ig Posted September 13, 2001 Share Posted September 13, 2001 Dear Friends, LOST ART is an ad-free, independent, lifestyle and photography site. It is entirely homemade by two photographers, Ig and Louise, from São Paulo Brazil. We PAY from our own pockets to host it on a private company. We PAY from our own pockets for film and processing to document graffiti and other art manifestations. We spend a LOT of TIME scanning, editing, and uploading photos to our website. LOST ART has over 2500 pages of photography. Our current hosting package includes up to 4gb of data transfer monthly. Each additional megabyte is charged extra. Usually our monthly transfers are about 9gb. This adds up to quite a sum. Graffiti images, among with tattoo photos are the largest in kb, simply because they are very detailed and colorful and don't compress too well. We chose to preserve the quality of the images instead of making smaller lower quality files. We take copyright very seriously because our photo sales are what put food on our table, and what pays for more photos. We have repeatedly asked people not to link directly to our server and not to steal photos from our website. This bandwith rip off cost us money and shows our photos out of the context under which we decided to exhibit them. We understand this forum is mostly visited by writers and is not commercially exploiting our work and we don't wish to stop people from viewing them, just to keep them where we believe they belong. Os Gemeos are personal friends of ours. Besides documenting their work, we work, travel, and hang out together. We translated their interview replies at the Art Crimes site from portuguese to english. They used a photo of ours in the last cover of their magazine, FIZ. The images we present on our site are approved by the twins, and images they request us not to display are removed. So this isn't about being selfish, just about preserving our property. If the person who uploaded the images took his time to look at Lost Art closely, he would realise that it is a lot more than a graff site. It includes photos which document the very things which influence the Twins' work, like street scenes from São Paulo: http://www.lost.art.br/lifestpg.htm As well as work by other incredibly talented artists, who also paint with and influence them, like: Herbert http://www.lost.art.br/herbert.htm and Vitche http://www.lost.art.br/vitche.htm There are hundreds of additional images and we update our site often. However, if people continue linking directly to our server, or stealing our photos we feel no incentive whatsoever to continue. Feel free to link to our site, but do NOT make us pay for sharing our work. We don't think this is too much to ask. thank you. peace, good vibes, ig ig@lost.art.br Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ig Posted September 13, 2001 Author Share Posted September 13, 2001 sorry, the link to the SP street photos is wrong. the photos are here: http://www.lost.art.br/lfstpg.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Guapo Posted September 13, 2001 Share Posted September 13, 2001 people shouldn't steal photos anyways.Get your own shit ladies and gents..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown twinkie Posted September 13, 2001 Share Posted September 13, 2001 shush el guapo, this site would be a sad affair otherwise......................... request executed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mud_buddha Posted September 13, 2001 Share Posted September 13, 2001 Originally posted by ig: Dear Friends, There are hundreds of additional images and we update our site often. However, if people continue linking directly to our server, or stealing our photos we feel no incentive whatsoever to continue. Not for nothing, but wouldn't this be throwing out the baby with the bath water? Don't get me wrong, I understand how annoying image jacking can be, but there are other alternatives to closing the site. Namely, install a server side solution to stop image linking from any site other than lost.art.br and your worries dissapear. It's your server and your images, you can protect them very easily. Unfortunately, you're running Windows 2000 and IIS, so I can't offer you any advice specifically on how to do such a thing (I proudly know nothing about Win2k and IIS), but even with crappy-ass Microsoft products there have to be relatively easy solutions to your problem. I know with Linux/ Apache there are (although unlike the Open Source style solutions the M$ ones may cost money.) Good luck with this. Your site has excellent content. ------------------ buddha bless you [This message has been edited by mud_buddha (edited 09-13-2001).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mr.Raven Posted September 13, 2001 Share Posted September 13, 2001 Although it's difficult for us to control what people choose to post or link to on our site, I understand what it feels like to have bandwidth constraints... However, my personal opinion is that these photos in particular are bigger than any one individual or site. Although I respect that you would appreciate being reimbursed for the time and money invested, as well as being credited for documenting these photos, I think it would be unfair to everyone if you were to horde these images since it is in direct contradiction to the philosophies upon which the internet was founded and upon the sentiment the artworks in question we're created in. I am also freinds with Os Gemeos and have spent enough time with them to know that they create their art for the people. On this note, I extend an offer to host these photos on our server and provide full credits and a link to the photographer or originating site on each page that any of these photos appear on. Email me if you'd like to discuss this further... raven@12ozprophet.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack tripper Posted September 13, 2001 Share Posted September 13, 2001 From the other side... We have an ad free site in which we pay out of our pockets, film which we develop on a weekly basis which is paid for out of our pockets, stickers which we give out for free that we pay out of our pockets, and not to mention the amount of time we spend scanning and preparing the site. WE DO IT FOR THE LOVE OF IT. We encourage users of this forum to link to our images. The only thing we do request is a reference when linking. http://www.lay-lo.com IG, Do you ever sell photos of another artist's work? If so does the artist get a kickback from the deal? [This message has been edited by Mayor Bill Campbell (edited 09-13-2001).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ig Posted September 13, 2001 Author Share Posted September 13, 2001 Raven, i don't know if you remember, but we met in Miami after I covered the Race Across America bike race, a few years back. About hosting the twins' work on your site, we thank you for the offer and will ask Otavio and Gustavo if they agree. Having a popular site is more costly than we thought it would be, both in time and expense, but we are very devoted to it, mostly for the cool people we've been able to meet through it. We have never sold any photos of other artists' work. There are reproductions of some SP pieces for sale at the Otto Design gallery in Venice but none have been sold yet. The twins agreed that whatever income is made from these prints will be given to a homeless shelter in the Cambuci neighborhood, here in SP. Our photography income is not based on graffiti, and doesn't exploit others' creations. We do feel strongly that the work in the streets of SP must be documented, as a lot of the stuff is gone very quickly. We don't think the reproductions do justice to the quality and diversity of the work available in SP and encourage everyone to see for themselves. The complaint was made after paying for a particularly expensive additional bandwith fee. Looking at data from our server reports, we tried to minimize this cost by politely requesting all sites which are linking directly to images on our server to remove them. Not just graff sites, but tattoo, harley, and adventure racing sites. Trust us, it adds up. We don't have the tech know-how to fix this server-side. We use Macs only here, although the hosting company uses Windows (which we also don't know anything about). We are just photographers, trying to share our particular vision. thanks for the feedback. ig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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