The Background

Upon receiving a free one week subscription to DA immediately after the release of the new CSS Journal release, I was eager to start. I created 2 layouts using my 8+ years of coding experience and still felt like I was being held back by the limitations of creating a layout and at the same time abiding by the default allowances of the user page itself.

I then succumbed to checking out resources and premade layouts.

Finding one of ^kuschelirmel's layouts and seeing the permission to edit the code with proper credits, went to town using that base code. I sent a note, left a comment on the original deviation and credited her in my journal layout.

Months later, I got bored with that initial step into this new world within deviantART. I then found *Lilyas. She had the first set of 'resource' journal layouts after the original batch. Finding myself fascinated, I downloaded one, did some minor edits, changed the graphics and puffing my chest with pride... submitted my layout as a deviation.

What was wrong with the picture?

I omitted the credits. I didn't do all that much alteration to the original code being that it was quite complex and by spending days changing the graphics and then reveling in my own personal glory, forgot to credit the base 'artist'- the CODER.

When it was brought to my attention, I felt like a complete jerk. Only because I know what it takes to create a layout from scratch and that writing all of that code truly is an art all it's own.

So.... why should you credit?!

After using those first two base templates to create layouts. I felt brave enough to venture out onto my own again and start from scratch.

What is so hard?:

Writing the code alone took DAYS.

The slightest error within the CSS can either cause-

- An error message from DA (telling you it's not allowed for one reason or another)

- The entire layout to collapse on itself with different sections engulfing or completely covering others

- Extra text showing outside of sections it should be inside

The list is endless.....

There are multiple browsers that members of deviantART use to view the site. Creating layouts that work in all of them is near to impossible. Merely taking the time to get them to work in Firefox (most common) and Internet Explorer (most bug-ridden) takes hours of trial and error, multiple open windows and twice the amount of coding.

So what makes this art?

Think about it in terms of your artwork.

Think of each segment of code as a layer. If you're creating a gigantic piece of art in photoshop and you finish the piece with 40 layers, saving every 2 seconds along the way, save the file on your hardrive as a .PSD so you have the proof that you created it then submit it to DA with your signature and copyrights all over it.

That applies to photomanipulation, vectoring, rendering and if you think of it in tems of Apophosis and saving parameters, even fractals.

Now think of traditional art. You're coloring a piece of finely detailed lined work. You have anywhere from twenty to hundreds of colors in front of you. You then, layer upon tedious layer apply those colors until you have the perfect blend to create the image you want the world to see. You want the world to see the exact conceptual layout of the anatomy or blending or simply the shape that you envisioned in your own mind.

After that, now envision a website. It's just a big box that you put things in. It's exactly the same as a huge canvas waiting to be painted for example. Now picture that big empty space with perfect symmetry, images blending with text to create an impact all it's own. All the while enhancing the content within. THAT is where the CSS and HTML artists come to play.

Anyone can create a bunch of boxes to hold text. It takes an artist to make those boxes look like art. With or without their own original graphics

Alignment, menus, even text and line spacing are things that, aesthetically, depend specifically on the written code and not graphics and artwork.

Well, it's still NOT copyrightable! Why should I give credit?

What it comes down to is a matter of RESPECT. It takes the writers of the code a lot of painstaking effort to make functional layouts.

If you keep obvious elements of code that were created by someone else, leave a small and simple credit at the bottom that says-

sub>_{Layout created by so and so alterations and graphics by yournamehere}

"

If you aren't creating the layout as a finished deviation, oftentimes a simple mention in the very first journal post or a comment on the creator's layout deviation stating that you were going to use the code would suffice just fine!

Summary

It's not a matter of copyright on this issue! It's a matter of showing the person who spent the time to write the code RESPECT.

Coding is an art form whether you respect, appreciate or are even aware of it. The point is ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. Stand up for these people who are without the solid groud of copyright behind them and give them the recognition that they've earned.