Because fights happen and this needs to be made clear.
Copyright protects the following:
• Drawings, logos, photographs and visual images are generally protected by copyright.
• Copyright does not protect ideas, styles or techniques.
• Ownership of copyright varies according to the circumstances in which the work was made.
Signatures
Resource located here x
- What you can call under copyright:
- - Images you used if you have permission to use them (Aka the official stuff from x fandom / images you own copyright to). If those images are not from an official source still belong to the artist whom created them and you must have permission from the artist to use them.
- Images you created for that signature, that includes gif overlays, image boarders and otherwise.
- - A specific layout or coding style. If someone wants to make a signature that is 306 x 700 and has a similar layout to my signatures, I can’t tell them to quit that out because they have the right to have that layout if they so choose to. If anything, I will applaud them for their creation and help them along with figuring out little issues and design enhancing advice.
- The use of a specific pattern of code digits. If they want to use specific codes to make a boarder, they can. It’s there for that persons resource and it is really no secret where people can get these from.
If you have any problems in regards to signatures and the overall signature community, please PM me about it. I will answer you the best I can and hope to clear things up.
If you do report this to the mods, all they will do is close the report and ignore it. Please be aware of this.
Roleplay boards
Resource located here x
Tess wrote:We sometimes get reports complaining that someone has stolen their layout or "form". Unfortunately you cannot copyright your particular layout of bb code and font colors. We encourage everyone to design their own roleplay layouts, but there's nothing we can do if someone else's font color, alignment, size and placement of images looks suspiciously similar to the formatting of your own posts. It's quite possible that the same design may have been thought of independently and it's not worth getting upset about it.
We also sometimes get reports about character "theft" if someone else starts using the same reference image that you use, or the same character name. If you own exclusive rights to the image then you should report anyone else who uses it, but if it's just something random you found online then you don't own it and you can't stop anyone else from using it. If your character name is particularly unique then you can report the person who you believe stole it and give us any information to explain why you think they stole it. However, if your character is just named something like John or Taylor then there's nothing unique about that and anyone can use that name.
What this means:
- - Reporting layout copying is pointless since you can't copyright layouts and BB coding / font colours.
- Using images you didn't make =/= theft if someone else uses the same image. If you didn't make it, you have no copyright in regards to it and everyone can use it.
Image permission / copyright
Resource located here x
- Commissioned art
- - If you did not commission any art, you must get art permission from the artist who drew that art before you use it. (If it is not official or owned by you or stated to be free to use otherwise. This would include a lot of Tumblr Gifs for instance.)
- However, if you did get commissioned art, you don't need permission for it's manipulation usage since technically you own the rights to it and it's usage. A credit link is fine.
Crediting
- - If you don't own a piece of art, credit is necessary. There is no exceptions to art theft.
- There is an exception to the crediting however. If you need to give art credit to a user but they have a non CS appropriate image in close radius to the link you need to show for credit, you must send a help ticket and let the mods know that you cannot link the artist as there is inappropriate stuff on that page. They will then inform you that you can just use that artist's name instead. Why I say let the mods know is because then it will be on record that you did chase it up and therefore if someone reports you for incorrectly giving art credit, you have evidence to show that yes; you did inquire on giving art credit, but not being able to due to these circumstances.
