Bet you didn't know THAT!
Wow!
Photography Account:
Giving Back Project: Part I Part II
Lawl I sifted through this copyright book my mom recently bought and found some rather interesting facts about copyright law and infringement. It really surprised me, actually, just how detailed copyright laws are regarding creative expression, aka things like art, photography, and novels.
I nosed around Google a bit and found this really neat copyright site that shows eleven "copyright myths" and then explains why they aren't true. This one definitely caught my attention:
"6) "If I make up my own stories, but base them on another work, my new work belongs to me."
False. U.S. Copyright law is quite explicit that the making of what are called "derivative works" -- works based or derived from another copyrighted work -- is the exclusive province of the owner of the original work. This is true even though the making of these new works is a highly creative process. If you write a story using settings or characters from somebody else's work, you need that author's permission.
Yes, that means almost all "fan fiction" is arguably a copyright violation. If you want to publish a story about Jim Kirk and Mr. Spock, you need Paramount's permission, plain and simple. Now, as it turns out, many, but not all holders of popular copyrights turn a blind eye to "fan fiction" or even subtly encourage it because it helps them. Make no mistake, however, that it is entirely up to them whether to do that.
- Brad Templeton, cited from Templetons.com
There's a ton more really interesting facts and things he goes over regarding copyright--mostly stuff you'd really find use in knowing, like copyrights about prints, remaking things, etc.
As for something REALLY important you all should know I found directly from the copyright book, here's the direct quote from the section, defined under "characters, fictional":
"Fictional characters can be protected separately from their underlying works as derivative copyrights, provided that they are sufficiently unique and distinctive-- ...when he stated that, "...the less developed the characters, the less they can be copyrighted; that is the penalty an author must bear for marking them too indistinctly."
-quote from Patent, Copyright & Trademark: An Intellectual Property Desk Reference by Attorney Richard Stim
That really moreso shocked me, because if this is fact (which it is, these are laws from the U.S. Copyright Office) then there are a lot of people who break copyright laws every day. In black and white, guys, all these quotes I just cited means that you cannot make a character based off or from another story/movie/etc. They are copyrighted as long as they are original. This doesn't mean, though, that you cannot be inspired by characters. That's usually how characters START anyway, so there's no big deal there as long as they aren't practically the spitting image of the original character.
What makes me laugh is the people who think they have copyright over a character really don't while the people that don't even realize these rights don't know they DO. I'm the latter, somewhat. xD I was a bit confused about that specific copyright branch, but I'm glad I found the book this afternoon; it made it a lot clearer.
So basically...
Y'know this fuss that always goes on with these "fursona" characters everyone has? Sorry to let those of you know, but just because you have a certain type of colored dog doesn't copyright you to that creation. Now, if it had really specific and unique markings that are VERY difficult to come up with on accident, (it'd be a RARE case if someone else independently recreated the exact same look, so that'll give you an idea of how creative it'd have to be) then it'd be your property.
I really don't see why people tend to think if they have a husky or wolf of some certain odd color that it means they own it. Black, red, purple, blue, green, white, etc--if it ain't unique it ain't yours.
Real simple. There's only so many colors in the rainbow.However, if it was unique, let's say a human character likeeee....(let's see who can I use here? xD) *Rynnay 's main storyline character Cyrus Deoh, or even my character Aidan--those would most likely be considered unique enough to be copyright protected. I do believe it'd be very, very hard to completely replicate someone like Cyrus Deoh without previous knowledge of the actual original character. Recreations of a character like Cyrus would not be on accident, no matter how much the person says they are, and are/would be liable for copyright infringement.
As formal as this copyright book is, it's pretty interesting to see some of the facts in here. You'd be shocked at how many things are copyrighted, and even more shocked at the things that aren't. There's this huge section with nothing but lists of everything under "creative commons" and what specific copyrights it has. Some are allowed to have patents, some copyright, some trademarks, and a very small amount have no copyrights at all! Did you know you can't copyright book titles or designs? That really threw me, I was surprised seeing as I've rarely ever (or actually never) seen a book with the same title. I guess it's just a common courtesy with authors to avoid having the same names.
At least there's still some courtesy left in the world.
I'm actually having fun reading this thing. xD I'm still a little confused on the "work for hire" section regarding commissions; it's really vague but I'm pretty sure I was right about what I considered what rights commissions held for both the commissioner and the original author/artist. Anyway, I'll stop talking now I'm sure I'm boring you guys to tears--but really, copyrights are no laughing matter. It's a serious problem online, we all know that. I think it's not because people are ignoring them, but moreso it's mostly because a lot of people don't know about them. I know I didn't until around age ten, I learned it by accidentally using the same name for some wolf guild I made on Neopets yeaaarss ago. xD Got my butt chewed out, got sent an online page on copyright, anddd promptly after that you can imagine I was super-careful to make sure I didn't make any mistakes again like that. c: I'm pretty relieved I learned about it early-on though or I might've gotten into some serious crap here on deviantart. Artists take their rights very seriously, so keep that in mind.
If you want to help stop copyright ignorance, help spread the word and make a journal about copyright; not everyone knows about basic copyright rules like we do! We cannot assume all these young artists on here will know what it means when we stick that "©" on our work or in the description--so help out and give a little lesson on copyright!
I think I should start some sorta art thing regarding copyright to help others learn about it. c: Like, an illustration for a copyright law. Now THAT would be effective, useful, and educational to the younger ones on here. c:
What do you guys think? Let me know I think I may wanna do something like that!
EDIT: Lol I actually came up with a possible neat name for the project. Maybe something likeee... Creative Copyright Campaign? I think it has a nice ring to it. The slogan would be something like: "Helping bring a better education about copyright for the creative." Lol I'm just so political. I think it'd be fun!
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Devious Comments
ACtually this was interesting to read, so thanks for posting it. o;
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He's a man of few words and many bodybags.
Actually I'd be rather scared if anyone would manage to come up with anything that's similar to my main storyline and characters D:
Actually, same for the others <.< Even IF I sometimes take plot paths that have been tread upon many many times before. I just hope that I can add something to it that is all mine... because they all feel like a spawn of my damn soul X"3
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Art is a BANG!
[link]
*meepers meepers jeepers creepers*
found my way here from *Rynnay by the way . . . can't believe I never found you sooner. Awesome gallery
I shall be very careful from now on, if I haven't been enough. I'm always so paranoid about someone talking my storyline or having it far too close to another person's. -pokes characters- Doubt it would happen though, they're way to weird. XD
also directed here from *Rynnay's page c:
Thanks for posting this, it was really interesting and it will certainly make me think twice about creating characters and stories that are trtuly my own in future
Hm. This makes me want to go back to the drawing board a bit more........
So, in theory, the more stuff you heap onto your characters, the easier it is to protect them?
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Please leave the page, and don't ruin the fun for others.
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Check out my art if you'd please.
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We need journal faves. This gets one.
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