Giphy is stealing from artists
Sharing this email thread on a public link, for discovery & posterity.
Email Thread
To: Pasquale D’Silva
From: Ari Spool, Community Operations Manager
Subject: Fwd: Sup?
Friday, Mar 2, 9:47 AM
Hey, last time you were here, thought we were chatting on good terms — we invited you to submit a proposal for a project and we never heard back on that. Wondering what’s going on — you’re welcome to come in and talk some more any time — a lot of what is being said about how GIPHY works and what we do isn’t true and it’s a bummer!
Ari
Hey, been noticing a big uptick in friends noticing their original creations up on giphy powered services, with no compensation, let alone artist attribution at the bare minimum. Doesn’t feel right.
- Pasquale
You should have them get in touch with us!
We immediately resolve this stuff when we’re notified about it. Can you connect us with some of the people you’re talking to?
Ari
Well I mean, nobody gets attribution do they? Who made these?
If I were to pitch a project, it would be:
pay the artists.
Give back to who you’re profiting from.
I sure as heck didn’t agree to any terms when all my gifs got siphoned from my blog into giphy.
—
- Pasquale
Most of these in this screenshot were purchased by GIPHY from artists (we paid money to the artists for them) or submitted by people who asked to have them featured. For instance, Andrew W.K. uploaded himself and asked us to feature him in Instagram. We are in direct contact with all these people and take their suggestions to improve this product, and pass them on to Instagram, who is listening. But as this product improves, we are being conscious of who we feature in here for this reason.
Also important to note — we don’t make money yet, as a company. We’re not profiting off anyone anywhere. We have no income, except from some scattered advertisers, who we ask to pay artists to create the content they use to advertise on GIPHY. Last year we paid out hundreds of artists on our platform through various commission projects and brand work.
We want to hear about individual use cases, as we pass them on to other platforms when we get them. Our API is free, so anyone can use it, but we do send platforms feedback on their integrations and we’re always looking for more. Please feel free to pass along anything you see directly to us!
If you would like to remove your profile from GIPHY we are happy to do so at any time — just let us know.
Ari
A 300 million dollar valuation isn’t nothing. If your goal is to make money or sell the company… then you are profiting.
Pasquale
