The Collective - Persuasive Writing

This afternoon we were took part in an okay/not okay activity starting with things like 'Is it right to eat in the studios?' and 'Is it right to drink and drive?'. This was a starting task to lead up to the main task concerning social media, copyright and peoples rights to do things. We were shown a video about a copyright scandal from a few years ago where an artist (Richard Prince) created multiple pieces of artwork which caused many stirs in the media. He created an entire gallery where he commented on peoples instagram posts and then screenshotted the picture with the comment. This was done without asking the photograph owners permission and without even informing them of whats going on. He managed to sell the artwork for as much as $100'000 each. This has been seen as copyright by many people but legally, it wasn't. When we all set up accounts for social media accounts such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, we have to agree to the terms and conditions at the beginning. As we all know, it would take a very long to read this as they tend to be at least 30 pages long, therefore we hardly ever do if at all! In these terms and conditions it states that the photographs you post can be accessed by anyone on the web and taken, saved and used by others. As you're uploading to a website, you're theoretically giving them permission to use the photos as well as other people using the site. Even though this is the case, some people still believe that you have all rights to that photo. It's not just a case about ethics but morals as well. I don't believe that it's morally right to take someone elses picture for anything without their permission.

The whole idea of this activity was to build our skills for persuasive writing as well as getting us to think about copyright, ethics and morals in the industry. The last part of the activity - after having discussions in groups and as a class - we had to write a final paragraph trying to persuade people of our opinion. We had to write a full paragraph explaining ourselves and our views.

My Persuasive Text About Princes 'Artwork' Scandal

Prince created a gallery for the public full of Instagram users photographs as screenshot - with a modified comment from him below - without their permission. He sold the photographs for huge amounts of money without telling them. Is it morally and ethically right? Is it fair? Is it their own fault?

It's sort of the 'way of the world' where hardly any of us read the terms and conditions and even if we did, just because our photographs and work are not copyrighted on the sites, it doesn't mean someone else should be able to take a screenshot and re-use it saying it's their artwork. I don't believe what he has done is artwork as it's not his, all he has did is add a few words as a comment and screenshot it putting it onto canvas.

Would you like it if someone took a picture you posted online and sold it for thousands of pounds? Would you be happy with the fact that if you had that sort of publicity you could earn yourself a lot of money? I don't think many people would be too happy if an artist took a screen shot of your selfie, commented on it, claimed it as their 'artwork' and sold it.

This was the email I received back from Cass after sending her the piece of writing I created.

As a response to the email I have re-written the piece, going deeper into the situation.

My Second Persuasive Text About Princes 'Artwork' Scandal

Prince created a gallery for the public full of instagram users photographs as screenshot - with a modified comment from him below - without their permission. He sold the photographs for huge amounts of money without telling them. Is it morally or ethically right? Is it fair? Is it their own fault?

It''s sort of the way of the world where hardly any of us read the terms and conditions and even if we did, just because our photographs and work are not copyrighted on the sites, it doesn't mean someone else should be able to take a screenshot and re-use it saying it's their art. I don't believe what he has done is artwork as it's not his, all he did was add a few words as a comment and screeshot it putting it onto canvas. Another part of this scandal is the question of whether he is really in the wrong as some people say it's not art if you find it on instagram. What do you class as art? Does this fit the criteria? If someone takes a photo of something putting it online, is it art? Is screenshotting peoples work, adding a comment and putting it on canvas art? There are many different views on this matter which is why it's so controversial. I personally think that the original photos which people post on instagram are a form of art. No matter what the photo is of, its memory photography. However I do not think that what Prince did was artwork as he did something any of us can do. Commenting on peoples instagram posts is a part of daily life anyway so it's nothing special and as for the screeshotting and putting onto canvas, thats not art either because none of its his and it's only a screenshot which was not created by any person.

Would you like it if someone took a picture you posted online and sold it for thousands of pounds? Would you be happy with the fact that if you had that sort of publicity you could earn yourself a lot of money? I don't think many people would be too happy if an artist took a screenshot of their selfie for example, commented on it and claimed it as their 'artwork' leading to seling it.