It has come to our attention a couple of times already where copyright issues are becoming a major problem, now not only for Fantasy Fights members but also as an overall issue on the World Wide Web.
Yes granted many graphics are available everywhere, but unfortunately most of the graphics available on free sites actually have been taken from people. So with this in mind, I have decided to try and explain a couple of things with regards to copyright and taking other people's work.
First of all with regards to graphics/stationery. If you see a beautiful set/graphic on someone's site, please DO NOT just take it and use it, anything you find on a person's site that you like, you MUST ask for permission to use it, however most people do have a link at the bottom to actually state where the image has been taken from and if this is the case, then you must contact the original owner and ask permission from them. If however you have found an image and there is no credit given (say on a free server site) you are welcome to use it, but you do need to note some type of disclaimer on the page you have posted the image, stating where you found it and if it belongs to anyone that you would like to hear from them, so as you can give credit or remove it if they wish. You need to cover yourself in every way possible so as not to fringe copyright laws.
Secondly with regards to Disney images or of similar nature for e.g. Images of TV shows, Movies etc, this is another area which is very tricky, although you can create your own graphics using pictures of these characters/stars etc, you cannot claim full credit for these because the images do not belong to you, although you may have made them. You MUST always give credit to the original creator of the character/s for e.g. this is a simple disclaimer that we use for our Disney/Outer Realm pages (you are welcome to use it if you wish and just change the creator's name with whoever the images belong to)
Now you can note that the Graphics were created by yourself, but below that make sure you note the above, you CANNOT take full credit or copyright over the images/graphics. That way if you do find your images on another person's site you can show that you did have it mentioned you created it. Remembering although these types of images/graphics are available for everyone (to a point) you must always remember you cannot just go to someone's site and take it to use for yourself. Remember someone has worked hard in creating their site and background sets, it would not fair for someone to just come along and take them without asking!!!
Next up is Text, this is a very tough issue. We have actually had a few problems with this, where a member has actually setup a page for whatever use, whether it be for a contest, event etc and the actual text of the whole page layout has been taken, not
realizing that this to is an offense. Whether you have actually taken the text and changed a couple of words, you still have taken the text without any given permission and this is another NO NO. For example, our rules page here at Fantasy Fights,
http://www.webcompetition.net/rules.html was actually stolen and used at another competition that started a while ago but what they had done was changed a couple of words to reflect their competition's rules. Although we were flattered that they wished to use ours, but honestly it was very inconsiderate considering how hard we worked on that page, and if you see it you will understand that it wasn't something that was thought up quickly. So to save this other competition's time they decided to use someone else's. Anyways, they were contacted and it was removed, and actually this competition is no longer LOL but just bringing up the point that text is another copyright issue that we must also respect, we have since posted a copyright clause stating we wrote the rules, maybe we should have done that in the first place, but who was to know??
I hope all the above helps you, now we can go into more detail, but honestly there is just too much to understand, so the best thing to do is it is not yours DON'T TAKE IT, we are all artists in our own way and truthly once we have created our own things, at least we can look back and say proudly "I MADE THIS" this is what is important here I guess, but again if would like to use someone
else's ideas, text or graphics etc. Please always remember to ask first, you never know, the original may not be
there's anyways and you can maybe catch another person doing a copyright no no LOL
We are all human we all make mistakes, even we ourselves have on occasions, but we are always happy to oblige when being notified and this is how you should also be if someone contacts you stating that something you have belongs to them. There is no point in getting angry or hateful, just always remembering "to every work is a creator and we must always respect that creator".
So please be careful out there, if you need more information or if you have any questions, please go to the following sites:
