Single post in Regarding Art Theft

Excuse me for coming off a bit brash, but seriously.. how hard is this to understand? Every question here so far has been "but what about x? does that need to be credited?" It's not that difficult to understand. If you did not make it, you need to source it. If you just pulled it off google, you need to source it. If an image you are using is free to use or official content, then all that needs to be stated in a tooltip or something similar is 'btw this is free to use lol' or 'art is official' Any image that you found of google needs to be traced back to its original creator Google themselves even point out that images may be subject to copyright -- that they cannot confirm or deny that an image they have is free-to-use. We're not enforcing this rule because it's something we made up -- it's an actual law. Copyright is a big thing for a very good reason, and we're not about to ignore it. I know for a fact if I found a user using my artwork without my permission for a character reference for their RP I would literally flip tables. It's something that bothers me to no end - just "Yeah no. Fioré does not behave like that what are you doing to my beloved Leafeon Sona." Very few things make me see red immediately. This is one. It's incredibly disrespectful to have someone's artwork being used for something it was not designed for. I've already said it but I will restate it again. If you did not make something in your signature or avatar and you cannot get permission to use it from the original creator, remove it. I'm aware that some artists are inactive, but them's the breaks, as they say. You'll just have to consider yourself out of luck on using that particular image. If an artist has two accounts on the website, go with the account that been most active and just send them a polite note asking if you can use their image. It's courteous to ask for things that you want to borrow.

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To clarify something, a gif like Is generally okay. Gifs that are from TV shows/anime/movies/whathaveyou and are generally acceptable to be used in your signature or About me section. Just credit them by saying something along the lines of "The Lion King(c) Disney" and you're good to go. After all, we don't expect you to send an email to Disney asking for permission to use a clip from their movie to use as a gif. While it would be impressive, it's incredibly unlikely that they'd respond.

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You pretty much answered your own question here. Ownership has been transferred, so it's alright. :)