Bridget E Wilde

Tubes and Sigs Policy

Please, do not email me to request permission!
I appreciate the courtesy and consideration, but this notice should contain all the information you need, and if your use of images fits in these guidelines, you may consider permission GRANTED. Emails requesting a usage covered by these guidelines will NOT be responded to, because I would rather use my meager time to create more art, rather than typing YET ANOTHER response to YET ANOTHER sig/tag group. Please, just read, and post this notice to your group as your notification of my permissions and restrictions, along with a link to this page for future updates as they may be necessary.

I have been considering whether or not to allow “tubes” to be made of my artwork. On the one hand, I do not mind having my art used for people’s avatars or in sig images for message boards – personal use. However, I am very leery of having my art stripped of its backgrounds and posted online as tubes. Even if a particular group is ethical and courteous in its use, there is nothing to stop the unscrupulous or ignorant from taking images from the group and propagating or selling these images wherever they choose. As a result, I have come up with the following policies:

--You may not make money off of my work. If you are being paid in any way, shape, or form for the use of my artwork, then you may not use my artwork.

--No tubes of my artwork may be posted online or otherwise distributed. (I am aware that at one time I granted one, now-defunct, group permission for tubes, but as that group is no longer in existence, that is not an issue.) If you have tubes with my artwork on your site, please remove them. This includes private distribution!

--You may still use my artwork for sigs and the like, as long as the manipulator of the image works from one of my original uploaded files, and a copyright notice crediting me as artist is put on the finished piece. This is to say, the person making the sig starts with my picture with copyright notice and finishes with a sig with copyright notice, and no intermediary stages sans copyright notice are posted online, shared, or saved for future use. Completed sigs (with appropriate copyright notice) may be posted online and shared.

--Avatars that are too small to have a graphic copyright notice (i.e. the 100x100 LiveJournal icons, or 80x80 message board icons) may be made freely for personal use, as long as I am given credit when they are posted somewhere (as opposed to used). Again, these should be made from my original uploaded files and thumbnails.

--Linkware websets may be made as long as an appropriate copyright/link button is part of the set. Please note that any websites I find using such websets WITHOUT appropriate copyright information and linkage will be considered illegal, and will be pursued as such.

--Please do not make the sigs or icons defamatory to their subjects. This is hard to define, but I know it when I see it, and if I see it you will be requested to take it offline.

--Links back are appreciated and encouraged, but not required for personal use. They ARE required if a sig is posted online, however.

--Please note that this does not include any works of my creation which are under contract to any other individual or company. If you wish to use a commissioned piece I have done of someone else’s characters, you MUST have that commissioner’s permission! Some examples of this include Tali Hartoh-Mason (M. Mitchell Marmel), Midnight (Bernard Doove), and Vicky Scent & Marion Fox (Scott Alston), as well as any art or manga I have had published under contract.

If you are uncertain whether your planned use is allowable or not, please assume it is NOT. Unfortunately, I do not have time to respond to inquiries about image usage. If your use fits my policy, go ahead. If it does not, don't do it.

This notice may be posted on sig and tube groups as long as it is posted in its entirety, with no omissions or embellishments. (Other artists who find this policy suits their own needs may use the text as they see fit to refer to their own works.)

Thank you!

Bridget E. Wilde
http://www.bewildered-art.com