Claim Ownership of Your Artwork with Wacom Yuify in Rebelle

I must say that Rebelle is a great tool for artists and that after all the Abode changes in their term to claim rights of all products made with their software, I have decided to use Rebelle as my main software for art and painting. I take every opportunity I have to let people know about your software as a great alternative to Photoshop when it comes to painting and illustration. And I am glad that the company is making the effort to help protect the artists from all this mess that generative AI has caused all around the internet.

That being said, I honestly am not that sure about this plug-in. I saw some people mentioning that partnering with Glaze or Nightshade would be a good idea, so it might be good to consider that as well. This all is a huge arms race between artists trying to protect their creations and people trying to use these new technologies for terrible and evil purposes such as scams and art theft.

I hope this to be just the beginning of a lot of more efforts on helping to spread information about how artists can protect their artwork in all ways possible, that will certainly bring a lot of good publicity and attention to your products since so many companies have decided to jump in the generative AI train and have gotten a lot of negative backlash like Abode so this is a crucial time to let artists know that you are a company that cares for them.

This is NFT-adjacent nonsense and I'm glad that it's optional. It's a great thought in concept but for starters, I don't trust Wacom as a proper steward of this project considering they were caught with their hands in the AI cookie jar before. And second, what happens when they decide that they're not interested in maintaining this anymore? NFTs weren't immune to broken links and this won't be, either.

NFTs were the previous "hot new thing" that came out (and then sputtered out, after ruining the ability for consumers to buy graphics cards for a few years) from the same sort of tech folks who are now scraping the internet for generative AI/ML exploitation. Plus, as others have pointed out, Wacom has had a few marketing slips recently that have hurt artists' trust in them.

I suppose I'm glad this is an optional feature, but either way, I have no intent to ever use it. (And indeed I'll pass on this update, and any other minor updates until there's a bug fix/feature addition I need.) I don't trust Wacom, and don't have high opinions on NFT/blockchain stuff.

Dear Escape Motions, hope you hear me clearly that this is unappealing and a massive turnoff.

Understanding copyright is a precarious but vital part of being a modern artist. There are differences in how copyright and associated ideas are handled in almost any country. I can speak for the US here-- we have a system of registering with the Copyright office (it's actually not that bad-- last I recall, you pay US$35 to upload a bunch of images at once.) It doesn't actually grant copyright-- it only records it into a mass leger. Copyright is granted the moment it's created. What it does grant is much higher maximums for court cases that can easily offset the cost of litigation in small claims without the extra paperwork from the Copyright office.

These micro-watermarks haven't been anything new-- back like ten years ago HP had a product that allowed a digital watermark to be overlaid to an image that would effectively act as a QR code and allow crediting and a level of security over people taking pictures of printed art. It also looked horrible, adding a pixely mis-registration effect on everything to be reliably readable. But my larger problem is that this apparent miracle product is... meaningless. It shouldn't come with the higher maximum payouts of copyright infringement as it's not run by an actual governing body. A Blockchain isn't much more than a resource intensive list of hyperlinks in a spreadsheet that are absolutely notorious for laundering and legitimizing fraud, content theft, and scams. It's Boffo.

Apparently, from their FAQ, all you need to register an artwork as 'your own' us a Wacom ID (just an email) and perhaps an address for litigation purposes. I'm sure you'd be fine with me using my wacom account to 'reclaim ownership' of the Escape Motion assets and example artworks on this website, right? Mind you, Blockchains are giant webs of continuous information that require an excess of redundant work, so any blockchain requires one continuity. You wouldn't want to make a fork of two lists of equally legit lines of ownership just to override a few... clerical errors, right?

Escape Motions Crew, I greatly respect your place in the art programs world. I've been using Rebelle since version 3, and if I could get it to do eerything I needed and never touch another program, I really would. For examples of positive computer tools for artists, I point to your Nanopixel tech as an amazing accessibility resource to help processing and speed and file size for the artists who can do really amazing things with your tools. It's made by people who clearly know what they want their product to feel like, and what it can do in the hands of others.

This is nonsense. It's nothing. It's ineffective. If it's a product I won't use, then fine. Not liek you can make me. But I'm dissapointed in the reputation I'll associate with this announcement now. It's a bruise where there didn't need to be one.

If you're interested in helping artists assert ownership, then helping to spread information about how to protect art-- how to create effective watermarks, how to develop unique styles, how to share artwork in ways that are resistant to swiping or botfarming, would be a great boon not JUST for your potential customers or users, but also for all those people who feel maligned by quality art resources being out of their reach that pushes them into these scams. It sounds hard. It really does. And it is. Everything except the easiest choice, doing nothing, is hard. But this chicanery will be harder in the long run. Maybe you all get some sponsorship, or integration, or brand recognition out there. Hope that doesn't bite you later on. Genuinely.

Even some kind of references or integration to something like Glaze or Nightshade would have been so much more... valuable. Productive. Beneficial. Such a better choice. But you're not here for artists, you're not here for your customers, the people who your tools provide for. My best guess is, you're here for some SEO and payment in exposure on that websit above. Hope you get what you paid for.

I’m not interested in “leveraging block chain technology” in any way, shape or form. I’m certainly not in love with the idea of letting Wacom be in charge of certifying my digital art. I don’t trust their motives and I’m certain there is a monetization angle somewhere that will rear its ugly head. I appreciate that digital art tool companies are trying to find a way to offer security to their user base but this “solution” is not appetizing to me. ☹️

I'm not sure if NFTs from a company that got caught promoting AI art on more than one occassion is the way to go. I'd much rather see you guys collaborate with the creators of Glaze and Nightshade.

Copyright infringement was rampant during the NFT craze also.

um. No i dont think we should bring nfts back actually.

I've actually tested Yuify on Photoshop. The so called invisible mark is not actually invisible. On my test image after I exported the image with the Yuify plugin, I loaded it back into Photoshop, and I could see several marks on the image that looked similar to QR codes. Kind of an instant dealbreaker for me.

Hopefully Yuify improves in the future because it does sound like a great idea in theory...