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Many artists' livelihoods take place online and in social media, but how can they protect themselves from their work being used to train AI programs? It is a growing concern as “AI scraping” is essentially theft, and no creator wants their work stolen or worse stolen then mass marketed without credit or consent. We put together a handy guide to help you protect your art from AI scraping and some general internet theft too.
Can I protect my art from AI? What is AI scraping? Are there steps I can take to protect my work? Glaze and Nightshade Watermarks Real Pictures Trusted Platforms What is Linktober doing to protect participants? Can I protect my art from AI?
Yes, and no. At this moment in time (2024) there is no 100% sure fire way to completely protect your art from AI (artificial intelligence). The reasons being that if your work is out there in the public eye whether that is on social media, on the internet (your website or others), or even on display in a public place there could be someone who takes a picture of it or records it and submits it to AI datasets (unlikely and deliberately inconsiderate). This is a very real but still unlikely scenario. It is far more likely that your work has been scraped by bots that crawl social media and the internet (even if you removed it). AI scraping is serious and immoral.
Learn to protect your art from AI on social media & the internet
What is AI scraping?
AI scraping is when images, poems, music, art, etc are taken (usually without consent) from “public spaces” such as the internet or social media, and then are submitted into the datasets used to train AI. There are now clauses built into the terms and conditions of use on many websites and social media platforms that state they can scrape for AI training purposes. This is scary and a big red flag.
No, this does not mean you should go and delete ALL of your work off of social media…because, sadly it has likely already been scraped and if not then the social media platforms have archives of all data past. Removal can only protect against future possible scraping. Removing your posts on social media is strictly at your own discretion. 
Source from Glaze report https://arxiv.org/pdf/2302.04222.pdf
Are there steps I can take to protect my work?
There most certainly are many ways you can protect your art from AI scraping and training, but again it is not fool–proof or for certain. Below are just a few things you can do to try and keep your work safe from being used without your consent and credit. As we learn of more options we will keep adding to the list, and if information changes we will update things here as well.
Source from Glaze report https://arxiv.org/pdf/2302.04222.pdf
Glaze and Nightshade
Glaze and Nightshade are programs that have been developed that add a layer to your images. This layer jumbles AI bots as they crawl looking for images. Some artists out there like this method and others feel it changes the colors and overall look of the images they run through it. The jury is still out on this one, but the fact that ANYONE at all is even trying to help protect us artists in this manner means the world to us.
Source from Glaze report https://arxiv.org/pdf/2302.04222.pdf
Watermarks & Signatures
This is probably one of the easiest and simplest methods but still doesn’t eliminate the possibility of your work being scraped for training. Watermarks are the transparent logos/emblems/designs that overlay images and usually prevent theft or re-use around the internet, but they do take away from the quality and visuals of the overall image as they can change the color and even block things at times. Signatures on the other hand can be fully opaque and be small and hidden. This, again, will not fully protect your art from being used but can really help even if you use both a watermark and a signature. It does not have to be your actual signature but as long as it is something YOU put there and only YOU really know that it is there (as most will ignore it) then if push came to shove in a court of law it may hold up.
Real Pictures
Okay so this should be straightforward, however not the easiest for some to try to do. When you want to share your work on social media and the internet it can be a good practice to take an actual picture of it. What this means is that if it is a physical work you can take a picture of it with your camera or phone but not just of the art/creation make sure to get some of the surroundings and background in the photo too in an effort to prove it really exists. This may not be easy for those who write, those who do digital art, or others, but it still can be done by taking pictures of it on your device with your camera or phone.
If you need examples of what this looks like or how to make it look good you can visit Captain Joel’s social media as he often posts images of his Linktober art that are actual photos. This is also a great way to practice photo compositions with your work. If your art is a physical drawing or painting it is great to get pictures of it with some of the tools used to make it, or some Zelda items around it, or even some Linktober stuff in the pictures too! These “real” pictures of your work can sometimes even help out on social media against the algorithms and make your posts do better as they look different from all the other posts. 
Source joeldsiegel on Instagram
Trusted Platforms
Another biggie among the concerned creatives out there across the web and around the world are which places are “safe” to share work to without it getting scraped or even stored by the social media companies. This is a complicated answer as a lot of them are hiding clauses within their terms and conditions of use, so you do need to read them. From what we can tell from our own research that CARA is the safest as they seem anti-AI and to be for “artists”, and then there is Tumblr is having a revival and MIGHT be a good one (you have to opt out manually), and lastly Bluesky seems to also be safe for the moment. All of this can change in the blink of an eye though so remain vigilant when it comes to social media. Our Linktober Discord server is also a safe enough space because we will never let the images there be shared to AI to the best of our abilities unless Discord changes their own rules.
Platforms we know are NOT safe at all are Facebook, Instagram, and Threads as they are all owned by META and have recently made it difficult to opt out of having your work scraped for their own AI training. X formerly Twitter is also not a safe space…for anything. Being owned by the wanna-be supervillain Elon; he wants to do everything in his power to steal your ideas and capitalize on them. DeviantArt is not a safe space as they had even launched their own AI, which scraped ALL the art already on DeviantArt, made it so users had to opt-out as you were automatically opted in for it, then they walked it all back and made all users opted out. It was and is likely still too late for them though. If you want to protect your art then maybe avoid using those platforms. In your own travels through social media and the internet if you get wind of places being safe or places not being safe then please share them with us. 
What is Linktober doing to protect participants?
What are we doing to protect your art? The real answer is that we are not sure. At the moment we are doing our best to help educate our fans and participants everywhere about this issue, but that may not be enough. Will we delete all our past posts on social media that reshared people’s art? We will only do that at the creators’ request as deleting things from social media is unnecessary at this point because likely all posts there have already been scraped, used, and archived. That doesn’t mean we still won’t do it, but if you want your work removed from our social media then that is okay, just message us and let us know.
We will be limiting our resharing A LOT more than we have in the past. This isn’t just a protective effort from our team, but the algorithms have now made it virtually impossible for us to sort through our hashtags on some platforms. We will likely reshare to stories on Instagram since they are temporary, but ultimately if you as a creator or artist have shared your work on social media then we will take that as a sign that it is okay to keep sharing your work and leading new followers to you. We will take it as a sign that you feel it is safe enough to share your work. As AI gets even more prominent, more protection will appear and we will be able to continue to alter course and help our fans and participants out even more than we can now. Until then just remain steadfast and use our steps to help. Recap of Linktober's Steps to Safely Share Your Work
The closest to 100% protected against AI would be to not share your work at all including in-person, but that defeats the purpose. Therefore if you follow some or even all of our suggestions then you may be as close to completely protected as possible. Start by taking “real pictures” of your work, add a watermark and or a signature in there, then run it through Glaze or Nightshade, and lastly know where you are sharing your work to is a safe space protected from the scraping for AI training. The Triforce is strong with you and together we can work to protect your art and educate each other to keep our creations safe from the evil clutches of AI.
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 The first week of Linktober has just about wrapped up and we’ve seen so many creative and beautiful art pieces in such a short amount of time! Day one kicked off with the Main Calendar’s “merchant” prompt celebrated by the popular choices of Beedle, Happy Mask Salesman and Ravio! The amount of love for these three characters is quite apparent. There were also some new characters to the game, especially after the TOTK release including merchants like Cece and Koltin! However, what seemed to be more popular than the new characters is the Shadow Calendar!! Many of you are super excited to see its return and there is no shortage of the 'dark arts' here for Linktober! There were plenty of gibdos and dodongos among the merchants and temples we saw on the first couple of days—some truly incredible artwork! Keep it up, we look forward to more of the shadow prompts being completed! The beautiful TOTK landscape seemed to dominate the temple and Sky/Skylands Prompt—quite a challenge—this is surely only the beginning of some new TOTK game art for the 2023 calendar! Days three (Friend/companion), four(Sage) and five (Species) had amazing variety and some nostalgia! We really enjoyed the emotion that you brought to these pieces—they tugged at the heartstrings. Speaking of emotion—the Lost prompt for Shadow had an excellent turnout, many from Majora’s Mask and OOT. More Majora’s Mask followed on day 6 for the obvious Mask Prompt, showcasing the many faces and characters of such a beloved franchise. They were all hauntingly beautiful! The Rangers have been busy checking all of our platforms to share your artwork! We love seeing all of them. While our biggest platform is Instagram, consider also checking out Deviant Art! Our friends at Zelda Universe are co-hosting a giveaway if you submit some of your artwork on the Deviant Art Platform. Please click the link here for more information. As a reminder, Linktober is about the human connection through our art, so this contest does not include AI art submissions—we do appreciate you taking the time to understand that! Please message us with any questions. You can also submit your artwork to Zelda Dungeon by using the hashtag, artist of legend! Our Sage, Heather and ZD team will be sharing artwork that utilizes this tag! Be sure to add it to your next post. We are anticipating another fun week ahead starting off with Constructs! What prompt are you most excited for this week? Are you doing a quest calendar? Tell us below! Need inspiration for your art? Check out our Pinterest boards! We have A LOT of boards and are in the process of adding more! Until next week’s wrap up—may the Triforce be with you! Linktober Rangers  Linktober, the daily Legend of Zelda art & creativity event of October, is here to help you and creators around the world grow and flourish. Our event and community are incredibly supportive, creative, welcoming, and encouraging, as well as open to new ideas. That being said, we are against the use of AI (artificial intelligence) art in our events and community. This article will explain why we are and what to do about it by answering a few questions. See them just below.
Why is AI art a problem currently? There are a handful of reasons why AI art is a problem, and they are being worked on as we type this. First, a large amount of the images in the AI datasets are stolen or rather accessed and referenced without expressed written consent. That means that the hundreds of thousands or more images inside the datasets like LAION-5 were taken off the internet without the creators of those images knowing about it. That is immoral to begin with. Inside those datasets are images of art works from famous painters, who are now dead, but cannot give their consent to have their work accessed nor are artists alive or dead being paid for the use of their images and work. This continues to be immoral. There have been AI users who have used images they generated as actual consumable content. That means people have generated images, even full books, using AI and then sold them at shows, online, or had them trademarked, copyrighted, or published. As in the images they generated from AI programs that access other work illegally, are being sold to the masses. This is beyond immoral. To sum it up, that is making money off of stolen images that these people did not actually create. It took them no time, no talent, no skill, no knowledge, and no money. Fortunately there is legislation in the works to help us independent artists out there with AI art as it was recently decided it could not be trademarked or copyrighted.
If AI art is art, then why is it banned from Linktober? This is an easy one. Linktober is an art event that is all about creativity and is a community of independent creators. Those who use AI to generate images are not creators, no more so than those that input equations into calculators and claim they solved the problem. Our event is a way to promote and encourage creativity of all kinds and for all ages. It takes years for most of us small artists to hone our skills, tailor our crafts, develop styles, and learn techniques. Using AI to generate images in seconds completely defeats the purpose of joining in on the fun of Linktober. Everyone who participates in Linktober takes hours to days to create their work, instead of seconds to generate without the mess or the fuss. Linktober has a purpose as well. I (Joel) built Linktober initially as a way for artists to not only see their art improve in 31 days but to help with time management too. When creators do all 31 days of any of our calendars they get to see improvement and changes in their own creations from day 1 to day 31. It really helps build skill and confidence for creators of all ages and stages. As for time management; creators set aside time each day dedicated to the art they create for Linktober. That means they have adjusted their schedules, their lives, to be able to create on a daily basis. Using AI to generate images for Linktober is a cheat to everyone including the user generating the images. What happens if I use AI for my Linktober art? That’s on you…really. At that point you are stealing not only from artists all around the world and on the internet, but stealing from yourself. You have chosen to not learn anything, not gain new skills, not make new friends. You have likely used AI for Linktober in an effort to gain followers which is like eating a doughnut. You get the instant satisfaction, sure, but later on realize it was all just empty and did no good for you. What we will do is ban you from our event, our community, and ever being involved in any of the open projects we do. You will effectively be blacklisted not just from our creator community but by the reputation and association, many others. This will all be on you for doing it as we will do nothing besides block your accounts and ban you from Discord. You will be done with Linktober and we will be done with you.  Are there ways to use AI art appropriately? Yes, as reference. There are ways to use AI to generate images that are useful to creators. There are ways to use AI art as a tool. There are ways to use AI art morally. As I said, reference is the key to doing it right IF at all. Creators out there will use AI to generate images they can use for reference of things like backgrounds, perspective, and even posing of characters. It is and will be a great tool when AI no longer uses datasets of stolen images. For now, using them for reference will mean that you would recreate the parts of the images you need to use in order to make your finished pieces. As long as you are not tracing, and you know how to use reference correctly and morally (a separate blog coming soon) then you should be fine. It is being used for your own learning and as a tool, which is what we independent artists are really waiting for. AI is not for you to just generate images of your favorite franchise in a different style to see what it would look like out of curiosity. People post game streaming captures for Linktober, but I can’t use AI? Yeah, that is right. While players did not create the games they do create the scenarios of which they share and most if not all of them end up being unique. We (Linktober) might not reshare in-game videos but that doesn’t mean they are not allowed. Playing the games still takes a lot more effort than generating imagery based on stolen art from thousands of artists living or past. Afterall, without the games themselves we wouldn’t even have Linktober.
The Legend of Zelda has always been creative and pushed boundaries, so much so that an entire creative community has risen up around the world surrounding it. Linktober manifested from that and is here to perpetuate it, creativity, community, and fun. If you aren’t having fun something might be wrong, and it is okay to contact any of the Linktober Rangers to talk, for questions, or if you need help. Join our Discord, follow us on social media, tag along for the main event during October, and keep enjoying the legend.
May the Triforce be with you. Special thanks to captain jesticles stealer of AI art on pinterest for the images |
AuthorOur team writes about art and the Legend of Zelda. Archives
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