Board Thread:Policies/@comment-24800939-20160420135146/@comment-10473115-20160502211304

Mrkermit wrote: We should start a new discussion for it without any instructions to change templates or image types. And if we decide to delete fan art, we shouldn't edit user pages to remove links to images or templates because it's not needed. And after few hours, notice is up to instruct how to protect user pages and change image type and licensing. This thread continues to be the most frustrating discussion I've had on the site. I don't care about fan art on user pages enough to fight for it, I could live what you decide on it. However, I want to make few points about the matter. This time I'll use bulleted lists to see if that helps to understand me.


 * The artist can't give permission to use art about copyrighted characters because Marvel owns copyright. Therefore, fan art is always against Wikia's TOU but most likely they don't enforce it without a complaint from copyright holder.
 * Immaterial laws are such a maze that it's always better to use term copyright infringement instead of legal or illegal.
 * Changing gallery type to user gallery on user pages is good. However, editors shouldn't need to protect any fan art galleries on their own pages from deleting. User pages should be private and in this case we don't have any reason to edit them.
 * Instructing to license fan art as public domain is just wrong and could be seen from the view of the copyright holder as a sign of bad faith.
 * I think that changing the image type of fan art to user image is a wrong decision. Most likely Marvel don't care about our use of fan art but it would be better to do it openly, showing good faith.
 * Fair use licensing approves only encyclopediac use. Every image not used in articles and every gallery (even category) are clearly out of its scope. Images should also be as low resolution as possible for the article's need. And even our whole article layout could be challenged as being competitor to handbooks or Marvel's own wiki.
 * I don't have fears that Marvel would like to give us any problems but we should acknowledge and respect their rights as a copyright holder.

Few helpful links:
 * [//www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKBsTUjd910 Fan Art Law at Comic-Con by Josh Wattles on Youtube]; Very informative and entertaining presentation about copyright laws, including fair use. I really hope that you can spare time to watch at least first half of it, last half consists of audience questions.
 * --- Dan Buckley: We in no way want to interfere with creators at conventions who are providing a positive Marvel experience for our fans. We want fans to speak and interact with the creators who wrote, penciled, inked, lettered, colored or edited their favorite stories. Part of that positive interaction is that a fan can walk away with a signed memento or personalized sketch from an artist.
 * --- Comment to that by Sean Murphy.