License replace: AI derivation prohibited on all my artwork, lore, tales, and comics.

Table of Contents

Side by facet: left, a authentic pencil sketch. Right, somebody who despatched me an AI ‘completed’ model derivation of it…

As a webcomic creator, releasing my work below free tradition license, making my artwork with solely Free Libre and Open Source software program, and with widespread tales and artwork, I’m dealing with a brand new license downside.

The Creative Commons licenses I used since greater than a decade (CC By for Pepper&Carrot, and CC By-Sa for MiniFantasyTheater) miss an choice: the likelihood to ban AI generated derivation.

And I actually need now to setup one thing like that.

AI generated derivation?

I’m talking right here about AI generated pictures or texts impressed immediately by my creation, characters, lore, or tales. That’s as a result of these days, you may immediate any AI/LLMs for a Pepper&Carrot fan-fiction, and it’ll simply output one thing actually detailed, figuring out the characters, their magic, and their strategy to communicate. Everything about my tales, comics and artwork have been educated.

As a consequence, I’m receiving proper now day by day emails from animation studios, interactive comics publishers, publishers of comics on net or paper, recreation dev, software program dev or improvised AI comedian artists asking me for permission of creating AI derivation of my artwork.

This week it’s greater than three per day.

screenshot: asking to any AI a Pepper&Carrot story is now trivial. Everything was educated.

Hard to handle

Reading all these emails and answering rejection turned too exhausting, and with the circulation of them, not possible now. Especially since most of them use AI to write down lengthy sloppy emails.

I prefer to think about this quantity of emails might get down if my license clearly indicated a “AI derivation prohibited” after the Creative Commons.

I actually wished Creative Commons might come up and replace their set of acronyms (BY, SA, NC, ND) to incorporate one thing like that, however I see no signal of them engaged on one thing like that, and once I learn their weblog, I’ve no hope they’re going to ever tackle this concern.

So, I made a decision to take initiative and DIY one thing.

An instance of AI derivation: my paintings reused by an account on Temu over a AI generated photograph.

Statement

As an artist, I do not need my artwork, lore, tales, or my comics to have AI generated derivatives. It means derivatives the place AI was used to generate or considerably substitute the event of concepts, inventive course of, or visible rendering.

I explicitly right here prohibit AI generated derivations primarily based on my artwork: tales, lore, fan-fiction, script, AI generated picture, renderings, and comics.

Examples:

• I do not need a writer to come back with a comic book prequel of Pepper&Carrot, AI generated.
• I do not need a Pepper&Carrot online game with AI graphics.
• I do not need a MiniFantasyTheater interactive comedian the place animations are managed with AI.

This assertion will complement and replace an already present “NO AI” contribution coverage on all Pepper&Carrot repositories since March 2026.

An instance of AI derivation: despatched to me by a writer who wished to promote on Amazon a prequel derivation of Pepper&Carrot, a proof of idea paintings.

Enforcement

As a European artist, I good thing about being protected by my ethical proper (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_rights). It is simply required for the creator to ‘assert’ these ethical rights earlier than they are often enforced. That’s the aim of this weblog publish.

To talk this enforcement, I’ll quickly write a tiny “AI derivation prohibited” facet by facet to my Creative Commons licenses, and in all places I can. I’ll begin this replace from in the present day, and backport it to earlier artworks and comics, but it surely would possibly take time.

Of course, I’m additionally inviting all my viewers to report AI made derivation of my work discovered on the net or in actual life. Some content material shall be simple to report and get down, another greater case would possibly require to go in entrance of courts, and I feel I’m now prepared for that because of my clear assertion.

An instance of AI derivation: despatched to me by a consumer who thought I’d be pleased to obtain generated concepts for my weekly comedian Avian Intelligence…

Nuances

I’m conscious that asking right here for a 100% “no AI” derivation is, within the present tech global community, pure mission not possible. So here’s a little bit of nuances.

I’ll tolerate the utilization of software program that acquired AI contributions. I personally paint and create day by day on a Linux working system, a undertaking that accepted AI code contributions. Same goes for Debian or Ubuntu: the bottom of my KDE Neon working system. I do not like their coverage, however I settle for it as it’s as a result of it isn’t doable proper now for me to color on one thing else.

I’ll additionally tolerate the usage of AI powered instruments for grammar, proofreading and translation. Mainly for correcting a human authored textual content, or to help in a language one already is aware of. Over the final years, many net companies or instruments like Google Translate or DeepL shifted to make use of AI/LLMs below the hood, the identical for a lot of translation software program with AI options, and I get the identical requests about them time and again. I additionally wish to be clear: I do not encourage AI-assisted translation, or automated translation. Translation is a human artwork, and it requires a robust art-direction, a deep cross-cultural information and a sure degree of creativity, particularly for humor. I’m effectively positioned to know that with Pepper&Carrot, a undertaking with a whole bunch of translator contributors and 69 languages, 12 years of contributions and group efforts.

Some different nuances would possibly apply, the actual purpose right here of such nuances being to protect human-made works, whereas triaging low-effort opportunistic machine generated slops away. I feel drawing the road between the 2 will at all times be form of simple.

An instance of AI derivation: somebody felt the great style to say they may remake Sintel, the Blender open motion pictures with my idea artwork and art-direction however in AI, and despatched a proof of idea…