Just as my initial reaction to the CEA Update was to spearhead a petition, gaining the knowledge I have now about copyright law makes me want to share useful information with the community. I am not a lawyer or legal adviser, I'm simply a deviant wanting to share the knowledge I've gained on my own with the mass of concerned deviants.

deviantART is allowing theft!

Actually they're not. I'll admit I had this same exact thought after reading the news articles from the CEA Team. It wasn't until after I read $realitysquared's journal that I decided to do more research on copyright law.

Contrary to many beliefs, that © symbol is more of a warning than a restriction. The actual copyright law has what's called a Fair Use doctrine. That doctrine allows the public to make use of a copyrighted work without permission from the original artist. This is primarily for things such as news reporting, parody, research and education about such copyrighted work. However, you are required to give credit where credit is due. If you use a work for any reason without giving credit to the original artist then you are committing plagiarism.

What good is a copyright?

Don't let the Fair Use doctrine discourage you from wanting to copyright your works. Having a legal copyright makes it possible for you to pursue legal action against someone who blatantly steals your work. However, the results of a court appearance would be determined by a jury. There are certain guidelines that a jury should consider to determine if the "stolen" work is in fact infringement or a case of Fair Use and without the legal copyright, you'd have no leverage.

A copyright is your way of proving that you created the artwork first, without it a court appearance would likely never happen. So having a copyright is certainly in your best interest especially if you intend to profit from your work.

So anyone can use my art without permission?

Not quite. Anytime someone decides to use a work of art that doesn't belong to them for any reason, they're taking a certain level of risk. By law they should be giving credit to the original artist. Even with giving credit the original artist has every right to pursue legal action if they feel their art is being misused.

Within deviantART you will be protected. The staff has made it very clear that a report from an original artist will be addressed first and in most cases the staff will side with the original artist.

What about the other cases?

My guess is that the staff won't take down someone's art if it has vague similarities to another artist and their art doesn't appear to be an exact copy or direct reference to the original artists work. It is possible for two complete strangers to have a similar art-style and not know one another. I know of artists within the community who have similar art-styles but never met. Of course that would have to be a case-by-case situation.

deviantART policies suck!

You're not required to agree with everything in the world. If the policies offend you that much you could go to another community. There are other art sites out there. However, I could almost guarantee that you'd be back here within a few months at the most. There's a reason why this is the largest art site on the internet.

deviantART isn't doing anything crazy or wrong to the artists here, or the artists outside of dA. The majority of works that are being "referenced" come from main-stream media. These big corporations can afford teams to police the internet if they feel the need to do so. However, the cost of something like that would be more damaging than beneficial.

Allowing young artists to duplicate their shows art brings attention to their product, for lack of a better term. Prime example, Naruto. I have no clue what or where that comes from, but I know the character because of the fan art created from it.

Tracing is not Fan Art!

Where I do agree with this statement to some extent, I have to direct your attention back to my before mentioned means of exposure statement. The majority of traced art is coming from fans of popular anime shows and those corporations are essentially making more money from it. It's free advertisement.

deviantART does--from what I understand--remove exact copies. I know that they remove direct clips from shows as I've reported some myself and saw them removed. The real important thing to remember? deviantART will remove direct traces if the OA* reports it.

Why does the OA have to file a report for anything to happen?

Copyright law gives original artists the right to defend their work. If the original artist doesn't complain then there's really no need to take action. Although--once again displaying the awesomeness of dA--when you file a report in dA about potential copyright infringement they'll look into it and possibly remove it without waiting for the OA to report it.

So, if you really want to "dispense justice" you should contact the original artist's and let them decide how they feel about this person copying their art.

I know I'm being robbed and deviantART just doesn't care!

Seriously? deviantART is doing way more than they're legally obligated to. Do you think all of those other sites out there with insane amounts of duplicated works are breaking the law? If you do, how do you suppose they're still on the internet? They're all within their legal obligations, otherwise they wouldn't be running anymore.

deviantART allows us to police one another and removes a lot of things that other sites would likely allow. As artists you should all be grateful for this feature. Unfortunately we've been so spoiled by it that we're no longer able to appreciate it.

If you feel strongly that something is wrong and you have legit proof to back it up, you can present it to the Help Desk. The fact that Patty the pixel artist has a similar style to yours isn't really legitimate proof that she's infringing on your art.

Keep in mind too, speaking up for another artist really isn't your responsibility. So if you're complaining about Timmy the tracer who's copying Naruto you might want to take it up with the original creators of Naruto before you start complaining to deviantART about it.



Concluding Note: I hope that this clears things up a little for everyone. For those who do take the time to read the article in full, I thank you!

If there is anything that I missed or didn't present properly I ask you to keep in mind that I'm not a copyright expert. This entire article is an overview of my understanding from the information I learned.

Below are the sources I cited in creating this article. Please, if you're still uncertain, read the original articles and get a better understanding of the copyright law before you accuse deviantART of doing something wrong.

Sources Cited:
whatiscopyright.org
Wikipedia: Copyright
Wikipedia: Fair Use
The Policy on Copying journal by $realitysquared

_{OA - Original Artist}