If you use my stuff

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So some things have happened recently that made me decide that it might be best to elucidate what my expectations regarding use of my work are somewhere. I'm not on this site a whole lot any more for lots of reasons--I'm about four months pregnant (and sick again), I work full-time, I have a three-year-old, and I'm still in school full-time.

Yes I will post pictures of the new baby when s/he arrives. ;)

If you want to use my work (intact, as opposed to tweaking params that I've provided):

1. First and foremost, I expect that you ask permission BEFORE you use any of my work. Most of the time I will grant permission very easily. I would prefer you ask me in a comment on this blog post, that way I can prove that you understand my expectations.

2. I expect that you will credit me (whether by link or by thumb in the artist's comments box) and link back to the piece(s) you used, every time that you use them.

3. I expect that you will get explicit permission if you use my work for a commercial purpose (selling prints or merchandise) or if you want to display a piece made with my work outside of deviantART without linking back to my deviantART page. I expect that you ask each time this comes up. For example, if you want to make prints available, then I expect you will ask me if this is okay and show me how you are crediting me so that I can agree that it is sufficient credit. If you then want to print the same image in a book, I expect that will you ask me if it is okay and then show me how you plan to credit me. I don't really care about getting a slice of the profit pie; I do care that I get adequate exposure and acknowledgement of my contribution to your work. This means that I want to be able to review and make sure you aren't just stuffing a link in the fine print (I've not had this happen, but it's a scenario I could see happening).

4. I expect that you post a link to the finished work in the artist's comments or on this blog post (only if comments are disabled) every time that you use a piece. So, if you use the same one of my images in multiple pieces, I expect to be linked to those pieces each time my piece is used.

5. In the unlikely event that you switch accounts, I expect to be asked for permission again and for me to grant permission again, and then I expect to get either a note or comment linking which pieces are being posted again and where. This is so that I can keep straight who is using what where. Please don't just ask me and then assume it's okay, or decide that no answer = broad consent.


This may seem burdensome to you. However, the reason why I ask this is because of my contract terms with my gallery. I need to be able to alert them when my work is being used without my permission because it harms them financially when they cannot guarantee that my prints are worth anything (basically). They're relatively progressive in that they have no problem with me allowing derivative pieces so long as they can tell people that this does not devalue my work. The flip side of this is that they expect me to take immediate and vigorous action if I find that someone is infringing my work, or I risk my contract with them. This is not as draconian as it sounds. But it DOES mean that you taking my images and using them for whatever purpose you want, can hurt me. I have to spend time, effort, and sometimes money to defend my work so that I can continue to show it in my gallery, which is where I make most of the money I make off of my art. Please do not make this harder on me than it has to be. Remember that there are many people who are willing to make their work available for free, and if you don't like my terms then you do not have to use my art--and I would prefer you didn't if you cannot agree to my terms.

Basically what it boils down to is that I want to know when people use my stuff, and I want to be adequately credited and given exposure considering the benefit that you gain in being allowed the right to use it in remixes. I also want to have a small amount of control over when my pieces are used, so that I don't come across a situation where I'm totally unaware that someone is using my work. That sort of stuff is really unpleasant for me and creates more work, since I have to exercise due diligence to keep my art in my gallery. I'm already pushed to the limit with pregnancy, work, school, and family obligations/concerns; please keep this in mind and have the compassion to make sure you aren't making my life harder.

EDIT: Note that this does not apply as much to editing params. I expect you to make substantive changes before posting images made using them, I don't want you to sell unedited images/params as stock/prints/anything else (though selling images that use the substantively changed parameters is fine and I don't require you ask first), and I would appreciate a link back so I can see what you made. (Comments about this are appreciated too. I love to know that my stuff helped or inspired someone.) I do expect credit where credit is due. Please don't use my params and claim that you made the work all by yourself, that's just not nice. =p
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