Copyrights give the creator the right to control who by and where their work is used . That means who sells it, makes things from it, publishes it and so on.
Copyright exists from the moment the thing is made/drawn/written but you cant copyright a thought or idea. You have to put it down on paper or on a disc...
Anything from 1923(?) till present day is copyright protected which misuse of can lead to civil action and fines/financial penalties (depending on the level of infringement)
So what does it mean for us?
The first thing is safe tubes. A safe tube is one that has the artist's name and url (web address) on it.
Rule number 1*** If you dont know the artist and theres nothing on the tube.. dont use it till you do***
Now then, you've got your tube with all the right info on it, it should be ok to use it! No, sorry, now you have to go and visit the artists site and read their T.O.U.s ( Terms of Use) You might make something awful out of it or something that goes against the artists beliefs.....some dont ask for named credit but it is worth checkin g out..remember their art (in a lot of cases) is their main income
Artists are divided into four general groups:
1. Online permission artists-these artists generally have a page/note onsite telling you their terms and conditions for using the or work
2. Email permissions- these artists prefer you email them and they send you a list of their terms/conditions
3. No No artists- these artists do not give permissions(usually a note on site)
4. Pay to use artists-you buy a licence from an agency/independant artist for a set number of images from their gallery. Many have restrictions on what you can do with what they give you.
Rule 2 ***If there's no T.O.Us there drop them a line and wait for their reply . When you get the yes/no from the artists you'll be good to go
So why should we bother about copyrights? Well there's a few reasons
1.An artist can sue for copyright infringement in court leading to legal costs and fines
2.Plain old respect, if we dont respect the artist who's going to draw our pics for us to use for tags, snags & gifs?
3.If you spent time making something wouldnt you want people to know it was your's?
4. Msn can and will shut groups down for copy right infringements.
Responsibilities in a nutshell:
Artist: have clear terms of use on display on your websites. Give us some freebies... how else will your art be publised for free and reach thousands around the globe?
Taggers: Only use safe/ permissioned tubes
Snaggers: Try only snagging gifs that have the artists name clearly on them. If you get told off in a group for pasting a NO NO.. then share the info with the group you got it from. They may not know yet.
Managers: Dont allow NoNos on your webpages..try and keep up to date on artists that revoke permissions..Encourage some of your taggers to create their own 'art'
This webset page was assembled on Thursday February 1, 2007 by SNUZZ with graphics from Snuzz using one of the many auto-scripters available at Chat_Central_Gateway All rights reserved KENDOC 2005 
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