ATTN: All RE: AVs & Fair Use.

[Food With Sauce]

It has come to my attention that a conflict has developed between certain players regarding copyright, fair use, art theft and so on. I make this thread for several reasons; to begin with this is a place in which we can public ally debate this issue to resolution, setting aside private misgivings and other matters. So if you have a stance on this issue post here with your view, and let me know your feelings so that we may come to some kind of accord.

This thread is open to all.

The issue as I see it is a simple one. We must, as a community, endeavour to protect ourselves via the use of disclaimers and other caveats from the adverse effects of any theft or unlicensed reproduction of copyrighted works engaged in by our players individually or in co-operation so that while they may bear liability for their own behaviour we, as a community, are not held liable.

I assume that nobody will dispute this assertion on the basis that it allows us to remain open and ensures that should someone commit a copyright offence, we will not be closed as a result. Is this not so? To that end I must propose, then, the creation of a disclaimer somewhere visible on this board; this disclaimer must commit it to public record that we are making use of marvel's titles and other possessions, matters of intellectual property, on the basis of fair use and that we do not profit from their distribution, use, etc.

This will allow us to retain our banner and other graphics, our theme, etc. This will, further, enable our players to make use of Marvel images, be they from X-men: Evolution or other marvel titles without the need to cite ownership, etc.

Now what about third party works?

It has come to my attention this is where the issue has become complex. Photographs and other works of public domain are something that can be used without citation, fair use, etc. But works of individual artists, for example, such as those taken from places like Deviant Art, the person using it must have the permission of its creator, otherwise they are liable, and we, as a board, may also be held liable; I have seen many boards shut down as a result of this because places like Deviant Art take these issues very seriously.

Now I will offer my own services as a maker of sigs, being able to both edit photo avs or whatever else. If anyone wishes to replace an image or sig with one which is under fair use, I can do this for them.

I must ask though, that anyone using art that is not public domain, who does not possess express permission to do so from the artist/owner, they must remove it, this is not covered under our disclaimer, nor will it be, and could be grounds for the banning of your account, the closing of this community; I'm not saying this just to be mean or arbitrary but I have seen it happen before on many occasions.

If anyone wishes to debate this issue, by all means, but please, follow these suggestions, at the very least, until we have a disclaimer mounted and until this issue has been revolved and then, if it should come to be that it is decided in your favour, then use the images you wish to, and not before.

[Akiyama Shinobu]

Shouldn't a "character" disclaimer work?

Something like a disclaimer in the bio that states "These images are not mine. I am not making money off of these. They were made by [insert person here or "an artist who's name escapes me"] and are their artistic property. If requested by the artist, I will cease using the offending images."

[Birdy]

In my views I am generally in agreement with Akiyama to an extent. I think that listing in a small line under your sig where the images come from is the least a person can do, but if it's independently made artwork from places like DA, seeking permission is also a must. With Licensed material, such as screencaps and production artwork for X-men: Evolution -- much of which can be posted because they were originally placed online for press releases, etc -- are generally acceptable simply because most RPGs have the good sense to place on the main page that the fandom (in this case, Evo) belongs to Marvel and that the images and character concepts are not used for profit.

Things that are posted exclusively on private websites, such as Steven Gordon's, however, are a different issue -- largely because half the stuff he has posted on there he did for himself or posted for people to see how his work gets done -- and some were even commissioned. Now if you can't be bothered to ask him permission -- even if that is the absolute, bottom line legal thing to do -- you might do at least some slight courtesy and in the line under your sig not only say who made it but also include a hyperlink back to his main website. That gets him more business and wider exposure to his work, in theory. The same courtesy should be provided for artists at DA and such -- who may not have credits from major cartoons, comics, etc to bring them exposure.

It just makes sense. If you borrowed it, you say where you borrowed it from. Cite your sources.