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There’s been a lot of misunderstanding both within the Japanese and Western MMDC about “Rules”. Cultural differences aside, on the Internet, there are a lot of people who are of the misguided opinion that anything that is free to download is free to do with as they desire. Apart from the fact that this is not true, this has lead to a lot of confusion, misunderstanding and disagreements.
So in this article, we are going to teach you how to write rules to protect your modeling work that are legally enforceable. This, however, will not be an in depth discussion; rather we will just simply create a template for you to adapt and use with a brief explanation on each section.
Please understand that as a model creator/editor your work already has legal protections where this is applicable. Since I am not a legal professional, I will neither give legal advice or opinions either within the context of what is presented here or on your works specifically. Seek professional advice if more information is needed.
All we will cover in this article are how to write protections for your standard model edits and to a degree, your original non-commercial model works for MMD.
Here is the general legal principles in almost all cases. Once you create an original work or a legal derivative work, that work is automatically legally protected by US Copyright Law. This can only happen if the work is in fixed form. Not an issue as you will have data files with your model’s information; the model and associated texture files. If you then offer to share your work in the form of a downloadable resource, then in almost all cases you will need documentation that protects your rights by clearly stating what is and what is not permissible with your work.
Word of caution: if you create an original model of Miku Hatsune, for example, even though it is an original work, it is regarded legally as a derivative work as the character is owned by another party. Specifically, Crypton Future Media, Inc. Wherein, you have some rights over this model, there are certain real restrictions. The most important of which is that you have no rights to commercialize the model as under the licence which protects Crypton’s IP rights to Miku, you are only licensed to create an image (or model) of her but not profit financially from it. This same principle applies to any original or edit work that features any of the Vocaloid characters that are owned by another party.

THE TEMPLATE
Anyway here is the template. Read this first and the explanation below. Then adapt this for your own use. Just feel free to copy/paste/edit the template. There are no restrictions on how you choose to use it. You can also download the template from my GOOGLE DRIVE or my sta.sh .

Most of it is self explanatory but generally, just fill in the areas in parenthesis ("[" and "]") with your own data. But I will note below the important parts.

The copyright notice is important for your own protection. So an example will be: Miku Hatsune (C) Crypton Future Media, Inc. Note that I didn't include the date as it is "optional".
Model: just put the name of the model/edit here again. Keeps all the important info in the same place.
Version (number of your model/edit): This is important information for (serious) users.
Author: That's you. Either use your real name or preferably a legal screen name. A legal screen name is one that you registered with a commercial website such as this one. So for example Trackdancer.deviantart.com is my legal screen name here as it can be uniquely identified to me (since I registered it against my real name when I created my DA account). Whatever name you use it must be legally linked to the real you.
Date: Best to use the release date of your model. Use at least a MONTH/DATE format: eg. NOV, 2018. You could also use the exact date when your model/edit was completed.
The main CREDITS section should include ALL resources that you used and SHOULD include any inherited copyright notices such as the one for Miku if your edit is of that character. This is for your own protection as legally, you are using someone else's IP and under their licensing rules.
If your model has special instructions, this can be included here. Omit this section if this does not apply or you can use a separate instruction sheet like I normally do.
TERMS OF USE. Here are your "rules". Notice the terminology I used here. If you ever read my readme.txts, you will always see I use this term instead of "Rules" as there is a legal implication behind this terminology. Rules you can break, Terms you do so at your own risk. As for the actual types of rules you can use, I will cover these below in more detail.
IF YOU DO NOT FULLY AGREE WITH THESE TERMS YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS TO USE THIS MODEL. BY USING THIS MODEL, IT WILL BE ASSUMED THAT YOU ARE AGREEING TO ABIDE BY THE TERMS OF USE AS NOTED ABOVE. This is important. By including these statements you are unequivocal about what people can and cannot do with your work. If someone uses your model they may only do so if they adhere to your "Terms"; otherwise they will be liable for either COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT or BREACH OF CONTRACT or both. It is really simple, someone has to 100% agree with your terms or they have no right (license) to use your work. Period, no arguments, end of the discussion.
CHANGE LOG. Only use this if you revised the model and reissued the model. Remember also to update the version number and detail any changes made INCLUDING and ESPECIALLY any changes that you may have made to the TERMS OF USE.
DISCLAIMER. These declarations serves to protect your own butt, so use these or something similar.
SUPPORT. Include this if you're willing to provide support for your model; otherwise omit this section.
CONTACT. Absolutely include some way for people to contact you.
Doc. version number. This is actually quite important but optional. If you understand the importance of document control then this is self explanatory. Not to be confused with the model version number. I use this to log changes that I make to my standard MMD readme.txt templates. This number is changed every time I make a change to the template (usually once a year).

TERMS OF USE:
I am not going into a full legal discussion here. All that will be covered here is how to use each section. Do note that wherein as a model creator/editor you have almost all rights, you also don't have all the rights. Users have rights too including those under Fair Usage guidelines. Note also that US Fair Use guidelines are not applicable outside of US legal jurisdictions and only applies to works originated in the USA. Likewise other countries have Fair Use guidelines. Many are similar to the ones in use in the USA, but they can be different or extend more or less rights than their US counterparts.

[Advisory on crediting if used]
Crediting a work created by someone else is actually legally mandatory, but for the idiots that don't know this include something to remind them to give credit for your effort. Something like: CREDIT IF USED, will be fine.

[Editing restrictions - include all that applies]
Here's where you put down in writing what you do or do not permit with regards to editing your work. Bear in mind that editing for personal use (only) is not something that you can restrict.

[Non-commercial usage declaration]
ALWAYS include a notation along the lines of: NON-COMMERCIAL USE ONLY. Especially if your model is an edit. This isn't so much to protect your work from being used commercially, but to prevent you from being sued if someone uses your work commercially and they get sued by the principal copyright owners.

[Moral usage restrictions]
NO R-18 etc. types of restrictions if applicable.

[Media usage restrictions]
If you only want your work used within the context of MMD, this is where this should be noted.

[Any other inherited restrictions]
THIS SECTION IS VERY IMPORTANT. Especially if you edited a model such as the Tda Miku Append model or similar. Any restrictions applied by the original creator/modeler is inherited by your edit. A prime example is MAMAMA's Gumi model which can only be edited if the model remains as the same character.

For your own protection, always include (at least references to) any inherited editing/usage restrictions in your documentation. You can also do this by including the original model's readme.txt in the download package and include a reference to it here in this section.

FINAL NOTE
Only use this template for "legal" edits. For game rips and the likes, the practice is actually illegal so nothing you write in terms of rules will apply.

Well hopefully, some of you will find this useful. In the interest of brevity I have kept explanations short but if you need further clarification, just leave a comment below. Note that I am not a licensed legal professional so I cannot give legal advice. If you need this sort of advice, please seek the assistance of a Law professional.

If you need to see a fully developed version of this type of document, simply read one of the readme.txt included with one of my models. They all generally use the same general format.

Thanks for reading.