Question related to the Syrae thread.

[torinir2.livejournal.com]

With the Syrae thread devolving into a copyright war of words, I figured it was time ask this question. I separated it from the Syrae thread since it might be useful for both artists and commissioners to take note of this discussion.

What are the rules of the land as far as commissioned artwork involving the commissioner's character(s)? I would assume that the commissioner has some recourse when dealing with works involving his/her characters, and the artist has some recourse available by default, but who has the final say as to who can do what with the finished product, in terms of alterations, etc? What kind of timeframe should a commissioner hold for approaching the artist for changes, and when would it be a DIY case?

I'm not talking about generic artwork commissions, I'm speaking of commissions involving characters whose "existence" predates the artwork being commissioned.

Comments

[sdkitsune.livejournal.com]

Personally, I see it as this way:

There are plenty of Copyright laws. Everyone else has mentioned them, so there's no use repeating them.

But more importantly, who is stopping you from doing what you want to do? No one. Yes, you could offend an artist. Yes, you can tarnish your reputation in the furry fan-base (for example, by ending up on this community). But 99% of the time, there are no legal consequences to doing what you want with the art that's in your hand.

Now I know a few of you are bouncing around in your seats right now because "this is wrong." But you have to be logical in these sorts of situations. If a customer wants to maintain a good relationship with the artist (and with the fandom in general), it's a good idea to go through the artist and ask them what they think, no matter the time span (unless said artists is no longer part of the fandom). But there is no police officer that's going to bust through your door. And quite honestly, if a court case arises based over a $25 furry commission, the judge is going to laugh you out of the courtroom.

By posting modified work, you may violate the TOS's of websites, causing the work to be removed. So make sure to check those before doing something that's potentially against the rules.

And also, DO NOT ASSUME ANYTHING. If you are an artists, spell things out for your customers. Not everyone has a PhD in copyright law. SPELL OUT "no editing, no reposting, etc etc" if you don't want that to happen. Tossing out the "common sense" excuse for someone who may have never gotten a commission before is a waste of time. And if a customer is dealing with an artist with a terrible attitude, then that's what communities like this are about. Learn BEFORE you pay who to avoid.

[crssafox.livejournal.com]

It also depends, IMO, on the scale of editing. Cropping artwork and using it as an LJ/FA icon? Pssh. Whatever, I could care less. But something a little more outrageous - say, photoshopping clothes off of a character when I don't do R-rated work, and posting it all over for people to see the *gasp* rare nudie pic (that I never did in the first place) would be -entirely- different and potentially harmful to the artist's reputation.