lid

All of these artists (none of whom are by any means rich and may even be actively struggling to afford necessities) are being treated with contempt, as if they're the elite 1% and access to art is impossible (there are hundreds if not thousands of small local artists that can be hired by small businesses for instance). It is disheartening to see so many people telling artists, many of whom have spent decades honing their crafts that they should be happy they're going un-credited and uncompensated. In any other case with copyright infringement or plagiarism an artist's ability to protect their work has been the norm for over a century, it shouldn't be any different now.

Artists should have say over what happens with their work, just as everyday people should have say over what happens with their own personal photos and likeness. If someone specifically took photographs of you and your family without permission and mixed them together to make "new" people for their advertisements, you probably wouldn't like that very much (and yes that is also happening. Gen AI doesn't just scrape art, it scrapes photos and doesn't discern between what's an ethical photo and what's not ((i.e., photos that would break the law to be in possession of, lets say))).