Copyright
Everything on this site is copyrighted - most of it by me, Crescent. The items that do not belong to me belong to the respective creators. I was given explicit permission by the original creators to host certain tutorials and downloads on this site. I make no claims to ownership of the files.
Important: All my work is copyrighted. Even if you do not make any money from using other people's stuff, it is still a copyright violation to grab the images and redistribute them - no matter how much you alter them. I'm (usually) a nice person and am more than willing to share, but you do need to ask me first.
If you want to redistribute any items, you must contact the item's creator. If I didn't create it, then I can not give permission to redistribute it.
Myth: If you change something more than X%, then it's yours.
Nope. All it means is that you've created a derivative work and you do not have copyright over it.
Fair Use
Please don't tell me that it's fair use if you don't charge for it. Fair Use allows small pieces of a work, or body of work, to be incorporated into an otherwise original body of work when it's relevant. This means it can be used in critiques, news reports, and such. If you're teaching a class on Boris Vallejo, you can have a hand out showing a few of his images because you're teaching about the artist. You can use quotes from a book if you're doing a review of the book.
Fair Use does not mean you can grab an image and use it in a tutorial without getting permission! It absolutely doesn't mean you can grab an image and tube it, use it as part of a web template set, etc.
For More Information on Copyright
- A brief intro to copyright - an excellent, concise explanation on copyright by Brad Templeton.
- 10 Big Myths about copyright explained - the follow up by Brad Templeton.
- U.S. Copyright Law
- Berne Convention Information (Most countries have signed the Berne Convention.)