A lot of people use cartoons as header images here at Daily Kos, like the one by Nick Anderson I’ve used here.
The problem isn’t that you use them, cartoonists are remarkably generous with their work. The problem is using them without any links back to the cartoonist.
These folks pay their mortgage, feed their family and pay their bills with the money they earn from their work. The way you can help them with that is to be sure to PROPERLY tag the cartoon when you upload it to the Daily Kos library.
If you can’t tell who the artist is, because the signature on the ‘toon isn’t that clear to you?
- Right click on the image
- Choose ‘Search Google for image’
- Unless it already says “cartoon” on the search page next to the image, overwrite what is there with “cartoon” and whatever part of the Cartoonist’s name you can read.
More than 9 times out of 10 this search will give you a link to the Cartoonist on Twitter, Facebook and their homebase URL like Cagle Cartoons.
I’ve been running a #CreditTheCartoonist #TagTheToon promotion on Twitter for about a year now. I can tell you that the cartoonists DO APPRECIATE this, because they’ve been telling me.
So please, do the right thing when you use a Cartoonist’s work here.
Because I’ve tried to PRIVATELY contact users who post stories with images like the one I used here and urge them to do this and you know what I hear from them?
Why are you bothering me, that cartoon has a signature on it.
Don’t talk to me anymore.
Here’s a newsflash for all of you doing that.
The Image Library has a warning right at the top:
Before you upload, please make sure you own this image or have a license to use it publicly.
Do any of you have a license to use that ‘toon publicly? No, you do not.
Newspapers and online sites PAY the cartoonist to use their work. The Cartoonists, as I said earlier, are very generous when it comes to social media sharing of their work. But you all can certainly at the very least, be sure to properly CREDIT their work to them and leave at least one link back to them so that they might attract a new PAYING customer to their work.
Thank all of you who already do this, I guarantee you, the Cartoonists appreciate it.