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Description

Edit 1: Title changed to be more fitting

Edit 2: I want to add this as quick advice. Always screenshot an artist’s TOS with the date and time you took the screenshot visible! Keep it safe and easy to access I.e on TH with the image put on private!! If the TOS is changed you’ll have a defense to go off of saying “well yeah, but I didn’t agree to this back then, so these old rules apply to me. Not your new ones!”

Anyways

_______________

I see a lot of new people are going into the adopt scene not knowing what they’re getting into, and they want to use characters for stories, games, and all these fun projects because they got a new character and that’s great! But if you ever want to establish or use these characters in any way outside of roleplay, drawing practice, or just simply just being happy you ‘own’ the design, it NEEDS to be commercial use allowed.

This is for the design, not the original artist’s work by the way. Commercial use lets you “profit” off an oc As long as the design is recreated in your own work. I.e, you drew the design again and the original creator didn’t. You aren’t profiting off what they physically drew, but the character design they made.

READ AN ARTIST’S TERMS OF SERVICE BEFORE YOU BUY!! It will save you so much grief.

Wanting to use designs for webcomics and publishing books is innocent and fine, but don’t be like me who haphazardly bought adopts because I liked how they looked. Which is great that the designs are great! Support your local artists; but you need to be careful of what you buy, because you may not be able to use that adopt in the way you intended.

Some people may even take away the adopt after you paid for it. Wether or not you get a refund is up in the air.

The descriptions are in the photo above, but here’s some stuff to help you if you’ve ended up buying a design you realize you can’t use or aren’t sure you can use.

1) I bought a design that’s personal use only, but I got attached and I want to use it for a project/book/webcomic/video game.
This was an issue I had when I realized designs I bought had the “personal use” label, and I already spent like $100 on a couple. Your options are:
>Redesign the adopt to a point where it’s similar but unrecognizable.

>Use the adopt for trading fodder, or sell it.
>Reach out to the artist and see if there’s a fee or an agreement you can make with royalties.
>If you really don’t care, you can still use the adopt as you wish despite what the artist said, because legally, you bought it. You may get blacklisted or the design resold- but no matter what, you “own” the design.

2)The artist has no TOS, or it says “do whatever you’d like once bought”, or, “you get the rights to the character after purchase”!

>If it says the latter, good for you! Do whatever you want. HOWEVER, if they have no T.O.S, you should ask with the message saying “commercial use” specifically. Most people who lack a T.O.S from my experience don’t particularly care about rules and would usually say “yeah do whatever.”

3)The artist I bought from just “took back” their design, and never refunded me.
>The good news is technically, they cannot really do that. You can use the design as you wish, however, you can get backlash by their following if they have one. In that case, just be careful next time with who you buy from. People who say “commercial use okay!” are the safest.

4)A webcomic isn’t inherently commercial use! You can use a personal use adopt for a webcomic!
>Technically, no. Assuming your webcomic gets a following, you put it on a website that hosts webcomics, or people make merch of that character, you’re going “commercial use.” You CANNOT control if people ask for commissions or make merch to sell of that character, and you cannot sell any publication with that character in your comic. The website host would also make money, even if it’s technically “free” for viewers to see.

This isn’t from a legal standpoint, as legally, all TOS are technically invalid since you always own the full rights to the design after purchase. This is just the reasons a personal use adopt seller may give. Paying an extra fee, royalties or a contract may be something a seller does- it’s grey, but respectable and should be done if you really like the design to avoid backlash. If someone says “I’m not selling you full licensing rights to the character without a fee!” and you are told to agree, it’s important to work things out with them as they outright say you don’t get full rights. (Or just avoid sellers like these altogether. I do that and personally don’t do it myself as it seems like too much to put customers through.)

Breaking a TOS just means the creator can go against you but them attempting taking back the design without consent is a headache and can be full of backlash from their followers, but taking back is also illegal and technically theft. (It’s like selling you a tv and stealing it back.)

5)But an artist should have control over the rights of their design!
They sold you a product. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how small or how indie an artist is, they sold you a product, and that is the rights to a design. The rights to their art is theirs, but if someone sells you a design, you have the rights to it now because you paid. Do you get told how to use a TV after you pay them? Or even better, can an artist take back a sculpture they made after you paid just because they don’t like how you use it?

At the end of the day, don’t support people who think they can take work back. The best they can do is ask to buy it back.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. I’m thinking of making a master list of adoptmakers who are commercial use ok and won’t take back designs so comment or message here if you wanna be in on that

Description

Edit 1: Title changed to be more fitting

Edit 2: I want to add this as quick advice. Always screenshot an artist’s TOS with the date and time you took the screenshot visible! Keep it safe and easy to access I.e on TH with the image put on private!! If the TOS is changed you’ll have a defense to go off of saying “well yeah, but I didn’t agree to this back then, so these old rules apply to me. Not your new ones!”

Anyways

_______________

I see a lot of new people are going into the adopt scene not knowing what they’re getting into, and they want to use characters for stories, games, and all these fun projects because they got a new character and that’s great! But if you ever want to establish or use these characters in any way outside of roleplay, drawing practice, or just simply just being happy you ‘own’ the design, it NEEDS to be commercial use allowed.

This is for the design, not the original artist’s work by the way. Commercial use lets you “profit” off an oc As long as the design is recreated in your own work. I.e, you drew the design again and the original creator didn’t. You aren’t profiting off what they physically drew, but the character design they made.

READ AN ARTIST’S TERMS OF SERVICE BEFORE YOU BUY!! It will save you so much grief.

Wanting to use designs for webcomics and publishing books is innocent and fine, but don’t be like me who haphazardly bought adopts because I liked how they looked. Which is great that the designs are great! Support your local artists; but you need to be careful of what you buy, because you may not be able to use that adopt in the way you intended.

Some people may even take away the adopt after you paid for it. Wether or not you get a refund is up in the air.

The descriptions are in the photo above, but here’s some stuff to help you if you’ve ended up buying a design you realize you can’t use or aren’t sure you can use.

1) I bought a design that’s personal use only, but I got attached and I want to use it for a project/book/webcomic/video game.
This was an issue I had when I realized designs I bought had the “personal use” label, and I already spent like $100 on a couple. Your options are:
>Redesign the adopt to a point where it’s similar but unrecognizable.

>Use the adopt for trading fodder, or sell it.
>Reach out to the artist and see if there’s a fee or an agreement you can make with royalties.
>If you really don’t care, you can still use the adopt as you wish despite what the artist said, because legally, you bought it. You may get blacklisted or the design resold- but no matter what, you “own” the design.

2)The artist has no TOS, or it says “do whatever you’d like once bought”, or, “you get the rights to the character after purchase”!

>If it says the latter, good for you! Do whatever you want. HOWEVER, if they have no T.O.S, you should ask with the message saying “commercial use” specifically. Most people who lack a T.O.S from my experience don’t particularly care about rules and would usually say “yeah do whatever.”

3)The artist I bought from just “took back” their design, and never refunded me.
>The good news is technically, they cannot really do that. You can use the design as you wish, however, you can get backlash by their following if they have one. In that case, just be careful next time with who you buy from. People who say “commercial use okay!” are the safest.

4)A webcomic isn’t inherently commercial use! You can use a personal use adopt for a webcomic!
>Technically, no. Assuming your webcomic gets a following, you put it on a website that hosts webcomics, or people make merch of that character, you’re going “commercial use.” You CANNOT control if people ask for commissions or make merch to sell of that character, and you cannot sell any publication with that character in your comic. The website host would also make money, even if it’s technically “free” for viewers to see.

This isn’t from a legal standpoint, as legally, all TOS are technically invalid since you always own the full rights to the design after purchase. This is just the reasons a personal use adopt seller may give. Paying an extra fee, royalties or a contract may be something a seller does- it’s grey, but respectable and should be done if you really like the design to avoid backlash. If someone says “I’m not selling you full licensing rights to the character without a fee!” and you are told to agree, it’s important to work things out with them as they outright say you don’t get full rights. (Or just avoid sellers like these altogether. I do that and personally don’t do it myself as it seems like too much to put customers through.)

Breaking a TOS just means the creator can go against you but them attempting taking back the design without consent is a headache and can be full of backlash from their followers, but taking back is also illegal and technically theft. (It’s like selling you a tv and stealing it back.)

5)But an artist should have control over the rights of their design!
They sold you a product. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how small or how indie an artist is, they sold you a product, and that is the rights to a design. The rights to their art is theirs, but if someone sells you a design, you have the rights to it now because you paid. Do you get told how to use a TV after you pay them? Or even better, can an artist take back a sculpture they made after you paid just because they don’t like how you use it?

At the end of the day, don’t support people who think they can take work back. The best they can do is ask to buy it back.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. I’m thinking of making a master list of adoptmakers who are commercial use ok and won’t take back designs so comment or message here if you wanna be in on that