Welcome again to "FAQ Insight!", a weekly newsletter, aimed at helping you to understand the most useful FAQs, providing translations in several languages and visual resources.
Brought to you by *Little-Vampire and =Sting1, sponsored by #WelcomeCenter

After a free week cause of holidays (Halloween for some and 1st and 2nd november for others) we're back again.

Today we'll try understand something more about the copyright. The main FAQs related to this topic are:

FAQ #8: What does deviantART consider to be Art Theft?
FAQ #157: Can I use things created by other people in my submissions?
FAQ #257: I have permission to use someone else's work in my deviation. Now what?

Translations

French:

FAQ #8: Qu'est-ce que deviantART considere comme du vol d'oeuvres d'art? _{(by =lordgonz)}
FAQ #157: Puis-je utiliser les travaux de quelqu'un d'autre dans mes deviations? _{(by *endless-one)}
FAQ #257: J'ai la permission d'utiliser le travail de quelqu'un d'autre dans ma deviation. Et maintenant? _{(by =lordgonz)}


Italian

FAQ #8: Cosa viene considerato da deviantART come Furto d'Arte?
FAQ #157: Posso usare i lavori di qualcun'altro nelle mie deviations?
FAQ #257: Ho il permesso di usare il lavoro di qualcun'altro. Cosa devo fare adesso?

Portuguese

FAQ #8: O que e considerado roubo de arte pelo deviantART? _{(by *S1mbelmyne)}
FAQ #157: Posso usar coisas criadas por outras pessoas nas minhas submissoes? _{(by @isabelucha)}
FAQ #257: Eu tenho autorizacao para usar o trabalho de alguem no meu trabalho. E agora? _{(by =Helewidis)}

German

FAQ #8: Was versteht deviantArt unter Werk-Diebstahl ("Art Theft")? _{(by *Studdy)}
FAQ #157: Kann ich Werke anderer Leute in meinen eigenen Werken verwenden?
_{(by *Studdy)}
FAQ #257: Ich habe die Erlaubnis die Arbeit eines anderen in meiner Deviation zu verwenden. Was nun? _{(by *Studdy)}

Spanish

FAQ #8: A que considera deviantART como plagio de arte? _{(by *Teilanus)}
FAQ #157: Puedo usar cosas creadas por otras personas en mis trabajos? _{(by *Teilanus)}
FAQ #257: Tengo el permiso para usar el trabajo de alguien mas en mi deviation. Y ahora que? _{(by *Teilanus)}

What is copyright?

From the What is Copyright Protection?

"Copyright is a protection that covers published and unpublished literary, scientific and artistic works, whatever the form of expression, provided such works are fixed in a tangible or material form. This means that if you can see it, hear it and/or touch it - it may be protected. If it is an essay, if it is a play, if it is a song, if it is a funky original dance move, if it is a photograph, HTML coding or a computer graphic that can be set on paper, recorded on tape or saved to a hard drive, it may be protected. Copyright laws grant the creator the exclusive right to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute, perform and display the work publicly. Exclusive means only the creator of such work, not anybody who has access to it and decides to grab it."

I think there's no best way to explain easily what copyright is than the way it's explained in that site.


Copyright on deviantART

Basically when you want to use someone else's work in one of your deviations, you have to ask the other person (the owner of the copyright) if you can use it or not. Once you've contacted that person, in the case he/she'll allow you to use his work (it can be a brush or a photo), you'll have to ask him/her for written permission.

Stock Images

When using Stock Images you won't be asked for written permission, but you'll have to provide a link to the source stock image and give some proof that you respected what the owner of the stock image wanted (they could ask you to place a link to their website in the description or even ask you to pay a small fee).

Redrawing/Reinterpretations

When you redraw a famous work, always remember to cite the original artist and give them credit for being the inspiration. Redrawing doesn't mean tracing the original work or simply change it's colours using some image editor program, it means to completely redraw it by yourself. If you see something that's simply an edit of someone else work please Report it! FAQ #155: How do I report suspected policy violations on submitted deviations?


If you have any doubts about copyright or submissions remember to check the deviantART Submission policy

Fan Art

What's accepted as fan art and what's not? Well if you completely draw by yourself a famous character or a person starting from a blank canvas (and if needed a reference image) then you can consider your art as Fan Art (just don't duplicate the image.. I mean try to make it a little different).
If you simply take an image of someone famous and place it in a wallpaper or in whatever deviation simply editing it, then this can't be considered Fan Art... it's ripping and it needs to be reported and deleted!

Anyway when you're making fan art starting from a reference image, it's always a good idea to give credit to the original



Before closing this weeks instalment, we'd also like to give you the links to the older FAQ Insight! news

FAQ Insight! Vol.1 - How to submit artworks on deviantart
FAQ Insight! Vol.2 - Avatars
FAQ Insight! Vol.3 - Userpages
FAQ Insight! Vol.4 - Journals