>>96558759>Company has the resources and money to commission artists >Instead they cheap out and get fans to do it for free by leveraging the fan's love of the company >They now own the fan's work>They can make merch of the fan's work>They can use the fan's work in promotional material whenever they feel like it>The fan can't monetize their own work because by submitting it for the contest they gave up that right>The company took advantage of its good will to get good work for free that it can now make all the money off of while being under no obligation to share a cent with the person who created the work.And just because it's the thing people defending this nonsense always jump to. What about fanart?
>Fanart is created for free by an artist as a show of appreciation or enjoyment of something else>The company does not own fanart that you create yourself and post online>If you wish to monetize your fanart, you can and the company takes nothing from it Ever go to a convention? All fan merch is made from fanart>TECHNICALLY, a company can go after and shut down fanartists. But this is universally seen as a bad move that generates negative PR so outside of particularly egregious examples no one ever does. 