Obey Me! Screen Contest | Fanart Copyright
I already see so many people complaining about the Devs not offering any sort of compensation for the contest and the rules stating they own the art and are allowed to redistribute it.
First and foremost, you don’t have to join if you’re out for money or don’t want to share the rights for your art/fanart.
But then consider: no fanart truly does belong to you. The characters are not yours, they are theirs, they belong to them, they own all rights to them, they paid for those rights, you didn’t.
Think about this, fanartists that sell their stuff are doing even more than that, they don’t offer compensation for the company, they make money off of them. Solmare isn’t making money off your art with this contest per se. Most of these clauses of them being allowed to use the art are just there so that people are being directly told. Due to copyright laws, they are allowed to own all art depicting their creation.
They have all rights in the world to sue any fanartists, to ask for profit cuts or to ask for fines. Be aware of that, as far as I understand that even applies to american laws that allow for free/fair use. Because with selling, you technically don’t do that anymore.
There are rules as to when you have complete ownership of your art, and that is when it is truly made up by you and the character depicted by it is not recognizable as a third parties anymore. Fanart never meets that criteria! The whole point of it is to recognize the characters!
Please look into shit you’re doing before complaining.
I’m still contemplaiting to ask if they even allow fanart to be sold, because in my country I need written approval or a general statement of them allowing me to do so. I just haven’t, as I don’t know where to ask. I don’t think a dm on twitter is the way to go? I am aware of some dispute with them and some fanartists but that was just them politely asking them to remove original in game frames and images, like they are doing now by asking to not use the official logo. And that is the nicest way of a company to do so. Like stated, they have all rights to ask for cuts/fines!!
Look into your copyright laws and preferably also the laws of the country the company is based in. I do not know which will apply in a case of a lawsuit. Watch yourself, copyright is complicated as fuck but the rules are quiet easy to find and most are quiet specific in what is allowed and what is not!