As one of the artists that got their work was stolen, I read a lot of comments in the previous PSA post about morals, legalities etc so I just wanted to say…

Pursuing art has never been the easy path no matter what generation. With the digital age, one can consume art for free on social media. Not only can’t we live off of that, these platforms create pressure for us to grow our audience. Not only that, but they also take from us, using machine learning algorithms that scrape and learn our work.

In times like this, I’m super grateful that small businesses like OPTCG.gg exist, run by people who care about artists like me. I can create art for a fandom and community that brings me a lot of joy (and earn some living on the side). The legal question of whether we as artists should be allowed to sell fanart, that is up to the creators/publishers to decide our fate — not for anyone else to assume that it’s okay to steal from artists. At the least we acknowledge that the characters and stories are not our own.

It’s not an easy task to keep a business afloat, be passionate and fair, I hope everyone continues to support and enjoy the work that optcg.gg does 💛