This week, for the first time ever, we had an artist contact us to ask to remove pictures of their artworks from Street Art Cities, claiming intellectual property infringement.
Rules vary across countries about who holds IP rights of a picture of an artwork, but within the UK, where this artist was located, pictures of artworks can be considered reproductions of the original artwork.
We’ve taken the step to delete all pictures of artworks from this artist, and have set up a few things on the platform to make sure we can deal with these claims, if they happen to occur in the future. We’ve added community notes and audit log entries to explain the changes to these artworks.
The main change is that it is now possible for us to mark a certain artist profile as blocked from accepting new artwork uploads. Hopefully we won’t have to use this again, but in case you see a lock behind an artist name, that’s why. Hover over the lock icon to see the reason that artist profile is locked.
We’ll always try to inform artists on why this community exists and how it can be beneficial to them, but we do want to honour legal claims if they are made. Sorry if that meant we’ve removed some of your images in your case!
I think it’s one of mine from Kingston Upon Thames. It’s been on his Instagram since 2022, and I would think that it must have been photographed loads of times!
It’s understandable that legal rights need to be respected, but it still feels like a pity. Street art is created in public space with the intention of being seen and shared – that’s part of its power and relevance. Platforms like this don’t exploit the work commercially; they celebrate it and give it visibility far beyond the street corner where it lives.
Of course, every artist has their reasons, maybe even concerns about how their work might attract attention in ways they can’t control. Still, it’s a bit sad to lose these pieces from a community that exists to document and honor them. Hopefully, with time, perspectives might shift.
Sad to hear that this has happened and that this new feature has been needed, let’s hope it’s never required again.
That being said, I just want to check it’s working correctly. If I go to upload a new artwork I do not even see the artist Irony listed and therefore the padlock doesn’t show with the info as described. It also would appear that a hunter who hasn’t read this post could create the artist again… See image
I imagine the artist has been burned by some business or other stealing their image for commercial purposes. I did have an artist ask me to remove a post of a mural from Instagram when I contacted them for more information, because it had been done with her ex-husband and of course I complied. Respect for the artists is key, right? Without them, we wouldn’t have any of this.
And thanks very much for all the work you’ve done with streetartcities.com. The app and website have led me to many beautiful murals and areas of cities that I would never have known. And usually when you find one mural, there are others.
New user, and just saw this thread. Just as well, as i was going to add a piece of art by Irony that they created earlier this year in Kingston!
But I thought I would check out to see if their name was blocked, but it looks like it has been completely removed.
I know the post i am replying to is old, and a lot has no doubt happened since then, but if I hadn’t read these posts specifically mentioning Irony, I would have added their Match mural.
Is there anything in place to prevent oblivious Hunters like me adding their work?
There is a third… Kinda. His work appears in the same photo as Lovers by Ben Rider on Fairfield N. It’s of a match painted onto a bollard. This was the one I was going to add, until I realised that Irony didn’t want to be on here.
I would suggest that this one is okay, as the art isn’t shown properly, and it isn’t the focus of the photo.
Ah I see - that’s okay. When the copyright claim came in in September, I opted to leave the artworks themselves but remove their images (since that’s where the intellectual property resides, not the metadata), so those empty artworks still existing is okay.
Sad to hear that this has happened and that this new feature has been needed, let’s hope it’s never required again.