Stop painting your customers as criminals.

OK so, in light of some of the recent events (which, I'll admit, I've not been following verbatim, only picking up bits and pieces here and there), I thought I'd shed some light on what I think of some of the complaints involving copyright and reselling designs.

First off, I want to start this by saying that the purpose of a Terms of Service (TOS) is to establish a set of terms that one must abide by, in order to have the right to make use of a service. In our instance, it's a set of rules and disclaimers that clarify what the buyer of an art service is and is not allowed to do. These, of course, vary between artists depending on many factors. As a buyer of an artist's work, of course you are expected to have read and understood the terms set in place by the artist, regardless of one's personal agreement to the terms or not - by purchasing the art, they agree to abide by those rules.

Now, if I'm gathering everything correctly, the issue is mainly involved with a potential confusion and clashing of multiple artists' TOS, which may not agree with one another.

In this case, it's about reselling an adoptable design. Many artists' TOS specify that an adoptable may not be resold for a cent more than one originally paid. This is a stance that I personally disagree with, and have several valid reasons as to why, but that's for another debate entirely! Regardless of my views, I always abide by this rule when mentioned by an artist in their terms. Many artists also state that an adoptable MAY be resold for an additional price, as compensation for additional commissioned artwork that comes bundled with the character. This can potentially step on the toes of artists who do not want their commissioned work to either change hands at all, or be "sold" as part of a character bundle, which includes the price of the extra artwork. And some TOSes, which specify that art may not be used for "commercial use", without inserting a VERY important disclaimer describing what constitutes "commercial use", may or may not include reselling artwork with an adoptable.

Generally, my assumption is that when an artist describes "commercial use", they mean 2 things - distribution and reproduction. You wouldn't be allowed to take a commission you got from me, print it on T-shirts, and sell those shirts. You can't make prints of it and sell them at cons. You could give them away, sure, but reproduction and selling of my artwork and intellectual property would not be allowed, as per my TOS. You would have to contact me to discuss royalties, in that case.

In general, I don't think that most artists intended to disallow the reselling of the original artwork - some do, and that's totally okay, but most artists that I know are OK with it! Artwork is resold and repurposed all the time. But when "commercial use" is not defined clearly in the artist's TOS, it can mean just about anything. This is the responsibility of the artist for not clarifying their own terms in a way that the commissioner can fully consent with. It's also the responsibility of the commissioner to make their intentions clear from the moment of purchase. This is a TWO-WAY STREET. COMMUNICATION is the most important part.

Now, I've been seeing rant journals that paint commissioners as terrible people for selling their adoptables, including the cost of the artwork added on to the design. If the artist's TOS clearly state that this is a no-go, and the commissioner could be made easily aware of this by simply reading the terms, then there's a problem! But in most cases, the commissioner did NOT KNOW that this was wrong to do, because they didn't think to check the terms of ALL artists involved, or a TOS may be confusingly or poorly worded. Generally speaking, it's an honest mistake.

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Long story short:
---Approach this issue maturely and with respect. People who resell artwork are not bad people. 98% of the time, there is NO ILL INTENT involved. Chances are, no one is taking the time and effort to commission you JUST to make a quick buck off your work. No one is trying to steal your children. If a customer of your art is doing something that may violate your TOS, or something that may make you personally uncomfortable, most of the time it is completely unintentional and may be an oversight on their part. Be mature about it, and contact them calmly and PRIVATELY to discuss the issue.

---Stop slinging words like "illegal" and "criminal" around. You are terrifying your customers, and nothing makes someone less likely to buy an artist's work than being scared of stepping on legal eggshells, or an artist's sensitivity to something they may not realize is wrong. Yes, some resales and transactions in this community are legally questionable, but chances are you're overblowing the issue with a commissioner selling an adoptable character. This isn't Forever 21 stealing your design and pasting it on a T-shirt. These are communications with regular people, and sometimes regular people screw up.

---Stop yelling at people for violating rules they did not realize were in place initially, without warning. As one of my friends put it, it's like screaming at a kid for taking one too many mints, when they may not have been aware of such a limit in the first place. Kindly direct those people to the exact place in your terms that disallow whatever wrong they may be doing, and chances are, they will take the effort to amend their mistake.

---Stop being so cynical, oh my god. I'm inclined to believe that MOST people do not mean ill. Sure, there are scammers out there, and people who would want to make quick bucks. There sure as hell are easier ways to do it than the adopt community. Either way, approach a customer calmly and maturely, and you will realize that most of the time, there was no intention to cause harm. If harm was intended, or the commissioner refuses to agree despite a calm discussion, THEN it can become a real issue.

---To commissioners: Don't be afraid of an artist you want to commission. Just be polite and respectful, and take the necessary steps to understanding the terms of all artists involved. If a mistake is made, be accepting and readily willing to fix the mistake. And if someone gives you shit for a poorly-worded and confusing TOS rule, then that's not cool. At all.

I'm sorry to write out such a massive journal, I'm bored at work and a bit irritated at all the mudslinging I've been seeing around here. I hoped this help to shed light on the situation, and if I've understood anything incorrectly, I'm cool with hearing more about it. Copyright is something that I'm very much interested in, as someone who seeks to work professionally in the game dev field, which is basically a giant legal battleground with art caught unfortunately in the middle of it, haha.