1. It is greatly encouraged that any graphic that you sell in your minishop or breedable pets store should be 100% your own work.
However, any graphic for sale in your minishop or breedable pets store must be mostly or almost all your own work and idea.
No whole graphic, icon, sprite, or other image, that is found on the internet, or another source, and is not your work, may be sold in minishops. No part of it may be traced, copied by eye or copy & pasted to be passed off as your own work.
2. If a graphic is not 100% your own work, containing frames, borders, base/template images, decorations, icons, flourishes, whole images, etc that are the personal work of another artist(s) then,
1. Written permission must be obtained from those artists, and you must be able to provide this proof, when asked. A general note on the artist's site, or a 'Terms of Use' constitutes 'written permission.'
Even with this permission, credit must be clearly, fully given. Please see below for more detailed information on permission and credit.
2. All art that you use is under concurrent protection of the site where it originally came from, The Minishop Rules and guidelines, and Copyright Law. The most conservative interpretation should be taken. (IE: The rule requiring most credit, protection.)
If the artist places © symbols on the picture or page containing it, has right-click protection, or posts a terms of use on their own site that says so, or otherwise makes it clear on the site that the images may not be used, then it's safe to assume that you can't sample, edit, or use it. Always abide by the artist's terms of use.
3. The work must be credited clearly, noting what the other artist(s) did, and what you added, with links to the original art of the other artists.
Even if the artist does not require a link-back and credit, it should be given as a courtesy to the artist, and patrons of Minishops and Breedable/Changing Pets on gaiaonline.com.
Failing to give proper credit will result in a warning to do so. If you fail to abide by the warning and give proper credit, or maliciously obscuring the authorship of any work, your shop will be closed or deleted.
4. Creations by you that include another artist's work must be removed or edited not to contain said work, if the creator if a sampled image requests it, directly, or to Gaia Staff. If requested through Gaia staff, a letter will be sent by a mod requesting the removal. Failure to comply will result in removal of offending material.
This supercedes any previous 'agreement' between you and the other artist.
3. An image found, or any part of said image may not be modified in any way to obscure the original creatorship. IE: Pixel trace of a CG image.
And also
found them on a website & give full credit" is not 'credit' AT ALL.
Credit must be provided in this format:
"I found these on a website called Pixel Palz (www.Pixel-palz.com/moogles) and give full credit to the artist, 'Jimmy Helmet-Head' (JHH@yaho.com) Who gave me permission to use them on 12/03/04 by email)"
This is the ONLY Acceptable way to credit someone. You must include:
* Name/fake internet name (If they don't give a real one)
* Contact info (email address, AIM/MSN/ICQ etc).
* Name and URL of website, and EXACT page where everyone else can see the pics.
* The date when you got permission from the artist. ( BE READY TO PROVIDE THIS TO ANYONE WHO ASKS. )
You MUST also put this in READABLE text. NO white text, or tiny text. The size must be above size=6. And may not be in a lighter color than the rest of your shop text, hidden or obscured in any way.
It must also be IN the post where you first show a picture of the pet or item.
If you do not provide credit in this format, we will assume you do not have permission and your shop will be removed for art theft.
So you don't get in trouble.
