Ellen Million Graphics

Hi! What a scrumptious site! I definitely want to explore everything here and hopefully submit my pictures soon! Before I get too far involved though, I have a couple of questions that may or may not have been discussed somewhere around here.

1. As far as licensed and copyrighted elements go: is there an exhaustive (and current!) primer out there for artists who want to work in the genre but are worried about those pesky legal issues? Browsing around PA, I see a very sparse selection of certain things (work in the vein of a popular Gothic/Sci-Fi wargame setting, or characters other than humans and elves, to start). Is this because of artist preferences, the market, or legal concerns? For instance:

-If I draw a female person in futuristic armor with an ecclesiastical overtone, how worried do I have to be that the work will be interpreted as infringing on a copyright from WH40K?

-How many speckles can I put on an uglyish, yellow, feral-looking emaciated warrior before somebody at WOTC thinks I'm drawing one of their copyrighted races that starts with G?

-On the flip-side: Isn't that just a cut-and-pasted graphic of an E-11 Stormtrooper blaster somebody submitted in their portrait? Is that kosher?

2. So, apparently, male nipples are alright, even though the rules don't make that correlary, am I correct? That's ok, we live in a world of slippery slopes and dangerous double-standards and I'll just keep my head down and not complain about how hard it is to be a man in today's world.

Thanks for creating this community, Ellen, and thanks to everyone for presenting such great work!

Welcome to the forums!

I'll answer the easiest first - male nipples are fine! By decency laws, they don't count as exposure, and that's what I'm going by.

Your first question is a little trickier, and I'm pretty flexible. WH40K is certainly not the first or last to come up with the idea of futuristic armor and "an ecclesiastical overtone", and probably won't be the last. As long as we aren't showing copyrighted logos and labels, I'll generally approve something that *could* be WH40K, as long as it *could* be something else.

Likewise, spaceblasters have been shown in all kinds of configurations since Buck Rogers, and there are only so many variations of future-gun that someone can come up with.

Anything *literally* copy-pasted would be off limits - please PM me a link privately to the rip and the source if you think this is the case and I'll pursue it.

A lot of the weight of the pictures available comes from what has already been adopted (http://portraitadoption.com/recently_adopted.php shows a definite fantasy leaning) and what is requested through the submitted descriptions (also seems heavier on fantasy than sci fi) - as well as what the artists here just happen to enjoy doing. More sci fi variety would be very welcome!

Hope that helps!

I think the reason you see one genre over anpther is largely due to artists' preference and/or exposure to the various games.

But I'm a relative newb myself, so take that for what it's worth.

My understanding of what's allowed vis-à-vis the types of characters/races would be as follows:

Copyright covers the expression of an idea, but not the idea. Trademark covers the name of the idea.

So if you draw a young wizard in robes with glasses and an ols injury--it's fair game. If you call it Harry Potter, expect it to get a takedown notice.

For example, I posted a picture of a race that, as far as I know, only exists in WOW. That should be acceptable and was, in fact accepted.

Stay away from including trademarked material (I.e. that character is drinking a cola and using a tissue, not a coke and a kleenex) and you should be fine.

With the WH pieces, you may have to be careful with any symbols, etc., but I have not done any research to see what they consider TM and not.

ObjImNot: I am not a lawyer and do not play one on teevee. I may be wrong, and frequently am.

I am not an admin on this site and have no input to what will be accepted or not. Ellen rulez here and is the final arbiter.

Hope this helps, or at least confuses you more.

Welcome to the site. I look forward to seeing yor work.

--christopher

Thanks Ellen and Christopher!

The biggest hang-up I've always had is that certain companies seem to be inordinately litigious: one company appears to have basically taken Cthulu, removed his wings, and called him a "product identiy" and seems to have no problem pursuing action against artists who draw anything with tentacles on its face. Then there's that little operation out there that would make me leery of drawing a Caucasian person in a brown bathrobe with a flashlight.

I guess I just get a little gun-shy when it comes to that stuff, and in a community that looks like it caters to a market demographic that has published fantasy/sci-fi settings in their backgrounds, It's nice to know that folks like you are available for support and things!

Thanks again,

Adam

It's sticky - like the debate over whether or not you should take fan art commissions - and there are no good, solid answers. Lots of totally respected folks take them without blinking. Lots don't. If Operations Which Shall Not Be Named wrote me a cease and desist letter for carrying That Which May or May Not Be Protected By Their Copyright I would fold like a little paper cup and remove the offending work because their pot of lawyer money is much bigger than mine.

In general, I urge you to use common sense, and if YOU think your space blaster/flashlight or darkish elflike creature is creative enough, I'll usually approve it. If in doubt, ask in the WIP forum!