Okay, I asked for an official answer to the questions raised about fan art being okay in the galleries and this is the answer I got from site Admin.

**"Just to clear this up, it is my understanding that we do not have any plans for us to go patroling the galleries for the purpose of removing fan art.

This is would not be productive use of our time as a team or an art site.

We will continue to monitor the galleries as usual. If however, an image is brought to our attention we will address these on a case by case basis."**

So, there is no problem with posting fan art in the galleries & no plans to start removing it.

Shoshanna :-)

Message edited on: 12/07/2004 19:04

There's no problem as long as you don't claim, to have created that character, and as long as it is a fully original image. But to be safe you should give credit to the character's creator.

Whew, I was putting my Ghost in the Shell render on hold since the recent fan-art issues in the forums. I am glad you cleared it up. JV

Just to clarify what does the following mean ? "We will continue to monitor the galleries as usual. If however, an image is brought to our attention we will address these on a case by case basis" To me, that means that they won't look for it, but if someone points it out as Fan Art it will be 'dealt with'. Not trying to start anything, just one final bit of clarity desired. --Rebekah-- BTW--thanks for posting--communication Good :)

There's no problem as long as you don't claim, to have created that character So, an original painting of the late, Tupac and Notorious BIG would be fine. When this all started, I had Movie Collections - Costume One in my shopping cart. I've since removed it, because it just don't seem to make any sense to buy it, if the work I do with it will look like a spin off of "Tomb Raider" (fan art) and will be removed. How does that work, because I'm still confused?

You're welcome :-) That's just the same as we usually do - if for instance you contacted me to say someone had used a portion of one of your images or the front cover of Oh My Goddess in their own work, we'd be looking at it specifically rather than just happening across it in a gallery trawl and recognising it ourselves. We get members from time to time who use stills from tv shows & films or scan in comics, greeting cards, wrapping paper or posters and use them as part of their image instead of making thier own representation of Buffy or whoever. smoovie - if you make your own fan art that's fine. If you scan Lara from one of the comics, use someone elses image or use a screenshot from the games/films that's not okay. This applies to all gallery posts, not just fan art. Shanna :-)

Ok, I appreciate you clearing that up. So, as long as I created it from start to finish and can put my name on it, it's fine.

Attached Link: http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

*There's no problem as long as you don't claim, to have created that character* That's not technically correct. Many copyright holders do tolerate and even sometimes encourage "fan art", most will sort of "turn a blind eye" to it. Some, however, will come down hard, depending on what people are doing with the images and whether or not the copyright holder feels it brings their brand into disrepute (a fairly obvious example of this would be using Marvel characters in pornographic images). Fan art IS copyright violation, unless you actually have permission to use the characters, whether or not you claim you created them yourself. As noted, though, it's not actually that big a deal to most copyright holders. They allow it (either by giving permission or by deliberately not paying too much attention). They still have all the rights to the characters, though, and can rightfully ask anyone to remove images containing those characters. And before anyone gets all pissed off and bitches me, out, I'm not saying that fan art is inherently bad, because I don't honestly believe that it is. Most copyright holders do understand the value of a dedicated fan base. I'm just clarifying one of those oft-repeated copyright myths, the old, 'So long as you don't say it's yours, it's okay.' More copyright myths at the attached link. bonni

Thanks, that about answers it for me on that. What about contests ? What if the entry is fan art ? --Rebekah--

Message edited on: 12/07/2004 21:27

So this ad popping out at me when I log in is okay then..

An original painting of deceased rap artists would be fine if they posed for the painting while alive and agreed to allow you to publish it, or if whoever administers their estates would allow it. But since they're dead, you might have to use a photo reference for your painting that was copyrighted by somebody else, and that would be a problem.

Isn't there some sort of right to Parody?

It seems strange that it's OK to mock or ridicule somebody's work.
But praise and appreciation in the form of Fan Art is Forbidden.

Attached Link: http://www.artslaw.org/PARODY.HTM

Here is a link to a site that attempts to define "Fair Use."

Parody is perfectly legal even for comercial use, as you can see by the latest StarTrek/StarWars parody from Germany:

The title is a spoof on both StarTrek and StarWars:

StarTrek TOS is called "Raumschiff Enterprise" (Starship Enterprise) in German.
So (T)raumschiff Surprise would be "Dreamship Surprise"
"Periode I" instead of "Episode I" would translate to "First menstruation"

Mr Spock was called Mr Spuck (spucken = to spit)
Cpt Kirk was Cpt Kork (Korken = cork)

And of course the MAD magazine regularly prints parodys of the latest graetest TV or Cinema hits.

As long as you make a REAL artistic parody (And just not call it that way to cover your rear), this is covered by "kstlerische Freiheit = Freedom of art" in Germany, and I think is protected by "Freedom of Speech" in the US.

stahlratte

Parody is a form of protected speech in the U.S., but that doesn't stop injured parties from sending "cease and desist" letters or suing on whatever grounds they can come up with.

So are people getting cease and desist letters for the content of their galleries. Or has Renderosity just gotten paranoid?

Fair use includes, criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research.

So for example include a comment with Fan Art like, "This is my interpretation of a scene from Star Trek."

It's a form of Free Speech and should be defended and fought for. If Renderosity will not support or defend that right, Post it somewhere else.

Fair use includes, criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research. For criticism/comment: You're presenting a review or critique of something, and you can use small bits of it to illustrate your points. However, there are limits on how much you can use and which parts. For news reporting: Similiar to above. Teaching/scholarship/research: Mostly limited to academic settings. It's very, very difficult to show that it's fair use outside of a classroom/school/university setting. Parody has limits, as well, in that you have to be doing a parody of the actual thing, meaning, the Star Trek parody example given above would be fine because it's joking about Star Trek using Star Trek characters and settings. You can't use Star Trek character and settings to do a parody of something else, though (that's been decided by U.S. courts, anyway). I sincerely doubt that anyone has gotten a Cease and Desist letter for any fan art in the gallery at Renderosity, which is why Renderosity has said they're not necessarily going to "police" such things. However, if they were to get such a letter, I'm sure they'd remove the material very quickly, and they should. bonni

well if i read the official answer that means: we really dont have time to bother and count on nice people to diligently report us any fan arts so we can save time instead of looking tfor them you still can dare to try to put any fan art in your gallery, untilyou get caught, and this time we will bring havoc on you ! oki i would have preferred a more clear and direct langage: "Fan arts in ANYWAY portraying/featuring ANY character of ANY copyright Holder in ANY situation or USE of ANY SORT, no matter for sarcasm or praise, will be REMOVED and you will get a warning n your account" i understand such kind of langage, so why dont speak this one to me ? btw abotu asking authorisation: what do you do when you have a full webpage of contact email adresses for public relation, webmaster, commercial and such of a publisher/copyright older and that ALL adress return a mail delivery error ? you can ask authorisation but we never let your request to reach our eyes and ears ! and we wont bother givign authorisation, as soon as your request reaches us :) ah ah ah it is hilarious on the opposit, you can BET whatever you want that if a member here DESIGN a character, make it livea bit (story, website, flavor texts and such) someone will steal it, make money with it, copyright it and the member will have the pictures now "fan arts" removed :) hilarious, i long to see such a mess in fact you are allowed to BUY BUY BUY but NEVER EVER use or promote or anything. You havea passion ? good, buy and shut up, no no dont share your passion for our product with someone else, we dont need your advertising, we already invest enough in this, we dont need free adds :) i'm really fed up with all this... for me now RO is just a deposit of my purchase history and nothign more (i think it was the initial and only purpose anyway so i dont blame... would have like to knwo it since start instead of beeing made to believe it was somethign else)