Blog / 2019 / #FixRedbubble

#FixRedbubble demands no more deleting artwork unless Redbubble either acknowledges its censorship or shares DMCA takedown notices with creators. No more doing the licensing companies’ dirty work and getting away with it!

#FixRedbubble will show us all the art that Redbubble has censored and start to give us an idea of the effect the company is having on creativity. Check out #FixRedbubble on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Not selling through Redbubble but having similar issues on another print-on-demand site? Use #FixRedbubble as well as a hashtag that names your POD marketplace (#FixYourPrintOnDemandSite) and post about it! Then share your site-specific hashtag with me so that we can work together to force these marketplaces to recognize that they don’t have a business without us.

This is the first of my designs that Redbubble censored back in 2016. I wrote about the idiocy of this choice in this post that also praises Patreon’s very sane DMCA policy.

After this design was removed, Redbubble didn’t censor me for three years.

Then, in March, Poopbubble deleted this image—a piece that is a critique of copyright! Corporate America is clearly too lazy to understand irony.

This is the third artwork Redbubble removed. I didn’t publicize this censorship, because I was too busy responding to my political art being removed from display at a public library. In other words, an IRL censorship at a public institution distracted me from a censorship via bogus copyright claim. Can I get a “#ArtistLife”?

Then this piece was deleted, and I had a little twinge of “am I wrong?” With so many removals, I started to question myself. Which is exactly what Poopbubble wants, as it states so eloquently in its cowardly commentary about fair use, quoted from this page on its site:

A NOTE ON FAIR USE: You might be able to incorporate someone else’s copyright or trademark into your own work, if you do it in such a way that that is considered “fair use” or in such a way that qualifies as another permissible use. However, please be aware that “fair use” typically applies in limited circumstances and isn’t the same as “freedom of speech”. Quite frankly “fair use” is a difficult concept, even for the experts, and the scope of “fair use” is different in different countries. So even if you think you’ve created a work covered by “fair use” or another permissible use, you should talk to an attorney prior to using it in connection with the Redbubble service. While some uses might appear “fair” or permissible to you, we ask that you understand that Redbubble must act in accordance with its Notice and Takedown procedure when a report has been received. Additionally, certain works may be taken down without a specific report being received if we are otherwise alerted or aware of potential infringement issues.

Ultimately, you take full responsibility for the works you upload and display on Redbubble. This is reflected in the Redbubble User Agreement. Use of the Redbubble website indicates continued acceptance of this Agreement.

This was the fifth and final straw for me, removed just recently. You want to censor political art using some flimsy excuse and then refuse to show me the DMCA takedown that is supposedly motivating your censorship? You will regret it.