DeviantArt

DeviantArt (formerly stylized as deviantART) is an online community featuring artwork, videography and photography. It was launched on August 7, 2000 by Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, Matthew Stephens, and others. Artworks are organized in a category structure, including photography, digital art, traditional art, literature, Flash, filmmaking, skins for applications, operating system customization utilities and others, along with downloadable resources such as tutorials and stock photography. Additional features include journals, polls, groups, and portfolios.
DeviantArt
 	
 	
Type of business	Subsidiary
Type of site 	Art display/Social networking service
Available in 	English
Founded 	July 18, 2000; 19 years ago
Area served 	Worldwide
Founder(s) 	
* Scott Jarkoff
* Matthew Stephens
* Angelo Sotira
Parent 	Wix
URL 	www.deviantart.com
Alexa rank 	427 (June 2020)[1]
Commercial 	Yes
Registration 	Optional
Launched 	August 7, 2000; 19 years ago
Current status 	Active
DeviantArt, Inc. is headquartered in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California.[2] Fella, a small, devil-esque robotic character, was the official mascot of the website until 2014.[3] DeviantArt had at least 36 million visitors annually by 2008.[4] By 2010, DeviantArt users were submitting over 1.4 million favorites and 1.5 million comments daily.[5] In 2011, it was the thirteenth largest social network with 3.8 million weekly visits.[6] In 2017, the site had over 26 million members and 251 million submissions.[7] On February 23, 2017, the company announced it was being acquired by Wix.com in a $36 million deal.[8]
== Contents ==
== HistoryEdit ==
DeviantArt started as a site connected with people who took computer applications and modified them to their own tastes, or who posted the applications from the original designs. As the site grew, members in general became known as artists and submissions as arts.[9][10] DeviantArt was originally launched on August 7, 2000, by Scott Jarkoff, Matt Stephens, Angelo Sotira and others, as part of a larger network of music-related websites called the Dmusic Network. The site flourished largely because of its unique offering and the contributions of its core member base and a team of volunteers after its launch,[11] but was officially incorporated in 2001 about eight months after launch.[12]
DeviantArt was loosely inspired by projects like Winamp facelift, customize.org, deskmod.com, screenphuck.com, and skinz.org, all application skin-based websites. Sotira entrusted all public aspects of the project to Scott Jarkoff as an engineer and visionary to launch the early program. All three co-founders shared backgrounds in the application skinning community, but it was Matt Stephens whose major contribution to DeviantArt was the suggestion to take the concept further than skinning and more toward an art community. Many of the individuals involved with the initial development and promotion of DeviantArt still hold positions with the project, from administrators to volunteers serving as gallery directors and Message Network Administration. Angelo Sotira currently serves as the chief executive officer of DeviantArt, Inc.[12][13][14]
On November 14, 2006, DeviantArt gave its users the option to submit their works under Creative Commons licenses giving the artists the right to choose how their works can be used.[15] A Creative Commons license is one of several public copyright licenses that allow the distribution of copyrighted works. On September 30, 2007, a film category was added to DeviantArt, allowing artists to upload videos. An artist and other viewers can add annotations to sections of the film, giving comments or critiques to the artist about a particular moment in the film.[16] In 2007, DeviantArt received $3.5 million in Series A(first round) funding from undisclosed investors,[17] and in 2013, it received $10 million in Series B funding.[18]
On December 4, 2014, the site unveiled a new logo and announced the release of an official mobile app on both iOS and Android,[19]released on December 10, 2014.[20]
On February 23, 2017, DeviantArt was acquired by Wix.com, Inc. for $36 million. The site plans to integrate DeviantArt and Wix functionality, including the ability to utilize DeviantArt resources on websites built with Wix, and integrating some of Wix's design tools into the site.[21]
As of March 1, 2017, Syria was banned from accessing DeviantArt's services entirely, citing US and Israeli sanctions and aftermath on February 19, 2018. After Syrian user Mythiril used a VPN to access the site and disclosed the geoblocking in a journal, titled "The Hypocrisy of Deviantart", DeviantArt ended the geoblocking except for commercial features.[22]
Since autumn of 2018, spambots have been hacking into an indeterminately large number of long-inactive accounts and placing spam Weblinks in their victims' DeviantIDs, or widgets where users of the site display their public profile information. An ongoing investigation into this matter began in January 2019.[23]
=== Copyright and licensing issuesEdit ===
There is no review for potential copyright and Creative Commons licensing violations when a work is submitted to DeviantArt, so potential violations can remain unnoticed until reported to administrators using the mechanism available for such issues.[24] Some members of the community have been the victims of copyright infringement from vendors using artwork illegally on products and prints, as reported in 2007.[25][26] The reporting system in which to counteract copyright infringement directly on the site has been subject to a plethora of criticism from members of the site, given that it may take weeks, or even a month before a filed complaint for copyright infringement is answered.
Category:DeviantArt
Category:Headquarter
Category:2000s
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