ljhkhjkghjybtvhyt said:
Main topic #18636
reference_work
reference_photo Warning: porn
Initially judging by the wiki these two tags were intended to be the counterpart of derivative_work and photo-referenced respectively. I don't think that is a necessary purpose to fulfill: the children should be tagged derivative_work instead, which we do. In fact these tags also enable uploading off-topic work just because of its relation towards the in-topic image.
Needless to say they take the prize for ambiguity: with reference_work people weren't sure if it meant derivative_work, reference_photo_inset, reference_inset, how_to. I tried to garden to keep its original meaning whilst there remain some posts where I'm not sure what the taggers meant.
I propose retiring the tags once its pertaining posts are properly gardened with derivative_work and photo-referenced
Sigh...
These tags work mostly fine, currently. I must, in the absolute strongest terms, question the wisdom of making multiple changes and restructuring things just so some people may have an easier time of searching for photos of real-life people, which is not the primary purpose of Danbooru (it's for drawn art, principally).
As mentioned on the previous topic, aggressively gardening posts that depict real-life people to include the real life 'copyright' tag should work fine for most purposes, without affecting other people who more interested in looking for examples of drawn art.
Anyway, the reason why reference work and reference photo are not automatically tagged derivative_work is because there's a certain threshold for, well, 'derivativeness'. And 'art'. If someone takes, say, a picture of a someone else doing cosplay, then rotoscopes/traces it into a drawn version, then yes, that is obviously derivative. But if someone is merely inspired by the cosplay, and draws something new while introducing multiple original elements and/or transformative changes in the process, then clearly, this is not derivative.
That's why post #4158580 is reference_work but not derivative_work. Because there are multiple significant original and transformative elements introduced by the artist.
Similar, just taking a picture of an apple and then drawing it is not derivative work (Hint, the original picture is also likely not "art" if it's merely taken for the sake of being a reference photo). Taking a picture of a Gunpla and then using it as reference photo for a single panel in a comic? Also not derivative!
Or, to rephrase the above, referring to another reference or image while drawing something does not in of itself make that thing derivative.
As such, these distinctions are important. Especially since they can have legal implications. Labeling an original, transformative piece of art derivative has significant potential in pissing artists off, even if they are otherwise okay with us hosting their work here. Our current tags are working fine to differentiate between all these subtleties. Perhaps we might need name changes or better-written wikis to avoid confusion, but we shouldn't jumble everything around all just for the sake of making it possibly easier for some users to search for photos of real-life people, which, as mentioned (here and in the previous thread), is not the primary purpose of Danbooru.
Edit: I apologize if the above came across as brash or strongly-worded, but I felt I needed to make those points clear. I have alluded to some of them earlier (in the other thread), but I didn't want to sound too direct then for fear of sounding rude, so I may have been too unclear then. I apologize if this caused any confusion or offense.
