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Introduction I have never been a big fan of rules pages. I would really just prefer to let common sense and courtesy be the rule, but there are a few dicey areas that are not well explained or absent from the MSN TOU. The majority of which regard the use of graphics and other intellecual property. If you have questions about these rules please email the management at: [email protected] and we will do our best to answer your questions! General I won´t belabor the obvious going over the no brainers such as rules regarding spamming, posting porn, harrassing others etc. In addition to the no brainers | 1-1 | Posting of links in any form anywhere on this site that go to sites that contain materials that may be deemed as "adult content" by MSN is strictly forbidden. Sometimes this conflicts with crediting requirements imposed by artists as a term of use. If this is the case, you can not use it here. Note: Many artists and their licensing companies will allow you to merely use ©Artist in groups. Consult their terms of use pages at their sites. If you really want to be a sweetheart and save the managers the pain in the bum of having to type urls into browsers to check, just leave the url off whenever you can. | | 1-2 | Posting of E-mail adresses, phone numbers or other personally identifying information on our boards or anywhere on this site is strictly forbidden. Most of our partner groups including this one strongly recomend that you hide your e-mail on your profile. Some require it. | Graphics, Photos etc. Copyright Basics: It is not the responsibility of managers to research each and every graphic that somebody posts. It is the responsibility of each manager and member to research what he posts. Managers are not the "copyright police"; however, managers are both legally and morally obligated to make a "good faith" effort to not infinge on or allow members of their group to infringe on the rights of others. Many problems that commonly occur between intellectual property owners, group managers and members can be avoided by following the guidelines below. | 2-1 | Forbidden - Commonly called "No-Nos": These include works of art such as cartoon characters, comic strip characters, greeting card art, company logos etc. and knock offs of it. i.e. you can not draw or trace Mickey Mouse or something very similar and call it your own creation.. Beware of sites that offer "free art" that fail to identify the creator of the work. Often these sites are throw-away sites created for and only concerned with generating ad revenue. If you do not know who made it, do not mess with it. | | 2-2 | Your Stuff - This includes anything you create from scratch and photographs of non-copyrightable subjects you took. You are welcome to share these items here. We do not require you to watermark or place the copyright symbol on these items, but we highly recomend it. Placing ©YourName serves two purposes. Not only does it let others know they need to ask before they use your work, but it also saves a pain in the bum by preventing managers from mistaking it for an unauthorized useage. Fact is that a lot of you create stuff that is better than and easily mistaken for the so-called pro-stuff. | | 2-3 | Stuff Made From Other´s Stuff - This includes anything you create using components created by somebody else with their permission such as tags, tiles, backgrounds, websets etc. You must follow the terms of use prescribed by them regarding labelling and crediting. If these terms conflict with other rules of the group such as 1-1, you may not use it here. Even when no credit or copyright is required, identify the creator or at least the the site you got the base art from. It saves us all a lot of guesswork. | | 2-4 | Composite Stuff - This includes anything you create using components created by multiple authors with their permission such as tags, tiles, backgrounds, websets etc. Nobody wants credits that look like the movie credits on a Cecil B. DaMille production, but you must follow the terms of use prescribed by each of them regarding labelling and crediting. If these terms conflict with other rules of the group such as 1-1, you may not use it here. If none require credit or copyright notice, identify the creator or at least the the site you got the predominant art from and yourself.
(A): Very few artists allow mixing their work with that of others. Almost all of them have restrictions on how you may modify their base art. Always refer to their terms of use page on their site.
(B): Due to problems we have experienced in the past, we do not permit composite tags, tiles or other single file graphics whenever more than one of the artists requires a copyright notification. | | 2-5 | Generic Stuff This includes sparklies, glitters, background tiles created from scratch, Clipart, fills and other basic stuff that is easily made by anyone or is part of the pallette of a program. No credits are required for these, but it is a good idea to identify them whenever practical such as when used in a page or webset, espescially if you plan on sharing it on a snag board. | Most of our groups that are heavy into graphics have additional information such as safe artist links, NoNo lists, tutorials etc. We also offer free open to the public copyright awareness classes in chat. If your not sure about something, just ask. The above guidelines, information offerred in chat or on the boards should not be construed as legal advice. Please sign you have read these rules here.
Read MSN's Terms of Use and Code of Conduct by clicking on the links below. Violation of MSN rules of use and conduct will lead to your membership being permanently removed from our group. |
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