Exposure and No Credit

 Mike Peterson, over at Comic Strip of the Day, talks about Rachel Dukes. A cartoon of hers, which was freely available to view on her site, was taken, her name stripped off, and it was shared over a half a million times on other sites.

"The money isn’t the point. But this is a thing that’s happening. This isn’t just happening to me. It’s actively happening to the greater art community as a whole. (Especially the comics community. Recent artists effected by altered artwork/theft off the top of my head: Liz Prince, Luke Healy, Nation of Amanda, Melanie Gillman, etc.) Our work is being stolen and profited off of. Right this second."

In other words, if you saw her work and liked it, you would not be able to find her if her name was scrubbed off.

The only thing I'm confused about is the "the money isn't the point" comment along with the "our work is being stolen and profited off of" comment. How does that work? Click-thru ad revenue that would be hers?

Regardless, her point is correct: this is epidemic. And who is scrubbing off the cartoonist's name?

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Related: The Beat: The Cost of Art Theft: From Spike Lee to Rachel Dukes.