ATTN Artists: What are your individual stances on how your content is used?

Creative
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Hey all. I’ve been in this community for close to two decades now, and I just realized nobody has ever made a topic of this sort, despite how utterly useful it would prove.

Right now, it’s a bit up in the air regarding how some people feel about their work being used in projects, some being used as splicing material for other spriters, and so on. To that end, I am creating this topic to try and get a huge, broad list of names, both well-known and niche alike. Attached to this topic is a poll; please vote in that poll to signify your general idea about how your work should be used by other members of the community. For those of you who have ‘broad overviews but specific outliers,’ I advise you to post in this topic and make those outliers known. You can also consider this entire post an ongoing discussion where you should (hopefully) be able to change your opinions over time if needed, change the status of individual submissions, and etc.

I was originally going to post this in the ‘Create an Ugly Mug’ topic, but I realized it would serve the community far better if it was a big, open public post.

I am not asking for a general opinion on whether some people think other people should make their content free to use, not free to use, or anything of that sort. I am asking for as many individual community members as possible to make their specific positions on THEIR OWN content known by voting in the poll, where we will have that information listed publicly.

Anyone not on this list is going to be assumed “unknown, but listed as non-F2U unless they say so”.

I do not expect to get every community member’s position, though that would be fantastic if we could. Obviously, people who don’t have accounts on FEU won’t be represented, which is a bit of a shame. Maybe we can ask people on Serenes, on Reddit, and so on to make an account here and list their positions? Maybe some other alternative?

Anyway. Let’s go over the key definitions:
F2E = Free to Edit. If you select this option, it means you don’t care if people use your work, if they chop it up and edit it, or whatever else.
F2U = You don’t care if people use your work, but you’d prefer they did not edit your work, either, short of maybe some basic recoloring.

Please keep in mind that no matter which entry you choose among the “use my stuff” options, it is always assumed people must credit the artist if they use their works in projects, rom mods, and so on.

  • My content is F2E without any restrictions.
  • My content is F2E with specific restrictions. (Individual entries, etc)
  • My content is F2U without any restrictions.
  • My content is F2U with specific restrictions. (Individual entries, etc)
  • My content is varied. Ask for permission before using anything.
  • My content is varied. I will list the usage criteria for each one here or in my creator topics.
  • In general, I do not permit people to use my content without permission.
  • I do not permit anyone to use my content. ALWAYS ask for permission, but expect a ‘no’ in response.

0 voters

This poll will count for all past and present and future works you may make, though you can also specify any individual creations you do or do not want people to use in the comments below.

I would ask that people keep discussion to a minimum. This topic’s only purpose is to record people’s individual positions on their own content; not broad opinions on what they think about how content should be accessed in the community. If you have a large body of work, it may be nice to post below, generally outlining the broad strokes of how you want or don’t want your content used.

Thank you for reading! Please spread this around so all the creators can have their say and we can eliminate any confusion in the future.

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I think regardless of how someone responds, even if everything is free to use without any sort of restriction or credit necessary, it’s nice to be notified/credited if your work is being used. It’s a basic courtesy.

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That was mentioned, yes.

Edit: Skitty was referring to letting the creators know about using their work; I personally don’t like getting pings, but I can see that other people might want that. I overlooked what he meant the first time, so that’s my bad.

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[9/7/2022]

As of updating the date above:

My vote in the poll remains the same. Portraits are not F2U/F2E if they are not in the top of my main forum thread’s post or in the Global Repo. Battle Animations, Maps, Map Animations, Tilesets, and anything else, if stated to be F2U F2E on my thread, is such. If you are uncertain on the status of a non-portrait, ask me.

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The way I see it, none of the portraits/palettes/whatever the fuck else I make is really my own as it already uses assets made by other people, so there’s no point in saying I own it since it technically isn’t mine to begin with.

Even if I started drawing portraits of my characters/other vanilla FE characters, I do not like stifling the potential of others; In other words, if they see they can do something with my portraits that I didn’t see, go for it! Nobody stopped me, so why should I stop you?

I understand why others don’t follow the ultra altruism mentality I have and I have no ill will towards them, it’s not exactly the most practical thing in the world… But then again, like ZoramineFae said, I don’t get paid for any of this AND I do this for fun, so it doesn’t really matter to me who uses my stuff; That, and frankly people using my stuff tells me someone thinks my stuff is good enough to use in their own way, something I’m very flattered by.

Oh I nearly forgot, all I ask for is credit. That way, more people have a direct way to get inspiration for their own ideas (plus I’d just like the recognition to be honest, I’m not entirely selfless)

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Avraxas, creator of a few(?) Ragefest submissions, had this to say:

He doesn’t feel like making an account, and so he won’t be represented in the poll, but I’ll record his position publicly anyway.

Here’s one submission, for reference.

He also made…

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image
image339×901 40.3 KB

(add like +50 to the credits clicks because I had to edit the DL link at some point, big bonus, I know)

From what I’ve gathered, people who aren’t active within the community but play hacks give absolutely no doots about who even does what.

I’ve been in conversations with people who’ve referenced my own hack and didn’t know that I was the guy that spearheaded it.

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I’m not really here to discuss whether credits are/aren’t necessary. However, worth mentioning; this credits list is useful for many things. I made it primarily so I’ll always have at least a vague per-creator guideline for the Repo’s content, but it’s also hopefully going to be a great reference point for other uses, too.

We already know the internet as a whole doesn’t care about credits; doesn’t mean making them easier to find is a pointless task :slight_smile:

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I’ll put always F2E though my asterisk is that if you use my stuff to make something I expect that to also be F2E

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To this day, assets I’ve made are portraits and maps.

For the portraits, most are splices which I’m fine with uncredited use since it wouldn’t feel right to consider them mine anyway, so I’ll just get to the exceptions. I’ve made some based on japanese historical figures, just contact me and I’ll probably say it’s fine. For the ones that I often use as a profile image, I’d only want it to be used if I’m being represented in a project, in which case I’d expect to be contacted for that reason. For the few more custom ones I’ve made, they’re more personal creations so I wouldn’t want them to be used.

For maps, I’d want to be contacted regardless. If they’re from projects I am/was closely involved in, I’ll probably alow it, but that’s more likely if the project is completed. If they were made for other people’s projects, I’ll direct the requester to the original requester, whatever they decide is what counts.

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Here’s the breakdown on my stuff:

Portraits: The portraits from Sacred Echoes are not to be used or edited in any way without my explicit permission until the final release of the project, as I’ve made clear several times in the project thread. (I will most likely say no.) After the final release, I plan to allow usage of them, so patience is appreciated and will be rewarded. (In the meantime, I try to contribute at least one F2U & F2E mug to each Mugging Blitz. This applies to portraits I’ve made for blitz hacks as well.) Additionally, if I’ve made a portrait as a commission or request for someone else, then it is that person’s decision how to allow usage of it.

Animations: I almost always upload these to the repo with the intent of F2U & F2E. To date, I haven’t made any that I have not released in this way.

Palettes: I don’t see this as something needing “ownership” in general, feel free to eyedrop, mix and match, etc. F2U & F2E

Music arrangements: where I’m not the original composer, I release these as F2U & F2E with no restrictions for that reason. For original compositions (which there is one in SE’s files somewhere) I would prefer to be asked but will probably say yes.

Engine hacks: For commonly requested hacks I will usually publicly release them on github and/or my ASM thread. If it’s something I haven’t released, it’s usually because I didn’t feel like cleaning it up and making a simple installer, and will share source if asked (as-is and without modification, but happy to explain how to modify it yourself). Tl;dr F2U & F2E

Maps: I hack Gaiden. You don’t want them. If they’re good they were probably contributed by someone other than me.

Tilesets: F2U & F2E (and almost always made much better by ZoramineFae, N426, and/or WAve as a result)

UI graphics: (menu tiles, status screens, battle screens, etc.) Sacred Echoes no, other projects F2U & F2E. I did release a variant of Sacred Echoes’ battle screen as “F2U if you can install the damn thing” because it was frustrating me, which a few projects are using.

Basically, if it’s labor-intensive original artwork for a specific project, I prefer to reserve it for that project. If it’s based on a community resource, on fan-made code decompilation of FE8, on existing FE music, or explicitly released into a blitz/repo, then it’s F2U & F2E.

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Great post, HGS. This is the sort of format and clarification I was looking for! I hope others will follow in your steps.

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I haven’t released a ton as of yet. However, I plan to release every single piece of my project, including portraits, icons, UI elements, music, and maps, as F2E once they’re all in their final form. I’ve been blessed by the generosity of this community that has enable me to make my own project, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t give back as liberally as possible.

Only request I’d have is that I’d prefer if you recolor mugs, so that I can (albeit selfishly) look at your project and not see my own characters. But I won’t come banging on your door.

Additionally, I could see myself requesting a creator to remove an asset of mine if I felt it was being used in an inappropriate or unsavory way that made me uncomfortable. But hopefully, it never comes to that.

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Anything I make is usually put out there for the public to enjoy. I see it that me doing so is bettering the community by having more resources for new or old users alike to use free of charge. I even take requests for item icons and usually have them be public. I’ve made quite a neat bundle since I first joined early last year, and I feel it would be a waste to pile it all in one spot to never see the light of day.

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I’ve only ever made splices, so to me of course everything is free to use since I used someone else’s artwork to make my own, it’d feel wrong to me if I told someone they couldn’t use my splice for whatever they wanna use it for

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I mostly do portraits here, so I think most people know how I go.

I have some of my own stuffs that cannot be used or edited in some way, some F2U stuffs that can be used but cannot be edited (excepts palettes, no one owns colors anyway), and F2U and F2E stuffs, where you can go ham with that. Even then, credit is a must for all assets you use from me.

As for the hack portraits, once I make a portrait for a hack, the portrait belongs to the hack itself. So if people want to use them, they need to ask permission from the hack creator.

I put the portraits in their respective areas, whichever they’re F2U/F2E or not in my thread, so it should be clear for now.

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I don’t so anything particularly interesting or good, and I don’t see why they’d need to have some kind of restriction, so they’re all F2E.

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Was F2E but then I noticed 2 big problems that started to go out of control:

  1. LPs and Players in general give the wrong credits to the wrong people.

Like someone else above stated, people don’t search what was borrowed or who did what
or who provided and offered what first
which is fine by itself
but then saying that someone did something that he did not because they first saw it in a different project
is a smudge to the original creator
to the point the content loses its identity and becomes part of someone else’s
even though the person who borrowed the content properly credited the original maker.

  1. We’ve hit a saturation in originality.

Convenience is nice until it negatively inhibits the creation of original ideas
and everything just start to look the same.
ROMhacks 10 years ago were more different between each other than the recent ones.
The GBA tech limitations aren’t helping either.
Most notably the Icon Sprite Section has fallen to a state where people just steal others’ sprites,
slightly edit them then present them as their own.
(But that’s kinda expected from a 16x16 16-color sprites.)

As a result, because of the above reasons, I decided to make the things I make from now on
a bit more regulated
not just for my own sake but for other creators’ projects too.

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It’s really interesting to see how a portion of the community’s positions on their content stand, though I can’t help but notice this is only a fraction of the names I expected. I hope we can keep getting people’s input about their content!

If you know a content creator who isn’t actually on FEU but whose work has made its way here in some way, maybe ask them their position on Discord or whatever, and then post it here on their behalf, assuming they don’t want to make a post?

Like I did in this post here:

Thanks! Let’s improve the community’s understanding of content rights, together!

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Thank you for creating this topic Klok!

In a world that is often characterized by egoism and restrictions I would like to break this circle:
My work is and will be 100% F2E.

Of course, I do not mean that the one who does it differently is doing wrong! On the contrary, some people have to earn money with their work, others have moral obligations or other valid reasons. For me it is a hobby and I want as many people as possible to benefit from my work.

Move the community forward!
I believe that it makes a big difference if we try to work together or not. As A_Reliable_Chair stated, many don’t even care about the credits; not even the creator, just the creation. This is not likely to change (even though the credits are a very important part of any project!). But every project that is successful brings the whole community forward: new registrations on the site, new active members asking questions and contributing new, creative things. The more we share our work with other members, the more we can do for the good of all, because we get good, polished fanprojects and new creative assets “in return”. And that brings joy to each of us (hopefully!).

Vision: “Too many” F2E resources available
My vision for the future is: New devs/hackers should not have the problem of not having resources available, but the problem of choosing the right resources and changing them so that everything fits together well. A bit like the skillsystem (thank you sme and co.!): using the whole thing is too much for most projects, but selected elements of it are just indispensable.

Thank you for your sincerity and/or making your work available too!

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