Topic: Are "pirated" but "free" artworks accepted?

Posted under General

Shaller

Member

what I will talk about is not actual pay content because that just violates uploading guidelines.

https://space.bilibili.com/1171154301/upload/video
This artist, who is only active on bilibili, occasionally creates suggestive artworks as videos. Those artworks are heavily censored that you can't tell whether they are too explicit to upload or the artist deliberately use them as clickbait. Inferred from the comment sections, if you want to get the original images, you have to like, "coin"("投币"), favorite the video (and probably subscribe) and message the artist, then they will send you images showed in the video.
While you can hold these artworks personally, the artsit stated that sharing is not allowed and any "leaked" artworks would be considered as "pirated", as if they are actual pay contents on Patreon.

Checking the uploading guidelines those artworks will fall under $0.00 pay content because you don't have to cost real money to obtain the images. That means the artworks are accepted as long as they have been posted for 2 months. (If you don't know, you can get a "coin" everyday you enter bilibili, and there're more ways to get "coins")

The final question is, will these "pirated" artworks be accepted by the public, even if they didn't break the guildelines? For me I wouldn't deny because I kinda dislike the artist creating artworks just to use them as clickbaits to attract attention.
Although someone have did things like this and those posts have been approved, I still leave this question just to confirm.

SCTH

Member

You're probably correct that such posts technically don't break the guidelines. However, they'd be explicitly posted against the artist's wishes. In general, users should have the artist's permission to upload, though it's not a strict requirement. The artist can request a takedown at any time, which would result in those posts being deleted. If such posts are uploaded, since the artist explicitly disallows sharing, someone who can should contact the artist to tell them about the posts and how they can deal with them, as well as how to obtain DNP status.

Clawstripe

Janitor

Yeah, technically, they don't break the guidelines... maybe. Whether they count as pirated or not might be a bit of a gray area here, but you could make the argument that this "coin" is a form of currency even though it's not translatable into real life money (or so I'm assuming). Furthermore, SCTH's reasoning is sound. I'd say to save yourself the headache and not bother uploading them.

TheGreatWolfgang

Privileged

Based on a random site I found that talked about Bilibili's currency types and what they do:

Bilibili Currency Types
Bilibili’s Currencies: Coins, B Coins and Shells

Bilibili has a somewhat confusing digital currency system.

Users receive a certain number of coins (硬币) when they log in to the platform, and they can then give coins to specific videos. A creator’s earnings are influenced by multiple factors including

  • comments,
  • bullet comments,
  • views,
  • and coins.

B Coins (b币) must be purchased by users with real money and can be used to buy various services and products on the platform. These cannot be passed between users, and cannot be converted back into Chinese yuan.

Shells (贝壳) are earned by creators for their content and can be cashed out for Chinese yuan. 泰特能说, an account with 21,000 followers and 207,000 likes, has earned 660 Shells so far, which can be converted to one Chinese yuan. This short video with 457,000 views earned 163 yuan, while this longer video with 107,000 views earned 176 yuan.

Experience Points

The coins can only be accumulated once you reach the first experience level, and to do that, you will need to pass the verification test.

Additionally, you can gain experience points and B Coins for actions such as

  • daily logins,
  • daily broadcasting of videos,
  • daily sharing of videos,
  • connecting your phone number and/or email address,
  • setting up a secure password, and
  • account verification.

So, in short, "coins" can influence the creator's earnings while "B coins" are kinda like virtual currency for on-site purchases. "Shells" are gained through users using both of the coins mentioned.

Thus, I do think this does technically fall under commercial content and not necessarily "Pay-What-You-Want" content.
Or at the very least, this is treated the same as how we don't allow posting from certain personal websites or Youtube channels because they get money from ad revenue.

Clawstripe

Janitor

thegreatwolfgang said:
So, in short, "coins" can influence the creator's earnings while "B coins" are kinda like virtual currency for on-site purchases. "Shells" are gained through users using both of the coins mentioned.

Thus, I do think this does technically fall under commercial content and not necessarily "Pay-What-You-Want" content.
Or at the very least, this is treated the same as how we don't allow posting from certain personal websites or Youtube channels because they get money from ad revenue.

That's good to know. Thank you. In this light, I have to stick with my recommendation above. The currency might not be convertible into real life money, but it's still a form of currency, like tokens an event or a city might offer that can be redeemed for goods and services at a specific time or place. It's not money per se, but it functions similarly. We'd have to treat anything not freely available by this artist that's uploaded here as paysite. Regardless, Shaller, thank you for asking as this turned out to be pretty valuable.