I can imagine doing something like that could help out an unknown artist with a good story who either can't sign with a platform or doesn't want to. If your work is going to be stolen anyway, why not control where it is to some extent and encourage people to give a donation if they can?
It might be different for artists signed to a platform since depending on their contract they might not be allowed to accept donations or merchandising deals, etc or, they might have to also split the profits from outside ventures. I.e. platforms sometimes basically own creators and their creative projects for as long as their contracts are valid. This is why creators can have really popular works but still be financially struggling. By time distributors, managers, etc take their cuts they might actually end up in debt.
This is genuinely so stupid. If I’m gonna die someday anyway, why won’t I just jump off a bridge today? Do you see your logic right now? Nobody wants their work stolen. These people create webtoons for A LIVING. If it gets stolen and shared illegally, they don’t get paid as you said yourself, and they quite literally can’t survive. And I’m not gonna act holy, I read on here too though personally I also read legally when I can, but what you said really rubbed me the wrong way.
Oh geez I totally misunderstood your comment, I’m so sorry for being aggressive about it!! I actually agree with you. Gosh I’m so dumb. I’m really sorry about that, you can ignore everything I said!
Nobody wants their works stolen but it happens. Just like nobody wants to be in a car accident but it happens.
In an earlier post I actually broke down how and why popularity of a piece of media might not translate into wealth.
Not sure what you're offended over as I've not said anything to be offended over.
I'm not talking about YD in this case. I was talking in general terma about someone who may be unknown but wishes to make it big.
Imagine you're an artist on say Instagram and you have a story to tell but you can't get a contract with a major publisher so you try on your own. Inevitably someone might come across your work and post it somewhere and when that happens they could edit your work and take you off the credits.
This site has a lot of people on it so if you post here as well as your usual site and you let people know you are you, it might actually attract people who are willing to donate.
Not saying you have to or that is actually what will happen or that YD or anyone should post their works for free. I'm just pointing out that there might be a possibility where that method could work for someone.
If you pay attention to the world, you might see that this is already being done in some media. Go on YT and look for your favourite songs. People like lyric vids. Tons of artists are actually posting lyric vids of their own songs. Muse is one of my favourite bands and they just posted remastered versions of some of their songs recently yet still people are still leagally buying their music. There are a couple of YT-ers I subscribe to who post exclusive vids on subscription sites but they'll release those vids on their YT channel weeks or months later for free.
There's always a portion of people who just won't pay for media but there's also a portion who will always pay and a portion who will pay when they can. In terms of being an unknown, releasing a few free samples might actually attract paying customers and if someone does steal the other chapters hidden behind a paywall, having a verified presence on an illegal site can limit the impact of theft.
Some scanlators don't upload or translate until they have X amount of people proving they've legit paid so the artist is being supported. One can argue the effectiveness and morality of that but that's beside the point. Something similar could probably work for an independent creator.
An independent artist could post two or three free chapters on a site like this, link to their social media and donation and then not release new chapters until their hit their donation mark. Since this site is interactive, if users ask for a new unavailable chapter the artist can either point them to their subscription site or agree to relase the chapter for free after hitting a stated donation mark. If someone illegally uploads on that same site, the actual author is there to fight to take it down. Possibly not this site but maybe they can even make a deal with an illegal site to be the sole uploader of that particular story on that site. (I think Ma***f*x actually had a deals of this type on their site a few years back).
There's a lot of room for possibilities. Signed artists probably can't explore those possibilities because of the nature of their contracts and lack of control over their own works but an independent artist might be able to.
No worries. This comment section riles people up tbh.
I remember recently that an author themself posted their own work on this site to gain clout haha but that was because they value people seeing their work than money.