia and/or “female-presenting nipples”), and frankly, it’s stuff I don’t want to see. But like, there’s no way for me to flag it without potentially shutting down those user’s blogs if Tumblr deems it actually violates policy, and no way for me to do anything at all about it in the case that Tumblr deems it is on the “acceptable” side.
It’s bullshit. I want the old way back. Allow all NSFW posting, but compartmentalize it and allow me to turn on whether or not I want to see it when I’m using the site and/or browsing a certain tag. I also want to be able to report NFSW content in a way that will prevent people from seeing it when they don’t want to, but without totally shutting down the person’s blog. I don’t want to be forced into the tough decision of doing nothing, or becoming an enforcer for a type of censorship I don’t even agree with.
Sono stanco e stufo di dover combattere contro l'inutile perbenismo contro il nudo e l'erotismo. Sono anche stufo che per colpa di altre persone, l'arte, tutta, ne debba subire le conseguenze. Tumblr era l'ultimo dei baluardi della libera espressione, dove artisti, fotografi, scrittori erano liberi di esprimere e pubblicare le loro opere. Ed invece di combattere la pedofilia, la pornografia più becera ed infamante, il sadismo e il bdsm più basso, Tumblr cosa fa? Colpisce tutto e tutti e falcia chiunque. Io mi sono ritrovato con 3 anni di pubblicazioni rimosse, dove scritti, aforismi, foto panoramiche, ritratti, glamour sono state cancellate, rimosse o classificate fuori linee guida. Questa è dunque la mia protesta. Dopo 5 anni su Tumblr e migliaia di pubblicazioni, rimuoverò tutto, lasciando solo questo ultimo mio comunicato. Ciao Tumblr. Mi dispiace, hai perso la guerra. Ci si vede su Patreon
I am tired and tired of having to fight against the useless respectability against nude and eroticism. I am also fed up that because of other people, art, all, must suffer the consequences. Tumblr was the last of the bulwarks of free expression, where artists, photographers, and writers were free to express and publish their works. And instead of fighting pedophilia, the most boring and infamous pornography, sadism and the lowest bdsm, Tumblr what does it do? It affects everything and everyone and mows anyone. I found myself with 3 years of publications removed, where writings, aphorisms, panoramic photos, portraits, glamor have been canceled, removed or classified out of guidelines. This is therefore my protest. After 5 years on Tumblr and thousands of publications, I will remove everything, leaving only this last my release. Bye Bye Tumblr. I’m sorry, you lost the war. See you on Patreon
I’m trying really hard to be understanding about this whole tumblr mess because people should be upset but like
this isn’t unexpected at all
the rise of “I shouldn’t have to see anything problematic ever, and instead of using available tools to protect myself from these problematic things, I demand that all such content be removed because no one should see it” rhetoric has inevitably been leading to something like this
don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that “all content should be morally pure” crowd is directly responsible for apple’s (or tumblrs) current battshittery
but if you don’t see how an algorithm designed to eliminate a mention of, let’s say, ‘erectlon’ has decided that ‘Alec Lightwood’ is also problematic, then you must’ve crawled out from under a rock yesterday
people say shit like “stories involving minors should be banned” without realizing that implementing something of the sort will inevitably result in the word “minor” being banned, whether we’re talking about minors, something unimportant, a school degree, or a whole set of fckn music chords
last time, tumblr didn’t ban p*rn, they banned pictures of hills and loaves of bread and a thousand other things that were in no way related to anything they were actually trying to ban
and then people spent the next two years going “we should ban problematic things” as if chasing off one person with exposed tits didn’t also mean chasing off thirty people who just liked to bake bread and twenty people who like to take pictures of barren hills, because, idk, they thought that was a fair trade?
and now they wanna know why the word “wax” on the banned list?
because this is literally what censorship devolves into, absolute absurdity, that, in its final form, makes a space utterly unusable even by those who were its most vehement supporters
tbh the apple app store 100% benefits from you blaming Tumblr and not once questioning the fact they can functionally make any rule they want about what an app on their store is allowed to have because they have a functional monopoly on like half of all phones ability to access social media
why is the internet becoming pg. like why is that happening and how is that monetarily beneficial compared to allowing uncensored content. personally i think we should create a new one and call it Nasty Internet
This is my second go at making this blog. The first time, I got shadowbanned immediately for writing a post with these words on it, so I’m going to have to link to a google doc instead.
For those of you who haven’t seen this announcement, tumblr recently made some changes to the iOS version of the app, purportedly to comply with Apple’s content guidelines. These changes took effect on Dec 21, starting in version 22.5.1 of the iOS app. As some of you may recall, Apple’s strict guidelines were the driving force for the infamous Great Purge of 2018, which coincidentally also happened around this time of year, but it seems banning all of the female-presenting nipples wasn’t good enough for Apple.
Below is a summary of the important changes. Note that these changes technically ONLY affect those using the iOS app. If you’re accessing tumblr through a different app or operating system (Google Chrome, Android app, etc) it won’t affect you directly but it will affect your followers who use iOS so you should definitely be aware of it.
The list of banned tags has been expanded. As before, there’s no way to know which words or phrases have been banned until you try searching for them, in which case you’ll either get no search results or the following message: “This content has been hidden because of potentially suggestive or explicit content.” You may think this doesn’t concern you if you don’t post explicit material, but do not make the mistake of expecting the banned tags to be logical or reasonable. I’ve already encountered multiple completely innocuous posts (random fandom gifsets) that seem to be hidden on iOS for no discernible reason.
Blogs that have been flagged as explicit can no longer be viewed. Previously, flagged blogs just had their posts hidden from searches, but if you knew the username you could still visit it after clicking through a warning about sensitive content. Now you can’t access it at all.
Likes and reblogs from blogs that have been flagged will no longer show up in your notes. This one won’t affect most people’s user experience as much as the others, but it does mean you may be missing notes. It’s unclear if likes and reblogs from flagged blogs will still count towards the overall note total (and only be missing from the activity feed and note viewer) but I suspect that’s the case.
THE BIG ONE: ANY POST TAGGED WITH A BANNED TAG WILL NO LONGER SHOW UP ON YOUR DASHBOARD. Previously, if you tagged a post with a banned word or phrase (even if the words were used inside another tag), that post would not show up in searches, but your followers would still be able to see it on their dashboard. Now those posts are hidden from your own followers as well. This includes both original posts and reblogs. And if that wasn’t bad enough, here’s the real kicker: even if you don’t tag something with one of the banned words, if the OP used a banned tag, any reblogs of that post will not show up on anyone’s dashboard (on the iOS app). The only saving grace here, and I hate to even call it that, is that the blocked posts are still visible if you visit a blog directly or if you have post notifications turned on.
As usual, tumblr was extremely unclear and evasive about all of this in their official announcement. Not surprising, of course, since if more people were aware of these new draconian tactics I can’t imagine there wouldn’t be more of an uproar about it. Tumblr claims that these changes are somewhat temporary and that they are currently working on something that will allow for a less restricted iOS experience, but they refuse to say what that something is and when it will be implemented. And let’s just say, considering their track record, I’m not hopeful.
All of this is horrible and infuriating for many reasons, but the worst part is how insanely counterproductive it is to creating the “safe” environment tumblr (or more specifically Apple) supposedly wants.
Tags have always been used for both blog organization and filtering purposes. Tagging posts with triggers and content warnings is a common practice that gives users the ability to filter out content they may find upsetting or just don’t don’t want to see for whatever reason. By choosing to ban a bunch of unlisted “sensitive content” tags, all they’re doing is encouraging people who want to share that kind of content to come up with alternative less well-known tags or simply not tag that content at all anymore if they want it to show up on their follower’s dashboards, thereby making it more likely for someone to encounter it when they didn’t want to.
So really, with all of the alleged concern for safety and “protecting the children,” all they’ve done is make tumblr less safe for everyone. Typical.
The anti-semitic Mcminn County School board just voted to ban Art Spiegelman’s Maus from all of its schools, citing the inclusion of words like “God Damn” and “naked pictures” (illustrations) of women.
Sigh. I’m really exhausted, folks.
If you haven’t read Maus and are curious about it given all of this news, consider ordering it from a local comic book store. They’ve all had a rough couple of years.
#censorship again … another account deleted on #vimeo. this network didn’t like the muzzle gag video with Mina. please note it still online on facebook and instagram without any problem ! so @vimeo please stop bullshitting … your policy about adult content is a joke !
