Pfft. I do not agree.

[Deleted]

I'm pretty sure they don't like my artwork enough to edit it anyway. :P

But the mere fact that they can do whatever they want makes me uppity. I'm a very paranoid and selfish person so I'd huff and puff if someone edited my work even a little. n_n;;;

I get the Neopets submission system just isn't for me.

[Leb]

Technically, I believe when you send any work to them, it's theirs. I've never heard of the Neopets Team editing someone's picture, but like someone else said, they can use it for advertising. Of course, I'm not positive--my dad's a lawyer, but if you've ever listened to them speak legal mumbo-jumbo...oiy.

And the worst thing ever done to my stories/articles was the words being changed to British spellings, like color to colour and center to centre.

DON'T CALL JOSH LAZY! I DIDN'T SEE YOU VOLUNTEERING TO DO THE TIMES!!! IF YOU GET A VACATION, WHY CAN'T SOMEONE ELSE??

Sorry...I just get really upset when people say others should work holidays. My mom's a nurse, and she often works Christmas, Easter, the Fourth of July, and other holidays...it's sometimes sad, but hospitals, nursing homes, and some other places need to be open 24/7.

[Deleted]

leb388 said:

DON'T CALL JOSH LAZY! I DIDN'T SEE YOU VOLUNTEERING TO DO THE TIMES!!! IF YOU GET A VACATION, WHY CAN'T SOMEONE ELSE??

Sorry...I just get really upset when people say others should work holidays. My mom's a nurse, and she often works Christmas, Easter, the Fourth of July, and other holidays...it's sometimes sad, but hospitals, nursing homes, and some other places need to be open 24/7.

Josh Filan is, in my opinion, a pretty nice guy. I don't think he's lazy at all. And he has minions to help him with his work. Blame them. XD

Yea, geez. It's the holidays. I wouldn't want to work during Christmas or New Year's. Would you? My mum is also a nurse and she has to work those kind of hours. It's not like people don't get hurt during the holidays. :P

[streamingblue]

jeez.. okay then i won't kid about anyone ever agaaain..

but mina, i've seen the artwork on your website and it's fabulous. if you really are paranoid about someone editing your artwork. then when you submit it, in the email say that if they want to change anything about your artwork, have them not use it completely, or send it back to you to retouch it. personally i don't see anything wrong with the artwork you do (of people anyways).. but neopets every now and then changing what they want is the price you pay to be on their website.

[Patjade]

Mina said:

Josh Filan is, in my opinion, a pretty nice guy. I don't think he's lazy at all. And he has minions to help him with his work. Blame them. XD

Yea, geez. It's the holidays. I wouldn't want to work during Christmas or New Year's. Would you? My mum is also a nurse and she has to work those kind of hours. It's not like people don't get hurt during the holidays.

I don't begrudge anyone getting a holiday break. You learn to appreciate things like that when you've been on the wrong end of the stick, like my 20 years of military service as a shift worker. Getting a holiday off was pure chance of the schedule.

Josh works hard, and deserves some time off to rest and recharge. Look what he has to put up with. Actually, I pity his inbox when he gets back! 2 weeks of submissions will be FUN to go through...

I guess my Korean was worse than I thought, Mina, you didn't even acknowledge it { }

[Killix]

If Neopets were to change any of your artwork and claim it as "theirs" then you could be the one to sue them...yep. Everything you draw it automatically copyrighted to you. What they mean is, they can use it wherever they want. If they want to print out ads for Neopets and they wanted to use your picture, they could. But they'd still have to give you credit.

[Leb]

I know, imagine the stuff he has to go through in a few days' time. And some idiot sent him two continued series and a short story this week! (Aka me).

Neopets is known for strange things, like freezing people for "cheating" they didn't do, and such. Besides, if you draw a picture of, say, a Shoyru, you can't claim it's yours anyway, because the Shoyru is a trademark of Neopets.

[Patjade]

leb388 said:

I know, imagine the stuff he has to go through in a few days' time. And some idiot sent him two continued series and a short story this week! (Aka me).

Neopets is known for strange things, like freezing people for "cheating" they didn't do, and such. Besides, if you draw a picture of, say, a Shoyru, you can't claim it's yours anyway, because the Shoyru is a trademark of Neopets.

I didn't send anything this week. We are working for some things later.

I am sure Neopets would be a tad upset if people used their pets and items in something that they didn't approve of. It goes both ways.

[Killix]

leb388 said:

Besides, if you draw a picture of, say, a Shoyru, you can't claim it's yours anyway, because the Shoyru is a trademark of Neopets.

You're right in a wrong way...

If you draw a picture of the Shoyru, you own the copyright to that art, nobody can claim it as theirs becasue you drew it and it's yours.

On the other hand, you cannot claim the character (Shoyru) as yours. The character is Copyrighted to Neopets, but the art, the actual picture, is yours and nobody not even Neopets can claim it as theirs.

[peachifruit]

meowth4 said:

On the other hand, you cannot claim the character (Shoyru) as yours. The character is Copyrighted to Neopets, but the art, the actual picture, is yours and nobody not even Neopets can claim it as theirs.

I agree!

If one of your pieces were to be used as an advertisement or something, it still belongs to you, and if they don't give you credit, you would be on terms to sue, (perhaps.)

I sent in two things this week. ^^ Oopsie.

[oddhatter]

It's really just a legal thing. And it's not exactly a new issue either. Yeah, sure, get uppity about it - but it's as much for their own protection as it is for yours.

Yes, you do forgo your "moral right" when you submit anything to Neopets. Your characters are theirs. You revoke your right to "claim authorship of the work and to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of, or other derogatory action in relation to, the said work, which would be prejudicial to his honor or reputation. ", according to the Berne Convention which set these laws. Just so you know.

Here's the thing. In my case, I don't care.

Everything I send in to Neopets is fan art. Or fan fiction. Or whatever. Guess what, fan art and fan fiction is not "yours" under copyright law anyway. It is a derivative work. It is copyrighted to the owner of the character(s)/original work, and the most that an artist or author can claim is that the work was "illustrated" or "written" by them.

Besides, I don't have a problem with people seeing my art on Neopets, and then looking at my other art and so on and so on. Because of my work published on Neopets, I have met a ton of people who've helped me out and collaborated with me on several of my projects. If anything, I think I'm getting the far better end of the deal.

Besides there's a huge difference between legal concerns and ethical concerns. The Terms and Conditions are there to protect Neopets - but I like to believe that they are ethical enough to not exploit their users' work.

It could be worse. They could go around shutting down every single fan site devoted to Neopets or any site which holds Neopets images or content. Because unless those sites are using their content for the purposes of education, parody or to make a point(and a limited amount - under the "fair use" clause of copyright law) - they are violating copyright law. Fox went on a similar rampage a few yers ago, I think it was regarding X-Files fan sites.

Really, this topic comes up every so often. I think that it's perfectly reasonable.

[calvinseviltwin]

Mina said:

I dunno.

Like someone said before, they could take our NT characters and make them into plushies. Zero profit and zero credit goes to us. That doesn't run well with me. n_n;;;

Hmm... You know I always wondered if being published in the NT would help me go to a more artsy college. But then again anyone can print NT stuff off the internet...

[oddhatter]

meowth4 said:

You're right in a wrong way...

If you draw a picture of the Shoyru, you own the copyright to that art, nobody can claim it as theirs becasue you drew it and it's yours.

On the other hand, you cannot claim the character (Shoyru) as yours. The character is Copyrighted to Neopets, but the art, the actual picture, is yours and nobody not even Neopets can claim it as theirs.

False.

From 10 big myths of copyright explained. (http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html)

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 write 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.

There is a major exception -- criticism and parody. The fair use provision says that if you want to make fun of something like Star Trek, you don't need their permission to include Mr. Spock. This is not a loophole; you can't just take a non-parody and claim it is one on a technicality. The way "fair use" works is you get sued for copyright infringement, and you admit you did copy, but that your copying was a fair use. A subjective judgment on, among other things, your goals, is then made.

However, it's also worth noting that a court has never ruled on this issue, because fan fiction cases always get settled quickly when the defendant is a fan of limited means sued by a powerful publishing company. Some argue that completely non-commercial fan fiction might be declared a fair use if courts get to decide.

[Linnen Malfoy]

Mina said:

I dunno.

Like someone said before, they could take our NT characters and make them into plushies. Zero profit and zero credit goes to us. That doesn't run well with me. n_n;;;

Well, you really could sue and win a legal case to get profit and credit for your items..
But I'm sure that they staff would never ever use our stuff, they have much much better ideas and wouldn't dare tempt fate if they did such a thing. ^^

[peachifruit]

False.

Eh! You're kidding! ...You're not kidding! Sheesh, that just put this into a completely different light.