Using someone’s work on the Internet without accreditation is no laughing matter, unless we’re laughing at Madonna. Then it’s cool. Last week, the Queen of Pop posted an image of the Village People but with their faces replaced by Vladimir Putin’s on her Instagram and Facebook, using the hashtag “#artforfreedom.” The painting comes from well-known artist Jim’ll Paint It. Not that you’d know: Madonna failed to link to his Facebook page or any of his work, let alone mention his name, and her feed quickly filled with upset fans.
Cool thanks Madonna for your approval of ripping other people’s work off. If I ever decide to listen to your music it’s nice to know that you wouldn’t mind me downloading a torrent.
That’s when Jim got involved. He was pissed, with good cause.
Well yesterday was a wee bit frustrating to say the least. It seems my Putin painting has taken on a life of its own. Of all people, Madonna took it upon herself to share a heavily compressed, completely uncredited version on her Instagram and Facebook pages gaining nearly 40,000 likes and a further 5,800 uncredited shares.
I’m not one for pride but this did annoy me a fair amount because in not crediting me she has failed to promote the T-shirt the image is from which has so far raised £1,400 for Stonewall and Human Rights Watch. Given that her post got more than twice as many likes as the original image I can only imagine how much money could have been raised had she (or whoever runs her social media) taken the small effort to reverse-search the image on Google and credit me or at least post a link to the T-shirt.
So, feel free to post your most unflattering Madonna requests below. Also, the original T-shirt can be found here with £5 from every sale split between Stonewall and Human Rights Watch. (Via)
The t-shirt is sold out, but bookmark this link in case a new batch comes in soon. Anyway, here’s the winner of the unflattering Madonna contest. Please say hello to “Madonna drying out cigarette ends under a hand drier in the ladies toilets in Wetherspoons.”
Still less disturbing than this.
