Sundry Works Help · Your paintings on social media

What social media may do with your paintings

What each place you post to may do with your pictures, and what you can do about it.

What this is

When you post a painting, you keep the copyright. Every platform here says so. What you also give them is a licence: permission to copy, show and sometimes change your picture, and on most of them to train their AI on it. Connecting an account to Sundry Works is agreeing to that platform's terms, the same as posting from its own app.

Below is what each one's terms say, in plain words, and what you can do about it. It is one painter's reading of the terms, not legal advice, and it was last checked on October 3, 2026. Terms change and nobody writes to tell you, so each section links to the real thing.

Instagram

Saying no: In the EU and the UK you can object, with a form in Meta's Privacy Center on the page about Meta AI. Everywhere else there is no switch. A private account stops it, but a private account is also a shop window nobody can see into.

If someone takes one: Meta's copyright form, which covers Instagram, Facebook and Threads: help.instagram.com/contact/552695131608132. You need the link to the copy and to your own original.

• You keep the copyright. Instagram's terms say Meta does not claim ownership of what you post.
• The licence you give Meta lets it show, copy, change, translate and make new works from what you post, anywhere, without paying you, and pass that right on to companies it works with.
• It ends when you delete the post, except for copies other people have shared and not deleted.
• Meta trains its AI on public posts from adults, pictures included.

The terms themselves: https://help.instagram.com/581066165581870

Facebook

Saying no: In the EU and the UK you can object, with a form in Meta's Privacy Center on the page about Meta AI. Everywhere else there is no switch. A private account stops it, but a private account is also a shop window nobody can see into.

If someone takes one: Facebook's copyright form: facebook.com/help/contact/1758255661104383.

• You keep the copyright.
• The licence you give Meta lets it show, copy, change, translate and make new works from what you post, anywhere, without paying you, and pass that right on to companies it works with.
• It ends when you delete the post, except for copies other people have shared and not deleted. Meta allows itself up to 90 days to finish deleting.
• Meta trains its AI on public posts from adults, pictures included.

The terms themselves: https://www.facebook.com/terms.php

Threads

Saying no: In the EU and the UK you can object, with a form in Meta's Privacy Center on the page about Meta AI. Everywhere else there is no switch. A private account stops it, but a private account is also a shop window nobody can see into.

If someone takes one: Meta's copyright form, which covers Instagram, Facebook and Threads: help.instagram.com/contact/552695131608132. You need the link to the copy and to your own original.

• You keep the copyright. Threads runs on Instagram's terms.
• The licence you give Meta lets it show, copy, change, translate and make new works from what you post, anywhere, without paying you, and pass that right on to companies it works with.
• Meta trains its AI on public posts from adults, pictures included.
• Threads can share your posts to the fediverse - Mastodon and the like. If that is switched on, copies are kept on other people's servers, and deleting the post on Threads does not delete them there. It is off unless you turned it on.

The terms themselves: https://help.instagram.com/769983657850450

Bluesky

If someone takes one: Write to [email protected], or use the copyright form linked from Bluesky's copyright policy.

• You keep the copyright. Bluesky's terms say it does not claim rights to your content.
• The licence is narrower than Meta's or Pinterest's: enough to run Bluesky and the network it sits on. It has no end date, and Bluesky says deleting a post everywhere on the network may not always be possible.
• Bluesky has said in public that it does not train AI on your posts. That promise is not written into its terms.
• Everything public on Bluesky goes out on an open feed by design, so anybody can copy it - other apps, archives, and people building AI. This is the place where a stranger can most easily take a picture without anyone noticing.

The terms themselves: https://bsky.social/about/support/tos

Pinterest

Saying no: On Pinterest, open Settings, then Privacy and data, and untick "Use your data to train Pinterest Canvas". In the EU, the UK and Switzerland you can also object to the rest of the training.

If someone takes one: Pinterest's copyright form at pinterest.com/about/copyright/dmca-pin, or [email protected]. Ask it to remove every pin with the image - but that only catches exact copies, not one somebody has cropped or resized.

• You keep the copyright.
• The licence is the widest of the lot. It goes to Pinterest AND to its users, and it covers copying, changing, downloading, making money from and making new works from your pins.
• It does not end when you leave. Pinterest's terms say it and its users may keep using what you posted after your account is closed.
• Pinterest trains its AI on pins, old and new, including Pinterest Canvas, which makes and edits pictures for adverts. That is switched on for adults unless you turn it off.
• Every save puts another copy on somebody else's board. That is what Pinterest is for, and it is also why a pin travels further than you can follow.

The terms themselves: https://policy.pinterest.com/en/terms-of-service

X (Twitter)

Saying no: On X, open Settings and privacy, then Privacy and safety, then Grok & Third-party Collaborators, and untick both boxes. It only stops what comes next, not what has already been used.

If someone takes one: X's copyright form at help.x.com/forms/ipi.

• Sundry Works writes captions for X but does not post there. This is here for when you post there yourself.
• You keep the copyright.
• The licence is for any purpose, and its terms name training AI - generative or otherwise - outright. X may also hand your posts to other companies, and you are not paid.
• It has no stated end when you delete.

The terms themselves: https://x.com/en/tos

What you can do

• Post the size the post needs, and no bigger. Sundry Works already does: a post goes out 1080 pixels wide and a pin 1000, which looks sharp on a phone and is too small to print from. Your full photo never leaves.
• Put your name on the picture. On the Post tab, "Words on the painting" sets your website and the title on it, and "Mark this painting" adds the watermark from the Images tab. Neither stops an AI learning from it, but a copy that turns up somewhere else still says whose it is.
• Glaze, from the University of Chicago, hides changes in a picture that make it harder for an AI to learn your style. It works on a file, so it suits the pictures you download from the Images tab and upload yourself rather than the posts Sundry Works sends.
• Switch off what can be switched off. Pinterest and X each have one switch, listed above. In the EU and the UK, Meta has a form.
• Keep the record. Every post Sundry Works sends is written into the painting's history with its date, which is the first thing a copyright form asks you to show: that it was yours, and yours first.

The same notes are on the Configuration tab under each connection, and on the Post tab under the publish button, where they name only the places that post is going.

The rest of the Help

Start here

• Getting started with Sundry Works - What Sundry Works does and how the tabs fit together.
• Using Sundry Works on your phone - Setting up the phone, whether or not there is a computer as well.

Your catalogue

• What's due and what's unfinished - The first tab: what's coming up, what's still to do, what's unfinished.
• Cataloguing your paintings - Your catalog - add paintings and open the one you're working on.
• Reviewing everything one painting makes - Everything the open painting makes, on one page, with the one decision each needs.
• How to price a painting consistently - Work out a consistent price for the open painting.
• Tracking what sold and who bought it - What sold, who took it home, and what it brought in.
• Story cards, show labels and a portfolio - More than one at a time: a whole show's story cards or labels, or a portfolio to send.

Making things from a painting

• Writing a story for a painting - Generate a written story for the painting and keep the best one.
• Making a printed card for a painting - Lay out the printed card for the painting.
• How to make a certificate of authenticity - A painting's two printed documents: its certificate, and the label for its back.
• Web-sized copies of a painting's photo - Export web-sized copies of the painting's photo.
• Branded posts of your paintings - Branded static posts for Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.
• Making a reel of a painting - Build the vertical reel frame and video for social media.
• Designing an artist's business card - The card you hand out, laid out down to the last millimetre.

Running the business

• Setting up your artist brand - Set up once: your identity, brand assets, colours, and AI key.
• An address book for galleries and collectors - A simple address book for galleries, collectors, suppliers, and more.
• Checklists for shows and studio jobs - Reusable checklists for shows, errands, and anything you repeat.
• A calendar for shows and deadlines - Shows, deadlines, and events, with a countdown to each one.
• All your post comments in one list - What people said on your posts, from every platform, in one list.

Connections and setup

• Posting to Instagram and Facebook - Connect your accounts so you can post directly from Sundry Works.
• Posting your paintings to Threads - A second Meta connection, separate from Instagram and Facebook.
• Posting your paintings to Bluesky - The easiest connection of the four - a handle and an app password.
• Pinning your paintings to Pinterest - Pins with a link back to your page, sent by the Sundry Works service.
• What social media may do with your paintings - What each place you post to may do with your pictures, and what you can do about it.
• Scheduling posts to go out later - Line a post up now and let it go out later, with the computer off.
• Configuring Sundry Works - Where everything plugs in: your social accounts, your website, your AI service, and where the catalogue lives.