Lexygts
patreon
Yeah... about this thing called "piracy"
🕑 Added 2023-04-15 12:47:37 +0000 UTCSeeing my stuff sold publicly by others and my payed content leaked on the very same day I publish feels like a hit into the stomach. It's discrespectful towards the artist and everybody who payed for this stuff. I am not going to tolerate that. Many artists ignore the piracy as it is too much of a hassle to tackle. They like to focus on the fun part, the creation. The result of that passive behaviour is that they now work for free for multi millionairs who make a a shit ton of money by running ads on their own pirate sites. They can pay damages from lawsuits without any problems from their pockets. It is a booming professional business where often very naive or stupid people hand out their data to the big guys. Long term they even strangle many artists into quitting altogether. Thank you, but no. Not with me.
So far I had several websites removed from Google search for copyright infringement and filed dmca take downs. Over 20 people have been banned from my patreon and the next step is to take them to court aswell, atleast in those cases where it's feasible. This however, is not a long term solution with a growing community of compassionate and wonderful supporters and the problem has gotten worse and worse over the past 2 months with more and more people joining. Patreon itself does very little to work against this issue. This is why I am working now on new solutions:
a) Positive insentive. I want to make something that makes people reconsider if its worth it to release content. Most artists work wtih negative insentives and threaten to quit if it doesn't stop. That is fairly childish and I'd never consider this an option. This is a fun hobby and I like doing these things! For every single month without any content being leaked I'll take my time and make a special comic for free for everyone. The timer resets with every single time someone leaks something, as of right now it is at ZERO days. Obviously the problem with this solution is, if you make a living of piracy then you don't give 2 fucks about these rewards and you have no problem screwing others over for your own personal gains.
b) Technical solutions
- 1. I'll no longer put out my content the way I do right now. There will be a change to the way I put out things in the future. I'm still working on concepts that don't ruin accessability etc. but there are a couple of ideas. For example each comic will be individually watermarked so I'm not fighting ghosts anymore. This will make fighting in court much, much easier.
- 2. A great thing about having your own website is the wide range of tools to your disposal. It can even track when someone gives the access of their account towards a third party piracy provider and can result in an immediate and automated crackdown.
c) Accessability solutions
Some countries don't have access to patreon. I'm looking at different distribution/payment systems outside of patreon for those but I'm aware that this is mostly a problem that can't besolved. The tolerance level of paying for nsfw stuff is extremely low in general due to the nature of abundant free stuff. I'm already doing my best at offering as much as possible for free and the majority of rewards are with the lower priced tiers.
It is going to take me a while to implement all those solutions sadly, since they cost both time and money. If you are a webdeveloper and might be able to help out on implementation then please message me! I've already burned out from the time I spent on the website. Ever since that has been dealt with I had been able to put much more time into the actual content creation and that is what's actually fun to work on.
Thank you everyone for your support and thank you for answering the quiz that I sent to you all yesterday! There have been a lot of great responses and feedback that helped out a lot. I just had to write this and get if off my chest because I'm really pissed at the moment about this whole subject.
In case you wish to post my works on some website (for example e-hentai etc.) then ask for permission beforehand. I don't have much of a problem when it's authorized. I'm aware that some form of piracy can be even good. A day 1 release of big projects isn't...
Comments
LexyGTS
I'm actually very happy with the current and third version of my website. It stopped the majority of it on top of creating a better way of reading. This combined with regular google search removal request does already achieve 90% of the results with very little actual work so you can focus your attention on what is actually fun! The creation part! Don't let it eat up your mind!
LexyGTS
I'm actually very happy with the current and third version of my website. It stopped the majority of it on top of creating a better way of reading. This combined with regular google search removal request does already achieve 90% of the results with very little actual work so you can focus your attention on what is actually fun! The creation part! Don't let it eat up your mind!
GramSims
i had the same problem, this is what motivated me to start stopping doing content for my patreons, i had in the past like 1000 patreons and now i live with 150~ 200, i have no idea what to do as the same as you. :c
Goldendawn
Lexy, Being a content creator myself, have you ever come up with a solution to this at all?
LexyGTS
The worst part is it really kills the mood, concentration etc. I wasted this entire weekend and got absolutely nothing done. Could have made so much with that time instead...
LexyGTS
A vpn wouldn't be a problem as the ban would be tied to the patreon account. It would get automatically rid of the leaking account. I'm still in the early development stage and wasted this weekend on that, end result a dead end. I could have made so many comic pages this weekend instead... yeah. What a shitty situation. Talking with some web engineers now. It's not something I can do myself. It's so unebelievably dumb to pirate from active people.
ClassifiedCretin
It saddens me to hear not only are people still pirating your work, but their numbers are actually increasing. I hope you are able to find a suitable solution to stop this. On a side note, would a VPN potentially trigger a false positive in the automatic banning mechanism?
Torchlight3D
I cannot express just how much I can relate. Regardless of however fair and generous you try to be, people out there will continue to paint you as a monster for wanting to reward those that truly do care about your work and are generous enough to give you some of their funds to justify the insane amount of time that goes into this sort of work. Truly the only advice I can offer is that you should focus on those that are here (despite some of them being bad actors) and know that your work will always be appreciated by those of us here. Thank god for the beautiful people that are here, willing to do something that so many others turn there nose up to. Thank you for your work, it is always appreciated by your community!
Timberwoof25
I'm glad you got this off your chest. Honestly, considering a bit of your stuff is free, it surprises me why piracy is still happening, but then again, the internet is quite the jungle with petty thieves and thugs around the corner. But I think if having access to the free content gives someone a look at what your work is and if they love it and want more (like me awhile ago), go to patreon and sub and boom you got yourself a follower. But anyways, you do great stuff man, keep it up!
Speed_Sound_Sonic
Ich hätt nen Vorschlag was das mit deinen Content betrifft. Du könntest zum Beispiel die Datei die zum herunterladen ist mit einen Passwort schützen dieses man wiederum nur Patreons per mail bekommen. Das wird es zwar nicht ausmerzen aber vielleicht verringern. Wenn du Hilfe mit deiner Website brauchst könnt ich nen Freund von mir fragen der eigenständiger Webdesigner ist. Weiß aber nicht wie das bei ihm zeitlich einteilbar ist da er auch Weiterbildungskurse in verschiedene Richtungen nebenbei besucht... bzw. bin ich momentan beim Jobwechsel und geh Richtung programmieren und schau mir auch Webdesigner mal an... also... ja... evtl. könnt ich was für dich arangieren
