DeviantART Policy #304 Revision

DeviantART Policy #304 (which can be viewed here: http://help.deviantart.com/304/ ) states that an artists work may be reproduced or traced and posted on DeviantART without the consent of the original artist and may be claimed as the reproducers own image. Many DeviantART members feel that this policy leaves their art and creations unprotected, and many are leaving the site for such reasons.

DeviantART (www.DeviantArt.com) claims to be an art community. As a community, its members should have a say. It is the members who make DeviantART what it is. Many of these members are upset with the fact that many of their friends are leaving the community due to Policy #304, and with the fact that when most of them agreed to the Terms of Service (required to join), this policy had not been created yet, meaning many people did not actually agree to it in the first place. We, as DeviantART members, would like to propose a New Policy #304 to help protect our creations.

The New Policy #304 is as follows:


Here at DeviantART we strive to be a community that welcomes artists of all ages and all levels of skill and talent from the young beginner to the mature professional.

We recognize that beginning or amateur artists often copy or recreate existing imagery as a natural part of the learning process.

However, in order to protect the originality and creativity of our members and other artists, we will not tolerate the posting of such reproductions (including tracings), except in the case that the artist in question got the expressed, written permission from the original artist and gives them due credit.

If you believe that a deviation or scrapbook addition is a reproduction of another work that does not contain a link or any form of credit to the original work, or is a direct copy of another artist's established creation, you should report it as a potential violation.